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Experience with Phenyx Pro Wireless Microphone Systems?

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Scott Russell:
Does anyone have experience with the Phenyx systems? Particularly the PTU-5000A and the PTU-7000A?  They would be used in a small church environment with the receiver units in the balcony.

Thank you.

Matthias McCready:

--- Quote from: Scott Russell on January 24, 2023, 10:48:14 AM ---Does anyone have experience with the Phenyx systems? Particularly the PTU-5000A and the PTU-7000A?  They would be used in a small church environment with the receiver units in the balcony.

Thank you.

--- End quote ---

No.

But save your money.

My experience with wireless is you get exactly what you pay for. I have seen many churches buy whatever "wireless" is cheapest, and I have yet to see it work out well. Sometimes it doesn't work at all, sometimes is mostly works, but sounds awful and has drop out issues. Most budget systems are plagued by noise issues such as: lots of handling noise that is louder than talking, limited frequency and compression (AM radio sounding), distortion, and so much noise/hiss that trying to get it to broadcast levels (for streaming the service) is probably a lost cause.

Simply put cheap wireless doesn't save you money, it is not good stewardship of the resources you have.

The most "inexpensive" wireless I have found to be reliable is Shure's newish SLX-D (digital not analog, the old analog SLX is awful), however Shure QLX-D is a little better yet.

Note that this is about $700+ per channel of wireless; if you are cheaper than that, wired is usually a much better option.

---

Point and case you can buy a wired SM58 for $100, and it will simply work. You can spend upwards of $3,000 for a wireless channel with an SM58 capsule; one which will hopefully work as well as the wired version. Only your $3,000 version requires batteries, and is much more fragile than your $100 mic and cable.

So if several thousand for wireless isn't in the cards, may I recommend staying wired?

If the pastor really desires are wireless mic, get a single channel of something decent. Also another money saving tip, LAV/Headset mics tend to break quite easily (I have had to replace more of those than I care to remember  :o ) so when budget friendly is priority, steer people towards using an actual hand-held mic. As an added bonus, those usually offer superior gain before feedback compared to most LAV/Headset mics (due to the microphone pickup pattern).

Taylor Phillips:
No experience with those particular units, but I think I would avoid them just based on the price point.  I've used some others in that price range and they seem to just be bad. Poor build quality, excess handling noise (defeats the purpose of wireless handheld), loose electronic connections after a bit of hard use.  A four-in-one unit is tempting, but at that price it's like not modular and one simple failure in the main receiver might mean losing all four channels at once.

Consumer reviews on Amazon praise the build quality of the units you mentioned, but it's hard to tell if they are objectively well constructed, or just on the better end of the price point (or if the reviews are actually legit).  More importantly, people complained about handling noise, and signal dropping out when they were well in range.

Sent from my moto g power (2021) using Tapatalk

Tim Weaver:

--- Quote from: Matthias McCready on January 24, 2023, 11:24:05 AM ---No.


Simply put cheap wireless doesn't save you money, it is not good stewardship of the resources you have.

The most "inexpensive" wireless I have found to be reliable is Shure's newish SLX-D (digital not analog, the old analog SLX is awful), however Shure QLX-D is a little better yet.

Note that this is about $700+ per channel of wireless; if you are cheaper than that, wired is usually a much better option.



--- End quote ---

I would like to point out that wired is ALWAYS a better option. Even on the biggest productions in the world those high-dollar wireless mics are almost always backed up by a wired mic hiding off stage in case the wireless goes dead.

If you are out in the country there are several 2.4ghz type mics that should work well for you, but if you live in a more congested space you need to spend money on better mics. The Shure SLXD mentioned above is a good budget choice.

Matthias McCready:

--- Quote from: Tim Weaver on January 24, 2023, 12:07:48 PM ---I would like to point out that wired is ALWAYS a better option. Even on the biggest productions in the world those high-dollar wireless mics are almost always backed up by a wired mic hiding off stage in case the wireless goes dead.

--- End quote ---

I can confirm this, we keep a wired backup for our Shure Axient rig. Haven't had to use it yet, but it is there.

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