Sound Devices A-20 Nexus - interested in reactions from those who have used it

[Shane Munro]

I would like to hear from any members who have worked with or have experience with the Sound Devices Nexus.

 

Edited July 21, 2023 by Jeff Wexler
admin Edit of original post

[Shane Munro]

Thanks for those corrections Jeff, much appreciated.

 

Thought I'd show how I've been extending the power life on the A-20 mini units.

I recently had a job that asked for 6 TX's to last at least 12 hours with no battery change for a TV competition.

I experimented with a some power banks and I found a very slim light weight unit which got me to 12:30 Hours runtime.

 

 

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

That's a pretty sketchy connection.  I wouldn't want to trust those to stay plugged in for 12 hours while being worn.

[Shane Munro]

Hi DSG

 

The USB-C in this photo is not ones I used (for demo purposes).

6 x units, some with battery banks in waist straps

and some just in a back pocket with a shirt tail hanging over.

I had no problems.

If there was a Sketchy connection Iv'e got about 4 hours to rectify it.

 

DSG are you running a Nexus?

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

I'm afraid not.

[IronFilm]

10 hours ago, Shane Munro said:

The USB-C in this photo is not ones I used (for demo purposes).

 

I would worry about the USB-C connection being damaged, how did you keep that safe?

[Dalton Patterson]

12 hours ago, The Documentary Sound Guy said:

That's a pretty sketchy connection.  I wouldn't want to trust those to stay plugged in for 12 hours while being worn.

You could check battery telemetry on your phone via the app from across the room. Just to confirm it’s charged where it should be at that time in the day. 
 

Dudes and Dudettes, I’ve been having nightmares about cables coming out for years keeping me up at night. Walking into a room with A/c cable connections hanging from desks that power the entire tech table. So what if it did come out. Dude would check the app on his phone and see that one A20 was half or 1/4 full and go check it out. Plenty of time to correct the issue. It is not as if the A20 will power down and stop working if the USB-c connection is disconnected. If it did fail, production is asking for a car to do something it wasn’t designed to do, Shane went above and beyond to accommodate, not take the ride under the bus. Sheesh. A little more support, a little more action! 
 

“If that hypothetical USB-C connector fails, you’ll never work in this town again!”☝️

 

Get out of town with that mentality. I’m more into the movie SPEED, crawl under the bus and fix it! 

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

Sorry, not intending to be crusty.  I'd just assumed that 12 hrs with no battery change also meant that there was no access to the talent during that time frame, but it sounds like that's not the case.  If there's time for a Tx fix, why wouldn't there also be time for a battery swap?

To the best of my knowledge, the ZMT-X is the only Tx that advertises that kind of battery life out-of-the-box, so unless you have those, I'd imagine any solution is going to look a bit hacky.

[Shane Munro]

DSG

I was trying to point out that if the USB-C connection failed you would have 4 hours of internal battery

to discuss the problem with a producer etc. It would be a matter of plugging the USB-C  back into the unit,

no transmission would be lost. You could tape the cables in if you were that worried.

DSG even though I started this post to hear from other A-20 users ( as the above title states ), always happy to hear your thoughts.

[DanieldH]

There are cables like these that may or may not be useful to connect the units securely. 

Just two examples from aliexpress. The variety is huge but needs time to dig. The shortest version of the latter has 3cm length.

There are lots of variations if you dig.

[Philip Perkins]

So with that battery pack you had 12:30+4 hrs of runtime?  Or 12:30 hrs total? 

[glenn]

ZMT4-X is a 16 hour battery life at full RF power, internal recording and transmission at the same time, Mono or stereo transmission, Zaxnet remote control with RF time code. 

 

Plain and simple.

 

Glenn

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

4 hours ago, Shane Munro said:

DSG

I was trying to point out that if the USB-C connection failed you would have 4 hours of internal battery

to discuss the problem with a producer etc. It would be a matter of plugging the USB-C  back into the unit,

no transmission would be lost. You could tape the cables in if you were that worried.

