M 130
microphone
$1,550
Used market: $1,210*
Specifications
3 of 8 values have a recorded sourceExpert Audio Engineering Commentary
Tonal Profile
A figure-eight double-ribbon: two ribbons in one motor, which is how beyerdynamic gets usable output out of an element this small. Paired with the hypercardioid M 160 it forms the classic M/S and Blumlein rig, and on a drum room its rejection of everything at ninety degrees does more work than its tone.
Gain Staging Advice
1.3 mV/Pa is -57.5 dBV/Pa - quieter than an SM57 and, being a passive ribbon, with no way to make it louder except at the preamp. Budget 60 to 65 dB of clean gain and check the preamp's input impedance: a ribbon into a 1 kilohm input loses its low end, and the sheet asks for 1000 ohms as a minimum, not a target.
Production Warning
This is a passive ribbon. There is no electronics inside: the ribbon feeds a transformer and the transformer feeds the cable. Phantom power is not needed and must not be relied on as harmless - with a correctly wired cable a passive ribbon normally ignores it, but a shorted or miswired cable, a patchbay, or hot-plugging while 48 V is live can put a DC pulse across the ribbon and stretch or tear it. Switch phantom off on the channel before connecting, and keep it off. beyerdynamic's own A6 sheet for this microphone does not mention phantom power at all, and it labels the transducer 'Dynamic' - the word it also uses for the moving-coil M 88 and M 201.
What the datasheet actually says
Quoted verbatim from the manufacturer’s own page, with the date we checked it. We state what is printed, not what anyone intended by it.
«Transducer type. Dynamic»
A ribbon is a dynamic transducer, so the word is not wrong - but it is the same word beyerdynamic prints for the moving-coil M 88 and M 201 in the same M-series booklet, and nothing else in the specification table distinguishes them. Only the headline above the table, 'M 130 Dynamic Double-Ribbon Microphone', says which kind of dynamic this is. The distinction is not academic: a moving coil tolerates phantom power, a mis-wired cable, and a low-impedance input; a ribbon tolerates none of the three well. The A6 sheet mentions phantom power nowhere.
checked 8/6/2026* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~78% retained value). · checked on 8/6/2026