The Royer R-122 is the world"s first phantom powered, active ribbon microphone. Yes, you need to turn phantom power on when you use an R-122! The payback is far more output than you"ve ever imagined from a ribbon microphone. More importantly, the R-122"s electronics place a perfect impedance load on the ribbon element, greatly expanding the number of preamps that will match up well with the R-122. Before the R-122, all ribbon microphones were passive devices, meaning that they were 15 to 30dB less sensitive than average phantom-powered condenser mics. In addition, passive ribbon mics depend entirely on the input impedance of the preamp they"re mated with to set the proper impedance to the ribbon element. Simply put, even the best ribbon mics can sound mediocre if they"re plugged into the wrong mic pre. With the Royer R-122 ribbon mic, gain and impedance issues are a thing of the past. GainConventional ribbon microphones need high-quality, high-gain microphone preamplifiers to record softer sound sources like acoustic instruments, vocals and room ambience. The R-122 is as sensitive as a condenser microphone, allowing you to use practically any mic preamplifier or board record even the quietest sounds. The R-122 contains a fully balanced, discrete head amplifier system utilizing a specially wound toroidal transformer and ultra low-noise FET"s. This system is extremely quiet, can handle 135dB SPL, and brings the R-122"s output to 38dB! Go ahead and plug an R-122 into any preamplifier with average gain you"ll get full Royer performance and you"ll have enough level to drive any recording medium.The Royer R-122"s higher sensitivity does not create additional self-noise. All of the R-122 mic"s increased level comes from its large, specially wound toroidal transformer that wonderful thing called "free gain." The level at the transformer is actually hotter than the level at the output of the microphone. The phantom-powered circuitry provides impedance conversion only, adding