The Best Budget Wireless Mics?

[Village Idiot]

Hey Y'all,

I have been put in charge of buying a wireless (Lapel/Handheld)
Mic by my Church for Pastor Appreciation Day.

We have about 230.00 US to spend...

It's not that we don't appreciate our Pastor, it's just that we have a grand total of 20 people in our congregation.

I am not hip to what we want.
It's a very small church building-wise too.

I know Nady & Samson are the top names, but after that I am kinda lost.

Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated!

Thank youze guyz.


VI

 

[hokypokynose]

Try hard for a used Sennheiser E100 series lavalier. Try hard to find it for that price. Only settle for lesser if you've checked all places. You won't regret it.

While they are not Budget mics, they are worth the flexibility and lack of headaches.

 

[hokypokynose]

Samson makes decent w/x mics. Just decent.

Shure is deffinately better though.

Stay away from Nady or anything marked "Non-Diversity"

 

[Village Idiot]

Okey Dokey Hokey Pokey

Thanks for the help, nose!

I will look for that Sennheiser mic.

And I'll check into the Shures, too

Thanks again!

VI

 

[philboyd studge]

UHF, UHF, UHF.

 

[eyeslikefire]

Hey VI
If you guys can hold out and spend a bit more money, you'll be glad you did. We had bought an Audio Technica about 4 months ago for our church though I don't remember the model I know it sounded like crap, and the thing ate batteries like crazy! (one a week) We ended up buying a Sennhieser Evolution 300 series. What a freakin difference man!
Take Hokeys advice and go for the Senn.

Later.

 

[hokypokynose]

The Evolution 300s are great, but if it's a small setup the 100s will work great as well. They have less selectable frequencies and have a TRS out instead of an XLR. And their a good coupla hundred less.

 

[hokypokynose]

We had bought an Audio Technica about 4 months ago for our church though I don't remember the model I know it sounded like crap, and the thing ate batteries like crazy!

All wireless go thru batteries like water. We put new Pro Cells in all our wireless everyweek at my church(w/ so many people at a service there is no room for a mic that burns out...

 

[Aren]

I once heared a Nady Wireless in a show, and it turned me off Nady for life. It is so thin you won't recognize your own voice.
Beware!

Oren

 

[eyeslikefire]

All wireless go thru batteries like water. We put new Pro Cells in all our wireless everyweek at my church(w/ so many people at a service there is no room for a mic that burns out...

Yeah but for some reasons some are worse than others.
So far we are in our second week with the same batteries on the Sennheiser and it still has 3 notches on the LCD! The Audio Tech would've allready munched it up on the 1st week.

 

[hokypokynose]

Yah, the Sennheisers are great in every way arent they?

 

[JPS]

I am also looking into a few channels of Sennheiser 100 wireless for our church and could use some opinions about which mics to gt with the system. I am planning to mic a small ensamble with two guitar/singers and 6-8 additional voices. I am hoping to do this with perhaps two wireless mics, which is about what the budget permits.

I have a question on which wireless mic may be best for this type of situation. I would tend to favor the EW165 super-cardiod condenser, but I fear the pickup range may be two narrow, since propably two guitars will share one mic and the group vocals the other. The Sennheiser EW135 offers a dynamic cardiod, which will give me a wider pickup pattern, but I am wondering if the dynamic will be sensative enough? Perhaps one of each? I guess my real question is can two acoustics guitars share a single super-cardiod condenser effectively, or can this mic be used for sound reenforcement of group vocals? Is this even doable with two mics?

 

[H2oskiphil]

Is this even doable with two mics? [/B]

I think you're going to be hard pressed to do this EFFECTIVELY with two mics. If you try to do the guitarists/vocalists with one mic, you're going to lose guitars AND vocals from them-I think you'll be disappointed with the results on that mic. I don't think there's any way to get the full guitar sound while getting any worthwhile vocals from the guitar players. I tried this at our church-it didn't work. Hell, we had a hard enough time just trying to get both guitars mic'ed up decently and balanced with just one mic-we ended up running both guitars into my Peavey Deuce and micing the cabinet instead, then going with a single mic for our vocals from the guitarists.

You're going to have to compromise with 1 mic for the group of singers as well.

I'm thinking that to get optimum sound quality, you're going to need a minimum of 4 mics.

YMMV

 

[Leeking]

All wireless go thru batteries like water. We put new Pro Cells in all our wireless everyweek at my church(w/ so many people at a service there is no room for a mic that burns out...

Just for that reason, as my church soundman, I discourage the use of wireless mics.... in fact, I only set them up for special occasion where we need more mics....

 

[JPS]

Thanks for the feedback, both points are very valid and kinda what I was probably trying to deny.

Yes, cords are another big issues, but that is why we are considering wireless. There is just too many people walking around and the cords present a tripping hazard, which has already happened. If I went with traditional wires, I would have more dollars to get additional mics. So the big issue is really getting rid of cords, both guitar and mic. The local music store owner (who is also a Baptist pastor) recommended that I also not go wireless and just put in floor mic plugs and "fish" the wires under the platform. But our platform construction is: 2x6 on 16" centers directly on concrete slab. So, I would be able to go left-to-right, but not back and forward.

Anybody gone wireless and not been happy? Any preferences for super-cardiod over cardiod in live performance issues?

 

[crisdhunter]

Well you can't take anything away from Sennheisers, they are great mics. However, the Samson Qmic(Samson's one shining moment) is a great stage mic. I was turned on to it when I was working a NYC 9/11 benefit concert , you might have seen it on TV, and was very surprised to see all wireless mics on stage were Samson Qmics.

I've since tried it and liked it live, it's very flattering. You can get a True Diversity VHF for around $200-$250, don't believe the UHF hype, it doesn't apply to you unless you are in an environment where there is a lot of interference, or you are running several wireless systems. VHF worked great for years. It still works great.