Recommend me a wireless system

[peteb]

2 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

Some very expensive hi-end brands being recommended here (above) and - while I'm sure they're all absolute killer devices - I'm competely unconvinced that they're the best route forward.

 

All rechargeable batteries will fade away and (eventually) die, so spending £458 on that Shure outfit seems like an awful lot of money for something that you'll be chucking in a skip sometime around 2027.

 

If you've not used wireless before then I'd strongly suggest you experiment first with the really cheap stuff (Joyo, Lekato, etc.) which my reasonably extensive experience suggests is at least 90% as good as the top-end stuff whilst costing 90% less.

 

I started out with https://www.gak.co.uk/en/xvive-xu2-wireless-instrument-system-black

 

When the batteries started to fade, I experimented with https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305814068759 and with https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186311571177

 

Following a recommendation from @stewblack I also bought https://www.amazon.co.uk/JOYO-Wireless-Transmitter-Receiver-Instruments/dp/B0CRKS96NS

 

And my experience? They all work. They work just fine, and if there's any difference between the performance of the Joyo and the XVive systems then I've never been able to spot it. I play pubs and clubs, beer gardens and festival stages. I use passive and active basses, 4-string and 5-string.

 

The only basses I own that have any trouble with wireless systems are double basses - all of them - and I don't understand why. It seems to make no difference whether I'm using piezo or magnetic pickups, full-sized DBs or my Kolstein Busetto, even whether the bass is plywood or aluminium. The strength of the string vibration seems occasionally to overpower the wireless signal producing a juddering sound that reminds me of the ABS cutting in when doing an emergency stop.

 

Incidentally, the combined cost of ALL FOUR units referenced above was roughly HALF the cost of a single Shure GLXD16. I love Shure kit and I own a fair amount of it, but £458 for a wireless system? Your 'avin' a giraffe.

 

 

I'm afraid that I take a very different view. I've had loads of wireless systems since they first came out decades ago (remember the old illegal Nady systems that always used to pick up local taxi firms in the middle of gigs) and all of them were c*ap and I ended up going back to leads! I got the GLDX16 not that long after it came out (about ten years ago?) and it just works as it should do. It's done hundreds of gigs and the battery is still perfectly good, no latency issues, works fine on bass and sounds as good as you would expect. My advice is to pay a bit more and buy once, rather than get cheaper alternatives that you will get rid off and replace because they don't work as well as the better kit. It's arguably cheaper, and certainly better. 

 

I've got an xvive system that I picked up for £30 or so on eBay and while it's OK for around the house, personally I wouldn't trust it on a gig. The Shure is in a completely different class. 

 

[Twigman]

13 minutes ago, peteb said:

My advice is to pay a bit more and buy once, rather than get cheaper alternatives that you will get rid off and replace because they don't work as well as the better kit. It's arguably cheaper, and certainly better. 

 

I generally live by this rule these days - buy cheap, buy twice is very true in my experience.

[BigRedX]

The GLDX16 looks fine if you already have a traditional pedal board with spare capacity on the PSU, but that certainly doesn't make sense for me. I don't need a tuner - there's already a really good one in the Helix. I would need a PSU for the receiver and AFAICS it's not on a locking socket which means I'd need to have a pedal board which suddenly means everything takes up more floor space on stage. I'll stick with my cheap and compact NUX until I have a major problem, hopefully by which time I'll be playing bigger stages and have bigger band transport for all the extra equipment.

[Al Krow]

7 hours ago, BigRedX said:

That can't be right. I use mine continuously at rehearsals which are about 3 hours long, and when I next plug them in the recharge the LED meter is only showing one segment down from full charge.

 

I think the LED meter you are referring to is actually showing how much charge there is still in the power case? How drained the battery is instead shown up by the colour of the light on the LED indicator on the transmitter and receiver units.

 

@Twigman: per the manual: a fully charged Nux power case can recharge the wireless system 2-3 times, which actually is a very useful feature (but just need to remember to engage the charge button, haha!)

The manual also states that when fully charged the transmitter / receiver should work for around 4 hours - which I assume applies to a relatively new unit. I'm just checking what my 2-3 year old units can still manage on a full charge when paired (and not in the charge box!)

Edited 11 hours ago by Al Krow

[Twigman]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

hopefully by which time I'll be playing bigger stages and have bigger band transport for all the extra equipment.

 

Been hoping for that kind of situation for 40odd years LOL - closest I've come was last month's festival in Spain playing on the same (huge) stage as The Mission and The Charlatans - the amount of gear they had was impressive - towed in dedicated trailers behind their sleeper coaches..we had the relative luxury of a 4* hotel and Easyjet  LOL

[tauzero]

9 hours ago, Twigman said:

Do you chaps mean this system?

 

https://www.thomann.co.uk/nux_c_5rc_wireless_system.htm

 

That looks just the ticket and is a far smaller financial commitment than the Shure.....  

 

Oh, so you're not committed to the receiver being on the pedalboard powered by the pedalboard PSU? In that case, I can also suggest the Lekato WS-50 and WS-90. I use them both, the WS-90 is a bit bigger but has a longer battery life, a long enough reach to cope with Ibanez sockets, and you can also select which channel (of four) you want to use.