DSG even though I started this post to hear from other A-20 users ( as the above title states ), always happy to hear your thoughts.

You're in luck then, SD announced the A20 Tx today, and it boasts 12hrs battery life (I didn't see what chemistry ... maybe more on Lithiums?)

[Shane Munro]

Hi Glenn,

 

You can’t help yourself, can you?

This post is not about you or Zaxcom.

 

Plain and Simple.

 

Are you a Nexus user? 

[EnotsMedia]

On 7/24/2023 at 12:15 AM, The Documentary Sound Guy said:

That's a pretty sketchy connection.  I wouldn't want to trust those to stay plugged in for 12 hours while being worn.

Uhhhh…I’m most worried about the “nice and nifty” battery exploding in a pocket during a competition tv series…. 
 

I have a hard time believing that’s a high quality battery. 

Look in a jam and thrown a curve by a producer at the last min …sure maybe …long term solution absolutely not. 
 

As Professionals we are often tasked with picking the best equipment for the situation….this is not a good pick. Sorry. 
 

1 hour ago, glenn said:

ZMT4-X is a 16 hour battery life at full RF power, internal recording and transmission at the same time, Mono or stereo transmission, Zaxnet remote control with RF time code. 

 

Plain and simple.

 

Glenn

@glennThis is the correct choice- I’m not a Zaxcom user (FYI -not a hater either ) - but I’d be looking at the ZMT4-X if in a situation described by @Shane Munro
 

@Shane Munromy sincere apologies for hijacking the thread.

I dig the nexus- not a user but following-

I also dig the A20 mini  but the battery life just doesn’t cut it for me. Batteries (in a TX)  shouldn’t be something we need to worry about. I want them to power my equipment all day (12hr at least). My 11 year old SMQV’s do that, on batteries available everywhere. 
Plain and simple. 

[IronFilm]

3 minutes ago, EnotsMedia said:

 

I also dig the A20 mini  but the battery life just doesn’t cut it for me. Batteries (in a TX)  shouldn’t be something we need to worry about. I want them to power my equipment all day (12hr at least).

The new A20-TX does 12hrs on one set of batteries. 

[Shane Munro]

Absolutely Gobsmacked!

 

Glenn, While we all appreciate your financial backing RE: Ads to this site, I don't believe it gives you the right to try and Hijack this post.

 

The same goes for your 10 cents worth EnotsMedia.

 

This post is about Nexus not Zaxcom.

 

Further trolling will be ignored.

 

...are you running a Nexus?

 

[glenn]

On 7/24/2023 at 12:41 PM, The Documentary Sound Guy said:

To the best of my knowledge, the ZMT-X is the only Tx that advertises that kind of battery life out-of-the-box, so unless you have those, I'd imagine any solution is going to look a bit hacky.

 

The post I responded to had a specific Zaxcom reference. Transmitter run time became a topic of conversation in this thread and Zaxcom was commented on by Documentary sound guy. I wanted to clarify what was being brought up about our product. It is important for people to have an understanding of our transmitter run time in terms of full power continuous transmission of 16 Hours. We rate our transmitters in terms of minimum run time with rechargeable batteries. That is an important distinction vs 12 hours maximum with Lithium in this case. It would be nice if all manufactures could rate run time as a minimum so that comparisons could be made apples to apples.

[Jeff Wexler]

To Shane Munro, I think you were out of line calling out Glenn Sanders clarifying statements regarding transmitters and battery run time. If you have spent any amount of time on this site, you know that we often have topics that evolve, meander and discuss things that re not specifically tied to the main topic heading. As for moderating, as you also may know, I moderate with a very light hand, allowing our members to speak freely. I always hope that when there is incorrect information, mis-information, these things will be corrected by our members. Regarding paid advertising, yes,  Zaxcom has continued to pay for an ad banner (many other companies in the past have also utilized the ad banner) and it does not afford any special rights or privileges. What is not tolerated is the abuse that some of the companies that paid in the past for ad banner decided they could ute this site for full page graphic intensive advertising promotion. This is not allowed and will not be tolerated.

