... and I have also found myself in possession of a few of the cheap ‘budget’ ribbons currently on the market. The mics in our shootout fell into three rough price groups, which equated fairly well with how and where they were made. We decided to do a shootout of several models with the Royer 121 as our high-end control. A list of the 7 best ribbon mics including: Royer 121, 101, SF-12, Avantone Audio CR-14, AEA R84, AT4081, and Beyerdynamic M160. The Audio-Technica AT4081 is an active dual ribbon microphone, meaning it requires phantom power. Updated 2016. With 50 microphones ranging from $49.99 to $8,995 (on both male & female voices), Sweetwater has put together one of the largest comprehensive mic shootouts ever. Ribbon microphones for recording electric guitar amplifiers have become quite popular. Start listening now! At the 'outrageously cheap' end of the scale we have modified standard Far East production-line mics. Using a … ... microphone shootout Audio-Technica developed a unique ribbon design that allows the 4081 to be stored on its side without damaging the mic… Ribbon mics were invented in the early 1920s and they have remained pretty much the same in the majority of cases.