TJW

4061 would be used in favour of the 4060 on film and drama - and with Lectro we fit a 1k7Ω resistor in series to knock its level down. Also worth considering is the 4071 (with low cut and presence which I sounds better when fitted under clothing. Tim

Were your En2s a special build for low intermod? They are usually supplied at 50mW - the early 2040 MiniTx were 35mW, now available at 50mW. En2Pro transmitter has variable roll off and in territories where permitted can be switchable between 50mW and 100mW. I have tried them and had no trouble with range: at 50mW was comparable with a 2040. Certainly the diversity version is a big step up from Sennheiser G3s. 2020s on 850mHz may be cheap to buy in the UK but Europe and presumably a lot of the world will soon be using that spectrum for 4G mobiles. Not exactly a blue chip investment. Tim

Hi Math. Rich's pin outs are correct. I use the unbalanced line (headphone) outputs direct to the 4 x line inputs on my Cantar. Unbalanced but works well. Totally clean. You just have to deal with the phase. Tim

You can use the headphone out but it bypasses the output transformer, is unbalanced and I believe it is not phase corrected (reversed). Tim

Reflections have not been a problem in the last 15 years but I'll keep my eyes open. We also use the Ambient Quicklok quick release tips. One on each pole and a cone on each mic mount. Very quick / convenient. Tim

Love Ambient booms. We have a QP4140 - 5.4m and a QP5140 - 6.6m ( that is a 4140 with an extra 120 section) which do the bulk of the boom work. We also have a QX580 (the lighter build works well at shorter lengths), a QP5190 Jumbo used mostly on a stand and great for getting a stereo or surround good and high. Also an old QL550 for when you need it short. Great poles. Smooth, robust, low handling noise, spares readily available and not madly expensive. Tim

Yes have done this and it works well. We also were only using the Zax radios for the recording feature so when the range was poor, using our 2040s and just using Zax recorders was a good solution. We have Y cords wired so that the mic power is disabled in the 6 pin Lemo that goes into the Tx2040 and the mic gets its power from the Zax recorder. If you loose audio on the 2040 receiver and still have RF, you know that the Zax has lost power and the mic power is down: time to change batteries. Good system and is just going on a film in Paris to be used again. Tim

I am not absolutely sure - I have two different lengths of 'extended ball gags' bought at different times. I rented for a couple of days to try the 8060 out and the windshield set-up was not the strong point. There is compact and there is too short and with the MZF fitted it was too tight and the front of the mic was too close to the end of the basket. Check out all the lengths at www.rycote.com/products/full_windshield_kit/modular_windshield/ All the dimensions are there so you can choose exactly what you want. I for instance use the old 295 size for the CMIT - shorter than the recommended WS4 but plenty big enough. Measure and choose! Tim

Sounds like a compander fault as the 2000 / 2020 / 2040 range, the Envoy and the CXiR have identical companders. En2 and En2 Pro use a different system. You could e-mail Jas at Audio Ltd (jas.lotay@audioltd.com) with a link to your files. I am sure he will do all he can to help before you decide a repair is necessary. Tim

There are various configurations of the 8060. You can reduce the overall length using the MZL which is fitted in place of the XLR adapter and XLR plug, so a short (extended ballgag) windshield can be used. However if you are using the MZF filter you are adding a couple of cm. I rented an 8060 earlier this year and found it worked best on the boom with the MZF. The one I rented was a tight fit and the MZF made the mic a bit too long to sit easily in that windshield - so worth allowing space for either an MZF or fitting a Rycote Tac!t before your mixer preamp would be the alternative. Tim

It is worth looking at the Rycote Tac!t. www.rycote.com/products/accessoriesspares/tact/ I spent yesterday morning with my boom op experimenting with various boom mounts for my Schoeps CCM41 mics. Although I have upgraded most of my windshields to Lyre mount and I use a lot of invision mounts in the studio, the combination that worked best for me was the Cinela Mimix www.cinela.fr/catalog.php?pid=63 combined with the Rycote Tac!t. The Tacit is very subtle and along with the Mimix, it reduced handling noise to a minimum whilst having only a small effect on voice tones. Tac!t is I reckon the equivalent of Schoeps Cut-1 and at fifty of the Queen's pounds, is well worth trying out. Tim

Lithium Iron Phosphate is the future, the system of electric cars,1400 charge cycles and the Meon LiFe is an off the shelf solution - pay for it, plug it in and use it. I will head for a LiFe system when I build a new lighter cart but in the meantime I use a simple lead gel solution. A lead gel battery with a PSU across it. That is it: A 44ah battery in a strong bag (mikesfilmsound.com/new_itemB12.htm), an XP Power AC to DC PSU, (JPM120PS13, www.xppower.com/pdfs/SF_JPM.pdf). It is fan free, 85 to 260v input, so works both sides of the pond, adjusted to 13.7v so it charges and floats the battery without needing regulation and none of my gear is upset with 13.7v. It is smooth and free of noise. It also works as an uninterruptable power supply when the mains is pulled and fully charged it gives a day in the field without AC power. I also use the odd DC DC converter that take 9 - 18v input and give a steady 12v for equipment that does not like a lead gel giving 10.5v at the end of the day. If you used a DC DC converter to regulate all of your power, then rather than float the battery, you could use a fast charger - knowing that the higher boost charge voltage will not get through to your equipment. The battery costs £105 / $168 and the PSU £50 / $80. Simple and reliable - many of us have used this system for years. I also have a fast charger that I use overnight if I have been mains-free all day and the battery needs a complete charge - about $100. Remember that lead gel batteries are rated using a low discharge rate. With a higher discharge rate a 44ah might actually be a 38ah. Expect capacity to drop over the years and if it is frozen outside bring your batteries in overnight as a lead gel at freezing will halve its capacity and will not fully charge when that cold. Cold is when Lithium chemistry comes into its own and I am looking forward to a lighter higher capacity future - admittedly, at a higher cost.

My first post...... Jeff Wexler makes the case for DPAs very well. I converted to DPA lavs several years ago. When I used Sennheiser MKH 50 and 60 mics, Cos 11s seemed a good match. I bought my first CMIT in 2006 and now use a combination of CMIT, CCM41s and DPA lavs. I first rented in a DPA for an actor with a argumentative part and always felt his levels were on the edge with standard Cos-11s. The 4061/4071 handle a max SPL of 144dB whereas a Std Cos-11 handles 123dB and a red dot 132dB. That additional 21dB is well worth having - and you realise the number of times you have reduced the gain on the transmitter when the overload is actually at the mic head. So the DPA solved the overloading but it was also clear that it had a much more open sound that matched the Schoeps much better than the Cos-11. I should say that some of my Cos-11s were not in their youth and it might be that comparing the DPA with the latest Cos would be a fairer comparison. However, wardrobe were starting to prefer transmitter packs fitted lower on legs - and a number of my Cos-11s had shorter cables so new mics were going to be necessary. I started replacing with DPAs and now have a collection of 8 x 4071 which do the bulk of my work, 4 x 4061 - without the roll off and a couple of 4062s that handle 154 dB and are useful plants for very high noise levels - and these are hard wired to XLRs. I still have a handful of B6 and Cos-11 lavs, still very useful especially the B6 which although it lacks the open sound of the DPA can be used on the very small number of occasions that you cannot hide the DPA.