- Unparalleled warmth and legendary character
- Full and rich tonality with generous low end and proximity effect
- Faithful reproduction of the RCA R44BX. Ribbon material meets or exceeds original RCA spec.
- Economy exterior R44CE exhibits same, classic sound
- Active A440 upgrade has 18dB level increase and is optimized for all preamps
- Made in the U.S.A.
THE LEGENDARY BIG RIBBON SOUND
The AEA R44 maintains an iconic legacy of great ribbon mics by delivering a rich sound full of character and color.Effective on a broad range of instruments and rooms, the R44 bolsters mids and lows while smoothing harsh high frequencies to produce a multi-dimensional sound unlike that of any microphone the world over.
Used on everything from crooning vocalists to full orchestras, the R44 is the ideal choice to capture the tone of any voice or instrument while imparting its legendary ribbon character.
High-Output Upgrades
The original R44 microphones were constantly updated during their twenty years of production, and after carefully looking at some of the technical modifications, we’ve created two upgrades to the original R44.
The active A440 is an ultra-premium version of the R44C. It is complete with a custom Lehle transformer, RPQ JFET preamp electronics and the “X” motor hotrod and is the quietest ribbon microphone ever manufactured. It retains the same sonic character of the passive R44C, but with an additional 18dB of output and greater flexibility with different preamps. Many engineers favor their A440s over their vintage RCA 44s due to the advantages in noise performance.
We developed a modified R44 transducer, called the X-Motor, that includes two additional magnets that provide an extra 6db of output. With a sound identical to the original 44, the X-Motor ‘hot rod’ mod is useful for scoring and classical sessions and other applications demanding a wide dynamic range with the classic 44 sound. Available as an upgrade in R44C and CE models, the X-Motor version of the R44 bears a red-badge on the outside instead of the standard black badge.