Headset for Minister

[Theog]

My first post. Please be patient.
Our church, in a small town in South Africa, is very live (reverb of about 2.6sec) and feedback is a major issue especially aroud 1.5kHz. The building seats about 600 and is normally about 50% full. There are two galleries, a very high angled ceiling and a large traditional pipe organ. The speakers are poorly placed and of very poor quality - I am working on this.

I want to replace our minister's cheap chinese headset with one which is suitable to this difficult environment. Our budget for all three components is only $400US.

I know that the answer is to accoustically treat the building first, but this will not happen now.

Brands available to us are: Shure, Countryman, Sennheiser, AKG and Samson. We do not have any frequency regulations or clutter to worry about. I would very much like to get a Countryman, but this is way out of our reach. Our minister would not like a big black blob in front of his mouth. The cheap mic is hardly visible, but at every service I am a nervous reck for fear of ringing, feedback etc. I got good results with a Shure PG30 - big black blob.

Sorry for wining.

[Jay M]

I assume by three components you mean 1. Headset, 2. wireless transmitter, and 3. Wireless receiver?

In America the Countryman E6 is about $350 or less. Can you use a Countryman hard wired until you have more funds for a good used professional wireless system?

The E6 is absolutely awesome. I would highly recommend one.

I haven't checked, but I would assume that there must be hundreds of now illegal to use in the usa professional wireless systems on ebay or craigslist.

Our church has a Sunday school that meets in a gym and the reverb time is terrible! We have a really good sound guy and he rolls off a lot of low end, that makes the sermon a bit more intelligible, if not necessarily pleasant to the ear. On a good day we have about 900 people... those days sound good when the other group that only has about 300 people use the room, the room sounds pretty awful. I feel your pain.

~Jay

[waynehoskins]

It almost sounds like you need a cardioid mic capsule for feedback reduction, but I'm not certain that would solve it entirely, and in fact if the speakers are behind the minister it may tend to make the problem a little worse.

My first recommendations would be DPA 4066 (omni) or 4088 (cardioid), but both of those are well beyond the budget and probably hard to get in SA anyhow.

There is a small independent headset-mic manufacturer in the US that might be worth looking at. Microphone-Madness is the name, and they make some pretty good headset mics for just over $100. If you can get them, they'd be a good choice, pretty robust and inexpensive.

For radios, my first budget choice are Sennheiser's Evolution series. I bet you can find something on the used market for less, older Sennheiser EW, 1000, etc. systems. Perhaps try calling around to production companies in Joburg to see if they have something decent from rental stock they'd sell?

[Theog]

Jay,
Your assumtion about 1,2 and 3 are correct. Our minister moves around quite a bit and therefor wired would not work. Maybe we should wait and buy what you suggested.

Wayne,
I am glad that you referred to Mic Madnes as I have often wondered about their quality. I follow your posts closely and respect your comments and suggestions.

Thanks

[Tim Padrick]

Even if you have to blow your budget on it, you might be best served getting the best mic you can, which by most accounts would be the DPA.

If you go the budget route: http://www.microphonemadness.com/

As to the merits of omni Vs. directional, I cannot comment.

[EmilBarnabas]

I've been using MicrophoneMadness mics for many years, for many different kinds of shows, and I have never had a problem.

Sometimes the mics come back all twisted like a pretzel from a rental, but they always bend back into shape and work great.

[Tim Padrick]

If the minister is more concerned about the "big black blob" than he is about making it easy for the congregation to hear His word, perhaps full time consideration of another endeavor might be in order.

[Paris MkVI]

Another vote here for the dpa.

Folks might not like the price. Do they like the feedback issues more?

Spend the money once. Spend it right.

[[Director] drew ryan]

Another Vote for DPA and Microphone Madness.

We use DPA for any of the talkers on stage and Microphone Madness in the baptistry at our satellite campuses.

I love the smoothness of the DPA.

I love the cost and relative durability of the MM. They also sound pretty good.

[Theog]

Thanks for all the input to date. Do you have any views on the Samson SE10?