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Lectro vs zaxcomm wireless


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Any advice here? Im going to be purchasing New professional wireless and always had the idea of buying lectrosonics. Now with he recording capabilities of the zaxcomm xmitters and zaxnet im a little confused and am not sure what to do.

Im a sound devices guy, currently own a 744t and am planning to upgrade to 788t. If I go with zaxcomm wireless i would definitely get a nomad 8 instead of gettin the 788.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

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I'm not in a position to answer with any authority (though I have some half-baked thoughts). But when do you need to buy? I'm hoping to see some new products with features and technology that answer some of my workflow and spectrum concerns. Can you wait until after the NAB show in April?

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In the meantime, have you rented any of the items you're interested in?

Some dealers will let you rent stuff to try out, or even give you a day for free to try gear out, and then allow a portion of the rental costs to be applied to a purchase...

Great way to avoid gearing up completely with stuff that looks good, but isn't exactly what you want in the field.

Rich

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I'm having the same problem. This year I want to get a Nomad and try to build a decent cart.

I have lectro now which I love. If I stick to them the cost will be much less then completely switch over to Zaxcom. But I have a Fusion 10 I wanna make it my cart recorder and the Nomad my bag recorder and back up for my Fusion. So the whole Zaxcom wireless seems right.

Right now I'm thinking of sticking with lectro and getting ERX's and a TRX942 for wireless boom.

I wouldn't expect anything to exciting from Lectro or Zaxcom at NAB.

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2 lma and 1 SRa by lectro is the beat bang for the buck IMHO. LMa $650 and SRa around $2000 will give you exactly the same quality as the more expansive units. You can go qrx100 and 2 trx by zaxcom for more of you want the extra options of zaxcom.

If you are just starting you can go for 2 sennheiser g3 which you can use for ifb or dslr time code/scratch track later.

Las Vegas Nevada Sound Mixer www.hazna.com

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I think a QRX and a pair of the little plastic transmitters is the way to go. Looking into it myself to supplement my Lectro gear.

I think based on current technology, that and the Nomad seems like a good way to go, and that's coming from a very happy SD/Lectro guy.

But if you can wait for NAB, it's wise.

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Mmmm... I think going this way, you'd have to use two carriers with the QRX, which would also cut your range (QRX would have to be set in dual mode; two stereo capable freqs).

But that difinitely would be nice and compact. Maybe use an LTS then, which is stereo and using the same carrier so you could set your QRX in single mode (one stereo capable freq) and not cut your range?

Anybody can confirm ?

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Note to the OP and Rado - The Lectro SRa does have a frequency tracking front end while the UCR411a does.

From Lectro's Technical Data Sheet on the UCR411a:

"Frequency Tracking Front-End Filters

The front-end consists of four transmission line resonators with variable capacitance applied to each resonator to

retune it as the frequency is changed. The tuning range cov- ers a full 25.6 MHz block of frequencies. The design provides tunable, narrow filtering as selective as most fixed frequency designs, with the overload performance of the best front-ends available. The result is extended operating range in even the most congested RF environments."

In my experience (several years with these models) using non-tracking front end Lectro receivers, such as the 201 and 401(and likely the SRa which again does not have a tracking front end either), RF rejection of competing signals is worse than the UCR411a - i.e., the non-tracking front end receivers lose RF reception more readily than the tracking front end models when confronted with RF crowded environments and competing RF signals.

When I bought my current Lectro system I did not consider going with anything other than a tracking front end model. Yes, the UCR411a weighs more than an SRa, but I'm more than willing to trade the weight for the greater performance. Clean RF means one less thing to worry about and lets me concentrate on other aspects of getting good sound.

What I would really like to see is a small, bag-ready tracking front end four channel Lectro receiver so I wouldn't have to use separate 411a receivers for each of my SMa's.

In terms of Lectro vs. Zaxcom, I bought my Lectro body mic systems before the current Zaxcom systems came on line, but I am still quite happy with my Lectro SMa/UCR411a systems. I do have the Zaxcom 900SS/RX Digital Stereo Link and am very happy with it as well. My Lectro's are on Block 22 and the Zaxcom is on Block 26.

