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Looking for a few GN15-e (XLR connector, not panel mount) goosenecks. Don't particularly need capsules. Was wondering if anybody had any stashed away somewhere? Thanks Chris

Aside from the technical difficulties, personally I'd be keeping my Comms as far away from digital infrastructure as possible. Comms are beautifully simple and with the addition of a cheap UPS, are a nice and robust system that's pretty disaster-resilient. Power failure? Comms are still there to discuss the response. Failure of a Dante device? How do you fault find between stage and front of house without Comms? If you've already got thr analogue infrastructure in place then sticking with it will prove far more resilient in the future.

Phwoah, you need to be careful sending photos like that! 😍

There's nothing wrong with Sennheiser G2. There are still plenty of systems there out in the wild and working fine. Worth spending a few quid (literally) on replacement antennas if they've had a particularly hard life, and checking that the locking rings on the mini jack connectors are tight. Otherwise, I'd echo the comments of most people above and look at how you're using them instead. If you've not already got antenna distribution and external paddle aerials then use your money available to to get those instead. Nothing you buy new within your budget will be enough of a step up over the existing G2's to make it particularly worthwhile.

My clips will also go in there, but I use spring clips rather than the supplied ones, so they all work with everything - no need to keep the clips specifically with their respective mics. Clear cases could work. I'm just not a fan of the pouches method to be honest. I know it's probably the most space efficient, but having things foamed and laid out nicely is my real aspiration. Up until this latest mic purchase my mic kit hasn't changed in over a decade - I've got lots of them and pretty much have everything I need. Hence foam is probably going to be a reasonably safe bet for me as I don't foresee it changing any time soon. To be honest, I quite enjoy laying this kind of thing out, so it's a guilty pleasure! I'm liking the Dewalt ones, and already have a toughsystem case for my radio mic fitting kit, so it'll fit in nicely. However I've just found Keter's Connect system, which includes a really nice looking cantilever box, that'll handle all of my SDC's. Then I'd clip one of their bigger boxes below. https://www.wickes.co.uk/Keter-Connect-System-Cantilever-Organiser/p/267202 https://www.wickes.co.uk/Keter-Connect-System-Rolling-Organiser/p/267203 I have one other possible solution, which is to use the same method I'm using for my radio mics; Mic Storage Trays A stack of these is a snug fit inside a black interlocking lid plastic box. It'd be a much bigger box, but fits in with my current method of travelling - tonnes of interlocking lid boxes, some just full of cable, some with stacks of trays within. I could probably get a layer of headphones in the bottom too, which I'm looking to add to my kit list for click track monitoring. It'd become one "pit box" with everything in that I need down there, save for xlr's and mic stands. Hadn't spotted the other thread, sorry (and don't remember it either, which is odd - feel like I've remembered most of them over the years). Some really useful suggestions in there too, so will absorb everything and then have a think.

Hi All I've got a pretty varied assortment of mics. LDC's, SDC's, clip on drum mics, SM58's. Everything from Audix D6's to vintage Calrec's. In other words, lots of stuff that doesn't fit in one of the classic "lots of SM58 cut outs" boxes you can buy off the shelf. Currently I've got a case containing multiple trays, that I built myself, but it's very tight for space and I've just added some new drum mics, which no longer fit. I'm not a huge fan of just leaving them in the zippered cases. Partly because I'm now using the zippered cases as pencil cases and don't want to give them up (my 6 year old has an Beyerdynamic case at school!) but also because I like to see everything laid out when I'm choosing (and because it looks nice!). I'm hoping to come up with something better. I'm really keen to use something like Shadowfoam in whatever I use next. Cases-wise, there are the usual Thomann offerings such as this, which I could remove the foam from and reuse. I'm also looking at using something from the Stanley or Dewalt TStak/Toughsystem ranges, which Shadowfoam have already pre-cut inserts for. These boxes are attractive as they stack and have options for drawers or top opening, of multiple heights. I also have future options to get more with other things in them, and stack them on one of their trolley bases. The down-side is that to an opportunist thief they look a lot like a bunch of power tools, which are probably more nickable for your regular thief than a bunch of (more valuable) specialist mics. Just wondered what other solutions people had? Anything I've missed?

