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NEW: Audio Ltd - DDX1010


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On 10/7/2017 at 11:43 PM, Hugh Palmer said:

Does anyone know how well the superslot control will be with the 688 and sl-6?

IMG_0667.PNG

 

This is where the old system stood. I'm sure with the recent distribution partnership, this will improve. 

 

On another note I was reading some Audio Ltd. literature and it seems the US A10 can record or transmit but not simultaneously, similar to the new lectro models.  The A10 records to Audio Ltd.'s proprietary compressed format. I wish they would provide sample files for download. Ideally the same file recorded at the transmitter level and one through a SD 688/SL-6 kit so we could compare. 

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47 minutes ago, Hugh Palmer said:

I haven't seen that anywhere in there documents except when talking about the American market. 

I'm talking about the American market.  That's why I said "US A10", US meaning United States but I can understand that not being clear if you're not from here. Too many acronyms to keep up with these days. 

 

I'm going to email Audio Ltd. and see if I can get some files to play with and compare a transmitter recorded file to a mixer recorded file.  ill report back if I hear anything...poor pun intended. 

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4 hours ago, Matthew Marzano said:

I'm talking about the American market.  That's why I said "US A10", US meaning United States but I can understand that not being clear if you're not from here. Too many acronyms to keep up with these days. 

 

Quite right, my apologies. That'll teach me to skim-read and quick reply! 

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  • 5 weeks later...

I have done a side by side comparison of the audio 1010 the wisycom mtp40s and the audio wireless system. The 1010 was not the dual but the singel rx and the were all on sma antenna in bag. The 1010 was the best sounding one but the AW and the Wisy followed very close. Sadly the range of the 1010 compared to the other two is really bad which suprised me. I bought the Wisycom because the AW were too big for my taste and do not have a dual rx. Done two movies with the Wisycoms now and really started to love them. The miss a remote control feature on the tx but that is the only compromise i had to make (except the price oc).

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Hmm pitty about the range. 

 

I'll be doing a range test when they come into Aus. I'm thinking of putting it up against the src/LT and a new zaxcom dual channel system (don't ask me which model - zaxcom models are a complete mystery to me). 

 

I'll try to film it and post it here and on Facebook for everyone.  

 

Any suggestions of what you guys would like to see in a range/quality test I'd love to hear it. 

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23 hours ago, Hugh Palmer said:

Hmm pitty about the range. 

 

I'll be doing a range test when they come into Aus. I'm thinking of putting it up against the src/LT and a new zaxcom dual channel system (don't ask me which model - zaxcom models are a complete mystery to me). 

 

I'll try to film it and post it here and on Facebook for everyone.  

 

Any suggestions of what you guys would like to see in a range/quality test I'd love to hear it. 

 

Hi Hugh,

 

Please post it here, not in Facebook platform; as not everyone has a Facebook account.

 

As for range test suggestion; would be great between:

 

- Audio Ltd A10 TX & RX (dual mode)

- Lectrosonics SRc (dual mode) & SSM

- Zaxcom QRX 200 (dual mode) & ZMT 3

 

All of them in 50mW and whip antennas

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  • 2 months later...

So I've got some range tests which I will attach here.

 

They're all Polywavs so I recommend using Waveagent or ProTools to listen to them.

 

Each test was slightly different but there were some constants. We only used whips for all of the tests. The transmitters were all on 50mW and all the mics were black dot Sanken Cos-11d's. All frequencies were scanned and co-ordinated. All wires were recorded by a Sound Devices 688. 

 

I'll break down my personal comparisons here but let me first start by saying that unfortunately we didn't have the new A10-TX - instead we were using the A1010 as that was all that was available at the time of testing. Yet despite not having the new limiter and pre-amp the Audio LTD still sounded by far the best. This also meant not being able to test the 48v function or the remote bluetooth capability.

 

TEST 01

The first we stood outside about 6 meters away from the front door while we sent our guinea pig (Alex) into the dBAV store (a concrete building roughly 20m long).

 

TEST 02

This was an exterior test where Alex walked about 40m down the sidewalk with line of sight the whole way. There were perhaps a few tree branches and sometimes people in the way but overall it was clear line of sight. 

 

TEST 03

Basically the same as Test 02 but here we switched the Zaxcom Transmitter to ZHD 48 modulation.

 

Lectrosonics

For the Lectro we used an LT transmitter being recieved by an SRc (relatively new serial number). The Lectro performed possibly the best in regards to range. The dropouts did have some annoying artifacts which may be difficult for post to remove. Also not having any recording functions obviously hampers the system somewhat. Overall the Lectro feels like the bare basics get the job done kind of system. No bells and whistles, no fancy screens or complicated menus but just great range and solid usability.

