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Iceland, ReykjavΓ­k
1 Level
407 Review
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Review on πŸŽ™οΈ Sennheiser AVX ME2 Lavalier Set: The Ultimate Digital Wireless Microphone System for Crystal Clear Audio! by Breanna Johnson

Revainrating 2 out of 5

Distortion on Wireless Lavalier Mics

I have had two pairs of these mics for 4 months now and here is the problem. The automatic gain control works, but it cuts off the first few wavefronts. This happens with almost every setting I try to use. Obviously every system has a dynamic range limit, but this breaks down whenever the volume increases rapidly and significantly. It doesn't matter where the input gain is set in the camera or what attenuation is set in the receiver, clipping will exist. You can't hear it in the field and it doesn't show up as clipping on the camera's volume meter. It's not usually too noticeable, but once your ear hears it, you notice it more and more. You can see this on the waveform in Resolve. Some cameras seem to have it worse than others. We didn't notice it with the PXW-FS5, but it's noticeable with the Ursa Mini Pro. The screenshot shows the waveform in DaVinci Resolve Fairlight Audio with System 10 above and AVX below. The arrows show the truncated wavefronts and the magnitude of the attenuation. For the price of this system, this feature should work or be turnable. They work well when capturing normal conversation, but anything that has dynamic range has that slight distortion. I can live with a 19ms system time lag and can't play music, but this distortion is a violation of the rules. What I really want is a way to route the digital AES signal from the receiver straight to the camera so I can turn off the DAC, the ADC, two preamps and that auto-fade circuitry outside of the signal path.

Pros
  • Wide range
Cons
  • Almost everything is available