If you're fancying a go at some very straightforward design work, I can wholeheartedly recommend Tinkercad. Very straightforward to use. If you can drive microsoft paint then you can drive tinkercad. Tonnes of tutorials too, not that you really need them once you grasp the idea of grouping shapes, converting to holes, then grouping that hole in to another shape to take a chunk out of it. If you're used to engineering drawings at all then switch off perspective view first thing every time (left hand side, half way down ish). It's web based as well, so you can work from anywhere. Completely free.

Thank you everyone. I was really happy with Doodsons when I was with them, so will give Tysers a go. I did check out a few musician insurance policies which seemed to be really good value for money. Their policies made zero reference to fire though, only theft, which had me a bit concerned. Definitely some reassurances needed from them if I decided to go that way, but I think somewhere "proper" like Tysers is definitely the best way to go.

A different approach, but I love the JTS Carbon Microboom mics for out in front of a choir. Comes with 3 capsules, nice and low profile, and gets the mics a bit closer and at head height. https://www.fbtaudio.co.uk/jts/installation/fgm-62-carbon.htm If you really want to do some DIY electronics, it's possible to power them from a radio mic beltpack, so they can be dropped in situ easily and instantly. Yes you have to tape over the annoying red led ring. Otherwise they're great!

I feel like we've covered this one a million times before, but search is failing me, and whatever information is lurking in the shadows of the Blue Room is probably old anyway, so I'll start again! Looking to cover my equipment (mainly sound) for theft and other losses (fire, flood etc.). I've previously had cover through Doodson's, but they appear to have either gone or changed their name. I've not had the equipment insured for a while now - I stopped during Covid and to be honest, had the attitude that if it all went, I'd just give up! Have of course continued to have PLI though. Who's out there these days? I can find lots of musician insurance policies, which may well suffice, but was keen to find out if there are any specific policies like Doodson's used to have. A friend lost much of his business to fire several years ago and was with them, and their specialist knowledge and support really got him back up and running quickly and well, so I see the benefit. Cover for equipment to be left in a van overnight after a late get out would be very much appreciated - would save the neighbours around my storage unit some annoyance and give me a bit more sleep! Some of the musician policies I've seen also include breakdown insurance (pays for repairs and hire of replacements) which may be of interest, but it's not the primary concern.

It's worth getting the REAN connectors while you're doing this. They're a far better fit (they click in really nicely) and also have more space inside the connector for the resistor network.

I'm a huge fan of Minaturwunderland in Hamburg. Yet to visit in person but I follow their YouTube channel, which has some great behind the scenes content. This latest footage of their Patagonia section and the Drake Passage is utterly incredible! (Links to Facebook); https://fb.watch/kqo7DcIAiY/ Also from their YouTube channel; There are loads of videos showing how they did it. I'll warn you though, it's a rabbit hole. Their formula 1 track using arrays of magnets has been years in the making but the engineering is incredible.

Thank you everyone Have emailed orchid for a price on such a beast, and also am now in possession of a circuit diagram to build something suitable. Those Thomann combiners look useful things to have a couple of in my tool box, so might pick up a pair anyway. Thanks Chris

I've had a good look around, but can't find what I need. Have had a go at building my own, but it's less than perfect. For my Aviom rack, I need to be able to sum stereo inputs from keyboards, stereo click tracks etc. I don't want to use a pair of the Aviom channels to do this using their stereo link feature - I need all the channels I can get and mono inputs isn't a problem. I still want the stereo outputs to go to my front of house desk, but I need mono for the Aviom. Ideally analogue split before it hits the desk, rather than having to use up a bus to do this like I'm currently doing. The absolute perfect box has dual xlr/jack inputs, then a mono summed xlr output, and a pair of stereo xlr outputs, which remain stereo and isolated. I'd ideally like 4 of these units, in some sort of rackmount enclosure. My own solution was to use one of the 8 channel behringer ms8000 mic splitters (which has a link function, but this doesn't leave the stereo outputs isolated from each other, they mono up). Instead I took a pair of the split outputs and summed them through a resistive summing network, keeping the other pair of outputs as the stereo link outs. This works, but there's crosstalk on the stereo outputs, so my stereo image is squashed. Any suggestions appreciated!

