That is a lovely classic ribbon microphone and I own one. You must be very careful and weary because ribbon microphones are quite delicate and can be easily destroyed by an idiot who blows into it! Something many stupid people do, so you must listen to it carefully before purchasing it. It will not have the kind of high frequency response of other microphones as a ribbon has a classic roll off starting at 5kHz. If it doesn't sound " nice" it's probably shot. It will definitely have a lower output level as well and so many people believe that ribbon microphones are noisy. They're not! The preamplifiers are. Things can get a little noisy win your gain is maxed out during quiet passages, especially in fine arts recording. Never use it in a bass drum. Nice on guitar amplifiers, especially for jazz. Lovely on acoustic double bass. Particularly nice on strident sounding female vocals.

Ribbon lover
Ms. Remy Ann David

Remy....is Shure were to put out a new ribbon....do you think it'd be a hit or a flop?

Sorry....IF not is.

Arthur, I'm not sure that they don't still have a ribbon microphone available? The famous Johnny Carson microphone was another one of their ribbon microphones. I just forget the model number of that particular unit? I like my old Shure 300, it's so beautifully phallic in its appearance! Reminds me of a former boyfriend.

I think the mystique of ribbon microphones is just a phallus, see?
Ms. Remy Ann David

Unfortunately....Shure doesn't offer ribbons anymore. How would you compare their old ribbons to others.

Remy, I'm working on a way to hack into your computer and edit your voice recognition dictionary! :wink:

:lol:

thanks Remy for your response. I was between a shure 300 -to have a ribbon - or a 55sh - to let the people look at it and say oooohhhh.
I will go for the shure.

I think having a 300 is a good choice for a classic ribbon sound. However that old 55, if it's one of the original from the early fifties, it is slightly wider than its modern sibling, which is more slender. The 50 year difference kind of resembles myself with my 50 -year-old spread and looking much more like the grill on a 1953 Buick! They really don't sound good in comparison to their newer siblings but then perhaps neither do I but they sure do look retro cool!

Spreading out without stereo at 50
Ms. Remy Ann David