I’ve fallen in love with ribbon mics all over again with Warm Audio’s Fen-toneSingle mic (street price): £599 / $699
Stereo pair (street price): £1,099 / $1,299
warmaudio.com
Warm Audio’s latest ribbon mic is inspired in design by the Bang & Olufsen BM3 of the 1950s, which was marketed under the name Fen-tone. Sonically, though, the new Fen-tone draws upon a more contemporary studio classic, this time the Royer R-121. Switchable passive and active modes on the new mic offer great versatility, removing the need for a quality, high-gain mic preamp, while also leaving the passive option open for much louder instruments.

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The £599 Fen-tone is pitted against other active mics that also take styling tips from the BM3. Royer’s R-122 MKII active model is £1,899, and Extinct Audio’s Active BM9 costs £999, with the UK-made BM9 also looking similar to the original. This type of ribbon mic is intended for instruments but this classification runs a wide and varied gamut, from drum overheads and guitar cab miking to spot-miking of far quieter acoustic instruments.
Image: Warm Audio
What are the features and specifications of the Warm Audio Fen-tone?
Fen-tone is a rocket-shaped beast finished in shiny aluminium. It has a Japanese-made 1.8-micron thick ribbon (thinner and therefore more responsive than Royer’s 2.5-micron ribbon), a seriously powerful Neodymium magnet that outperforms earlier magnet technologies, plus a CineMag output transformer. The transformer adds subtle saturation to result in a full mid-range and tamed transient peaks, resulting in a sweetness of tone plus a net increase of sustain from instruments you’re pointing the mic at.
There’s a fixed figure-8 polar pattern, and both sides of the mic sound exactly the same, worth mentioning since certain ribbon mics have a bright and a dull side to their figure-8 field. Such uniformity is a key selling point for prospective buyers wanting to record in mid/side stereo or set up immersive arrays.
Like the original Fen-tone, Warm’s version has a single toggle switch as its sole on-body control. Unlike the original, though, instead of the switch controlling a high-pass filter, the two positions select either the passive circuit (marked ‘VT’ for vintage) or active mode (‘+dB’), which introduces a 26dB Warm Lifter preamp.
The integrated preamp operates on phantom power but has true bypass, i.e. it doesn’t get in the way of the passive circuit when disabled. Fen-tone is more versatile in this way than competing active ribbon mics, which tend to be always active. The downside is that the phantom power must be switched only after toggling to active mode, so the passive circuit isn’t damaged by the voltage. I feel this important point needs to be signposted more clearly, e.g. a removable sticker on the mic body, for those who don’t read the manual before jumping in. I can’t help feeling that Royer’s approach – an always-active preamp, but with pad and high-pass filter switches – is far more user-friendly.
I received the stereo kit for my review. Mics come with a sturdy plastic flight case, mic socks and clips. Unboxed, the shiny Fen-tones certainly exhibit a wow factor, but the joy soon turns to sorrow as you catch sight of the mic clips. These are of the generic ‘bulldog’ type, reminiscent of a £3 Radioshack part from the 90s. They do clamp the mics fairly securely, but visually are a real disappointment. Although more challenging to engineer due to the body shape, a custom clip would have been far better, plus perhaps shock mount and stereo bar options, since many users will want to get these arranged as a stereo pair – Blumlein, mid/sides etc – for room mics.
Image: Barry Watson
What is the Warm Audio Fen-tone like to use?
In use, Warm Audio’s Fen-tone captures instruments with smooth highs and a seductive glue in the mid-range. Parts sound natural, thick and lack the spiking transients encountered with condensers. As you’d expect, there are masses of low-end due to the proximity effect; a high-pass filter would have been a welcome addition for those who like to monitor what they’re recording live and don’t have a high-pass option on their interface’s mic pre.
With the pair of Fen-tones set up in mid/sides to record acoustic guitar, the results are remarkable. There’s loads of sustain, the high end doesn’t sound woolly or muted, and the overall presentation is true to life, even when auditioning the mid mic alone in mono. The mid mic – being figure-8 – appears focused in the front as well as capturing more natural room sound from behind than a cardioid, which only enhances the realism. When added in, sides appear gloriously smooth and thick.
Ultimately, stereo blends are excessively bassy, so I place an instance of FabFilter’s Pro-Q 4 on the guitar bus with a separate high-pass filter set up for both mid and sides (with a higher cutoff on the sides to shift focus to the centre). And there we have it – tasty-sounding, centre-focused guitar chords, and a stereo spread that isn’t too wide or bulky as to interfere with other instruments panned wide in the mix. Perfect.
I also compare a single Fen-tone to my SE Electronics VR2 active ribbon mic (less expensive, at £379) when double-tracking acoustic guitar. The SE has a more condenser-like response, with increased high-mid bite, slightly sharper transients, but recessed mids lower down the spectrum. Although the SE might work better on its own in a busy rock mix, Fen-tone is the clear winner at providing a natural, non-brittle tone that you’d rather blend with brighter mics than mess with, tonally. I imagine Fen-tone would sit perfectly alongside an SM57 when capturing a guitar cab at close range, or blended with a condenser on an acoustic instrument requiring a combination of thickness and transient detail.
As a fitting finale, I bust out my accordion during the session, using Fen-tone to spot-mic the melody end. It works great here too – thick and rich once again with a pleasant high end. Once more, though, I need to engage the preamp’s high-pass filter to cut excess bass build-up.
Image: Barry Watson
Who should buy the Warm Audio Fen-tone?
Warm Audio’s Fen-tone is a versatile ribbon microphone that would be a worthy addition to anyone’s collection. It excels on acoustic guitar and a wide array of acoustic instruments, dealing effortlessly with both really loud and far quieter signals thanks to its passive and active switching.
A stereo pair of Fen-tones opens up countless more options, from spaced drum overheads and Blumlein-array room mics to fantastic results in mid/sides formation placed closer to an instrument. Given that the Warm Audio pair is only £100 more than a single Active BM9 from Extinct, and less than a third of the price of a pair of Royer R-122 MKIIs, I’d consider this a real steal. Pity about the clips though.

Key features

Passive/active ribbon mic
Figure-8 polar pattern
30 Hz – 15 kHz frequency range
Impedance: 300 Ohms (passive) / 150 Ohms (active)
+26 dB inline Warm Lifter preamp with true bypass
CineMag output transformer
Comes with hard carry case, mic pouch and hard-mount clip
Weight (per mic): 304g

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