Xvive U4 for Personal Practice

[Why Nautilus‽]

Hey all,


New to IEMs but after reading some reviews I went with the Xvive U4. Using some BASN monitors. I checked the BASNs by plugging them into the headphone jack in my amp head (Peavy Minimax). Sound was normal, I was able to adjust volume on the amp head itself.

I have the U4 plugged directly into the DI on the back of my amp head. All channels connected, snug fit. I’ve played with the line and Aux settings on the transmitter to see if it improves.

I am getting next to no sound out of my IEMs. It’s barely loud enough to hear at full volume on the receiver.

What am I missing?

 

[drpepper]

I am getting next to no sound out of my IEMs. It’s barely loud enough to hear at full volume on the receiver.

Essentially, it's not intended to work that way. DI output is a low ("mic level" range) level intended for input to a mixer. Mixer outputs (mains and aux) have been though a preamp and are a higher level that IEM systems (i.e., wireless transmitters or headphone amps) are designed to accept as that input. A line level signal can passively be attenuated to mic level, but a amplification (through a preamp) is necessary to increase a mic level signal to line level.

For earphone practice, your best bet is probably to simply plug your IEMs directly into the headphone output of the amp as you have.

 

[Why Nautilus‽]

Essentially, it's not intended to work that way. DI output is a low ("mic level" range) level intended for input to a mixer. Mixer outputs (mains and aux) have been though a preamp and are a higher level that IEM systems (i.e., wireless transmitters or headphone amps) are designed to accept as that input. A line level signal can passively be attenuated to mic level, but a amplification (through a preamp) is necessary to increase a mic level signal to line level.

For earphone practice, your best bet is probably to simply plug your IEMs directly into the headphone output of the amp as you have.

Thank you kindly for explaining this so clearly. I appreciate it!

 

[drpepper]

Thank you kindly for explaining this so clearly. I appreciate it!

Glad if it helped, but as far as being a forum member goes, I'm told that I'm rude and unhelpful, so we both just got lucky

 

[tshapiro]

Xvive does make a mic version and the input to the transmitter is more sensitive and will accommodate the lower DI output of your DI. The other cool thing you can do with it is plug it into the back of a mic, obviously, and put the mic up to your bass speaker, and monitor directly that way. The cool thing about that, if you ever play with a band, is by simply adjusting the mic position you can mix in some of the ambient band sound. If you do go this route, be aware that they make a version that will provide 48v to a condenser mic and one model made for a dynamic mic.

 

[Why Nautilus‽]

Xvive does make a mic version and the input to the transmitter is more sensitive and will accommodate the lower DI output of your DI. The other cool thing you can do with it is plug it into the back of a mic, obviously, and put the mic up to your bass speaker, and monitor directly that way. The cool thing about that, if you ever play with a band, is by simply adjusting the mic position you can mix in some of the ambient band sound. If you do go this route, be aware that they make a version that will provide 48v to a condenser mic and one model made for a dynamic mic.

thanks for this!

At the end of the day I went with a middle ground situation.

I bought the behringer micromon and some additional xlr cables.

I run the xvive through the behringer input there and run an aux input to attach my music player (iPhone in this case) so I can play along to other tracks.

with the aux input end, it’s not quite as wireless as I hoped, but I can use my IEM as intended.