MultiChannel Wireless Systems

[impedious]

Hello
Our Youth Pastor e-mailed an ad for a VocoPro UHF Handheld Wireless 4 Channel Package and asked me to look into it. I talked to our Music Pastor and she is more interested in wireless head sets for our church productions. We are slowly adding more headsets for our productions. Are these multichannel systems worth it? It looks like we can add four new mikes for a lot less then adding one at a time. I have read reviews and some think they are great and some think they are worst then bad. I noticed that on the low end ones you can't adjust the frequencies. And I am concerned if the reciever goes you are hooped. We haven't budgetted for these so if we were buy we need to stay very inexpensive
Tim

[cmchamp]

Nope, sung on them, and they're even mediocre karaoke gear, which is what they're intended for.
If you're looking for 4+ channels in 1 rack unit, I'd look at:
MiPro Series 7
MiPro ACT-3
Sony MB8N
Sony MBX6
Sennheiser's EM series

The least expensive on the list are the MiPro products, which I've used, sung on with a handheld, used their ear-worn for theatre, and their lavs.

C.

[waynehoskins]

You might could get by with $400/channel at the bottom end, for AT 3000 series. A colleague of mine has used them quite a bit in musical theatre and doesn't like them; he says their RF decks leave a lot to be desired, particularly in more-than-a-few-channel scenarios.

I would recommend Sennheiser's EW100-G3 line. It goes for about $500-600/channel. Of course you can spend more, up to $10K/channel if you want to, but going cheaper is just going to invite problems.

[cmchamp]

If you're just looking for the number of channels that you can use together, one needs to assess the frequency traffic in your area, determine the number of channels you want to utilize maximum, then choose the best quality and flexible wireless system that will meet your needs AND fit within the frequency ranges with which you have to operate.
The more wireless microphones in use at the same time, the more discrete the RF end has to be.

[pdc]

Those all in one systems just do not sound good, have terrible off axis rejection, and have pretty bad handling noise. The downside with them if one of them has an issue and needs to be serviced after warranty, you are going to be better off throwing it away and getting another one. The MiPro is modular. If one of them has an issue, pull the card and send it in. If you have little to no money, the MiPro would be the least acceptable place to start. They have great support and very reasonable flat bench rates post warranty.

We nearly refuse to sell anything lower than a Sennheiser G3. It is just not worth it to deal with the low end stuff, which usually creates more problems than it solves in a high use/abuse environment.

Like the other guys have said, you will need to do some research and find out what frequencies are free to use in your area, and how that affects what you have now. After you know this, you will know where to shop.