Beyerdynamic M 160 Reviews

4.5/5.0 based on 6 customer reviews

Sweetwater Advice

Austin Moss

We used this mic in front of a drum kit at a studio I used to work at in London and it was THE SOUND. Out of the 13 other mics set up in the room for the kit, this one soloed in the mix impressed the band more than anything else. Impress the band. Buy the mic.

Nick Schenkel

This is my secret weapon on stringed instruments. It gives me the tone I’m looking for without the need for adding additional processing. The bottom end is full and present without becoming muddy. The mids are warm and smooth. The high end is clear and detailed without being overly bright or harsh. Acoustic or electric guitars especially benefit from the sonic characteristics of this mic. Don’t pass it by.

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Customer Reviews

Nico
from Austin, Texas USA
August 24, 2011Music Background:
Pro Musician, Recording Engineer, Studio Owner

An Amazing mic !

For the money, you can't get a better ribbon mic. I own a pair of Cole 4038 at about $1300 per mic. The Coles are great, but when I use the M160 on a guitar amp, WOW ! What an amazing tone. The creamy mid-range, the soft top end. Everything is there. Combined with a 57 for the bite, a perfect combination. To top it off, I just put a Cole 4038 8-10 feet away from the amp, mix the 3 mics, no EQ, stunning ...
Do yourself a favor pick one up, and have fun !

Jim McCurdy
from L.A., Ca
August 8, 2009Music Background:
sound engineer (recording and live)

One of the great all time mics

This mic was great in the 70's when I used it on hi hat. I remember people looking surprised sometimes when they saw it at first. (I guess maybe there weren't many of them around in the New York studios. But when they heard the thing, it was all smiles. It's got the kind of detail you want without an artificial quality to it. It's design characteristics make it the perfect choice for drum kit close micing or as an overhead. It also sounds amazing on sax, especially if it's a slightly shrill sounding instrument (piccolo, too). I'd say if money's not an issue every mic cabinet should have at least two.
The M 130, the figure 8 version of this mic, is also excellent.

Pulling Mussels
from Brooklyn, NY
March 25, 2008Music Background:
Musician

A fantastic, do-it-all mic

I have to say that this mic takes the cake.

I used it as a single drum overhead. The sound is so natural, and beats out just about any other mic for getting realistic sounding drums. You can EQ the heck out of ribbon mics, so you can really manipulate the signal you get to get a great sound.

I've also used it to mic acoustic guitar (about 8" from 14th fret) and got exactly the sound I was looking for on the first try.

I have yet to try it on a guitar amp, but I'm sure I'll be pleased.

The really cool thing about this hypercardioid ribbon mic is its directionality across frequencies. It's one of few mics I know of that not only gets more directional as you move up to the midrange, but it opens up again as you move up to higher frequencies. It sort of sounds like the mic opens up for air again, so it can almost make a room sound bigger than it really is.

J. Wilson
from Nashville, Tn. 20 years
July 3, 2007Music Background:
Audio engineer, Studio musician

Won 2nd place in Microphone shootout

As most audio engineers do from time to time. We do comparisons test where a bunch of mic's are plugged in at random so no one will know what they are listening to. We did 12 mic's in all. U87, AKG 414, and ten others. Some were over $2000. This test was totally by the ears. 5 people with golden ears did the rating. Everyone pick a unanimous #1 , #2 ,and #3. After that the mic's all started to sound about the same. Not a LOT of difference. To no one's surprise the U67 tube Neuman came in first place. What shocked everyone was #2. The Beyer M160. (some even voted it #1) #3 was a U87. The M160 mic is great on anything. It pops very easy. Use wind screen. I will buy 4 more. Try it on Piano, String instruments, horns, drums. Do your own test. You WILL WANT MORE.
Remember: Use your ears and not your eyes.

jr
from california
June 26, 2012Music Background:
independent recording artist

m160/m130

I bought the m160 and m130 together for mid-side mic'ing of acoustic guitars. Yeah. This is really cool. There is no way to explain the sound in words. It opens up your head,

Everett
from Los Angeles, CA
October 20, 2008Music Background:
Composer, Engineer

Great mic... but it requires a specialize Preamp

This mic is really nice, it has a really natural response, but there is a caveat to it: it requires a specialize preamp. Ribbon mics are specialty mics. I liked the sound plenty, but with a "regular" preamp, I really had to crank the gain to get a good signal. Keep in mind that this mic is about as sensitive as an SM-57. By the time I cranked the gain up to a decent level, the signal had a lot of noise from the preamp (and this is even with a GOOD preamp... I had similar types of noise with a PreSonus Eureka and an Avalon 737). I'm convinced that with a dedicated ribbon preamp (e.g. the AEA The Ribbon Mic Pre) this mic would sound amazing.