Wireless Questions

[cgworkman]

Hello all:

I've been giving a lot of thought recently to getting myself a decent wireless pack for my basses. Anyone have any suggestions on which work well - and which don't?

I've heard of some of them "coloring" your sound, etc... and for sure i don't want that!

Thanks in advance

 

[Petebass]

I'm going to move this to "Misc" because it's not really a recording question.

I'm also going to quote an excellent post by Psych Bass Guy:-

"Ask anyone who knows anything about transmitters, radio or otherwise, and learn this word, companding. A battery doesn't have much juice to accomdate the dynamic range of an electric instrument. In addition, it's fighting all the background noise and interference which the FCC says it MUST accept. So what does it do to get a signal powered form a 9 volt or smaller battery through several feet of airspace?

It compresses the incoming signal so that every note is at maximum amplitude without clipping and then transmits that signal to the receiver. Once the signal arrives at the receiver, it is amplified and expanded back to its 'original" dynamic range based on a reverse algorithm of the compression. This process of compression and expanding is called companding. Problem is, it's NEVER 100% right. You lose highs; you lose lows; you lose harmonics; ect.

I have yet to play through ANY analog wireless that I could not hear it working and I've played through all of them from the top-of-the line Shure and Sennheiser stuff to the cheapest Nady piece of crap. X-Wire's digital technology was VERY promising, but it looks like Sennheiser dropped the ball on it after they bought them out.

The expensive ones are better, but you CAN easily hear them once you know what to listen for. Anyone who has experince setting a compressor can pick up on it in an instant. It's like listening for pitch correctors; once you've used one, you suddenly hear them on EVERYTHING that you previously would have sworn was a stellar unaltered performance"

 

[cgworkman]

So basically you're saying that all of them suck?



thanks!!

 

[Matt Till]

I was wondering this myself. Also, what's the battery drainage rate?

 

[Mickey Shane]

After a near disaster live from tripping on my cord, I bought a Sennheiser 1092D system. It was about $289 US at the time.

I was going to spend $599 on a Shure, but I noticed that the Shure rolled off the low end at about 50hZ while the Sennheiser rolled off at 20hZ.

Out of the box it was extremely loud as the sensitivity knob was turned full up. After A/B tweaking with my favorite cord, I was able to produce a close match. It is still set to that amount of sensitivity.

It eats a new copper top batt in just over 4 hrs. The Shure will go for 8 to 9 hours.

I like the system and I have no regrets for the purchase. It's not pro top-of-the-line. But, it works properly, it's digital, and it's UHF. I can't detect coloration of the signal. It sounds fine.

 

[fastplant]

After a near disaster live from tripping on my cord, I bought a Sennheiser 1092D system. It was about $289 US at the time.

I was going to spend $599 on a Shure, but I noticed that the Shure rolled off the low end at about 50hZ while the Sennheiser rolled off at 20hZ.

Out of the box it was extremely loud as the sensitivity knob was turned full up. After A/B tweaking with my favorite cord, I was able to produce a close match. It is still set to that amount of sensitivity.

It eats a new copper top batt in just over 4 hrs. The Shure will go for 8 to 9 hours.

I like the system and I have no regrets for the purchase. It's not pro top-of-the-line. But, it works properly, it's digital, and it's UHF. I can't detect coloration of the signal. It sounds fine.

Actually, I tried the Shure and the Senheiser and went with the Shure. It's much more true sounding. The Sennheiser says it has more of a range but really drops the low and high end considerably compared to the Shure. The Shure was the closest sounding to plugging direct. It's worth the money, in my opinon.

The sensitivity was the same on the Shure, I had to turn it way down at first. Also, the battery life is about the same, 4-5 hours at most, about one show's worth.