Meet the transducer: a device that converts one form of energy into another corresponding form of energy for some useful purpose. Microphones are specialized transducers that convert acoustic energy (known as sound pressure) into electrical current for amplification, broadcast, or recording. Microphones have been around since the 1870’s when telephone engineers needed a way to turn the human voice into an electric current and send it down a wire where it would reach its intended recipient and be converted back into sound through another transducer called a loudspeaker.

Today, microphones are broadly divided into two types, based on their operating principle: dynamic and condenser. Dynamics are further divided into two types: moving-coil and; our favorite, ribbon. Generally, moving-coil dynamics are referred to simply as “dynamics” while ribbons are called, oddly enough, “ribbons.”