[EnotsMedia]

@Shane MunroOk, first thing…breathe…In through the nose…out through the mouth….one more time ….In through the nose…out through the mouth. 

 

We are all family here, we are all here to help and lift each other up. I get it, words on the internet lack empathy, and feeling. 

 

It’s hard. 

 

I’ve been gobsamcked once or twice on the internet, too. We learn, adapt and move on. Its what makes us stronger. 

 

My suggestion, was that this setup wasn’t just a bad idea, but potentially dangerous for talent. I’d be willing to bet most people would agree with me on this. Again, short term, maybe, long term. Nope.
There are better tools available for your unique situation. 

 

Maybe your missed my sincere apology for “hijacking” the thread. It’s OK. 

 

And just to poke a bear…you hijacked your OWN post with a second post that had nothing to do with a Nexus….did you miss that as well?

 

So just calm down…and don’t forget to take a moment breathe. It’s all good dude. 

Ok, first thing

through the mouth….one more time ….In through the nose…out through the mouth. 

 

We are all family here, we are all here to help and lift each other up. I get it, words on the internet lack empathy, and feeling. 

 

It’s hard. 

 

I’ve been gobsamcked once or twice too. We learn, adapt and move on. Its what makes us stronger. 

 

My suggestion, was that this setup wasn’t just a bad idea, but potentially dangerous for talent. I’d be willing to bet most people would agree with me on this. Again, short term, maybe, long term. Nope. There are better tools available for your unique situation. 

 

Maybe your missed my sincere apology for “hijacking” the thread. It’s OK. 

 

And just to poke a bear…you hijacked your OWN post with a second post that had nothing to do with a Nexus….

 

So just calm down…and don’t forget to take a moment breathe. It’s all good dude. 



Ok, first thing…breathe…In through the nose…out 

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

Ok, let's talk about the Nexus.  I recently had to replace all my wireless, so I did some pretty extensive research.  Coming from Lectro, I was really excited to jump to a digital system, and what I'd heard about the Nexus sounded really good.  When I started, I thought Sound Devices would be what I'd settle on.  But I looked at all options (Sound Devices, Lectro, Zaxcom, Wisycom; I also briefly considered Shure and Sennheiser), and I ended up buying ... Zaxcom.

 

Why?  Workflow, cost, battery life, and weight, in roughly that order of priority.  Did I give anything up?  Maybe.  I suspect, based on anecdotal reports, that the A20 audio quality may be slightly better (though, in the digital realm, the differences are likely pretty minor), and I suspect that Nexlink may be more robust in terms of range than Zaxnet.  It's hard to say for sure, because all of these systems are expensive, and it's really hard to A/B them.  Other than that, if I was committed to a Sound Devices recorder, the Nexus integrates better with that.  But I wasn't so committed.

 

Workflow:  The major difference here is record trigger.  With the Zaxcom system, I hit record on my recorder, and every wireless Tx automatically goes into record.  With the Nexus, I would have to remember to send a record command via the Nexus as well as the recorder.  I've been bitten by having to remember to hit record twice in the past, so I like the safety of having an automatic system.  This isn't really the intended workflow for Nexus anyway; the intended workflow is to have the transmitters recording constantly, and then conform the recordings to the rolls on the main recorder at the end of the day.  Not only is this a post-processing step that I'd rather not deal with, but it also raises privacy concerns if the mics are recording when actors are off-camera.  Even if I'm discarding these rolls daily, I'd rather they not exist.  There's lots of minor quirks to both systems, both pro and con, but overall, the integration with the Zaxcom recorder is deeper and better than with SD, that pays off in lots of little ways.

