axel

Flohma, did you ever try a Neumann RSM191? Those have been built exactly for you (Journalists), they have the most convincing stereo image for my ears, they are a little less bulky than an ORTF setup and the signal ends up as mid-side or xy. You have to look for a used one, because Neumann dropped production several years ago, but I have not found any stereo setup that comes so close to a natural hearing image.

so then try an Aaton Cantar X1 or X2. They came out in 2003/2007. Their developer/designer JP Beauviala acquired his skills at Kudelski, where the famous Nagra machines were produced. He tried to translate the Nagra philosophy into the multitrack world, listenend to the community for a long time and then developed a machine with beautiful mechanics, built like a tank, but with the highest audio standards available. Can be operated over the shoulder, in the rain, blindfolded and with gloves. But best preamps. Just guessing, maybe you would love one of those. Regarding modern film workflows they are not accurate anymore and service has been discontinued when the original Aaton company shut its doors in 2013. But there are still some people who know how to service and repair them and have some stocks of relevant parts.

What I read between grawk's lines is, that he would love to have a small equipment with a compact footprint and a minimum of cable work around. Something you can place on your lap. It can be fancy and he would devote himself to an elegantly engineered, best sounding, yet compact peace of equipment he can caress with his dust brush. Does not need to have the latest software features and does not need to follow the latest film workflows. If 4-5 analog inputs suffice, try to get hold of a used Sonosax SX-R4, SX-R4+ or a Cantar X1 or X2 (which are basically the same). For all of those, you can expand track count with a noble sonosax or aaton preamp to feed into the digital inputs if you need a couple of tracks extra. If you are better off with 8 mic pres out of the box, grab a used SD 788T. If you are OK with plastic look and feel but want to have decent preamps, go for a Mixpre 10 (also 8 mic pre's) A good bang for the buck can also be a Zoom F8 (also 8 mic pre's). I think for the price you pay, Zaxcom is leaning more towards functionality than beautiful sound, although their preamp standards on the cabled inputs might be high as well. But that is just my personal opinion.

I`ve been working a lot with the CMC 1 SO/MK41 in conjunction with a ZMT4 Tx. VERY small & quickly deployable System. Great Sound. It is lacking a suspension of course, so often I place the Tx inside a mini fur (for small ENG like shotgun baskets) and let just the MK41 poke out. Transmitter and gooseneck stay inside the fur to take up less induced rumble. Can hide behind a desk acsessory very easily or poke out of a visor inside a car. Can be put in front of a laptop screen, but typing while speaking would be a no-go and a rotating HDD inside the laptop would sound like a massive engine. If the capsule results a little top-heavy with the very lightwight ZMT4, I support it with an Ursa wire rig. Be aware there is two CMC1-SO versions for Zaxcom and Sound Devices/Audio Ltd Tx. Not compatible with each other.

I used Copic markers to paint several white B6 caps to match certain shades of blue shirts, including a brown version on a 6060 to match a special leather jacket. You can paint various layers with different colours to find the exact colour match. Copic have many options including very light colors that just add a certain shade. You can clean them off with alcohol (Sidenote: don't try that with DPA cables: the alcohol dilutes the softeners from their Mogami cables and they will result stiff) I guess the tank like COS11 cable will withstand it.

thanks for your replies. I decided to stay away from those, stupid to guess that everything new would be purely digital. I have had medium good experience on Set with the IEM 300 System and wanted to upgrade transmission and quality.

Anyone tried the new digital Sennheiser XSW IEMs? Those offer the option to individually use either stereo mode or blend two channels to a mono signal of choice on the Rx side. The signal should be compander free and thus maybe better on the low end than the analog G3/G4 system. If RF performance is OK it could be a good Boom Op IEM system at a real tempting price.

If you got more NP50 batts, try those handcrafted chargers of Joppe ("WrineX"), better charging & more functional at a fraction of the space.

key question is how prone it will be to handling noise

# of charge cycles is part of the SMBus info that is transmitted from the battery to any gear (like SMBus capable recorders, power distros, chargers...)

I switched from Audioroot to RRC, RRC being cheaper and showing a great performance so far (but still less than 50 cycles). Fully compatible with audioroot chargers and distros. RRC is a German company, batteries appearantly are manufactured in Taiwan. They are sold by a Dutch company called TEXIM. Original audioroot batts behaved great, but now some are at only 60% original capacity after 5 years/300 cycles. Always tried to store them properly over downtimes. As a first replacements I got 2 Audioroot Li-Neos which are also good, but the necessity to shake them for a brief view of their charge I find annoying.

as long as you use an analog high pass filter before DA conversion everything is fine. Nothing to worry with your hs-p82. I am not sure, if e.g. the HP filters of the Sound Devices 8 series are still analog, but even if they are not, thats not an issue.

