I just got a VR2 active ribbon mic by sE Electronics for Christmas. So far, I've used it on vocals and have mic'ed a guitar cabinet with it. I'm really loving it so far. Very gutteral sounding. It really feels like you're "there" when you listen to the playback. I can see this being my go to mic for quite a few things.

I have the VR1 and use an AEA RPQ-500 pre amp with it. Excellent combo. The AEA is designed for ribbon mic's. Like you say, playback sounds just like it sounds playing in the room. What you hear is what you get.

Ribbon mics are awesome.

If i started over, i might start with a ribbon as my first Mic.

I have a ($200) MXL ribbon.  I was blown away by its fidelity.  I used it as an overhead for drums and it worked well.  I used it to mic my (squareneck) Dobro and the recorded sound was exactly like what I hear from the Dobro.  I've tried other mics with the Dobro such as an SM57 and SM58 and I wasn't happy with the recorded sound.  Only drawback they are low level and require some type of preamp if your recording interface doesn't have the gain or high gain causes noise.  I settled on a "Cloudlifter" in-line preamp.
 
 

fireberd
Only drawback they are low level and require some type of preamp if your recording interface doesn't have the gain or high gain causes noise.  I settled on a "Cloudlifter" in-line preamp.
 
 

That's why I decided to go with an active ribbon. I'm using an Audient iD22 interface with it, and the mic pres get a little of that overdriven sound when you push them hard. That can be a good thing a lot of times, but I didn't want to waste money on a ribbon just to have it sound overdriven. With the VR2, I have to turn the mic pre just past half way, which is still within the iD22's clean range.

The VR2 is awesome. It also works very well with my baritone voice for voiceover work. sE is making some VERY nice mics. Cream of the Chinese crop IMO. It helps that they are not your typical Chinese mic maker... they actually have a very talented and respected mic designer who designs all their mics as opposed to just trying to copy en-masse other mics using cheaper components and mfg methods.

I haven't used a ribbon but a lot of people seem to say that ribbons pickup the sound "as it happens in the room" and sound "just as good as real life" where condensers apparently sound "better than real life", haha. I don't know about this, having used many REALLY nice condensers but absolutely 0/null/nada ribbon mics.
 
I ought to rent some ribbons and see how they are.
 
Enjoy it Leadfoot! 

And now there's this...
 
http://royerlabs.com/r-10/
 
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/royer-r-10
 
<drool>

I bought some time ago the cascade fat head (I couldn't afford the Royer 121).
 
For electric guitars combined with the sm57 it is really nice.
 
Giorgio

joegab
I bought some time ago the cascade fat head (I couldn't afford the Royer 121).
 
For electric guitars combined with the sm57 it is really nice.
 
Giorgio

That's what was intriguing about the R-10 it's very reasonably priced for a Royer ribbon ($499)