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Review of the Lectrosonics L Series


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Thank you. It was good review for me.

But L series are phantom power safe? I know it's silly. But that is important because I'm not living in US.

Does not sound silly at all to me. But why does your location affect this? Quick service?

 

You could consider using phantom blockers.

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There are commercial products like: http://tritonaudio.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=4&id=23&Itemid=43

or http://www.sescom.com/product.asp?item=SES-IL-PPB. More elegant and lighter might be to implement that into an XLR or cable. https://www.gearslutz.com/board/attachments/geekslutz-forum/232400d1304024213-phantom-power-blocker-phantom-blocker.pdf

I have not tested (or therefor recommend) any of the above.

 

My point is: Even if Lectro did not build their RX phantom proof (which i doubt), there would be a solution, that makes this issue probably irrelevant.

 

Anyhow, I am sure, a certain individual on this forum (to whom I am extremely grateful) will assure to us soon that the L RX is phantom proof (or will provide a more official solution than me).

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Thank you. It was good review for me.

But L series are phantom power safe? I know it's silly. But that is important because I'm not living in US.

Hi Iklioze,

The LR is phantom proofed though in general it is not a good idea to plug phantom power into things that aren't microphones. The output stage is identical in design to our other receivers such as the UCR411a. The receiver runs wide open and "gain" is set by attenuation only. The protection circuity is the same right down to the component values. Thanks for being cautious.

 

We recently had a Venue receiver main frame come in from down under with extensive internal power supply damage. The user had cut the  low voltage power plug off the 15 VDC power supply and wired the plug directly to an AC power cord. Then plugged the other end into 240 Volts AC. That definitely let all the magic smoke out of the unit. Wish he had asked before hand.

Best Regards,

Larry Fisher

Lectrosonics

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<user had cut the  low voltage power plug off the 15 VDC power supply and wired the plug directly to an AC power cord> 

 

that is pure genius. 

 

way way back, a junior at film school wrecked an Altec Lansing Speaker because he pushed the wires into an AC outlet to 'listen to the AC 50 Hz'. unsurpassable, true genius. (i won't tell you guys what i did to him...)... 

 

-vin

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<user had cut the  low voltage power plug off the 15 VDC power supply and wired the plug directly to an AC power cord> 

 

that is pure genius. 

 

way way back, a junior at film school wrecked an Altec Lansing Speaker because he pushed the wires into an AC outlet to 'listen to the AC 50 Hz'. unsurpassable, true genius. (i won't tell you guys what i did to him...)... 

 

-vin

Well, what sounds fair is appropriately applying two very large alligator clips on the end of a AC power cord so he could feel 50 Hz.

LEF

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Strange that the Altecs wouldn't have survived that, I've got an old pair of Yamaha NS-690 II's that I was using for playback on a shoot and someone plugged them into house power.  (I had the "brilliant" idea of putting AC ends on the speaker inputs so I could use regular AC cables as the cabling between amp and speaker, as I was moving them and doing long runs around the studio)

 

One of the Grips was helping me move the speakers around and helpfully plugged the cable into mains power and walked away.  I heard hum and saw the speaker cone oscillating on the the other side of the room.

 

I was expecting the worst, but that was about 20 years ago and those speakers are still in my office, working fine!

 

Cheers,

Brent Calkin

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Thanks for writing the review.

Another awesome twist on JWS - a review of a wireless receiver turns into a discussion about plugging speaker cables into house power :D genius. I went back to the top to look for the review thread, but I'm already here hah!

Anyway, one question: did you get a chance to test how long it runs on a pair of AA batteries?

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Terrific review, Christian -- very thorough. I agree with you about the need to kill any bright lights on the transmitters. I've had even the green/red lights of the SM's poke out of costumes at the worst possible moments. I had one instance last year where (luckily) I was able to digitally remove the red LED in post with a 2-second operation. I like your "bright/dim/off" menu solution.

