Radio mic advice

[mattywhi]

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

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

nice idea but dont actually know anyone - I will try to find someone though

[Jivemaster]

Can you get to SBES show www.sbes.com there are always all the radio mic people there with playthings!

[Showcomms]

Try this company

www.clockaudio.co.uk

023 9225 1193

 

British Company, Many bits British made with competitive prices!

 

Mostly sold in USA but JFMG and deregulated frequencies available.

 

We found them at a show they were very helpful, very friendly.

Kit seemed to be made to high standards, the proof is in the puding though so to speak. Worth a try maybe.

 

Receiver and Dynamic hand held cardiod £380

Belt pack Tx with lavalier £160

 

Still over budget I admit!

[Dave]

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,

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

A top-of-the-range Shure or Sennheiser radio mic costs in the region of £2000 to £3000 per system. Professionals use them not because they have too much money (they don't), but because cheaper stuff is generally not up to the task. So let no-one tell you that £500 for two transmitters and a receiver is OTT.

 

At this price level, as others have said, Sennheiser Evolution, and the mid-range Shure and Trantec models are worth looking at. You can buy individual components for all of these as far as I know.

 

Remember that the sound quality depends on the capsule and these are definitely skimped on at the budget end. For lavs, it's not a problem as you can buy whatever mic you like and plug it in, but for hand helds, you're stuck with what's on offer. For that reason I like Shure radios a lot.

 

Spending a few hundred pounds is not an excessive amount IMO. Also remember that you could spend a similar sum on a PC which will be obsolete in a couple of years time. A decent radio mic will not. A £50 maplin thing is nothing more than a toy.

 

A couple of years ago I did a show with a professional highly skilled ex-west end musical theatre artist (a multi-talented actor/singer/dancer chap) who'd bought his own el-cheapo radio mic, which looked like the sort of thing you would get for £50 from maplin. The show was spoiled by numerous RF drop-outs and noise, etc, which was a great shame as the guy was actually an amazing performer and huge amounts of work had go into the show from all sides.

 

Radio mics are definitely one of those areas where price, quality, and reliability are related.

 

Dave

[corporatenoiseboy]

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.

 

I'm a huge fan of Sennheiser Evolution. I use it extensively for conference work- lapel mics and handhelds. In my opinion nothing else under £400 can come near it. It is always very stable, even when using 10 at once. I have found that the ME4 lapel capsule ( cardioid ) is best for conference use as it has much more "gain before feedback" than the omnidirectional ME2 (although the ME4 is larger and more prone to breath "popping" sounds). I tend to buy from Mercury AV as they normally seem to have the best prices plus actually have the goods in stock. I have found this page on their website www.mercury-av.com/ew112-review.htm which gives a lot of useful info about Sennheiser Evolution.

[StevieR]

Sennheiser Evo for me every time. Not the cheapest but still well priced and reliable with excellent audio quality and frequency agile.

 

If you're interested, we may still have some ex-hire G1 systems. PM me for info.

 

Steve

[DC FX]

We are authorised Sennheiser and Shure Distributors

 

- Blatantly commercial content removed, following a complaint by a member B-)

 

PM if you want any info

 

Regards

[mal421]

Another problem with cheap radio mics is handling noise . Was at a show recently that was using cheap radio mics and as soon as any appreciable level was put into them they distorted like crazy and when the talent held them more than a an inch or two from their mouths the signal drop off was quite significant .

[SeanT]

If you really can't afford evos then it's Trantec / Sennheiser Freeport? (smarter looking rebranded Trantec) or Audio Technicas cheapest range - all OK if you don't need too much coverage or to use many mics at once (ie. conference room 2-3 mics medium PA)

The evos are great though B-)

[timtheenchanteruk]

I have 4 trantec S4.5`s I know that the aint frequency agile, but they seem to work well and sound good (though the lapel/lavalier setup) and at a good price,

would say to avoid the AKG WMS30 systems, bought a couple of these cheap, and are ok with sound, but the transmission/RF leaves a bit to be desired, the only way of using them reliably I found was to use them with the reciever side of stage