[tauzero]

4 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

on the subject of wireless systems, are they all 'line of sight', as I stated earlier the one problem I've found with my Boss WL 20 is it cuts out if something gets in the way, but are they all like that?

 

No, my Lekato WS-90 is quite happy if I go walkabout with a few bags of dirty water (ie people) and a brick pillar intervening between Tx and Rx.

[Twigman]

12 minutes ago, tauzero said:

Oh, so you're not committed to the receiver being on the pedalboard

A dongle plugged into the pedalboard input potentially works…not too keen on it needing to be charged - I have noticed though that 400-500mA power is required for the pedalboard solutions - I already use a current doubler for one of my other pedals  so using the pedalboard psu might not be possible while keeping my other pedals. I also didn’t realise that pedalboard solutions have built in tuners - not necessary at all. I know the boss solution has no tuner but stipulates a boss psu only and also charges the Tx on a side which would be obstructed if mounted on my board, hence my interest in other solutions.

[ped]

I’ve got a Boss WL20 which sounds good and battery life is fine but for some reason (probably the band?) it cuts out a fair bit in our practice studio. 
 

I have just bought a 5.8ghz Joyo system that @Happy Jack linked to. Got a ‘used like new’ on Amazon and used some gift voucher balance. Will be interesting to try it. The Boss didn't introduce any noise but it did change the treble sound of my bass slightly when I really listen - obviously fine for gigs though. 
 

As I use a Backbeat then the transmitter sits in the unit on my strap, out of the way. The receiver will stick out of my pedalboard a bit but I might get a right angle cable to move it away from the edge of the board where I’m paranoid that someone will step on it!

 

 

[Al Krow]

19 minutes ago, ped said:

I’ve got a Boss WL20 which sounds good and battery life is fine but for some reason (probably the band?) it cuts out a fair bit in our practice studio. I

 

Drop-outs were the exact same reason I also moved on from the Boss WL-20, which otherwise was a really good bit of kit. It operates in the crowded 2.4 GHz space and experiencing drop outs mid-gig was not great.

5.8 GHz kit does seem to work much better from that perspective. Be interested to see how you get on with the Joyo, clearly there's a few fans of that set up on this thread already. They seem to have adopted quite a few features of the Nux (other than the ability to angle the transmitter and receiver, which sounds like you might have valued @ped?), particularly the recharge pack set up. And at £75 new, they are 40% cheaper than the Nux.

[ped]

7 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

Drop-outs were the exact same reason I also moved on from the Boss WL-20, which otherwise was a really good bit of kit. It operates in the crowded 2.4 GHz space and experiencing drop outs mid-gig was not great.

5.8 GHz kit does seem to work much better from that perspective. Be interested to see how you get on with the Joyo, clearly there's a few fans of that set up on this thread already. They seem to have adopted quite a few features of the Nux (other than the ability to angle the transmitter and receiver, which sounds like you might have valued @ped?), particularly the recharge pack set up. And at £75 new, they are 40% cheaper than the Nux.

Yeah I wouldn’t have minded being able to angle the receiver but I can work around it. I got mine for £50 🤩

[tauzero]

58 minutes ago, Twigman said:

A dongle plugged into the pedalboard input potentially works…not too keen on it needing to be charged - I have noticed though that 400-500mA power is required for the pedalboard solutions - I already use a current doubler for one of my other pedals  so using the pedalboard psu might not be possible while keeping my other pedals. I also didn’t realise that pedalboard solutions have built in tuners - not necessary at all. I know the boss solution has no tuner but stipulates a boss psu only and also charges the Tx on a side which would be obstructed if mounted on my board, hence my interest in other solutions.

 

Neither the Harley Benton, the Line 6 G50, nor the Smoothhound have built in tuners. Power requirements are rather less than that, mine all happily run off 100mA outlets. The Smoothhound is slightly awkward as it's reverse polarity but that's not a huge hurdle.

 

The HB is 5.8GHz and, as previously mentioned, will charge the transmitter off the cradle on the receiver (which is on top rather than on the side). The others are 2.4GHz and the transmitters run off batteries - rechargeables can be used.

[PaulWarning]

1 hour ago, ped said:

I’ve got a Boss WL20 which sounds good and battery life is fine but for some reason (probably the band?) it cuts out a fair bit in our practice studio. 
 

I have just bought a 5.8ghz Joyo system that @Happy Jack linked to. Got a ‘used like new’ on Amazon and used some gift voucher balance. Will be interesting to try it. The Boss didn't introduce any noise but it did change the treble sound of my bass slightly when I really listen - obviously fine for gigs though. 
 

As I use a Backbeat then the transmitter sits in the unit on my strap, out of the way. The receiver will stick out of my pedalboard a bit but I might get a right angle cable to move it away from the edge of the board where I’m paranoid that someone will step on it!

 

 

Probably a stupid question but did you join them together to search for a free channel?

[ped]

14 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

Probably a stupid question but did you join them together to search for a free channel?

Yeah, sometimes that helps if I do it a few times.