Radio mic advice

[mattywhi]

Hi,

 

I am looking to buy some radio mic's for use at my uni. Currently we have 2 Audio Technika hand helds and 1 lapel as well as an unbranded black one. I have used Sennheiser evolutions before and loved the way they worked.

 

What I would be looking to buy is 1 receiver with 1 hand held mic and 1 lapel mic. frequencies need to be adjustable as they will be used in conjunction with others.

 

The reason for 1 receiver and 2 mic's is that I don't need to ever use both at the same time. We have a meeting once a fortnight where the hand held will be widely used however there are times when doing theatrical shows that using the lapel is much better.

 

Budget isn't too much of an issue however I need to be able to justify anything I spend. Recommendations would be nice as to whether sennheiser are worth using or if there are other makes that I should be looking at.

[Pete McCrea]

Sennheiser G2 wireless systems. Very nice units.

[mattywhi]

Sennheiser G2 wireless systems. Very nice units.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

can you buy just a mic and not a receiver and what sort of price will I be looking at.

[Bobbsy]

Another endorsement from me for the G2 Sennheisers....there's not really anything to beat them in the price range these days.

 

Yes, you can buy individual bits. For example, you could buy the EW112 G2 (their cheapest lav kit) for £420 plus VAT at Canford, and add an SKM535 G2 handheld for £275 plus VAT.

 

However, I stress that Canford tends to be incredibly expensive, their only virtue being a catalogue with prices included. With careful shopping around you should be able to knock 30+% off the prices I listed. However, I always find "worst case" prices useful for budgeting!

 

Bob

[mattywhi]

Another endorsement from me for the G2 Sennheisers....there's not really anything to beat them in the price range these days.

 

Yes, you can buy individual bits.  For example, you could buy the EW112 G2 (their cheapest lav kit) for £420 plus VAT at Canford, and add an SKM535 G2 handheld for £275 plus VAT.

 

However, I stress that Canford tends to be incredibly expensive, their only virtue being a catalogue with prices included.  With careful shopping around you should be able to knock 30+% off the prices I listed.  However, I always find "worst case" prices useful for budgeting!

 

Bob

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Thanks,

 

I still think that college are gonna turn round and say "no you cant possibly expect us to spend that much on the kit"

 

Any cheaper recommendations. I have been looking at sennheisers clip on to turn any normal mic into a wireless one and that is coming in at about £400 for the old one. Its lots of money argh!

 

Thing I know im gonna get asked is "why dont we spend £50 on the one that maplin are selling"!

 

If I had no more than £300 to spend on the complete set what is there that will be good for general use in meetings as well as for theatre. Could someone point me to some links

 

Regards,

[MikeR]

I would guess that you wouldnt buy the £50 Maplins mic because (without knowing the model you're talking about) it's probably VHF not UHF - frequencies pre set & not changeable & susceptible to large amounts of interference - not to mention cheap capsules etc etc. Sennheiser units are retty "industry standard" and worth the pennies, Alternately you can look at Trantec mics not too bad either & I think they do a kit that has a handheld a lav & an RX unit all in the box.

[mattywhi]

believe me I dont want cheap stuff from maplin. I would just like a couple of model recommendations as there just seems to be so many.

 

As I think I mentioned main uses are:

 

Handheld for use mainly in meetings with 1 speaker at a time. not intended for any other use than possibly for band nights.

 

Lapel 99% of use will be in theatre for micing actors/actresses in musicals. possibly taken to the meeting.

 

My requirements:

 

multiple frequencies

UHF not VHF

[MikeR]

Sorry I wasnt suggesting that you wanted the 50 quid mic Just offering some ideas as to what you might say when the suits said whats wrong with it. In reality you cant go wrong with Sennheiser or Trantec UHFs.

[colinmonk]

Would reccomend a Shure System ( Shure UHF I think it is ) around £600ish a unit

and would also a Trantec S4000 System ( IIRC ) around £300ish a unit

 

Would not reccomend the "Pop Idol Wireless Microphone" available at most shops like Comet which are around £50 a unit

[mattywhi]

the shure one is gonna be too much - I have seen some trantec stuff available for hire from Hi-lights a local theatre company but never looked into it.

