[AdamOfBremen]

Right, this is going to be my final post, for the benefit of those people using a Tandberg Tape Player together with a low cost Behringer mixer and wanting to match that with an RB500 ribbon microphone, and what I learned and final success.

Firstly, I had very little success trying to go through my hi-fi amplifier in to the tape Phono RCA jack. There were no mono switches on the amp and maybe the loss of half the signal had something to do with it. Seemed to be an impedance mismatch.

Then I plugged in the microphone into the mixer and found that I had to use the entire range of the input preamp on the mixer to get anywhere near the right level, with all level up in the signal chain. I managed to successfully record a record playing through my speakers using the microphone, as well as some talking. The results I would describe as "Ok, yet a little disappointing".

So then I had to make up a special cable to go from the microphone to the mic input Din socket. This turned out to be easier than I supposed, and the Din system is completely compatible with low impedance XLR wiring.

I made my first recording, using the levels on the meter of the Tandberg, this showed a good level peaking just over 0 yet the result was also a little disappointing.

Next I repeated the experiment with lower levels, at about 3/4 on the dial of the Tandberg.
I spoke into the microphone and then walked to various corners of the room, to see how that was picked up, and back again to the microphone.

The result I got was outstanding, quite contrary to my previous attempts. The voice was very high quality at 12 inches from the microphone, and could be easily heard, quietly, in the four corners of the room. The impedance seems to be a perfect match. The RB500 is rated at 260 ohm.

I was so happy that I got this result and proved the viability of the Tandberg as a perfect match for the ribbon mic. I still have more work to do on the Tandberg, yet I am happy that all is working well, and I thank all those people who helped me on the forum. Hopefully this is my final post until I have some problem again with the Tandberg.

(Please take note that, as Ben said, it is not possible to output from the microphone via the pre-amp directly, only by playing the tape back can the signal get to the mixer. This means the microphone can be used directly into the Tape or Directly into the Mixer, but not with both being used to amplify the signal. For me, a disappointment, yet I am more than pleased with what I have)

I enclose a picture of the system in my small studio, still incomplete.

One final thought, I was very impressed with the sound coming out of the speaker in the Tandberg - a lot better than I expected. Of course, it is probably an Alnico 2 speaker, which are quite desirable these days ...

Best regards to all
Adam