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Author Topic: Wireless mic around £200?  (Read 2781 times)

Richard Penrose

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Wireless mic around £200?
« on: July 25, 2021, 04:29:40 AM »

Hi,

I am looking to buy a handheld wireless mic for both speech and singing and am looking for some suggestions.
My budget is around £200 and I’m not sure what frequency band would be best. From my understanding 863-865mhz is the legal UK frequency but there is also 2.4ghz and 5ghz? What would be the best choice for avoiding interference etc?
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Chris Hindle

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Re: Wireless mic around £200?
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2021, 04:40:38 AM »

Hi,

I am looking to buy a handheld wireless mic for both speech and singing and am looking for some suggestions.
My budget is around £200 and I’m not sure what frequency band would be best. From my understanding 863-865mhz is the legal UK frequency but there is also 2.4ghz and 5ghz? What would be the best choice for avoiding interference etc?

200 pounds?
I'd get a '58 and 150 feet of XLR.
Seriously.
Chris.
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Ya, Whatever. Just throw a '57 on it, and get off my stage.

Richard Penrose

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Re: Wireless mic around £200?
« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2021, 06:38:13 AM »

200 pounds?
I'd get a '58 and 150 feet of XLR.
Seriously.
Chris.

Ok so what should I be spending to get a reasonable wireless mic?
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JohnPinchin

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Re: Wireless mic around £200?
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2021, 07:14:12 AM »

I recently switched over the new sennheiser ew-d mics and so far (4 shows) have been super impressed,  but if you prefer shure then the slxd range looks great as well.    You're looking at somewhere around £550 depending which mic capsule you want.   
For around £200 or  little more you'll probably find lots of used shure slx and sennheiser G3 and maybe G4.   Personally I'd prefer the G3/4 but I regularly still see people using the slx systems.

I would avoid the 2.4GHz systems like the shure glxd,  with bigger crowds I found them to struggle but small sub100 people gigs you might be ok.
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Richard Penrose

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Re: Wireless mic around £200?
« Reply #4 on: July 25, 2021, 10:55:24 AM »

Thanks John. I will be in audiences up to around 350-400. What would be better for this?
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Bob Stone

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Re: Wireless mic around £200?
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2021, 11:00:01 AM »

I've had ok luck with Shure BLX at the very bottom end of things with a SM58 capsule. Not the best, but agreed on avoiding the 2.4ghz spectrum with the GLX-D.
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Chris Grimshaw

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Re: Wireless mic around £200?
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2021, 01:15:07 PM »

I'd avoid the 2.4GHz stuff full stop. I've had those wireless systems prevent my iPads from talking to the router (Airport express) further than a few feet away. Swapped the singer's wireless mic for a cabled one, and the network worked perfectly again.


I went through a similar search a while ago, and came out with a Sennheiser G4 EW100 unit with an e935 capsule. I particularly wanted that capsule because the rest of my vocal mics are e935s and I really like them - the average punter with zero mic technique can get usable results: had one where they folded their arms while holding the mic, putting the capsule at their shoulder pointing upwards. I didn't need the GBF anyway, but it still sounded decent.

It looks like the prices have gone up since I bought mine, but it's paid itself off. It's all profit now.

Chris
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Joris Jans2

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Re: Wireless mic around £200?
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2021, 04:25:34 PM »

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Caleb Dueck

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Re: Wireless mic around £200?
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2021, 04:30:52 PM »

Thanks John. I will be in audiences up to around 350-400. What would be better for this?

Bare minimum, as John said if going new - Sennheiser EW-D or Shure SLX-D. 
If going used - Sennheiser EW100 G3 or G4, or maybe JTS UF-20 (new).  Not a fan of cheap analog Shure. 

Anything cheaper than that - go hard wired. 
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Brian Jojade

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Re: Wireless mic around £200?
« Reply #9 on: July 27, 2021, 01:13:56 PM »

It has been true forever.  Even the absolute very best wireless system on the market isn't as good as a $30 cable.

 Two issues you have to worry about are RF range and sound quality.  Cheap wireless stuff SUCKS, especially so in the analog versions. Dynamic range can be horrid, and noise floors unbearable.  The companding that gets done to the signal makes mics barely usable for speech.  Not something you want for singing at any level.

The function of RF is important too.  Knowing the range that you really need the system to work is very important.  Most wireless mic systems will advertise a working range of 300 feet, line of sight.  Anyone that's worked with wireless mics will tell you that there's no chance in hell that most mics will be reliable at that sort of range.

The cheap stuff I'd plan for 50 feet outdoors, tops.  That can be fine if you put the receivers on stage near the performers.  Eg, a wireless guitar system may only need 10 feet of range to be effective, so there are times that short range can be fine.  But, if you suddenly want to put the receivers at FOH, it's likely going to cause you issue.

Many mics now have switched to digital transmission.  While this eliminates some of the issues with sound quality, especially with lower end mics, it isn't without issue.  First off, digital mics add latency. All of them.  Now, most of them add only a very little amount and it goes unnoticed.  However, for some particular listeners, the latency of the mic, combined with the latency of the digital mixer, combined with the latency of the processor, etc can become an issue.  It's more pronounced with singers that use IEMs.  Secondly, like with any digital signal, making sure you don't clip the signal -EVER- is pretty important.  While with analog, clipping a signal often just resulted in distortion that gradually got worse, clipping a digital signal isn't pretty, even if it's just an itty bit.  Setting an appropriate gain level on the transmitter is key.  I've found that cheaper mics often eliminate the ability to set gain on the transmitter where you need it to be. That can be a problem, especially when using the mic in loud situations.

Definitely, and without question, AVOID 2.4ghz mics.  The problem with them is that while you may be able to test them in practice, at your event, pretty much EVERY guest in attendance is bringing a device in ther pocket that potentially can disrupt the show.  No, it won't happen every time.  But when it does, it's not going to be fun.  Personally, I've seen the problems with 2.4ghz mics happen more often at corporate events.  It's easy to explain, because there are more people there that pull out their laptops and connect to their hotspots via WIFI, saturating the space. Once saturated, the mic can't work properly.

So, back to the original question on budget.  If you don't have a budget of at LEAST $500 per channel, don't consider wireless.  Doing so is a waste of time and money.  The guy that spent $35 on a cable will have much better sound than you.
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Brian Jojade

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Re: Wireless mic around £200?
« Reply #9 on: July 27, 2021, 01:13:56 PM »


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