drpro

Finger tips grow back, slates won't.

You da man Karl.

+1 Cody. Invested in the Hydra system, so easy to plug in another receiver and you are off and running.

SRd to go along with the new transmitters???

Weed magnet

Well you can tell them your rate and what they get for that amount or just darn it I am already booked on those days.

John, my basic travel cover.

Really nice John. We have been adopting and fostering for about the same length of time. They really are like potato chips. We also had one Galgo along with eight hounds over the years. Down to just two hounds at this time. Berry and Jack. Our last four greys have all been black ones.

My apologies for bringing "Paint your Wagon" into the discussion. Larry's postings bring out the musicals that I have enjoyed over the years.

Yea, another greyhound owner. How many hounds and how long have had greyhounds, John?

Less over the shoulder for me John these days. For me, the wedge shape makes using the faders easier.

John, my first three versions were bag type setups. One version was an aluminum frame covered in cordura nylon fabric with pouches for the wireless and accessories. The frame was wedge shaped with the battery and distro system in the bottom of the wedge. A bit heavier than my current wedge bag. I didn't like it as well since I had gear and wires hanging on the outside. At that point I didn't have the Hydra system. Most of my work is from a bag cart, so my current setup works well. For transport, I made a Dyneema cover for weather and some protection. I talked to both the owner of Versaflex and Portabrace about making a bag. Due to the small numbers of Cantar Minis out there they weren't interested. I have seen the Protogear bags and believe they would work for the Mini. I have seen a number of owner made Mini bags on the internet. My most basic setup is the Mini with a bracket on the side to hold small dual channel receiver. A couple of Sony camera clips to attach to the lugs on the back and away you go. I have attached that image and the wedge bag based on the aluminum frame. Please do post photos of your design. Thanks David

I agree Philip, I have owned a number of 600 and 700 series products, they have been first rate. After sending in my 302 twice for the same repair that was the deal breaker for me.

This is a common problem with all of the small SD products going back to the 302, MixPre. The headphone jacks are part of the single circuit boards these units have. Much cheaper to produce a single board with everything attached and attach and simple mount it into the case. Much like the assembly of the PC. The cost of repairs becomes greater since you are dealing with board attached connectors. Hand wiring takes time and adds to production costs. Ignoring the R&D, I suspect many of the SD products are less than $100 in production costs Also my experience has been those connectors used on the all on-one-board designs are not as robust.

You are so right Paul. Lee was singing, "born under a wandering star"

Makes me think of Lee Marvin singing They call the wind Maria. Bless his heart, he just couldn't sing.

Thanks for the information using the CM4. Sounds like a winner for the price point.

One I have wanted to try is the Line Audio CM4. Very reasonable price of less than 150usd. Very small. The suggested uses are with various acoustic instruments. Would love to give it a try with dialog. It is very small, about the size of an XLR connector.

No A to D conversion in the Hydra, it only offers mounting, power and control, Daniel. I am using one of the Trew 3d printed battery cups, Neil. It is bolted to the bottom of the wedge, just slide the battery and push. Solid connection. I haven't had a battery fall out.

The Cantar Mini saga continues. The Melody II preamp arrived last week from Gotham. Finally figured out were to install it in my case wedge. Here is a photo with the Mini side removed. The Melody II allows me to have three SRc receivers connected and still have two mic preamps available. The marks on the right Hydra socket are from one of our greyhounds sampling the package. I suppose he thought it was a new chew toy.

Good point Philip, system integration if you are already invested in a particular line of gear is important for most of us. The Hydra system or something like it is nice, as you can use different manufacture's wireless systems, including the ability to mix brands and use them at the same time.

Nice explanation.

Totally agree with you John. The learning curve is steeper than SD products, imo. Really is more flexible. The lack of a bag and the difficult shape for the Mini is a challenge. I have built four versions to date. My latest works for me, no perfect, but for what I have been doing the past year or so, it is ok. Just got the Melody from Gotham this past week. Now I will mount that and have a total of 3 SRc receivers installed using the Hydra. David

I have had some improvement with using Izotope RX. This works in post after the fact.

Hydra will support 16 channels. From a user of both products, I would say the SD products are more intuitive than the Cantar units. When both systems are tricked out the price differential is not as great. Each system has some pluses and minuses. You have to decide what works best in your production world. I went with the Mini several years ago and mostly like it. Sometimes the menus are frustrating if you haven't used a particular function in a long time. For me one of the big pluses was the Transvideo screen, unlike the SD screens this one is viewable in any lighting conditions. Along with the larger screen viewing the different menus is easier on my old eyes. I do like the Hydra system as your wireless receivers can be out of sight, still allows easy control of the parameters. Yes, extra cables and weight for the Hydra. For a cart based system not a deal breaker, though Dante enabled receivers would be I think even better than the Hydra system. Manuel, I agree with Constantin, try both, and see what works for you. We really are very fortunate in todays world to have some very good choices in gear selection. When I started out, it was a Nagra and a couple of Vega wireless systems. David