the t.bone RB 500

This mic is too good to be true. As it is a ribbon, and if you buy this you are interested in the 'ribbon' effect which means - warm and round transients, it will do that exactly. If you need more details just blend a condenser mic with it, although it sounds very good as it is (presuming you are using a decent preamp and ad converter).

B.t.w - i read on forums that people claim that taking out it's inner protection net, make it sounds better. Well, i did it and after hearing it, immediately had put back that net and it just sounds worse without it ! It loses all it's ribbon magic and turns into a dull condenser. It is very obvious that this mic was designed and calibrated using that net so my suggestion is - don't touch it ! Just use the mic as is - it is beautiful !

As usual, t.bone delivers fantastic mics at an affordable price. This one is quite extraordinary, it renders a warm, rounded-off sound with a lot of character. Picks upp the slightest tone changes for high-volume things lika a valve guitar amp. Been using it together with a t.bone MB 75 on a Fender Blues Junior which I found is a fantastic combo for a rich, detailed and big guitar sound.

Also recorded some vocals with this and sure, it is not the brightest, but a perfect fit for more mellow/vintage-y styles of music.

Do be aware of how ribbon mics work before you consider buying one - they are very sensitive to the surrounding room due to their pickup patter. If you want to try out the ribbon sound - do like me and start with this one, it is impossible to be disappointed given its price.

If I would point out one flaw is the arrangement of the included, non replaceable mic cable - since it cannot be replaced I would have liked a more sturdy one. Also, it makes it a bit difficult to fit the mic in the included case.

Haven't had the chance to thoroughly test my pair of these by themselves yet, but I did recently throw them in the deep end on a full album recording session in a professional studio. They performed just fine as an M/S pair of drum room mics, and a single one on acoustic guitar gave me the rich, earthy sound I was looking for when other mics came out too thin and twangy (C414, M160, U47!) or too dark (Coles 4038) with this guitarist. This was just one specific case, but still! For this price, it's amazing that this mic could do better than those high-end mics in any situation at all! I did also try it on vocals and it was really not right for the job, so it has its limits. I'm looking forward to trying out drum overheads and electric guitar.

Build-quality has a few imperfections. It's not as heavy as you'd expect for such a big microphone (not inherently a bad thing). The screws holding the mic to its frame are loose by default, and not that easy to tighten to a good tension where the mic is still adjustable but will stay in place. The worst part is the in-built XLR cable. It's non-detachable, too short for a lot of use cases, too long to fit in the accompanying duffel bag, has a cheap-feeling XLR connector, and is attached in such a way that it prevents you from swivelling the mic in one direction on its frame. A simple XLR output on the side of the mic would have been way more practical in most cases.

Can't comment on longevity yet, as I've only owned these mics a couple of weeks.

I was told so many great things about this mic and it totally did not disappoint me!!
I own really good mics for my drum studio, including a Neumann Tlm 107 that I use as room mic. While that mic is amazing, I wanted to also add a Ribbon mic to the mix for tunes in which I needed a darker sound and less cymbals in the mix. Look no further. This mic sounds fantastic even with no processing, just sometimes the low mids need a bit of control with an eq but nothing crazy, it just sounds good for drums, you get a lot of the body and fatness of the drums. The only con is the cable that's attached to the mic directly, not always ideal, but it really is a minor thing. The look of it is fantastic as well which kinda adds to it.
Do yourself a favour and get this, at this price it's a no brainer