Historic BBC Evaluations of Classic Mics

[Hugh Robjohns]

The BBC R&D reports archive has been expanded to include a lot more historic reports and reviews. Amongst those I have found reports on the NEUMANN U47, the AKG C12 and the RESLO RBM and VRM microphones.

The first two date from 1954 and the last from 1961, and all and are written in the proper engineering language (and measurement units) of the day. They are quite fascinating.... Enjoy!

Hugh

[Jack Ruston]

AWESOME. Thanks Hugh.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

Cooool. Thanks!

[Jeraldo]

All looks very interesting!

Being a bit lazy, can you direct me to the index of R&D reports on all microphones, and an all types of gear having reports?

Thanks

[Mike Senior]

The BBC R&D reports archive has been expanded to include a lot more historic reports and reviews. Amongst those I have found reports on the NEUMANN U47, the AKG C12 and the RESLO RBM and VRM microphones.

This is an incredible resource, Hugh -- many thanks for sharing it. I'll be sorted for bedtime reading till some time in 2037, I calculate...

Jeraldo: here's the BBC R&D Reports homepage and a PDF listing of all the reports from there.

This is seriously cool. Let us all once again bow down at the altar of Hugh!

[John Willett]

Thanks Hugh, this really makes interesting reading.

So - the U47 only cost £100 when it was new

[Hugh Robjohns]

All looks very interesting!

it is

Being a bit lazy, can you direct me to the index of R&D reports on all microphones, and an all types of gear having reports?

The BBC R&D department rarely made reports of commercial equipment -- which is why I found these mic reviews so interesting. These were made at a time when the BBC first started to move away from using their own microphone designs (mostly ribbon and moving coil) and into using commerically manufactured mics. You'll notice that a lot of the subjective comparisons referred to the BBC's standard ribbon mics.

However, the R&D department investigated all manner of things related to the broadest requiremetns of broadcasting, so in the R&D REPORT ARCHIVE you'll find papers on everything from studio construction and acoustics, through to microphone and speaker designs, assessments of stereophony, FM radio technology, digital audio, DAB radio, TV camera designs, and loads of stuff on various transmission technologies so on -- all cutting edge stuff of the day dating from the mid 1930s to the late 1990s.

There are also BBC MONOGRAPHS which focus on specific topics, like Monograph 78 -- Aspects of High Quality Monitoring Loudspeakers, and BBC ENGINEERING newsletters which cover a wide variety of the BBC's practical engineering developments adn installations from the 1970s to the 1980s, giving a fascinating insight of the real BBC during its hey-day, and then there aer a number of WHITE PAPERS on various broadcast-related technology topics.

Obviously, a lot of things in there will be of limited interest to most, but there is a real wealth of properly researched information on everything from studio door design, to various types of absorbers and diffusers -- all with sufficient details to build you own! -- through to speaker design and evaluation, metering and loudness control, and pretty much everything else that underpins modern audio.

And it's all free...

H

[Hugh Robjohns]

So - the U47 only cost £100 when it was new

Yep... Of course I wasn't around in 1954... but you should really have bought a few 'cos you'd be able to sell them at a profit now...

H

[gazola11]

Great resource thanks.

I like the type face reminds me of the documents I used to handle in the Royal Navy that I was never allowed to speak abou.....bang!.....argghh

[The_BPP]

So - the U47 only cost £100 when it was new

Yep... Of course I wasn't around in 1954... but you should really have bought a few 'cos you'd be able to sell them at a profit now...

H

I wonder what else £100 would get you in 1954. My guess would be a car.

[Hugh Robjohns]

I wonder what else £100 would get you in 1954. My guess would be a car.

According to this inflation calculator £100 in 1954 is about the same as £2300 today.

A Rover P4-90 car cost £1297 when it was tested in Motor magazine in 1954.

hugh

[Richie Royale]

Edit as I duplicated Hugh's post.

Will check out this stuff later.

[The Red Bladder]

I wonder what else £100 would get you in 1954. My guess would be a car.

In 1954, a nice new house on mortgage mountain cost about £1,000. A brand new Humber or Armstrong Siddeley cost £1,000 plus Labour's new luxury tax of 60%, so £1,600 (thereby allowing subsidised VWs and BMWs to undercut the market and gain a foothold with the Beetle and the Isetta). In 1954, the average wage was about £12 a week (officially £667 p.a.)

So back in 1954, you would have to work for eight weeks for a professional microphone. Today the average Joe would have to work for three weeks for an M149.

Ten years later, the same house would set you back £1,600 but wages had nearly doubled. Right now, wages are falling and the cost of living is rising, as are the cost of houses in the UK.

[Richie Royale]

Coincidentally RB, you were on 1954 posts then.

[The Red Bladder]

And now I've spoilt it!

(Note to self - get on with some bloody work!)

[Richie Royale]

Ha. I screen grabbed it for posterity. Can't upload it until later though.

[Sam Inglis]

According to the BBC archive, the RCA BK5 cost about the same as a U47. Wouldn't have been quite such a good investment though. (Guess which one I have...)

[ronmac]

A great era when audio engineers spoke in complete sentences and rarely used the word "yo" at the beginning of a a conversation.

Yo, Hugh. Thanks for the link.

[Richie Royale]

A great era when audio engineers spoke in complete sentences and rarely used the word "yo" at the beginning of a a conversation.

Yo, Hugh. Thanks for the link.

Word.

[Jeraldo]

Thanks, Hugh (and Mike), for the additional links. I had started to have a look around the BBC R&D reports before you posted again, which only makes me (much!) more grateful for your additional links. Without knowing exactly what all is there, it's a bit of an organizational and navigational challenge.

Great stuff.

[RegressiveRock]

The BBC R&D reports archive has been expanded to include a lot more historic reports and reviews. Amongst those I have found reports on the NEUMANN U47, the AKG C12 and the RESLO RBM and VRM microphones.

The first two date from 1954 and the last from 1961, and all and are written in the proper engineering language (and measurement units) of the day. They are quite fascinating.... Enjoy!

Hugh

"In the omnidirectional condition the microphone is of no special interest"

I really love that!!!

Reg

[Hugh Robjohns]

[Richie Royale]

In both modes (U47) there are comments regarding the lift at 9 and 12kHz/ 8 and 10kHz; "good apart from the sharp rise". Isn't that what most mics copy these days?

The appendix comment though says a lot:

"it give the best tonal quality of any condenser microphone we have yet tested"

There are comments regarding its size:

"not suitable for certain purposes, such as the Royal Festival Hall"

[Hugh Robjohns]

In both modes (U47) there are comments regarding the lift at 9 and 12kHz/ 8 and 10kHz; "good apart from the sharp rise".

You have to bear in mind that these comments were made in the context of an organisation that used ribbon mics almost exclusively at the time.

Isn't that what most mics copy these days?

Often so, yes! It's a fashion thing, rather than an accuracy thing!

hugh

[Richie Royale]

No worries, I am aware of the age of this and what contemporary mics might have been like.