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Hello everyone.

As the title says,i want to buy a new wireless system and i want your opinions.

Now i have 3 sets of lectrosonics 200 series.

I am looking for something either from Zaxcom,or Lectrosonics,or Wisycom.

In Lectrosonics i 've been thinking of 1 SRc or SRc5P and 2 x SMQV or SSM.

In Zaxcom i 've seen either the 1 QRX 235 ( in Trew audio they are giving it with full band frequencies 518.0 to 872.0 MHz (blocks are 20 to 36 MHz wide).Is that correct?) or 200 (why is the QRX200 more expensive?) and 2 x TRXLT 3 ZHD.

In Wisycom i've seen the 1 MCR42S and 2x MTP41.

 

My first choice is the Zaxcom set,because of all the possibilities that can give you.(sd card in trx, ZHD, zaxnet, time code, IFB...)but i am open to other suggestions from all of you, mostly for equipment from  the prementioned companies.

The biggest part of my job is to travel.Mostly here in Greece and in Europe.

My mixer is the SD 633.

I am waiting for your opinions.

Thank you. :)

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Log,

Well, first, you can eliminate Wysicom, because it's Wysicom. That leaves Zaxcom and Lectro. You mentioned Zaxnet, you have to have a way to transmit Zaxnet, you have a 633, that means buying an IFB200, since the 633 won't transmit Zaxnet. Zaxnet is a great thing. Then, there is Lectro, which is great, but missing all those cool Zaxnet features and recording. As far as the difference between qrx200 and 235, you can read the features difference on Zaxcoms website. I have never had to consider the repair distance factor, but both Lectro and Zaxcom are located in the U.S.

Sincerely, Martin 

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Lectro without all the "Cool Zax features" has served me well for years... ROCK SOLID....  I live by their constant and solid performance every time I work... I love that gear...  I KNOW it will work...  In all the years I have used 100, 200 and 400 series units, I have had to send something only twice for repairs... and one of those times it was my fault...  A Lectro fanboy...?  You bet..

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Well, these things are so subjective, but I've used all of the aforementioned wireless systems and I feel compelled to say that my favorite is...Audio Ltd. 2040, by  far. They've never let me down, in all conditions; they're simple to use; they last forever and are built like tanks; and (arguably) they are the best sounding system available today. Others are less expensive and many are more "innovative". But to my (aging) ears, nothing sounds better.

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I agree re: service, which you might be more likely to need than extra rentals.   They all work great, sound great.  The choice is really around whose "ecosystem" do you want to get into.  It sounds like you have Lectro, so the newer ones will be very familiar to you.  If you want special features like recording TX and remote control, Zax gear is pretty much the only way to get them.

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I don't think you can go wrong with Lectro gear, I've had my SRa's and TX's now for three years and the only problems I've suffered are the occasional splat when the frequencies aren't quite to their liking.  Range, from the bag, I can get the length of a football pitch (just), although the stadium would be empty.  I also managed to pick up a UT400 with capsule at a very low price on Ebay, it's a superb microphone and well worth considering if you're doing any news pieces - AFAIK the other systems all rely on plug-on transmitters, which aren't as good looking.  I think the Wisycom and Audio ltd gear can receive and decode Lectro TXs although I don't know how good that sounds.

One thing to consider with some of the systems is group delay - if you're mixing microphones with a group delay of 3-4ms with wired microphones, you need to control input delay at your mixer so they all arrive at the same time.  Otherwise it just sounds odd.

I have my eye on the Zaxcom gear purely because I now use a Nomad and want remote control of the TXs, I may buy some next year, it depends on another long term job I have where I would have to create two kits.  We'll see.

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Log,

Well, first, you can eliminate Wysicom, because it's Wysicom.

Notwithstanding the excellent point above, Wisycom make great radio mics and they are very popular in Europe and elsewhere. They are based in Italy, so from Greece getting repairs done might be ok.

Audio Ltd. are a great option, too, and they actually do have a handheld transmittter mic, too, and you can even screw Schoeps capsules on them, so they sound really good. Audio Ltd also now have a digital range, which I seem to remember includes recording tx (in Europe), which is a great option.

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7 minutes ago, Constantin said:

Notwithstanding the excellent point above, Wisycom make great radio mics and they are very popular in Europe and elsewhere. They are based in Italy, so from Greece getting repairs done might be ok.

