Sennheiser EW-D CI1, Shure GLXD16, or something else

  • Hey Patrick.


    When you use the Line 6 G10S, how have you set the Cable Tone?


    30, probably because I didn't like how it sounded "naturally". Guess that's a hell of a feature I kinda took for granted.


    I did end up running it through my powered cab today, not at gig volume but at a volume louder than I bet my neighbors appreciated. It sounded a lot better through that than my studio monitors. I turned the gain back down to what the manual said, and put my clean sense and distortion sense back to 0 as well. I thought is sounded pretty good today. I haven't had a chance to test it direct to the DAW with the cable I use, as you suggested yet, but I plan on doing that.


    I have full practice tomorrow and a gig on Friday, so we'll see how it holds up. I did notice some dropouts, in my living room. It was really close to a wireless access point and a security cam hub, but I wouldn't think the 2.4ghz and 5ghz stuff should have any affect on it. My Line 6 is totally unusable in that room, without unplugging the other devices. It always recovered really quickly, from the dropouts, but it seemed like the sound changed slightly when it recovered. I still no very little about wireless units, but am trying to learn more.

  • The EW-D beltpack has no settings for capacitance/cable length? If so, that's unfortunate. Makes all the difference for us guitarists! You could always solder a Neutrik Timbre plug on the cable snippet from guitar to beltpack :)

    The cable from receiver to Kemper won't make a difference.

  • Hey, Patrick.

    30, probably because I didn't like how it sounded "naturally". Guess that's a hell of a feature I kinda took for granted.


    I did end up running it through my powered cab today, not at gig volume but at a volume louder than I bet my neighbors appreciated. It sounded a lot better through that than my studio monitors. I turned the gain back down to what the manual said, and put my clean sense and distortion sense back to 0 as well. I thought is sounded pretty good today. I haven't had a chance to test it direct to the DAW with the cable I use, as you suggested yet, but I plan on doing that.


    I have full practice tomorrow and a gig on Friday, so we'll see how it holds up. I did notice some dropouts, in my living room. It was really close to a wireless access point and a security cam hub, but I wouldn't think the 2.4ghz and 5ghz stuff should have any affect on it. My Line 6 is totally unusable in that room, without unplugging the other devices. It always recovered really quickly, from the dropouts, but it seemed like the sound changed slightly when it recovered. I still no very little about wireless units, but am trying to learn more.

    It sounds like you're getting things dialed in. Please keep us in the loop as you have more experience with it in different settings.


    Thanks,

    ST

  • Hey, Patrick.

    It sounds like you're getting things dialed in. Please keep us in the loop as you have more experience with it in different settings.


    Thanks,

    ST

    Will do. I wish I was playing at one of the places with massive interference on Friday, but it's somewhere out in the middle of the sticks where I never had a problem with my G10S. (just realized I forgot to hit save)

  • Band practice got canceled last night. Going to try to sound check with it tonight. If there are any issues, during sound check, I'll have my G10S and a cable. I hate going into a gig with two new pieces of equipment, but at least the other one (Kemper Remote) will make things easier and not harder. Don't know how I lived without that thing for several years.

  • I believe that all the cable capacitance setting on the Line 6 does is shave a little top end off. It takes more off at the hither settings. I have not played with the new unity you bought but Sennheizer units I have owned had an EQ in them that you can adjust if you want to. You could always use that to take a little top end off if you prefer that sound if your unit has that feature.

  • I believe that all the cable capacitance setting on the Line 6 does is shave a little top end off. It takes more off at the hither settings. I have not played with the new unity you bought but Sennheizer units I have owned had an EQ in them that you can adjust if you want to. You could always use that to take a little top end off if you prefer that sound if your unit has that feature.

    There is no EQ in this unit, either from the app or from the front panel.

  • Used the EW-D at a gig last night. I ran an 18 inch cable from it to the Kemper. I thought everything sounded fine. There was no interference, but that place I played I typically don't get interference with anything.


