"Recently I was recording at Abbey Road Studios and asked to use a vintage STC mic. The head engineer there [Andrew Dudman] mentioned that he had 'another ribbon mic [a Sontronics SIGMA] so we did a blind side-by-side test and I went for the SIGMA!

"My Stradivarius Barjansky cello is a huge part of my life and it is my 'sound' as a musician, I'm very fussy about how it's recorded! So often microphones do not reproduce its true sound, but I have found the SIGMA produces a very true picture of the sound.

"We've used the SIGMA for the Audio Network session at Abbey Road, for a reworking of the South Bank Show theme tune [at Sphere Studios] and a first recording with my cellist wife Jiaxin for the Classic FM/HMV series 'The Full Works'.

"Everything seems thoroughly professional and the microphones are beautifully packaged. I would certainly recommend Sontronics microphones to other people. "It is wonderful to find mics that refer to the best of the past and work so truthfully in the present."