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Terrific review, Christian -- very thorough. I agree with you about the need to kill any bright lights on the transmitters. I've had even the green/red lights of the SM's poke out of costumes at the worst possible moments. I had one instance last year where (luckily) I was able to digitally remove the red LED in post with a 2-second operation. I like your "bright/dim/off" menu solution.

Ok, Trusted Readers,

We are trying a transmitter scheme where the UP arrow button turns all the LEDs to normal operation, the DOWN arrow turns them all off. Right now the up and down arrows don't do anything except display a "HOLD" message in the LCD to tell you another button also needs to be held down to change frequency or level. Pulling the battery will reset to normal LED action. In addition, in LED off mode, the LCD will occasionally display LED OFF in nearly unreadable characters.

 

The thought here is that a menu item is too slow when you need to know  =>now<=  what the battery and audio levels are doing. The up and down arrows are fast to use. This will probably be a dweedle tone function also.

 

One more thought is to kill the backlight on the LCD screen with the LEDs. It could still be read in ambient light. We will probably turn down the LEDs on the LT anyway. The hand puppet routine was pretty funny.

Best Regards,

Larry Fisher

Lectrosonics

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Ok, Trusted Readers,

We are trying a transmitter scheme where the UP arrow button turns all the LEDs to normal operation, the DOWN arrow turns them all off. Right now the up and down arrows don't do anything except display a "HOLD" message in the LCD to tell you another button also needs to be held down to change frequency or level. Pulling the battery will reset to normal LED action. In addition, in LED off mode, the LCD will occasionally display LED OFF in nearly unreadable characters.

 

The thought here is that a menu item is too slow when you need to know  =>now<=  what the battery and audio levels are doing. The up and down arrows are fast to use. This will probably be a dweedle tone function also.

 

One more thought is to kill the backlight on the LCD screen with the LEDs. It could still be read in ambient light. We will probably turn down the LEDs on the LT anyway. The hand puppet routine was pretty funny.

Best Regards,

Larry Fisher

Lectrosonics

 

The last version sounds very useful, Larry. We appreciate you weighing in.

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More. We set up the LED scheme and handing it to Virgin Idiots (very valuable for testing) showed a quick feel for what was going on. The UP and DOWN buttons control the LEDs and LCD back-light. Turning the unit off always resets to the normal on condition. The dweedle tone is also implemented. We will set this up in firmware on all new transmitters. This way the LEDs can be bright enough to be weakly seen in sunlight but can be turned off when costuming makes it necessary.

Best Regards,
Larry Fisher
Lectrosonics

 

p.s. Thanks for the feedback.

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I volunteer if you need any more Virgin Idiots for testing

Hi Wilson,

Thanks for the offer, but you guys are neither idiots or virgins. Our Virgin Idiots (VI's) are from accounting, shipping, sales support or the front desk. They have no clue and are, therefore, most valuable. We guard them zealously as they are a one use item. You'd be surprised how much a VI can show you about how un-obvious a menu is.

Best,

Larry F

Lectro

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I was hoping to find an avenue for my idiocy, apart from keeping people laughing on set.

Back to the thread, will there be any demo units shipped to Australia?

No demo units and even production units will be after any bugs are worked out in the States. Bugs are much easier to squash if they are within arms reach.

Best,

Larry F

Lectro

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More. We set up the LED scheme and handing it to Virgin Idiots (very valuable for testing) showed a quick feel for what was going on. The UP and DOWN buttons control the LEDs and LCD back-light. Turning the unit off always resets to the normal on condition.

 

There are a lot of Virgin Idiots out there!

 

Look forward to trying out the L series on my next production job. On a very recent post job I did two weeks ago, the mixer had placed an SM and clip in the back pocket of a "little person" during a scene. I totally missed it, but the producer caught it and the VFX guys were able to roto it out (grabbing a swatch of cloth and mapping it on top of the SM). The reflective metal clip gave it away.

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