I happily use the MK41 with CMC1 U and ZMT4, no interference issues, no RF induced noisefloor. The "U" model is very short but with a normal XLR3 output; it is quite new and was specially designed for RF rejection. I also use the "SO-Zax" model with integrated gooseneck, also totally fine with ZMT4. No experience with the "L" model, unfortunately. Bad experience with RF and older CMC5 and CMC6 preamps though.

just for the record, I got hold of a new RRC 2054 battery now and it is fully compatible with my Audioroot chargers and BDS

Great to know, thank you!! Indeed, RRC are not much cheaper compared to the Neos, but I rather see them in competition to the original Audioroot version with the 5 segment capacity bar: those are still available at a pricepoint of +100€ compared to RRC. Frankly I just hate the need to shake each Neo battery only to distinguish between full and emtpy, with an average of 10+ batteries used during the day it sums up to lots of stupid shakes to keep the overview! For worse, the tiny OLED disply forces me to put on glasses for a proper readout as well. That is why I'd prefer to go with RRC.

Can I charge RRC 2054-x SMBus batteries with a SMBus charger from Audioroot? Should be possible, but does anyone have some positive experience? thanks!

Impressing specs! but... How does the control pack connect to a Tx? Just dial in a frequency? Can you choose for different TX systems / companding methods? Can you tell which Lectrosonics modes are usable? thanks, Axel

We use it with the 8060, best ratio in sound coloration vs wind protection. Due to its neat rubber enclosure on the back it is quite effective with the wind sensitive 8060. Good replacement for the Sennheiser foam which does all the muffling, but only very limited wind protection.

Quicklock would work, but destroys the boom thread and becomes sluggish over time

yes, I had a loose data pin connection in the battery cup/cable joint. The error was intermittent and was actually hard to reproduce by bending the cable. But Audioroot still recommended to replace the battery cup. Finally I did and the problem was gone.

A colleague, whose (old) Ambients still work like new, told me he uses a bycicle grease called "white grease". I thought to be smart and tried the grease provided by Ambient for their threads on the poles (it is also white): Bad idea, all treated Quicklocks got stuck and were only possible to open the way like Johnny Karlsson showed. I cleaned the grease out and they were like before: a princess to open only with the right sense of touch. Now I changed to the Rycotes and ... YES! easy true one hand operation. No fails within first year.

dear all, I have tested the ZMT4 and I am about to go for it with 4 units for booms and car/plant mikes use mostly. I will pair them with a RX-4 standalone receiver. I am a novice to Zaxcom ecosystem and I am wondering, if there is a reasonably slim and straight forward way to establish a Zaxnet connection to 4 ZMT4s for adjusting gain and frequencies. It would be great, if I did not have to dig into menus on receiver for a sole command and also not having to add much weight to the bag. I record to a Cantar X3 and want to stay with it. Will a QRX100 paired with a Zaxmote dongle do the job even if the TX are operating on a different frequency that is not covered on the QRX 100 block? Thank you for recommendations and real word experience

you must take into account the energy efficiency of the battery charging process, which is considerably less than 100%. Proper testing measures the discharge capacity. What the specs say: Eneloop Pros are rated by a minimum guaranteed capacity value, that is usually surpassed in real-life tests. 2600 - 2700 mAhs are realistic values and capacity wise they easily outperform major brand Alkaline batteries. Other big brands like Sanyo also meet their specs, but they lose their charge a little quicker, if the battery is not used immediately. Eneloops will still hold like 90% after a few weeks. With no-name brands the specified capacity is usually overrated by minimum 10% PLUS they will lose their charge pretty quickly when lying on the shelf unused PLUS they will lose their recharging capacity sooner over time. All the same I don't really like the Eneloops, because they have a fatal inclination to dismantle their outer shell much sooner than they lose their charging capacity.

search for chargers with a TEST option: In TEST mode those start charging the battery until it is totally full, switch into discharge and track the ammount of energy that is extracted during the whole discharge cycle, usually in mAh. Afterwards they charge the battery until it is full again and keep displaying the real capacity of the battery, among other parameters. In most cases, they discharge with half current of the charging process. A complete charge - discharge - charge cycle can take more than 24 hs, depending on the current you feed to the battery and its capacity. Like this one: https://www.amazon.de/BC-700-Akku-Microprozessor-Schnellladegerät-schwarz/dp/B000WILI42/ref=asc_df_B000WILI42/?tag=googshopde-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309851262444&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17581102760851636233&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9062727&hvtargid=pla-627944371117&psc=1&th=1&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=65356965287&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=309851262444&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17581102760851636233&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9062727&hvtargid=pla-627944371117

Thanks Joppe for this nice little 8-bay NP-50 chargers. I was surprised they work on 12V as well, so I'll put one on my cart.