Lav Question

[TheGuruat12]

Hi everybody!

Quick question about lavs:

For our HS musical (Guys and Dolls) the choir teacher is renting lavs from Arizona Pro Sound(Rentals). The ones that she is renting are Sony 840A's. I was wondering if anybody has had experience with these particular lavs, and how they compare to the Shure SLX UHF sets that are in the same price range.

I am concerned that she chose the Sonys because I do not know anything about how they perform. I've used PGX lavs, SC lavs, and some lavs that are probably about fifteen years old (all made by Shure) and all have given me pretty good sound.

Anything you know would help!

 

[sdauditorium]

Actually, I'm not familiar with how the Sony lavs sound either. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of lavs for musicals due to the fact they have a tendency to make noise when an actor moves or get moved during costume changes (unless they can be run through the actor's hair, of course).

We have a set of 16 Sennheiser mics and run Countryman E6s (over-the-ear boom mic) and love them. It takes a little bit of EQing during the first check, but they sound great, are durable (minus the strain-relief going into the bodypack) and never get an extraneous noise.

I can't imagine there would be a very noticeable sound quality difference between Shure SLX lavs and the Sonys..at least nothing you shouldn't be able to EQ.

 

[Footer]

For a long time Sony made the only mics many broadcast and live people would touch. You used to see the white sony antennas everywhere...

From the looks of it, the gear you getting is their older stuff. As long as it was maintained well and the mic's are decent you should be fine. When you get into the higher classes of wireless audio, it is not the pack but the mic itself that really effects sound. You get the expensive packs for reliability and more control.

 

[TheGuruat12]

Thanks for the great feedback!

I don't know what mics we'll be getting, but some on-ear ones would be awesome. From what you're saying, the Sony packs should work fine.

Now to find area mics for the choir....