Audio Ltd. are a great option, too, and they actually do have a handheld transmittter mic, too, and you can even screw Schoeps capsules on them, so they sound really good. Audio Ltd also now have a digital range, which I seem to remember includes recording tx (in Europe), which is a great option.

Constantin, Someone had mentioned long ago that Wysicom had terrible customer service. I sent them an email asking a pre-sales question. It has been 14 months, I am still waiting. If they don't care about making money on sales, how concerned are they going to be about repairs. The terrible customer service comment came from a dealer. 

I find it really interesting how some manufacturers treat dealers terrible and yet treat customers really pretty well. 

Then there are manufacturers that treat dealers great and blow off the actual customers. Odd.

Sincerely, Martin 

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Thank you all for your advices.

Wisycom has created the communication in Formula1! I believe its a good company...And all their products are very good.But they have terible customer service,and many times  they dont have in stock some product.in summer i ordered 2 picies and they told me "delivery after 5 months!" 

I love Lectros and you find a lot of them everywere...thats good.

But the company is not progressing the way Zaxcom is.

This is the reason why i ask for your opinions.

If i do spend all that  money for the  wireless system, 500€ - or + will not be a problem..

 

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10 hours ago, login said:

Thank you all for your advices.

Wisycom has created the communication in Formula1! I believe its a good company...And all their products are very good.But they have terible customer service,and many times  they dont have in stock some product.in summer i ordered 2 picies and they told me "delivery after 5 months!" 

I love Lectros and you find a lot of them everywere...thats good.

But the company is not progressing the way Zaxcom is.

This is the reason why i ask for your opinions.

If i do spend all that  money for the  wireless system, 500€ - or + will not be a problem..

 

Log, I use all Zaxcom, on purpose. But, you had better be prepared to do a lot of reading and practising/experimenting with it. Lectro is solid, and a great company, but it is much less complex than Zaxcom, lectro does a lot less. Learning lectro is like becoming a paramedic, whereas learning Zaxcom is getting a brain surgery degree. Said differently, Zaxcom is not for the unmotivated or for those that don't like reading and studying. 

Sincerely, Martin 

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Hi,

If you go for Zaxcom Digital Wireless, use it with AES output for full performance. QRX300 receivers is on the way also. Whip antennas are practical for bag work, but sharkfin antennas are even better for range. Choose the 3.5 version (512-614MHz), you know why.

:)

About repairs, especially in our country. If you own a Sound Devices product and need repair; you have to send it at Berlin HQ. If you own a Zaxcom product and need repair; you have to send it at Ambient (again, Germany). So, we can't escape the travel days and shipping costs.

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About repairs, especially in our country. If you own a Sound Devices product and need repair; you have to send it at Berlin HQ. If you own a Zaxcom product and need repair; you have to send it at Ambient (again, Germany). So, we can't escape the travel days and shipping costs.

Except, Sound Devices in Berlin is actually Sound Devices. It's the same as sending it to the mothership. Ambient however, can do a lot of repairs for Zaxcom stuff, but they can't do everything and them you have to send it to the US. Plus, at least on older stuff (like the Fusion), you may have to wait for spare parts for a while. That's not Ambient's fault, it's just what it is. And, in the case of Lectro this is fairly similar. I had them re-block some Lectro gear and had to wait 6-8 weeks for the new parts.
So if you think that could be an issue for (i.e. If you don't have enough sets to cover those on repair), you should probably consider a European manufacturer. That'll at least cut down on shipping time and cost.

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17 hours ago, MartinTheMixer said:

Log, I use all Zaxcom, on purpose. But, you had better be prepared to do a lot of reading and practising/experimenting with it. Lectro is solid, and a great company, but it is much less complex than Zaxcom, lectro does a lot less. Learning lectro is like becoming a paramedic, whereas learning Zaxcom is getting a brain surgery degree. Said differently, Zaxcom is not for the unmotivated or for those that don't like reading and studying. 

Sincerely, Martin 

That i believe!!! :)

Do you suggest some kit?

13 hours ago, VAS said:

Hi,

If you go for Zaxcom Digital Wireless, use it with AES output for full performance. QRX300 receivers is on the way also. Whip antennas are practical for bag work, but sharkfin antennas are even better for range. Choose the 3.5 version (512-614MHz), you know why.

:)

About repairs, especially in our country. If you own a Sound Devices product and need repair; you have to send it at Berlin HQ. If you own a Zaxcom product and need repair; you have to send it at Ambient (again, Germany). So, we can't escape the travel days and shipping costs.

