AEA R44C

Seven and a half pounds of polished chrome and black wrinkle finish. It isn't a 44BX, but it sounds like one.

Overview

The first thing you notice is the weight: 7.5 pounds, in a body 12 inches tall, 4.75 wide, and 3.37 deep including the cushion mount. This is not a modern ribbon mic you hang off a boom without thinking. It's a chunk of metal that behaves like the 1930s mic it was built to replicate, and the people who own them treat it that way.

The R44C is Audio Engineering Associates' new-build replication of the classic RCA 44BX, the mic behind a lot of recordings people still use as reference material. AEA chases the RCA sound by recreating the parts used in the 44BX, and the whole design is based on RCA's own technology. Wherever possible, AEA used original-type materials to build the new parts. The detail that gets collectors talking is the ribbon. The R44C uses NOS ribbon material left over from RCA's original 44BX production run, the same 1.8-micron stock. Mix (April 1999, p.154) filed a field test on the mic framed around exactly this: the ongoing appetite among working engineers for classic microphones whose character of sound still does something modern linear designs don't.

That parts fidelity pays off in interchangeability. The R44C is faithful enough to the original that its parts swap with those of the RCA 44B and 44BX. For anyone maintaining a real 44 in a working studio, that's a parts channel. EQ (May 2002, p.104) noted the same thing in its review coverage of the R44CNG Centennial edition, describing AEA's approach as cloning the vintage RCA 44BX ribbon. AEA also handles restoration and parts replacement for the 44BX and the RCA 77DX.

On paper the mic is a fixed bidirectional ribbon. Frequency response is listed at 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, efficiency 2 millivolts/Pa, rated source impedance 250 ohms nominal. The pickup is 90dB down broadband at 90 degrees off the front, which is the figure you care about when you place two of these in a room and count on the null to do some work. AEA's own literature puts maximum SPL at 140dB above 200Hz and claims low self-noise and consistent polar response. It also claims the mic can operate in high-humidity environments, a real concern with ribbon elements. The R44C runs a custom AEA transformer.

The finish follows RCA's "radio" look: black and silver with a polished chrome grille. It ships with a hard-wired two-meter XLR output cable, a shock mount/mic stand adapter, and the AEA 44VC vertical case for shipping and storage. The 1998 EQ listing (December 1998, p.32) put MSRP at $2,000. By the time Pro Audio Review (January 2001, p.94) ran its buyers guide, the R44C was listed at $2,395, with an optional high-output version at $2,795. That high-output variant is the R44CX, which raises output for lower-gain preamps or situations where mic noise would otherwise be a problem. Studio Sound (August 2000, p.27) reviewed the R44C as a genuine alternative to modern condensers, a reissued ribbon that brings the past up to date rather than a museum piece.

The ergonomics have limits. At 7.5 pounds with a fixed hard-wired cable, this is not a mic you re-rig casually mid-session, and the integral cable emerging from the body and clamped at the stirrup base is a design choice you either live with or don't. The R44C is also, by its own manufacturer's framing, a replica. Buyers who want an original ribbon design rather than a reproduction are shopping for something else. And at these prices, buyers are paying for the RCA lineage and the NOS ribbon stock, not for a bargain.

For studios that want the 44 sound without hunting down a prime original, and without the abuse history, unavailable parts, and unknown capsule condition that come with a 1930s mic, the R44C is the straightforward answer. It's a new microphone under warranty, with manufacturer support for accessories, that sounds equal to or better than the original by AEA's own claim. Collectors note that the visual replica R44 exists separately for those who want the 44BX look in live performance, since that version carries an internal shock mount designed to hold a small-diameter side-address microphone.

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