    The app did not work, at all. It said "Out of Bluetooth range or switched off". I tried making sure no Bluetooth devices were connected to my phone, turning Bluetooth off and on again, rebooting the phone, rebooting the EW-D. Nothing I did could get the phone to communicate with the EW-D. Good news is, with the front panel buttons, it took about 15 seconds to have autoscan run and have the transmitter paired.


    Also broke a string during the middle of a song (Oddly, that is the first time I can remember breaking a string when playing in front of other people.) It has happened at home before, but never out.), and swapping guitars in the middle of the song took about 3 seconds, with the EW-D. I think it was a benefit of having an actual cable vs the G10S transmitter I would have had to put down.


    I will try repairing everything, at home, to get the app working, but honestly since I'm only controlling one wireless unit, doing it from the front panel is fine with me.

  • I just got my Sennheiser Evolution Wireless Digital setup going today. It was a snap with the app, and just as easy to make adjustments directly on the receiver.


    It sounds and feels just like a guitar cable. I have never deliberately used long cables to affect my tone. That's why I haven't used the Cable Tone feature on the Line 6 G10S receiver. I prefer to shape the tone on the guitar or the Profiler.


    I set up the AF Out to 18 and the Gain to 27 (any combination that adds up to 45 worked fine). As per the manual, this is unity gain and gives you the same signal level as a cable.


    I got the system with the headset microphone because sometimes I need a wireless microphone. I also ordered the Ci 1-N  instrument cable for the transmitter, and it took a little longer to get here. I'll get a second unit when things get busy. The microphone sounds great.


    I was concerned about the input impedance on the transmitter since it accommodates both a microphone and guitar. So I checked with Sennheiser and found out the instrument input is 1 megohm. You want that; otherwise, it's like connecting the guitar directly to a line-level input on a console.


    At some point, I'll have to go for a good long wireless walk to find the limits of my in-ears.

  • I've used it at one gig and one practice, so far. Using it at another gig this Saturday. I usually use shorter cables, so it doesn't mess with my signal too much. I think I was using the same settings as you, yesterday, and it sounded pretty good. I still think the Line 6 sounds more full to me, and closer to what my normal cable gives me. I think the new strings on my Telecaster are going to cause me more of a problem than the EW-D, though, if I don't get a little time to break them in.


    Only other issue I had was with the app not being able to connect to the base unit. I had to do a full reset on everything. That only happened once, and hasn't happened since. Good news is, it put to rest one of my initial fears -- what happens if you can't use the app. Happened at the first gig I used it at. Took about 5 seconds to have everything set up using the buttons.


  • ST, what kind of range are you getting with your EW-D? I tested mine yesterday, at practice, and could only get about 20 yards away, with line of sight -- much less than I expected. Only time I really get decently far from my gear is to sound check, but I was still expecting better range. Once again, my cheap Line 6 G10S surpassed the EW-D. I just can't live with the 2.4 GHZ interference cutouts on the G10S. I couldn't notice latency with either unit, but the cutouts with the G10S are pretty bad in some places. I'm very surprised the G10S sounds better than the EW-D, and has better range though. I wouldn't have guessed that in a million years.

  • ST, what kind of range are you getting with your EW-D? I tested mine yesterday, at practice, and could only get about 20 yards away, with line of sight -- much less than I expected. Only time I really get decently far from my gear is to sound check, but I was still expecting better range. Once again, my cheap Line 6 G10S surpassed the EW-D. I just can't live with the 2.4 GHZ interference cutouts on the G10S. I couldn't notice latency with either unit, but the cutouts with the G10S are pretty bad in some places. I'm very surprised the G10S sounds better than the EW-D, and has better range though. I wouldn't have guessed that in a million years.

