wireless mic recommendations for musical theatre

Stuart R

Member
Hello all,

Looking to gradually replace my school's inventory of Shure MX153 ear-worn wireless mics (the transmitters are Shure UDXL1). We do our best to keep them from being abused, but after four years some of them are getting pretty tired. Considering the following as possible contenders (all with an omni pattern):
There are obviously much higher-end mics out there, but our budget can't handle more than +/- $350 per unit.

Thoughts/experiences with any of these?

Thank you.
 
I have enough trouble with adults breaking mics. I can't imagine what it's like with students! So I sort of gave up last show and ordered 8 of these at $20 and my sound person says they work fine. A little hot maybe, but he was able to EQ them so you couldn't tell who had the $140 mics and these. Could be worth an experiment.
 
I bought some of those too as well as some other $12 ones direct from china on eBay. Once you find one that sounds good, buy a bunch.
Especially for a school inventory, send the whole bank of channels to a group with a graphic EQ so you can clean up the oddities and call it a day.

I'm not saying schools aren't worth quality, I'm saying the bad stuff is getting good enough for non-pro daily use.
Probably due to the increase in consumer electronics using miniature microphones, the cheap stuff is just the B stock from iPhones or something.
 
The Point Source and Countryman are both good units. In your price range for an over the ear mic element, I do not think there is much else out there that is going to bring you any greater sound clarity.

~Dave
 
The Audio Technica BP892xcH falls well within your budget and sound great.

bp892xch_th_1_sq.jpg
 
About 8 years ago, I worked for AAN TV, and we had a ... I think it was an E6 for our owner/host, and a dozen Pyle knockoffs that were about $25 apiece for the other hosts.

I've been doing this for 30 years, and I could not hear an appreciable difference between the one and the others. Now, this was all spoken work; nobody singing on the auction floor. But still...
 
About 8 years ago, I worked for AAN TV, and we had a ... I think it was an E6 for our owner/host, and a dozen Pyle knockoffs that were about $25 apiece for the other hosts.

I've been doing this for 30 years, and I could not hear an appreciable difference between the one and the others. Now, this was all spoken work; nobody singing on the auction floor. But still...

Jay, you and I are not good enough to hear the Emperor's New Microphones. o_O

Seriously, though, I've worked with a couple of designers who spec things that ultimately turn into 5-figure cost overruns (per production), but the producers just cut the budgets of other departments, then fire the offending designer a year later, only to allow another designer to do the same thing but in a different dept. the following year. I understand that designers need to have some freedoms in picking the gear, materials, processes, etc, but to cause the producer to risk greater losses over these kinds of decisions baffle me. If I did that in my production shop, my employer would rightly fire me. In theater it seems only to add to one's resume.
 
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