R102 : Great alternative sound

Overall a great budget mic. Built as a tank, substantial, produces a full sound with abundance of thick low mids and smooth subdued high end. This is what is to be expected with ribbons, so all is good. The pictured scene is not dimensional sounding as some expensive alternatives, but it can sound pretty good on its own or in combination with others. I have two, and sometimes use the blumlein arrangement. Sensitivity is almost comparable to a condenser mic because it is active and needs 48 v to operate. The specs suggest high spl capability but I reached the limit of the mic with rather close micing of a full blast 25 tube guitar watts into a 12 speaker. The metering on my preamp and daw showed ample margin but I found that distorsion causes unusable recordings far before clipping the input stage of the preamp. A little more distance from the driver solved the issue, but I was expecting a tougher behaviour. This is what caused the missing star. Used always with a popfilter, it’s a ribbon.