Personal Monitors

[marcusianl]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to get a set (2-4) of wireless personal monitors for our space. I think Shure is going to be the manufacturer, since our county distributor handles Shure products. What model would be best for a 700 seat auditorium? We don't need anything really high end, but it should be able to cover the whole space.

-Marcus

[DaveySimps]

Hey Marcus. If you are insistent on going with Shure, I would go with the PSM 600's or 700's. I have had good experiences with both. However, I would recommend the Sennheiser 300 G2 units overall. They are my favorites. There are plenty of dealers for both Shure and Sennheiser products, so I would not worry about limiting your purchases to one distributor, unless you are getting such an amazing deal, you cannot pass it up. In fact, I find that most people who do not regularly shop for gear competitively, find that they over pay for things.

For IEM's your spec of "a 700 seat auditorium" does not give us much to go by. With wireless gear it is all about the distance / relationship between transmitters and receivers. There is a drastic difference in performance if the transmitters are on the side of the stage, or in a booth at the back of the house. Since you are using multiple units, I strongly suggest you use a antenna distro / combiner with some decent antennas. If you can give us more info on who will be using them, and for what type of events, we can give you more info.

Personally, I think the actual earphones make the biggest difference in IEM's performance. There are so many models from cheap headphones to custom ear-molded units, that even the greatest IEM wireless setup can sound like garbage on cheap headphones a garage band guitarist may insist on using. There is no one unit that is the best. It really depends on the artist preference and the type of event.

~Dave

[TimmyP1955]

At my day job, we switched from Shure (600 and 700) to Sennheiser (300). More frequency choices, better sound, better reliability. The supplied buds don't sound very good though - keep them around as spares.

[museav]

I am a little confused how it being a 700 seats and covering the whole space would be relevant to personal monitors, those factors seem like they would more likely be a factor for an assistive listening system or wireless intercom. I'm also not clear on what "I'm looking to get a set (2-4)" means as far as quantities. Can you clarify just how many of what you are looking to get? Do you have a budget?

[Chris15]

The Shure's are starting to get a bit old. They do still give rock solid RF performance, but are limited in their frequency options.

Sennheiser should now be shipping the G3 IEMs. The 2000 series look to be an awesome product, 75MHz bandwidth amongst other things, but at a price to match.

The big question and governing factor will be the availability of spectrum in which to transmit, depending on your location and active nearby TV etc... You'll also need to note how many radio mics you are or plan to use at maximum capacity and do a whole frequency coordination...

[marcusianl]

The distance from our booth to the stage is about 85.' The entire stage area, including wings is about 30' deep by 50' wide. I'll see what I can do about the dealer's, but because we're a public school (forgot to mention that) we're pretty much stuck with the dealer that the county uses. I'll ask them about the Sennheiser system and see what they can do. As far as quantity, I think we want 4. Unfortunately, I don't have a budget and have no idea what Personal Monitors cost, so I think that will have to be determined once I get a bid from the dealer, but I've spoken with the administrator who will be approving the purchase and he said to get some information on them.

[DaveySimps]

May I ask you why you are looking to get these? They are not very commonly used in theatrical settings, especially at the amateur level. Just curious.

~Dave

[marcusianl]

We have rentals every week or so, and most of the time they bring musicians that request personal monitors for sound checks.

[museav]

We have rentals every week or so, and most of the time they bring musicians that request personal monitors for sound checks.

I'm not sure why they want them for sound check, but do they bring their own earphones? Do you have the console outputs available to provide four stereo sends? Don't forget to include an antenna combiner, remote antenna, cabling for the antenna and any hardware and installation required in the bid(s) you get.