sennheiser VS shure with country man b6

[gbirdsall]

i am currently working with a local highschool in developing their theater, over last summer we upgraded the sound system and now its time to upgrade the mic's. the head mif-wick swares by sennheiser and wants to spend our 2500 dollar budget on 2 of the ew 312 g3's and 2 b6s. granted these are good mics but its possible to get 6 of them on a shure slx 14, from a local theater upgrading their system. i have worked with the local theater and know that the mics are well taken care of and gentely used.

so now on to my question. which should i convince him to go with? i know the b6 is an outstanding mic and i get it either way with both systems. are there any knows problems with the shure system? they have been rack mounted and i intend to rack them in my booth with the same antenna farm they used. is this deal too good to be true?

 

[metti]

Obviously the SLXs aren't nearly on par with the ew300g3 series but they are certainly workable. The question is this, do you need six mics or two mics? If you need six mics then your only option is to go SLX or find a lot more money. Also, if your budget is $2.5k, how do you plan to buy six channels of SLX (even used) and six B6s. The B6s alone would be almost $1700 and I'm guessing you can't get six channel of SLX for $800. Maybe consider B3s as a quality though somewhat larger alternative?

 

[gbirdsall]

currently i only need 2 mics but im thinking from an expandablilty point having the extra 4 could be usefull in larger productions.

and honestly the price is a very large hook up, this school has a dedicated alumni that help our program tremendously. so it is a situation of whats your budget? ok you can have it all for that. because you are completely right that on the open market even used i would be looking at well over 3 grand.

 

[gafftaper]

Welcome to CB!

To me there are two big questions:
-What is the frequency situation in the area?
-How far apart will the receivers and transmitters be?

Yes the Senny's are superior but if you don't have a lot of frequency problems in your area and the transmitters don't have to broadcast long distances, then you can cut corners a bit. While those Shures are inferior they aren't THAT inferior. I have a combination of Senny 300 G2's, Shure ULX's, and AT 3000's. In my situation I don't have a lot of frequency issues and the transmission distance is short. The only difference I see is in the quality of the microphone attached. In the future I'll save my money and buy AT 3000/Countryman combos. On the flip side if I was in an area where frequencies are tight and there are a lot of interference issues, or I had to transmit over a long distance, I wouldn't consider anything less than a Sennheiser Ew 300.

Note: I Moved this thread to the sound forum. Where you'll be sure to catch the attention of all the Noise Boys... who will probably rip my post apart.

 

[Chris15]

Ok, so by checking a map, you're not very far from LA, correct?
That being the case, I would expect an RF environment that is not pleasant, but I expect someone else, Mike?, might have a more accurate picture.

Now that I throw your Zip into WWB, I get a rough picture of:
Active TV Channels Digital - (18 24 28 29 31 32 33 34 35 36 38 39 41 42 43 47 48 49 51)


Based on that, you would have a chance on chs 19 through 23, 25-27, 30, 37, 40, 44-46 and 50.
That counts in the doable but tricky category and you would need to know EXACTLY which frequency band/s to buy...

 

[mbenonis]

Agree with Chris there...if you're indeed close to LA, then you're going to have to do this carefully. I haven't looked closely at the RF environment but yeah, you'll need to be sure you buy the right bandsplits and plan for the future when you buy. Read over the FAQ and ask lots of questions!

 

[gbirdsall]

the rf enviorment of la isnt a huge issue as im about 80 miles from the outskirts of the city
i think i have decided that the sennheiser's are going to be the way to go

@ chris 15

what would be the best way to go about figuring out what bands to buy?

 

[bishopthomas]

what would be the best way to go about figuring out what bands to buy?

Pretty much all wireless manufacturers have some sort of frequency finder on their web sites. Here's Sennheiser's:
Find Available Frequencies

 

[Anonymous067]

Ok, so by checking a map, you're not very far from LA, correct?
That being the case, I would expect an RF environment that is not pleasant, but I expect someone else, Mike?, might have a more accurate picture.

Now that I throw your Zip into WWB, I get a rough picture of:
Active TV Channels Digital - (18 24 28 29 31 32 33 34 35 36 38 39 41 42 43 47 48 49 51)


Based on that, you would have a chance on chs 19 through 23, 25-27, 30, 37, 40, 44-46 and 50.
That counts in the doable but tricky category and you would need to know EXACTLY which frequency band/s to buy...

Errr....TV 37 is restricted in the US. Can't use that one either....

 

[TimmyP1955]

I've never been fond of the lower end Shure wireless. We have 16 EW100G3 and they work great. The trouble with Countryman is that they really hose you on the price when set up for Sennheiser instead of Shure. The Microphone madness are almost as good, and are only $99 (but order them with the extra stiff ear loop, as the standard is very wimpy).

 

[Anonymous067]

I've never been fond of the lower end Shure wireless. We have 16 EW100G3 and they work great. The trouble with Countryman is that they really hose you on the price when set up for Sennheiser instead of Shure. The Microphone madness are almost as good, and are only $99 (but order them with the extra stiff ear loop, as the standard is very wimpy).

Agree. After working with a lot of wireless gear, the only stuff I'll touch for "lower end" is senny 100. Which absolutely blows anything in its price range out of the water. Shure ULX is even pushing it for quality these days (and I can say that, I own some), but when Senny 100s have dual RF bars, autolocks on the packs, so nice. The only ONLY thing I don't like is the mute switch, and the connector.

+1 for Senny.

 

[waynehoskins]

I did a show-choir gig at a local high school earlier this week; they had 16 channels of SLX and an LS9. I keep deciding I dislike the cheap Shures. During the show, one radio changed frequencies and another turned itself off. I blame the front-panel controls on the transmitters: what idiot engineer at Shure thought those were a good idea?

Sennheiser Evolution G3 all the way. Rock-solid, cheap, and stupid-proof.

 

[Anonymous067]

I did a show-choir gig at a local high school earlier this week; they had 16 channels of SLX and an LS9. I keep deciding I dislike the cheap Shures. During the show, one radio changed frequencies and another turned itself off. I blame the front-panel controls on the transmitters: what idiot engineer at Shure thought those were a good idea?

Sennheiser Evolution G3 all the way. Rock-solid, cheap, and stupid-proof.

+1 .

 

[sdauditorium]

I did a show-choir gig at a local high school earlier this week; they had 16 channels of SLX and an LS9. I keep deciding I dislike the cheap Shures. During the show, one radio changed frequencies and another turned itself off. I blame the front-panel controls on the transmitters: what idiot engineer at Shure thought those were a good idea?

Sennheiser Evolution G3 all the way. Rock-solid, cheap, and stupid-proof.

+2..without a doubt.

 

[gcpsoundlight]

I did a show-choir gig at a local high school earlier this week; they had 16 channels of SLX and an LS9. I keep deciding I dislike the cheap Shures. During the show, one radio changed frequencies and another turned itself off. I blame the front-panel controls on the transmitters: what idiot engineer at Shure thought those were a good idea?

Sennheiser Evolution G3 all the way. Rock-solid, cheap, and stupid-proof.

+3 - Nicest stuff to work with when the soft props are kids!