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Do not wait for NAB... Even if something new is showed on NAB it would not be out till many months later.

It's still a lot of money to put into something that you may want to switch out not too far down the road, If you can wait for nab, and you see something there you like, It is worth the wait.

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Keep in mind that it's been proven over and over again that "waiting for NAB" means waiting many addition months to a year or more for the newly introduced product to actually materialize.

gt

ps

A reminder to those who made a bet with me around this time last year... it will be February in a few days :)

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Do not wait for NAB... Even if something new is showed on NAB it would not be out till many months later.

Unless you need something right now, and renting is out of the question, why not wait? While there's often a long wait between NAB debut and shipping, there isn't always. For example, the announce-ship gap for the MixPre-D wasn't all that long, iirc. And after NAB you can always buy what you need from currently-available stocks. I say this as a guy who today bought another wireless set (thanks Michael).

The main reason I can think to wait is for some possible clarity on TVBD stuff.

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I bought the Zaxcom Stereoline because it has the best sound quality. No arguments here.

I stuck with Lectro for my lavs. Almost as good sound quality and waaaay tougher. If you are doing drama exclusively, go for Zax. Any other style of work go with Lectro.

Open circuitry and solder joints in the battery compartment on Zaxcom transmitters is not acceptable if you are on anything other than a controlled film set in a major city.

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I have owned Lectro's (UCR's 201-411a) prior to my current Zaxcom systems and liked them a lot. When Zaxcom debut their new wirelesses I waited for a while and finally took the plunge and sold all but 2 Lectro's (They were in BL28) to get a few Zaxcom wirelesses. I'm happy that I did. Their performance as a recording TX with TC stamps is awesome. That feature alone has saved my ass numerous times and gotten me certain jobs. The remote gain control of TX works really well. So with Zaxnet, a micplexer since range has somewhat been an issue in my experience (QRX doesn't fair well without it I think while the RX900S doesn't really need it) and a 3 month old Nomad I have a sound bag that I'm super happy with. Although my bag hasn't gotten any lighter. :P Its a trade off.

In the end, both Lectro and Zaxcom are great. One is more expensive then the other but you get more stuff out of it. Just think about what projects your doing and your wallet.

Gabe

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" bag-ready tracking front end four channel Lectro receiver "

four channels means 4 tracking front ends with current technology.

There are more advanced products coming down the pike but even if they are beginning to be discussed, they will not be readily available for "a while".

I was just working with the Clear-Com "Tempest" wireless intercom system (available on 2.4 GHz, I was using the 900 MHz varient). It is a spread spectrum technology across 20 MHz of band, and is a full duplex system, with rather good sound quality, and no way you can tell while listening that the audio is being reassembled from thousands of little chinks per second. with individual secure encryption and ID's, quite a few of these can operate simultaneously.

Lectro vs. Zaxcom has been discussed before --I thought this was the old thread being revived!

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I have owned Lectro's (UCR's 201-411a) prior to my current Zaxcom systems and liked them a lot. When Zaxcom debut their new wirelesses I waited for a while and finally took the plunge and sold all but 2 Lectro's (They were in BL28) to get a few Zaxcom wirelesses. I'm happy that I did. Their performance as a recording TX with TC stamps is awesome. That feature alone has saved my ass numerous times and gotten me certain jobs. The remote gain control of TX works really well. So with Zaxnet, a micplexer since range has somewhat been an issue in my experience (QRX doesn't fair well without it I think while the RX900S doesn't really need it) and a 3 month old Nomad I have a sound bag that I'm super happy with. Although my bag hasn't gotten any lighter. :P Its a trade off.

In the end, both Lectro and Zaxcom are great. One is more expensive then the other but you get more stuff out of it. Just think about what projects your doing and your wallet.

Gabe

Hey Gabe, what mixer were you using before the NOMAD? If it was an SD mixer, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the Nomad performs eng mixing vs, say, a 442 or 552 (specifically if the two handed faders cause you any problems when changing the mix on the fly). Since you are so happy with Nomad now, if you had to start all over would you go all Zaxcom, or would you re-purchase Lectro gear?

Thanks.

John

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