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Sennheiser XSW


daniel

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The price is right for ultra simple operation and small size and weight. Could be useful as a backup or quick solution.

 

I see Sennheisser makes a lot of consumer/prosumer products lately, which is an ever growing market.

It happened in cameras first, then lighting (led revolution) and now it happens in sound also. Small size, appealing design, easy operation and small price are the characteristics of those products.

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  • 1 year later...

Hi guys

 

I bought the Sennheiser XSW-D XLR Base set to use as camera hop. I really like the sound quality and with that price tag, it's a no-brainer.

 

Some information straight from the source and by empirical tryouts:

 

Latency: 3.8ms

 

Frequency response: 80-18000Hz

 

Range: about 40-50m outdoors with line-of-sight

             about 10-15m indoors with a couple of walls in between

             (both scenarios are dependent on how crowded the 2.4GHz band is on location)

 

Battery: 850 mAh Li-on

 

Battery life: about 5h (both the transmitter and receiver can be operated while running on an external power bank)

 

Transmission power: 10mW (legal in all countries)

 

RF noise/disturbance: none that I have noticed

 

Input level: mic level - line levels have to be padded about 30dB - set and forget

 

Max output level: +12dBu

 

Codec: APT-X live

 

Weight: about 90 grams each

 

Diversity:  There is triple diversity, so two antennas with different polarity, both in the transmitter and the receiver. Frequency diversity, all data is constantly transmitted a little time-shifted on two different frequencies, so far apart that they are in separate WiFi channels.

 

Sync time when signal is locked again: very fast

 

Sound quality: excellent. Lossy digital codec: yes  but no analogue companding, yeah!

 

 

Buy it, try it, and thank me later! 😉

 

 

Cheers

Fred

sennheiser xsw-d.jpg

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On 1/31/2019 at 1:30 PM, Mungo said:

Maybe it could be modified and then used as a camera return ... it won't harm any UHF frequencies used for mikes + hops.

 

14 hours ago, ninjafreddan said:

Hi guys

 

I bought the Sennheiser XSW-D XLR Base set to use as camera hop. I really like the sound quality and with that price tag, it's a no-brainer.

 

Some information straight from the source and by empirical tryouts:

 

Latency: 3.8ms

 

Frequency response: 80-18000Hz

 

Range: about 40-50m outdoors with line-of-sight

             about 10-15m indoors with a couple of walls in between

             (both scenarios are dependent on how crowded the 2.4GHz band is on location)

 

Battery: 850 mAh Li-on

 

Battery life: about 5h (both the transmitter and receiver can be operated while running on an external power bank)

 

Transmission power: 10mW (legal in all countries)

 

RF noise/disturbance: none that I have noticed

 

Input level: mic level - line levels have to be padded about 30dB - set and forget

 

Max output level: +12dBu

 

Codec: APT-X live

 

Weight: about 90 grams each

 

Diversity:  There is triple diversity, so two antennas with different polarity, both in the transmitter and the receiver. Frequency diversity, all data is constantly transmitted a little time-shifted on two different frequencies, so far apart that they are in separate WiFi channels.

 

Sync time when signal is locked again: very fast

 

Sound quality: excellent. Lossy digital codec: yes  but no analogue companding, yeah!

 

 

Buy it, try it, and thank me later! 😉

 

 

Cheers

Fred

 

 

Have been using it as a camera return feed for about a year and am quite convinced. No gain staging, directly out of camera's headphone (with DC blocking) into TX and RX directly connected to mixer's RTN input. In some environments there are immediate disturbances, probably by wifi and bluetooth. The worst connection that I had was in a hotel lobby at a red carpet event.

I discovered that, most of the time, this can be solved by switching off and on again. Seems to sync on a new channel then.

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On 10/18/2020 at 2:26 PM, Mungo said:

Have been using it as a camera return feed for about a year and am quite convinced. No gain staging, directly out of camera's headphone (with DC blocking) into TX and RX directly connected to mixer's RTN input.

 

In this day and age, with multichannel recording in the mixer, why do you need to listen to the camera return? Playbacks for the client?

 

Or are your clients prone to using the sound on the camera? I always send a good REC FEED to the camera, and if there is any problem with it in the sound editing, I figure they will use the separately recorded tracks from my SD664. But more often than I want to, my REC FEED ends up in TV-shows - with comb-filtering and phasing between to lav mics in close proximity. Ah well, the client is always right, even when they are wrong. (I will eventually buy a SD833 with Dugan automixing) 

 

On 10/18/2020 at 2:26 PM, Mungo said:

I discovered that, most of the time, this can be solved by switching off and on again. Seems to sync on a new channel then.

 

Good to know, thanks!

 

In your experience, what has the range of the system been at different locations?

 

 

Cheers

Fred

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41 minutes ago, ninjafreddan said:

 

In this day and age, with multichannel recording in the mixer, why do you need to listen to the camera return? Playbacks for the client?

 

 

I don't need it for typical multichannel productions. But yes, there are jobs like: News, sports, run'n'gun. Broadcasted same day, sometimes even same moment (via 4G backpack on camera). Mostly one or few channels.

 

45 minutes ago, ninjafreddan said:

 

In your experience, what has the range of the system been at different locations?

 

 

Hard to say, as always. Interior probably equal to a worn out G2/G3, exterior 30 metres. It strongly depends if there is line of sight between TX and RX, which, for me, is given most of the time when it's mounted on camera and on the mixer. With people, animals, metal (e.g. vehicles) or glass windows between the units, the range will decrease dramatically. But enough for jobs mentioned above where range is not as important as freedom of movement and of course only off-air as a return.

 

Greets!

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6 hours ago, daniel said:

Any idea how many can be used at simultaneously?


Officially, five systems.

 

In reality, probably 8-10 systems - depending on how crowded the 2.4GHz band is.

 

6 hours ago, daniel said:

I'm guessing it's not possible to pair 1 TX to 2 or more RX(?) but 1 could use 2, 3 or even 4 sets to send scratch to several cams.


No, it’s not. The communication is bidirectional between a paired transmitter and receiver.

 

 

Cheers

Fred

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On 10/21/2020 at 6:43 PM, ninjafreddan said:


Officially, five systems.

 

In reality, probably 8-10 systems - depending on how crowded the 2.4GHz band is.

 


No, it’s not. The communication is bidirectional between a paired transmitter and receiver.

 

 

Cheers

Fred

thanks fred

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