Derek H

Prepare to get roasted by our anti-32bit friends.

I think Penn Elcom is the choice for aluminum drawers these days. Or Star case but they make some weird design choices if you ask me.

Thanks Colin. Yeah I don’t think Sennheiser wants anyone to know they are generally compatible with G series.

“The signal should be compander free and…” These are analog. If you look at the specs it will confirm. Sennheiser is discontinuing the G4 series at some point soon. I suspect these are positioned to be a budget-level IEM once the G4 replacement comes out which will be digital and probably priced higher than the current G4 IEM system. I spent awhile on the phone and over emails with Sennheiser to find out if these new XSW receivers are compatible with G4/3/2 transmitters because it would be nice to be able to add less expensive receivers to an existing setup. They were pretty coy about it and I got a couple of no’s but someone did finally test it for me and said that the audio did come through. I think they’re a different compandor than their usual “HDX” one so you’d have to listen to see what they sound like.

Thanks for the offer Adrian!

I had an annoying experience emailing them a few years back. Basically I was trying to figure out what’s the deal with older 4060s getting stiff cables. I wanted to know things like, did you change the cable type at some point? If so, what serial number range was the switch. What’s the best way to keep them soft and prevent the kinking.. etc. their response was basically “you can throw them in the trash, they’re old what do you expect and you should just buy some new ones”. I told them I had some Sankens that were much older and still had soft cables. Their response was that I should buy Sankens then. Lol. I’ve bought some used DPA stuff since then but nothing new off the shelf.

I called them a few days ago and also received no response.

That’s fair. It is too expensive.

You’ll need a separate phantom power 48V box. The UM only provides 5V for lavs.

Sure but you know what the 633 can make you a lot of money. It may be worth it to make sure it’s in good working order.

“While I haven't been fortunate enough to try out the Halter Technic Microsone system, my impression though is that it would be a better choice, large thanks to not needing to make the talent wear two bodypacks! (one of the normal transmitters for their lav, plus also a receiver for the earpiece)” The Halter system is not a lav transmitter. It’s a universal IFB receiver and the only transmission happening is Bluetooth audio to the ear piece. The talent would still need two packs if you need them mic’d.

There is a known issue with these that is prevented by tuning rx1 to a higher frequency than rx2. It’s pretty rare though but maybe try that and see if that clears it up. Did you scan and select clean frequencies first?

I had this happen on mine. Nothing to do but send it to sound devices. I’ve never heard of an independent shop that offers this level of service but maybe it exists? Would love to know if anyone is servicing the 6-series stuff because factory service has definitely gotten cost prohibitive on the older gear.

I highly recommend the big monitor plus multiview approach. I went with a datavideo TLM pull out rack monitor but it’s not light. It does only require a single rack space though which is a huge space saver. It pulls out and folds up to expose a monster 17” screen. I keep a black magic SDI quad mutiviewer box at the village cart and then run a single 150’ BNC to the sound cart for up to 4 cameras and barrel together two of those to get 300’ if needed. It’s great. I really like this method and your utility will not have to deal with loomed multi cables which have physical drawbacks. I have yet to encounter an issue with the output video signals available at village being incompatible with this setup.

Yes, that’s a fair assessment. The piano is a commitment to strong outdoor wind protection. It doesn’t have a quick way to get the shell off and just use it as a mount. But if you can try out their Cosi product you might like that for indoors and out.

What happens if you plug in a mini-mite, phaseright or other appropriate antenna for the 216 band on the end of the cable? Just using a cable to extend out the whip is likely an ineffective antenna as far as the load sensor is concerned. Whether it works for you in practice is another thing.

Not sure about the antenna but also here in the USA the VHF T4 is limited to 50mW output whereas the other UHF block T4s are 250mW.

This is great. I’m still working on feeling totally comfortable with Dante. A cart I work on sometimes has a Lectro D4 and every once and awhile it just doesn’t send audio to the Scorpio. Usually a power cycle fixes it. I’m sure there’s some reason why that happens though maybe it’s just a bug somewhere. Curious how many of you guys have gone through the various online training programs Audinate offers? Any Dante horror stories out there? I’m sure people have them…

Has worked fine for me. I haven’t been able to crack the code with the 664 and the CL12… mostly it works but the scenario is that if you power cycle in the wrong order it will start throwing those stupid errors and firmware update nonsense. It’s insane.

Thanks Larry! Do you have runtime info as well? I thought Energizer was the only game in town (in the USA) for disposable lithium batteries? Did their patent expire or something? $1 per cell cost savings is pretty huge. I’m pretty sure we’re usually changing batteries sooner than necessary most of the time anyway.

Would love to try it on a scene and switch back and forth with a CMIT.

Something new from DPA at a really good price (under $1000). Specs look to be on par or better (lower noise, lower current, higher headroom) than the 4017 but with no switchable filters. I don't think I'd miss them though because this, like the mini CMIT, has a built in roll off starting at about 60Hz. A little less presence boost than the 4017 otherwise very flat. Form factor seems nice at a little over 7" but with enough preamp section to be easily mountable in a variety of shock mounts. A little heavier than the miniCMIT. Also they're touting it as extremely durable and water/humidity resistant. Here in Chicago I saw a picture of them putting golf balls with it. No mention of RF immunity. Wouldn't mind trying one!

Probably illegal in USA. PSC used to make one.

lol. Sorry to hear that but that’s ridiculously bad customer service. At this point I would just try to get an exchange from your dealer. Tell them you’re getting the runaround from the manufacturer.

Nice work!