 

Zaxcom

Zax was an interesting mixed bag. We noticed lots of delay compared to the other two brands - both in XR modulation and ZHD. That said the sound quality was definitely a step up from Lectro. There seemed to be more low end and the high frequencies were a little less sharp. That said it did seem to be missing a little bit of high end compared to the Audio LTD (probably due to it only transmitting up to 16kHz) but this was barely noticeable in real world application.

We did notice the reciver screen was very hard to see in direct sunlight. You had to use your hand to block the sun and even then it was a little tricky. 

In XR modulation the range wasn't great  - being out-performed by both the others.  When switching to ZHD the range improved markedly however the latency was a touch worse (around 7ms apparently). 

The dropout on these units sounded worse by far. They made awful digital squelches and squeals which made the audio truly unusable when it did drop out.

Obviously the functionality of these units is unrivaled. Having Zaxnet built in offers you so much flexibility.

 

Audio LTD

The sound quality of these was great. I've never heard a Cos11d sounds so good. I'm sure with a DPA lav they would be unrivaled in sound quality.

Range was relatively close to Lectro which was nice to see. That said there were definitely instances where the Lectro were outperforming the Audio LTD in range. That said there were other times that the Audio LTD were doing better than Lectro so it often seemed much of a muchness. The dropouts on these units sounded great to me. There didn't seem to be any artifacts like clicks, pops or digital squeals. Instead the audio just cut out and came back very quickly. 

The receiver screen was great to look at in the sunlight. Due to the reversible screen you could face it directly towards you and see it without issue. Flicking through the menu seemed relatively intuitive too.

 

TEST01.wav

TEST02.wav

TEST03.wav

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some things to bear in mind between zaxcom and audio digital

 

zaxcom 50mw setting is approximately 30mw in old money. zaxcom use peak output, and most analogue system manufacturers use average output.

if you use high output on the 1010, which is 50mw (average) battery life is significantly reduced. i use mine at medium rf output and get 5.5 hours on rechargeables.

i got the same with zaxcom at 50mw setting.

with the audio at high rf output i didnt get that much of a range increase compared to med.

 

with any system, a decent rf antenna setup and rf distribution will achieve far better results than pumping the tx power up. 

system delay isnt really an issue with the times we are dealing with here. all small fractions of a frame, so not noticeable in post.
assuming you are using all the same radios in your setup, then everything is the same relatively, so no issues. if you are in a bag and running a hard wired boom, being able to delay that  - and having the accurate system latency figures is useful. 
note that lectrosonics, and wisycom, have latency in their analogue (or digital hybrid) systems due to their use of DSP.

i think that any high frequency differences between zaxcom and audio will be down to preamp sound / eq of the system, rather than zaxcoms high frequency cut off at 16 KHz. most of the important dialogue frequencies are well below that. 

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build quality of the 1010's is excellent. though the units are comparatively large. about the same size as the Audio 2040, or the Lectro LT, and a bit bigger than the Zaxcom double AA battery models. the 1010 does have gently rounded edges which helps them be a little easier to hide. no belt clip as far as i am aware though, but i have no problem with that, as its usually because of belt clips that transmitters end up bouncing off the floor - clip a tx onto the back of someones waistband, have them sit down and stand up and see how much the tx has almost popped off from where you mounted it.
Lectros get used as ammunition in their ads.

both zaxcom and lectro have very small tx's based on the NP50 battery, though does mean you are using a system with a battery of uncertain life span. AA batteries are great because you can walk into any corner shop and get some. and i would expect them to be available for as long as my transmitters are serviceable. 
the NP50 battery is a consumer battery, and who knows how long its manufacturers will continue to make it? will they still be available in 4 years time, bearing in mind that i would expect to get 1 - 2 years of useful cycles from a rechargeable battery.

 

zaxcoms build quality has never been great, i'm sad to say. every version of their black cased transmitters (not talking of the original ones) had a small gap at the bottom of the screen that moisture could get into. and the magnets holding the battery door closed would occasionally get pulled out. as well as issues with higher than you would expect failures from new.

i should, in fairness mention that of the 6 1010 i bought, one was returned to Audio due to a popping issue which turned out to be an issue with the RF board. happily, they are an hour drive from my house and an updated board was fitted to all of my tx.

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That sounds exciting! I‘m dying to try the new A10! 

With regards to the NP-50 type batteries: Lectro build their own, so I am sure they will make it as long as they service the SSM. As long as they source the cells...

The Lectro NP-50 also lasts longer than the regular Fuji. At least it does in my SSMs and ZMT phantom. 

I agree about the Zax build quality, but it is a hot button issue around here. What I can say with certainty though, is that in my opinion the battery doors open in the wrong direction on all of their tx. 

So far though the ZMT has been great. 

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14 hours ago, Hugh Palmer said:

So I've got some range tests which I will attach here.

Thanks a lot for the input and the test recordings! The A10 sounds awesome! I guess it's going to take a while before there's hands-on experience on how easy/difficult the A10 transmitters are to hide. Have you tried out the timecode or the internal recording?

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  • 1 month later...

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