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8 Channels of Wireless with Stick Mics $499


al mcguire

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Often a very good indicator of what??

there are a lot of ' low end' products around : so what's the worry? You as an able pro soundperson will  have to explain to production why you are using high end soundequipment!! It is when 'the producers helpfull's cousin' comes in (to record the sound),and the Pro soundperson will become obsolete... Amen........

Edited by bralleput
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But it's often.. very often a very good indicator

of quality. 

Turing Pharmaceuticals would disagree with you. So would purchasers of generic Ibuprofein and administrators of supermarket loyalty cards. And so would purchasers of plane tickets in Jamaica. In all of these cases and more, the quality of the product doesn't affect the price at all, but instead the price differs because the company has found out what we're willing to pay and then charged us that price.

Now I'm not saying that any given price isn't justified. But what I am saying is that if a company has figured out a way to do something cheaply and can provide competitive pricing because of it, we would be foolish to determine that it is not good quality without first hand experience with it. FM radio has been around for over 80 years. I made an FM radio receiver in an elementary school project. Meanwhile a computer that cost $3000 15 years ago can now be outpaced by a $300 computer today. Prices for technology should get cheaper over time.

Most of our radios today have to deal with being frequency agile, this product seems to have every pair locked into a frequency. Maybe that is what allows them to keep the cost down.

Edited by NewEndian
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I would like to see someone who actually has used it post their opinion of the quality. Price isn't everything.

for a lot of newbies trying to crash the production marketplace price is everything to a big degree.

they get crazy in their minds when a drastic price gap appears to be in their favor.

since they are not test driving and comparing at that point, the idea of saving a bundle of money is hard to dislodge from their heads because x is just as good as y.

but who knows maybe that item is good for something but not high ticket jobs out there.

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everything to a big degree.

That phrase doesn't make sense.

People are afraid that lower equipment prices mean lower rental prices, but that isn't true either. Productions rent gear because it doesn't make sense for them to buy it. Instead, renters compete with each other to set prices. Once the equipment is bought and paid off (and let's be honest, it doesn't take that long) then the renter can charge whatever he wants (a low price is better than no price). I've seen plenty of renters undercut average prices on high end items. So rental price has very little to do with item price.

Newbies charge less to make up for what they lack in experience and skill. As soon as they obtain that experience and skill, they charge as much they can, which is a price that is competitive with everyone else. It doesn't have anything to do with equipment prices either.

Generally speaking, you get what you pay for.

That is a platitude. Economics is much more complicated than that.

Edited by NewEndian
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of quality. 

I do wonder if the owner of an Alexa is seriously worried about the advent of all these cheap cameras. Is the Alexa losing out to them? Are really more films being made with cheap cameras or are just more films being made?

Alexa is probably not the best example to pick... ;-) But generally I agree with what you say.

Edited by Patrick Tresch
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there's a lot of wireless out there, say stuff like MIPRO, problem is that someone needs to evaluate them. even Shure and AKG... cheaper in price compared to the usual manufacturers we go with. 

Exactly my point. If you haven't actually evaluated something, don't pretend to know everything about it. Price isn't everything.



Actually I take back everything I said: 
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/baba-shiv-how-wines-price-tag-affect-its-taste

Edited by NewEndian
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I have been providing radio mics and a PA system to the local school (my wife used to teach there, and is still a volunteer governor there) free of charge for the last 10 or more years. Last year I was going to be away with most of my kit during their show, so was unable to help them out. They expressed a wish to buy radio mics of their own, and I advised them of good brands, and likely costs, and that there would be maintenance issues, and to absolutey not buy cheap Chinese rubbish etc..... Suffice to say that they bought 5 sets of chinese shite, each with 2 x transmitters and a twin receiver, quite similar to that which we are discussing in this thread, and at a total cost of approx £1100 UK (be aware, they could buy the same kit again this year for circa £750UK). To cut a long story short, it was a total disaster. They were never once able to run more than 6 channels simultaneously, they picked up all sorts (including, inevitably, the local cab firm, including the call out for a parent who had texted for a cab to collect them from the show!!), and channels simply came and went.....

The aftermath of this was that I recently managed to return the shite kit to the local supplier (the boss was on holiday when they had originally bought, and agreed that the school should never have been sold this rubbish), and replaced it with a reasonable set of 8 x Trantec (British manufacturer, make nice 'racked and ready' kits) radio mics, at considerably greater cost, BUT...... they worked briliantly for the show, and all concerned agree that they should have bought more wisely the first time around.

As they say - Buy cheap, buy twice!!!!!

 

sb

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Economics is more complex than "you get what you pay for" but that doesn't mean that the adage doesn't still have a lot of truth to it.  Bash's school wireless purchase is the kind of thing I've seen happen over and over, esp with DSLR-drivers and one-man-band filmmakers.  They call or email and REALLY want me to to tell them that the brand x wireless stuff (or recorder or etc) that I've never heard of, that has spotty USA distro, no real support, comes from a box shop type dealer and has no track record of current users will suffice to replace the stuff I use.   Of all the tools we use in location sound "YGWYPF" holds the most true re wireless, esp as the avail spectrum gets busier and smaller at the same time.  Sure--if you are going to use these wirelesses out in the middle of nowhere, with close to zero scans all around, then all you'll be dealing with is the crappy audio (let's hear that jangling-key test one more time), but in any urban area the RF activity already going on will very possibly run over your cheapo wirelesses, and at the worst possible moment.  Anyone who has been doing this work for awhile has the scars and PTSD from some very bad days at the office re RF interference, and know that wirelesses are not the place to scrimp.

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Nobody is saying that there aren't people out there willing to sell cardboard boxes for $20 and call it wireless, but I've also seen people out there willing to sell cardboard boxes for $3000 and call it wireless. And I've also seen people sell $500 wireless products and have it be pretty damn good.

To put it in platitude form: You can't judge a book by it's cover. 

Edited by NewEndian
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I can't afford to buy cheap wireless. Say what you want but I haven't gotten the quality out of a Senn G2/3 or Sony UTX or any of those cheaper wireless than I have out of my Lectrosonic 411a's with SMQV transmitter!! I wouldn't have the client's I have now using those cheaper wireless. Because if you fail you don't get hired again. Sure if you do corporate videos and the like you may be able to use cheaper $500 wires. But I'm judging a book by performance not it's cover. There is no magic bullet when it comes to wireless. Sure like I said if you want to do video work,  church or live stage stuff you can do it just fine. But to do high end work you need the BEST you can get- yes it cost about $3000 per ch  for great wireless.  Not putting down $500 wireless there is a place for it. Just keep in mind it will NOT out perform a $3000 unit from Lectrosonics or Zaxcom. If so Top Chef, Friday Night Tykes, The Apprentice, and every other show you want to name would use them. It's Apples and Oranges.

Just my two cents

:-) 

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I believe that the leprechauns who live under my front stoop could build a five hundred dollar eight channel wireless system that competes in performance with high end units from Lectrosonics and Zaxcom. 

But, I checked with them and they haven't built one, so I don't think such a thing exists.

 

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No one is saying that we aren't willing or justified in paying the price for equipment we know that works. Just stop reviewing equipment without using the equipment. If you've never used a piece of equipment, don't say anything about it. Just don't.

I assume you haven't used that VocoPro Karaoke system either. So I don't know what your point is in posting it.

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