Review: SE Electronics RN17

There’d hardly be a single audio product manufacturer that wouldn’t knock back a collaboration with Sir Rupert Neve. Yes, I know Mr Neve hasn’t been knighted, but if Sir George Martin can be bestowed such royal privilege then Rupert certainly deserves the monarchial nod — the man is responsible for the recording industry’s sweetest tracking consoles dating back to the mid-1960s after all. Even Sir George Martin himself relied on Rupert’s Focusrite entity to create behemoth consoles for his Air Studios. The list of Rupert-driven manufacturing entities and collaborations is testament to the man’s insurmountable legacy: Neve, AMS Neve, Focusrite, Amek, Legendary Audio, Taylor Guitars, and most recently, sE Electronics with its ‘Rupert Neve Signature Series’ microphones.

Which brings me to the matched stereo pair of small diaphragm condenser mics I have perched in the studio today; the sE Electronics RN17. From the second I’d set eyes on this package I was unashamedly impressed. The microphone pair come in a superbly crafted timber case, which is in turn enclosed in a very pucker aluminium flight case — and not the standard Jaycar, made-in-a-hurry case either. This case has fancy catches and a big chunky handle too. In other words, this is a top-shelf product, with no economy spared. Upon opening said spiffy flight case, eyebrows were raised as I checked out the shiny metal screw-top canisters with tell-tale polar-pattern symbols embossed on top — ten of them in all, covering five polar-patterns. This was unfolding to be a splendid box of microphonic fabulousness. 

Unfortunately I found these canisters empty as the mics ship with cardioid capsules only, with further supercardioid, omni, hypercardioid and figure-of-8 capsules available optionally. Despite my disappointment with the lack of polar-pattern options being supplied for review, I must say the canisters are a lovely touch — guaranteed to keep your additional capsules away from moisture and other travesties that may occur during use. 

But again, all this goes to show the no holds barred approach to these mics, even the serial numbers are indicative of a matched stereo pair, (i.e. xxxxA and xxxxB) — and I’ve not even mentioned the brilliant shock mounts, which I’ll get to a little later.

SMALL DIAPHRAGM, HIGH BAR

The RN17 is essentially a small diaphragm condenser microphone, and consequently is aimed at all the tasks you’d associate a SDC mic with. Stereo recording situations, drum overheads, basically anything where you’re aiming to capture accuracy and fine transients, be that acoustic guitar (or similar) or even hi-hat and ride cymbals. But, as always, rules are meant to be broken and a SDC mic could well be the ideal option for a particular vocalist. Mileages vary.

So why is the RN17 any different to any other SDC mic? Well here’s the big calling card with the RN17. Unlike most SDC mics, the RN17 incorporates a large hand-wound, “ultra-high performance” transformer — hence the large protrusion at the connection end of the mic. I’d highly suspect this portion of the design is courtesy of Mr Neve. Why use a transformer? There’s a number of advantages to transformer-based designs, firstly that of a transformer’s ability to reduce noise, or increase the mic’s signal-to-noise ratio. Without going into the maths involved, a transformer should be matched to the preamp it’s married to, with an appropriate number of ‘windings’ to achieve the best balance. But aside from this technical advantage, transformers lend a particular ‘character’ to a signal path’s audio quality. The interaction of level and impedance result in a desirable sonic response. So with the RN17, sE Electronics claim to have created the world’s first transformer-based small diaphragm condenser microphone.

But enough of the chit-chat. The question is; how do these mics stack up. Well let me start with the fact these mics are a pleasure to set up, courtesy of the rather brilliant (and aforementioned) shock mounts. The mounts are a kind-of dual rubber-banded mounting system. With adjustment for distance between the two spiderweb sections. They’re like no shock-mount I’ve seen before and frankly, I’d like a pair. I did come into a little bit of strife with the design, however. Ideally it’d be great to mount the RN17s into their shockmounts with the ‘transformer bulge’ sitting between the two support frames of the shockmount — the mics physically ‘sit’ better in this position. Unfortunately with the overall length of the mics and the width of the supplied (and very nice I might add) stereo bar, it’s virtually impossible to set the pair into a standard X-Y stereo configuration. To achieve this configuration accurately the RN17s ‘transformer bulge’ needs to sit on the outside of the rear support frame. If the stereo bar was slightly wider this could be alleviated and the mics mounted with the tranny-bulge in the more stable centre position. The bulge also makes ORTF configurations fairly fiddly, risers would also be a helpful stereo bar update.