Please note that the QRX300 is a dedicated ZHD receiver and works in ZHD mode only (i.e. is NOT backwards compatible with non-ZHD models). It also will not work in dual mode. ...

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6 hours ago, login said:

That i believe!!! :)

Do you suggest some kit?

Please note that the QRX300 is a dedicated ZHD receiver and works in ZHD mode only (i.e. is NOT backwards compatible with non-ZHD models). It also will not work in dual mode. ...

 

6 hours ago, login said:

That i believe!!! :)

Do you suggest some kit?

Please note that the QRX300 is a dedicated ZHD receiver and works in ZHD mode only (i.e. is NOT backwards compatible with non-ZHD models). It also will not work in dual mode. ...

Hello, I really think it depends on what type of work you do, and how much is the budget.

Sincerely, Martin 

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On December 20, 2016 at 10:29 PM, MartinTheMixer said:

... Lectro is solid, and a great company, but it is much less complex than Zaxcom, lectro does a lot less. Learning lectro is like becoming a paramedic, whereas learning Zaxcom is getting a brain surgery degree. Said differently, Zaxcom is not for the unmotivated or for those that don't like reading and studying. 

Sincerely, Martin 

This is exactly my impression after spending considerable time researching our next purchase of wireless and a mixer/ recorder to be used by a staff used to Lectro/ SD gear. I believe it comes down to the operator. 

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11 hours ago, Constantin said:


Except, Sound Devices in Berlin is actually Sound Devices. It's the same as sending it to the mothership. Ambient however, can do a lot of repairs for Zaxcom stuff, but they can't do everything and them you have to send it to the US. Plus, at least on older stuff (like the Fusion), you may have to wait for spare parts for a while. That's not Ambient's fault, it's just what it is. And, in the case of Lectro this is fairly similar. I had them re-block some Lectro gear and had to wait 6-8 weeks for the new parts.
So if you think that could be an issue for (i.e. If you don't have enough sets to cover those on repair), you should probably consider a European manufacturer. That'll at least cut down on shipping time and cost.
 

You can wait that long for a Lectro reblock in the USA as well.  It has to do with their backlog on making the new boards, I've gotten lucky in the past and had it take just a few weeks, my current reblcok will be at least 6 weeks if not longer, from what they've said.

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8 hours ago, Werner Althaus said:

This is exactly my impression after spending considerable time researching our next purchase of wireless and a mixer/ recorder to be used by a staff used to Lectro/ SD gear. I believe it comes down to the operator. 

Werner, Correct. I think for SD/Lectro users, using Zaxcom is driving on the "wrong" side of the road in a foreign country. Whatever country is foreign to you. Zaxcom does so much more if you have taken the time to learn it. The time you spend learning Zaxcom results in less time needed while using it. I had 5 wireless going on one job, and thanks to zaxnet, I had zero trim on all 5, because I adjusted the gain on the transmitters, instead of having the trims going up and down. Why is that important to me? Because, if I have zero trim on the Nomad, I know exactly what the transmitter levels are hitting, I don't have to guess, or do the math of what the transmitters are hitting. It also was just a little entertaining having all 5 at zero trim. Have a problem, or suspect a problem with the frequency the transmitter is on? I just dial up a new frequency via zaxnet and send it to the transmitter. As far as the recorder in the transmitter, I think I have only used that once and that was talent being isolated with no way to receive a signal. But it worked great. So, user likes to read and can comprehend material studied, will take 2 days of experimenting, learning features, re-reading, you get Zaxcom. Want to go pick some gear up, spend an hour browsing the manual, and go work? Get SD and Lectro. I stopped telling people how many hours I spent learning my first Nomad, because they poked fun at me, and missed the message, or got the wrong message, but it was a lot. There used to be an hour meter on the Nomad start screen. And the number of hours that it took from the minute I turned the Nomad on to where I said to myself "Okay, I can route buses, route tracks, iso tracks, set faders, compressors, etc on a job now" was many, many hours. I am not one of those people that can sit there and say "Let me see, how do I do that again?" 

Sincerely, Martin 

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Werner, Correct. I think for SD/Lectro users, using Zaxcom is driving on the "wrong" side of the road in a foreign country. Whatever country is foreign to you.

Actually, that's not at all how it is. When I got off the train in Dover with my car, I had to jump right into it, you have to just do it and you learn it by actually doing it. The car itself however, is already known to me. THAT is - to me - how it feels using Lectro wireless for the first time.

