$6799 AEA mic vs. $999 Warm Audio - RCA 44 clone

Produced from 1932 - 1955, the RCA 44-BX is perhaps the single most recognizable ribbon microphone and something of an icon in the world of broadcast and recording history.

The 44-BX is a high-fidelity bi-directional ribbon microphone designed for music recording and broadcast. It uses a 2" long corrugated aluminum ribbon which is just 1.8 microns thick, roughly 1/20th the thickness of a human hair.

The frequency response from a 3 foot distance is quite flat from 50Hz - 15kHz, followed by a steep high frequency rolloff. The bass boost from proximity effect becomes quite apparent at closer distances, and so jumpers are provided inside the microphone to allow for two high-pass filter positions (V1, V2 -- "V" for "Voice" which is typically picked up from closer distances).

The only major difference between models 44-BX and 44-B is how the output cable comes out of the microphone's housing. Some examples of 44-BX have the ribbon assembly placed further back in the head basket, but this is thought to be due to inconsistencies in manufacturing and not necessarily a change in design.

@Ribbonmics has been the standard for museum quality reproductions of the RCA 44 for many years. Recently much less expensive clones of the RCA 44 have been release such as the @WarmAudioOfficial WA44. Having recently spent around four thousands dollars of my own my money on a used AEA A440 (A microphone I've had my eyes on for years) I wanted to give the two microphones a comparison and shootout!