SmoothHound Classic Wireless System

[mrtcat]

Firstly let me state that this is a very "early days" review. I only received this wireless system yesterday and took it out to a gig last night which was in a huge barn with a marquee built inside.

I ordered it direct from SmoothHound Innovations at about 4pm on Monday afternoon. It cost £149.00 + £10.00 for delivery. Within 15 minutes of placing my order I had received an email to say the unit had already been dispatched via Royal Mail using a guaranteed before 1pm next day delivery. Sure enough it arrived at 9.10am the following morning (yesterday).

It comes in a pretty small but robust box and contained 1 transmitter, 1 receiver, 1 9v power supply (with attachments to allow use with uk, euro or US power outlets), 1 adapter cable (allows you to use a centre negative 9v psu on a pedal board if you wish), 2 AAA batteries and instruction manual. I was being a bit dim and wasn't 100% sure that the adapter was ok to use with pedal power supply so I emailed SmoothHound. The reply hit my inbox exactly 32 seconds after I sent my email and came from Chris Fryer (the company owner) confirming that that was what the adapter was for.

The transmitter:

[attachment=200816:Hound 2.JPG]

Its a really nice robust piece with a case which is half metal and half plastic. It feels nice and solid and weighs a reassuring amount. The on off switch is the little shark shaped button on the front which is pretty cool. My only issue is that it only just fits my Yamaha TRB and has to be put in at a funny angle. This is purely because the jack socket on the TRB is recessed and at a funny angle and the joint on the transmitter was a little to big to fit without having to turn it a little. On my Jazz it was absolutely no issue as that socket is surface mounted on the front of the bass and on my Stingray the socket is on the side of the body but at a normal angle so again no problem there. In order to mount the transmitter on my strap in future I have ordered a neutrik adapter and a couple of connectors from CPC Farnell so I can make up a short lead and mount the transmitter on my strap. £6 all in so not earth shattering but I would suggest being aware if you have a bass with an unusual jack socket. If you have a standard socket but it's mounted on the edge of the body then the SmoothHound comes with a natty piece of microsuction tape that will hold the transmitter in place. This uses thousands of tiny suction cups instead of an adhesive to stick to the guitar so it can be removed and re-stuck as many times as you want and it doesn't leave a residue. If it gets dirty and loses its stick you can remove the battery cover of the transmitter and wash the tape in warm soapy water and it comes out like new again.

The receiver:

[attachment=200817:Hound 1.JPG] [attachment=200820:Hound 3.JPG]

It's compact, solid and simple. The aerials fold down nicely and with the adapter it runs from the power supply to my pedal board (I'm using a pedal snake so all plugs are 30ft away at the other end of the snake cable and as its running from that power supply there's no extra plugs to worry about when setting up.

When you first use the system you have to bond the transmitter and receiver which is really easy to do and takes about 10 seconds. The manual is simple and clear. There are three little LED bars on the receiver which show 1)Signal Strength 2)Interference 3)Charge level of the batteries in the transmitter. There are various other functions available (accessed using a button on the receiver called the "pro" button) which are largely for either changing the receiver ID if theres another device with a similar code nearby or for fine tuning (making it sound more like a real cable, adjusting latency and power management).

I got set up, plugged in, switched on and played. I noticed no interference, no change or deterioration in sound quality and no cable wrapped around my legs. I walked out of the barn into the car park and it continued working just fine. I didn't go too far as weather was bad but I think it would have gone well beyond 200ft although I'll have to wait until we play outdoors to test that. Throughout the night I had absolutely no issues at all. The charge level on the batteries was still showing 100% at the end of the night.

So far I'm really really happy with it. It looks great on the board, feels solid, does exactly what I want it to do and its British. As the owner of a small British company I'm all for supporting our own industry and I feel my choice was instantly justified by Chris's super swift response to my question. It's also a good competitive price for what feels like a quality piece of equipment. I will return and update this thread in a few months once I've got a lot more mileage out of it and let you know.

If anyone has any questions PM me as I'm likely to forget to check this as often as I should!

Cheers for reading.

*Edit* I now have a short cable and the rean/neutrik adapter which allowed me to mount the transmitter on my strap and it has completely negated issue with the funny jack socket on my TRB see pics below

[attachment=200879:IMG_7121.JPG] [attachment=200880:IMG_7122.JPG] [attachment=200881:IMG_7123.JPG]

Edited September 17, 2015 by mrtcat