Using Zax wireless for the first time is actually very very easy. There are just a few settings and the receiver even picks the frequency for you. How much easier can it get? It's even simpler than using Sennheiser G3 for the first time. However, if you want to use all the features Zax has to offer that's when it can get complicated and when reading the manual becomes essential. Of course the possibility of user error is much higher, and arguably the Lectro way is the safer way, to have bulletproof gear is reassuring, but I know that many here think their Zax wireless is bulletproof, too.

You make it sound like Zax users are something special and particularly intelligent (referring to your earlier brain surgeon analogy, as well), which is really not true.

There used to be an hour meter on the Nomad start screen. And the number of hours that it took from the minute I turned the Nomad on to where I said to myself "Okay, I can route buses, route tracks, iso tracks, set faders, compressors, etc on a job now" was many, many hours. I am not one of those people that can sit there and say "Let me see, how do I do that again?" 
Sincerely, Martin 

The mean person in me wants to say that this just your problem, the not-so-mean person points out that it is just bad design if the user needs such a long time to learn the interface. Especially as I am not aware of any features of the Nomad which others don't have. Having said that, I also needed some time to fully understand everything about my 788.
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38 minutes ago, Constantin said:

Actually, that's not at all how it is. When I got off the train in Dover with my car, I had to jump right into it, you have to just do it and you learn it by actually doing it. The car itself however, is already known to me. THAT is - to me - how it feels using Lectro wireless for the first time.

Using Zax wireless for the first time is actually very very easy. There are just a few settings and the receiver even picks the frequency for you. How much easier can it get? It's even simpler than using Sennheiser G3 for the first time. However, if you want to use all the features Zax has to offer that's when it can get complicated and when reading the manual becomes essential. Of course the possibility of user error is much higher, and arguably the Lectro way is the safer way, to have bulletproof gear is reassuring, but I know that many here think their Zax wireless is bulletproof, too.

You make it sound like Zax users are something special and particularly intelligent (referring to your earlier brain surgeon analogy, as well), which is really not true.


The mean person in me wants to say that this just your problem, the not-so-mean person points out that it is just bad design if the user needs such a long time to learn the interface. Especially as I am not aware of any features of the Nomad which others don't have. Having said that, I also needed some time to fully understand everything about my 788.

Constantin, In your car comment, it was your car. That solves a lot of the problem of driving in a foreign country, you didn't have to learn the car and drive on the "wrong " side of the road. That is the American word, "wrong", when we see someone driving head on at us. If you are not aware that Nomad has features that SD doesn't, you must not be using those features, although some features, like not having pop up trim knobs, your stuck with using. You mentioned that I  "make it sound like Zax users are something special and particularly intelligent (referring to your earlier brain surgeon analogy, as well), which is really not true". 

I think you must have seen the word "brain" and this didn't translate well. If studying a manual makes one "particularly intelligent", so be it. I have never considered that simply reading equates to being intelligent. That's not my take on it. Maybe a better analogy would be learning to fly a Cessna 172 vs. learning to fly the space shuttle. It's not that the user interface is the problem. Zaxcom just does a lot more. And I am referring to the entire system. This post was about wireless, do we include zaxnet as being part of the "wireless"? 

Sincerely, Martin 

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On 20/12/2016 at 0:59 AM, MartinTheMixer said:

Log,

Well, first, you can eliminate Wysicom, because it's Wysicom. That leaves Zaxcom and Lectro. 

I added Wisycom to my kit a year ago as a temporary measure as the wide tuning Lectros that I wanted weren't yet available in the UK. Wisys have now become central to my system. I have bought more and use them alongside my Lectros and have no problem with mixing the different latencies and correcting them on the recorder. Wide band tuning and AES out (on the subD) at no extra cost. For me, they were more cost effective than other makes. I bought through Raycom, the UK importer. They have answered all my questions and sent a loan unit while one of my transmitters was checked. No manufacturer or dealer is perfect and I would think twice before ruling any manufacturer out.

Tim

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I have no Wisycom but everyone I meet who's using it is quite happy with it. There is a nice choice of transmitters for all cases and the Sennheiser 3000/5000 compatibility mode sounds even better than a Sennheiser receiver itself (except the new EK 6042 of course). There are even radio stations here using it for outside broadcasts.

But yes, I heard of their bad customer service, but that's about three years ago. Maybe they got better, now established in the market?

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