The Documentary Sound Guy

How you should respond is "no". But that's not why I'm writing. This 'frisser' user seems to be an obvious AI bot. It posts occasionally with single sentence, generic responses, often necroing old threads and adding no value. I typically see four of these single-line posts almost simultaneously. I've flagged them, but I'm not sure we have an active moderator on the site right now? So, I'm flagging it for others in this thread with a request: please don't respond to any 'frissor' posts, you are wasting your time.

A fitting legacy for Jeff & a great honour for the winners! Congratulations to all of them.

Ok great, that's a much better arrangement than I assumed. Thanks for spelling it out. A lesson in not getting our news from social media...

The model is that his customers used to come to him through Lectro. He would get any warranty repair jobs or any jobs that required return to Lectro for repair. All of which would be paid for by Lectrosonics. Now all of those jobs will be sent to New Mexico instead. Also, they might not even go to New Mexico if the parent company has decided to centralize service for all the brands under their umbrella. The jobs he keeps will be from the Canadian customers who now actively choose a local repair shop (Joe) over official Lectro repairs — mainly customers with whom he already has a relationship. So he'll lose all of the warranty work, all new Lectro customers who don't know he exists, a significant portion of existing customers who will prefer an "official" repair shop over a Canadian one, and likely also all of the work referred from retail suppliers. "Full factory support" means he will continue to have access to spare parts, schematics & other proprietary information. It doesn't mean Lectro will keep sending customers to him. And, even if I'm wrong about Lectro not sending him work, he is now responsible for all the overhead (customer communication, billing, shipping, etc) that used to be done by Lectro, which ultimately comes out of his profits. He now has pricing freedom, so he can potentially raise prices, and his overhead may be lower than before (due to fewer people in the chain), but if he doesn't do those things already in his existing business, he will have to learn how to do them & set up efficient systems. It's not trivial.

Losing official status means he's lost his primary sales stream. How would he earn more?

So, probably Joe takes a pay cut & can't call himself official support any more? Worth noting that the Dave Hable / Cramped Attic here in Vancouver can also do many unofficial Lectro repairs as well.

This is almost certainly related to Lectro being acquired by Rode, and I would bet that service is going to suffer wherever you are. Which sucks, because Lectro's service was a big reason to buy from them. I guess we'll see how it goes... I honestly had no idea there *was* a Lectro Canada ... I recall dealing with New Mexico directly when I had Lectro stuff. We had a discussion about this in Vancouver and people were celebrating, apparently because the Lectro Canada service wasn't good. I do share your worries though. I also have huge concerns about shipping things over the border in this political environment. I had to send something back to Zaxcom for repair earlier this year and it wasn't fun. Canada Post now requires that you pre-pay the tariffs using a 3rd party (US-based) service ... even when there aren't tariffs to pay (which there aren't on repairs, at least as long as Trump continues to respect that part of CUSMA). I eventually found a way to register as a business that let me avoid the payment, but not the paperwork or having to deal with the third party, but it took me about half a day to figure it out.

A DPA in every studio, a dooms-day lawnmower in every driveway. Yeah, if that is the change in ownership, I share Philips hope. It could have been like Vimeo & Bending Spoons.

Hmm ... Wisycom & SD both have competing wireless. Hopefully they continue operating as separate companies and we don't lose a competitor. I've definitely noticed the shift in SD's business emphasis away from film & TV since the acquisition, and prices have jumped quite a bit but it hasn't been terrible overall. They do seem legitimately interested in building decent gear. And they like high end brands (SSL, DPA). Not much we can do except wait & see.

I guess not. But what I was trying to say is that it's not as straightforward as higher ohms = better audio. Its one consideration among many in headphone design ... one tool of many that can improve audio. I own several high-ohm models, and some sound fantastic. But so do several of my low-ohm models. There are too many other design factors that come into play in audio quality to make the generalization you are trying to make. Higher ohms is an indication that clarity might be good, not a guarantee. My two favourite "best-sounding" headphones are the AKG-240DF (600ohm), and the Audio Technica ATH-M70x (75ohm I think?). My very expensive Beyerdynamic DT1770Pros (250ohm) that I use every day also sound pretty good, but they aren't the best, flattest, or clearest of the bunch. They are the best compromise of a bunch of factors that happen to suit how I'm mixing right now. A note about the AKG-240DF: I love these specifically for their clarity, which you could easily attribute to the high winding count = high ohms. But I also own the AKG-240 Monitor variant, which is also 600ohms, and it is nowhere near as clear. These two headphones are almost identical in design. They share probably 90% of their parts. The major difference is that the AKG-240DF uses multiple drivers with a crossover, and the AKG-240 Monitor is a single driver design. Neither of these are suitable for on-set use (open back), and they are both long-since discontinued (the current AKG-240 mark II is decent, but doesn't have the magic of the originals that were design and manufactured in Austria).

If you're looking for audio quality, impedance isn't where you should start. It's a consideration for headphone designers, not for mixers, other than making sure your equipment can drive them. Many devices (especially consumer devices that run on lower voltage) can't supply enough voltage to drive high-ohm headphones at decent levels, and even if they can, they may not be flat throughout the frequency curve. Also worth noting that even though most headphones specify a single number, impedance is actually a frequency curve with the lowest frequency at the resonant frequency of the drivers, which is part of what accounts for the frequency shifts that are heard when the headphone amp isn't capable of outputting high enough voltage. If you're an audio mixer, audio quality in your headphones also isn't necessarily where you should start. There are plenty of decent-sounding headphone models out there, but there are other considerations for on-set use, namely durability, cost, comfort, and isolation. Quality is one consideration, not the only one. Listen to a bunch of 'studio' headphones in your price range (and there aren't a lot of 'studio' options < $200), and pick the one that sounds and feels right to you. It takes a long time to really figure out what headphones you like, and the only way to really get to know them well is to buy them and use them. Ontariosound mentioned a couple good starting points. I currently mix with Beyerdynamic DT1770Pro for their comfort and isolation (not in your budget). I own Sony MDR7506s, which I dislike, but keep because they are 'standard' so it's useful to know what other mixers are used to hearing. I really like the sound of Audio Technical ATH-M70x, they are flat and clear, but I've had them break three times in the field, so they aren't durable enough for set use. Its sibling, the ATH-M50x is better built, inexpensive, and also sounds quite good, albeit with exaggerated low end (which may be useful to you for the reason Ontariosound stated above). I mixed for years on Sennheiser HD-25 II DJ phones, and abandoned after my third set developed the same fault in the earpiece connection. They are well isolated, not especially flat, and not especially comfortable (being on-ear and a tight fit). Long story short, if you are happy with your HD280s, why change them? You can listen around for 'better' models, and maybe you'll experiment over the years. But there's no good reason to change them if they are doing the job for you. Better is subjective.

I miss the pan-pots from my 442 mixer. It wasn't something I used a lot, but I do record stereo on occasion. But ... very far from an essential feature in an entry-level production mixer.

They'll capture the up-and-comers. And if it sounds good, the up-and-comers will keep using it when they are just comers. So the question is ... do the recorders sound like video (i.e. crap), or are the recorders fine and the video is a victim of over-exuberance in post? One of us needs to actually get our hands on it so we can listen to it with experienced ears. And if it sounds ok? Yeah, we'll see and hear them in the field, just like Zoom.

I'll get my AI assistant to pay you.

That was me! And yes, the march of progress goes on. I still think the video sounds bad though.