    You can't really get too far away from the band while playing anyway. You will get just enough delay that you will start playing out of time. I did that one time many years ago and realized that I didn't need to be that far away anyway. Most guitar players just want to be able to move around and not have to tend to a cable or step on cables and possibly go off stage for short interactions with the crowd. I never had a need for anything beyond that.

  • You can't really get too far away from the band while playing anyway. You will get just enough delay that you will start playing out of time. I did that one time many years ago and realized that I didn't need to be that far away anyway. Most guitar players just want to be able to move around and not have to tend to a cable or step on cables and possibly go off stage for short interactions with the crowd. I never had a need for anything beyond that.

    I don't play big places, so there is no "going out into the crowd", other than sound check. I really just have a wireless so I don't trip over the cable. Still surprised at a few things with the EW-D compared to the G10S, though.

  • Hi, Patrick.


    I haven't had an opportunity to test the limits of the range.


    Did you do an AUTO SCAN and SYNC when you got to the practice venue? You should do that every time you change locations. It's quick.


    I came across this video where someone is checking the operating range. It looks like he's using the same transmitter/receiver as we have, but he's using a lavalier mic instead of a guitar.

  • In always do the auto scan and sync, but thanks for the suggestion. I saw a video of a German dude who was a ridiculous range away from it and it still worked. Curious to see if I can get far enough away to soundcheck this Saturday. I don't play very far away, because of the delay, as JEverly stated, but I like to be able to check the balance from where the crowd hears things. I'm also wondering if I need to do something different with the transmitter. I had it on my belt with a shirt covering it. Wondering if I put it in my back pocket if that may help.

  • In always do the auto scan and sync, but thanks for the suggestion. I saw a video of a German dude who was a ridiculous range away from it and it still worked. Curious to see if I can get far enough away to soundcheck this Saturday. I don't play very far away, because of the delay, as JEverly stated, but I like to be able to check the balance from where the crowd hears things. I'm also wondering if I need to do something different with the transmitter. I had it on my belt with a shirt covering it. Wondering if I put it in my back pocket if that may help.

    Just make sure the transmitter antenna is not touching your skin, and that it is (reasonably) vertically oriented.

    Place the receiver as high as practical, with the two antennas at an outward angle (Transmitter and receiver antennas should have the same orientation, but as you'd rarely stand straight all the time, it's a good idea to angle the two transmitter antennas in each direction). And keep the receiver away from large metal objects.

    20 meters is way less than it should be capable of. Is there a setting for transmit power?


    The "better" sound in the Line6 is capacitance/cable tone. With no cable length, most people will miss the frequency shaping effect it has on passive pickups. You can add capacitance with a cap thingy on the guitar though...Like the Neutrik Timbre plug.

  • In always do the auto scan and sync, but thanks for the suggestion. I saw a video of a German dude who was a ridiculous range away from it and it still worked. Curious to see if I can get far enough away to soundcheck this Saturday. I don't play very far away, because of the delay, as JEverly stated, but I like to be able to check the balance from where the crowd hears things. I'm also wondering if I need to do something different with the transmitter. I had it on my belt with a shirt covering it. Wondering if I put it in my back pocket if that may help.

    I also usually walk around out front for the first song or two so I can help with the mix. We typically to it from the stage. I clip my pack on the guitar strap. I use one strap all night and swap guitars occasionally but use the same strap on both. I have not had any issues with either the analog or digital wireless units doing it this way. I can always get far enough away from the band to experience the delay.

  • Place we played yesterday was too crowded to do a good range check prior to playing, and I didn't even think about afterwards. I put the transmitter in my back pocket, and it seemed to work better there. Everything sounded fine and I didn't have a single cut out (second straight gig and two practices, without a single cutout). I got the rechargeable Sennheiser battery pack/charger combo, and used it for the first time, yesterday. Yes, $150 will buy a lot of AA batteries, but I like how long these last, and the peace of mind of having two batteries and AAs for backups. I'm pretty sure it was still showing full charge after sound check and a little over three hours of the gig.