 

My uni theatre (which I am head of sound for) have 4 Sennheiser E100's (IIRC) which we hire out.

 

is there any noticable difference between the sennheiser and trantec kit?

 

price needs to be as low as possible yet still good enough kit to reduce interference from mobiles etc!

[Bobbsy]

The Trantec 4000 system is far less adjustable in terms of the frequencies it uses...I believe they are limited to a single UHF TV channel, usually 69, which effectively gives you a choice of 14 frequencies. The Sennheisers are fully agile, claiming in their spec to give you a choice of 1440 frequencies. Also, Sennheiser are known as a microphone manufacturer and the capsules in the mics themselves (as opposed to the RF performance) is certainly superior to Trantec.

 

In your original post you specified the need for frequency agility and also said that budget isn't a big problem, hence the recommendations you got.

 

If you can work our what frequencies you are using now, I suppose you could forego agility in that area...systems with a single frequency or a small range tend to be cheaper. I know Trantec have a system with 4 switchable frequencies that would likely fit your limited budget. However, I have to stress that I do NOT recommend going this route. Radio frequencies in the UK are crowded, and it's simply too easy for non-agile systems to run into trouble. If I were you, I'd gather information (such as what MikeR gave you in his post) and push hard to spend the money on a system that is as bullet proof as possible.

 

Two final points: First, as expensive as the Sennheisers sound to you, these are the INEXPENSIVE systems...the fully pro stuff costs several times as much.

 

Second, a wise man once said that buying radio mics was a way to spend hundreds or even thousands of pounds to get something that is almost as good as a £15 microphone cable.

 

Bob

[andy_s]

Marquee Audio website is showing a trantec S4000 handheld / lapel combination set for £380 - ex demo. (remember to add the VAT if you aren't able to claim it back) you might be able to make your money go further by looking at second-hand/ ex demo from people like Marquee, AC, etc.

 

I bought Trantec S4000 last year, and have found them good budget kit - assignable frequencies, reasonably good battery life, antennas a bit fragile. I paid about £300 a channel, but I already had plenty of MKE2 microphones, so didn't have to buy any more - just transmitters and receivers. These would have cost me about another £110 each.

[colinmonk]

The Trantec S4000 system seems to be quite a solid system.

 

I have found that the cheaper Sennheiser systems do seem to have crap capsules in them even though they are made by a microphone company whereas their better capsules are used in the more price comparable systems...

 

Depends which company you want to go with really, but Trantec systems are usually quite solid...

[paulears]

I've been a solid Trantec user for years since they used to be the oem for shure. nice 58 head on a trantec boarded handheld.

 

The current handhelds use the at condenser element, which if you like the sound is ok - me, I find the 845 dynamic capsules hypercardioid more smooth. The Trantec handhelds are not as tough physically due to the plastic body, but are much lighter than the sennheisers. You need a software programmer for the trantecs if you want to have access to the full band - well, only once really as you can then fill the memory up.

 

their lav packs I quite like - reasonably solid. from time to time, you may find the displays go a bit odd and lose digits - but they carry on working.

 

The systems I'm currently hiring out go out with TRANTEC receivers and Sennheiser transmitters. although the RF specs are not quite the same, then main difference seems to be the companders are different, but the tonal result is very pleasing.

 

watch out for the 4.5 UHF versions - they are locked out so that you can't reprogram them. I've a couple that can be programmed and behave like the 4000's, but I got a couple more (intending to save a few quid) and found that their blocked.

 

Trantec were always nice to me, but despite asking a couple of times, will not supply me with the latest software to program them which is a pain. this is pretty well the main reason for buying sennheisers since then.

 

paul

[lonfire]

hi,

what you could do (if you can), is find somebody that works for senheiser.. I hear they have a VERY good staff purchase system.. I used to know somebody and bourght aload of stuff for around half price.. sadly I'm no longer in contact with them..

 

rgds

chris