That's a good question that I don't know the answer to! We don't have headsets on ours, although I know they can connect to them. Fir your use case I think this one might not be the best solution - with software license costs etc. it leads itself to a larger system where the cost is shared out a little more. Can give you their details though if you'd like to have a talk?

I can't remember which of my mics had the issue. I run ch38, ch65 and ch70, so could have been any of them! The guy who set it up also liked to tinker, so can't even guarantee it was on a default channel - could well have been directly on my mic channel.

We've got a new radio system at work. I was a pretty vocal opponent to it, as it's cellular based, using 4g connected android devices (specifically designed for push to talk applications). I was all for a digital trunked system to replace our analogue duplex channels, but this felt like a step too far in to the unknown. It's brilliant! We've got 80 odd handsets on site. All dual sim, and wifi as well, so multiple routes to the server. Pretty much unlimited numbers of groups, direct calls between handsets, monitoring of multiple groups etc. All handsets can be geofenced to kill them if they leave site. Equally if you wanted you could use them anywhere in the world and it'd be as if they were on site. Dispatcher software on a laptop can see the location of all handhelds on a map. Options for things like emergency buttons, fall detection etc. (that sends a google map link to where you are to other users on the channel). The dispatcher can have a mic connected and talk to multiple channels at once. Text messaging features. Options to be able to send photos etc. The audio quality is excellent. Noticeably better. There's a touch of latency - maybe half a second. When you PTT you've got to wait maybe a second for it to establish connection to the server and then beep to say you can talk, but if anything that has actually improved our radio traffic, as everybody now waits for the beep and there are no clipped transmissions. You can do over the air updates to all of the handsets to change functionality, permissions, groups etc. so no more having to gather up all the radios to reprogram. The handsets are more expensive than a UHF radio, but not ridiculously so. The main expense then is software licensing. Maybe not a viable alternative for an independent theatre with a dozen radios, but a larger event centre, group of theatres buying one license, or something else along those lines would definitely benefit. Our users seem to love it, and the site coverage is perfect. Not going to share details of the system we've bought publicly on here, but if anyone wants to know more they can DM me. Sharing as an engineer who's spent his career maintaining analogue and digital radio systems and has seen the future!

While we're talking about tv channels and using tv aerials, it's worth a note saying that some theatres (particularly smaller, community run ones) still use modulators and coax to distribute their backstage video feeds. One in particular caused me no end of issues. They had a top loader VCR sat in the lighting box with composite video in from a camera, being distributed to the displays (mixture of old flat screen tv's and CRT's) via the VCR's modulator. They'd removed a screen for this particular show and left the coax to it open circuit. Caused me no end of issues all week until I tracked it down. Not particularly of relevance to the discussion about aerials, but we were vaguely on the topic and it might bail somebody out of a hole sometime!

Well it arrived and all I can say is thank you. Everything went in a dream. Nothing feels unduly squashed or like it's going to get damaged. Very pleased with my purchase!

Thanks all, Wenger purchased!

My trusty Mountain Warehouse backpack has just died so I'm in the market for a new one. The Wenger Synergy looks like the likeliest candidate from the above (I'd love the Lynas one but can't afford it!). Just checking nothing new has come along, and that everyone who bought the Wenger is still happy with them?

They're an ALPS fader, belt driven. I've got the same ones in my Roland M-480. If you're handy with soldering then they can be had for not a lot of money and replaced.

Tannoy's AMS 8DC's are IP65. Won't go as loud as the Nexo's but you can drive them from whatever you like. A little larger, but the EV SX300PI is also quoted as being weatherproof, but can't see an ip rating. Both the above are pretty ok alternatives that won't break the bank.

Simon's right, boosters amplify everything - noise as well. You can't beat a well placed aerial and quality cable. URM67/RG213 is the way to go. Mine are Belden and are pretty flexible (within reason, they won't coil like mic cables). I keep my maximum cable lengths to 10m though.

I was talking about receivers above. Tx path makes most sense, but the Sennheiser rep was definitely referring to receivers. That said, he was a sales guy who admitted I needed to be talking to his technical colleague about these kinds of things, not him, and his colleague was busy on the trade stand with another customer, so I just went on with my day and forgot to go back. I think on reflection, he was probably meaning to refer to tx.