Are Carvin IEMs any good?

[dBChad]

Besides the included ear buds looking about as generic as they come (not really an issues as I have some killer 5 way balanced armature/dynamic driver ear sets), these seem to be quite the deal.

I tend to run bigger brands for wireless (Sennheiser, Share, AKG, Audio Technica) systems, but a new EM900 system runs less than a used Sennheiser G4. Are these actually a good bargain, or do they have issues?

My goal is to run 6 sets and get rid of the stage wedges.

Any experience good, bad, or indifferent would be greatly appreciated.

 

[el murdoque]

I cannot tell if they only use identical shells to the Thomann system or if both Thomann and Carvin buy the same thing from the same people and have their label printed on, but I do guess it is the latter.

I've used the Thomann system for a while and switched to a Shure PSM300.

Here's what I remember from the Thomann units:
1. The battery compartment takes AA batteries, but most rechargeable ones are slightly larger in diameter and will fit in, but it's a pain to get them out again.
2. The setting of the frequencies is a pain. When you have interference on your line, you need to set the sender to a new frequency, then set the receiver to the same frequency, then check it it got better or worse, and repeat for as long as it takes to find a band that works.

The audio quality is, while not as good as on the Shure, okay.

If you want to run 6 units, you can do mono feeds with three senders and six receivers, to save on money and to have less frequencies jammed.

 

[-Stingray]

My wife and I both had a pair of Carvin's a few years back. They lasted about two years of regular gigging before both had issues and went into the garbage due to Carvin's non-existent support. They are junk. My first set of Sennheisers lasted 10 years before I sold them (still working).

Now she's on Shure and I'm on Sennheiser (my second set of Senns). The Senns seem to be better quality with fewer reception issues than the Shure's.....but it could just be that her band has more interference in our area.

My advice - You can skimp on a lot of things, but you can't skimp on IEM radios. Get the G4's.

 

[s0c9]

Did the Carvin route years ago using my own buds. Worked OK, but [as mentioned] rechargeable AA's are tough to remove.
After 2 yrs, upgraded to PSM200 but the "squishy" limiter made it hard to use, so I upgraded again to the Senn G3 (EW300).
Ran with that for ~6 yrs, [literally] 100's of gigs. Considered upgrading to the G4, but the ROI wasn't worth the expense, so after much research, sold the G3, added $50 and went with the Mipro 909 system (which I still use after 2+ yrs?)
I've heard the Mipro MI58 is pretty good too but never tried it.

if you want "cheap" there's also the Xvive U4 which I've used at a couple of (we provide the IEM's) churches that I sub at which work well, but being 2.4G I'd avoid them for club/bar/regular gigs.

If it were me - I'd look at used G3 units (EW300) or Mipro's (if you can find them) versus Carvin's EM900's or the G4's.