 

Cost:  8ch of Rx wireless in Zaxcom:  Nova2 $6,500 + MRX414 $3,350 + MRX414 $3,350 = $13,200 (Nova included because the MRX are just modules, and this is the system I actually bought)

8ch of Rx wireless in Nexus:  Nexus:  $14,495 (recorder not included)

Maybe a more direct comparison (sans recorder) is with an RX8 (there's a dante version, which brings feature parity on that front, though it wasn't a consideration for me):  RX8D $3,750 + MRX414 $3,350+ MRX414 $3,350 = $10,450

But the Nexus is expandable to 16ch you say.  Ok:

16ch Nexus:  $19,495

16ch Zaxcom:  RX12 $3,095 + 4x MRX414 $13,400 = $16,495
The one unfair part of this comparison is that Nexus channels are true diversity, and the Zaxcom channels are not.  To get "true" diversity on the same number of channels, I would need double the MRX modules, which makes Zaxcom more expensive.  But, 95% of the time, I don't need that many channels.  I bought in at 8 channels, but I typically use 4 or less, and MRX modules can be switched to true diversity if the higher channel count isn't needed.  So, I bought in at 4 channels of true diversity, but I have access to the excess channels without buying extra hardware (knowing that my reception won't be quite as bulletproof) if I do end up with a high track day.  I would say this trade-off becomes even more pronounced as track counts get higher.  Full 16-track days are quite rare, even on big, complex shows.  It becomes harder and harder to justify buying extra wireless channels at $2,000 / Rx if you only use more than 8 channels a couple times on a show.  The rentals don't pay for themselves.  If I were building a drama cart, I'd probably still only buy 8 channels of true diversity, and use other diversity modes at higher track counts.

 

Battery life:  Power for Nova2 + 2x MRX:  12W (1A @ 12V, all receivers active)
Power for 888 (12V x .78~.99A = 9.5~12W) + Nexus (11W idle, est. peak 3A x 6.5V = 19.5W) = 20.5 ~ 31.5W

The fairest comparison here is with the high end of the Nexus, because the Nova2 spec is with all channels active.  At that level, the SD/Nova combo draws more than 2.5x as much power.  That's the difference between swapping batteries once a day at lunch, and swapping batteries every 2h.  I'm based in a bag, and I occasionally shoot interview takes longer than 2h.  This power draw is a big deal for me.

 

Weight:  Nova2 + 2x MRX:  3lbs, 7oz
Power for 888 4lbs + Nexus 2.8lbs = 6.8lbs

So, the SD package is roughly double the weight (and size) of Zaxcom

 

Are there things that the Nexus has that I wish I had in Zaxcom?  You bet.  Are there things I don't like about Zaxcom?  Absolutely.  But, feature by feature, and bang for buck, when I actually did the research about what the systems were capable of, I discovered that the Nexus wasn't really as good as I thought when I started, and Zaxcom was better for my use case.

 

Would the calculus change if I was on a cart and had a different use case?  I'm sure it would.  I think the Nexus is a solid piece of hardware, and I'd still consider it in the future.  But I don't think the calculus would change that much.  It's a very expensive item, and, having done the research I did, I'm not convinced it justifies its price tag in as many circumstances as I thought it might.  There's a lot of VERY capable competition out there.

[Shane Munro]

First of all DSG. Thank You!

 

Thank you for bringing the temperature down.

 

I'm happy you like your setup and you make some interesting points.

Every sound recordist works differently, they develop a system and a workflow that suits them.

I started 40 years ago with the Audio RMS-11's and 12's  then moved onto Lectrosonics.

I traded in my my Lectros for Wisycom and then jumped to Sound Devices, they are all very good brands

and we live in very exciting times with new technologies we only dreamed of.

 

I like a good segue like the next person...but where were we?

 

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

Oh, I also missed range as a significant plus on the Nexus side.  Again, these things are hard to test, but SD boasts the best range on the market, and anecdotal evidence seems to bear it out.

I would love to do a proper controlled test of all the major wireless systems, but that will take some planning and coordination, since virtually nobody has access to all of them at the same time.

[Shane Munro]

I’m very impressed with the range I get with the Nexus.

 

What parameters would you place on a test like that?

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

I think it would be quite involved ... I'd want to match frequencies and signal paths, and I'd want to run a "real world test" with bodies in the way with multiple wireless systems.  Record it all, and see which are the most robust.  I think I'd spend at least a day testing, probably more with planning.