We bought 2 vocal sets, each consisting of a four-channel receiver module and two handhelds, as well as two more handhelds to get a total of 6 lines for the 6 singers of our band.
The positive facts first:
The setup is very easy. Turn on the receiver, turn on one handheld, push the connect button on both until link lights up. Done. This has only to be done for the first time. Both units remeber this setting.
You have four receivers in a row, each with its own balanced XLR-out. But the four-channel receiver has another XLR-out that carries a mix of all four channels. Nice. At rehearsal we save channels on our mixer using only the mix-outs of our receivers.
The sound is quite fine.
Now the Negative:
The advertising-statement "up to 8 concurrent channels (2 systems)" is only true for rooms where really nothing else uses to 2,4Ghz band! We never had troubles in our rehearsal room which is located in the cellar of a private house, where you even can't connect to the WLAN-router in the living room one floor above. But when moving to any other location (we tried medium siced bars to venues with 400+ seats) the mics loose their "link" to the receivers at irregular intervals. (Sometimes everything works fine for minutes, and than you see blinking "link"-leds every few seconds). This "unlink" leads to silence on the involved channels for up to more than 2 seconds! If you switch off one receiver everything works fine. I connected to AKG-support and got the following answer: "Yes, two receivers will only work when all other equipment using 2,4GHz is switched off." I learned, that each four-channel-receiver can use one of three possible bands in the 2,4GHz range. So when it encounters difficulties on one channel it switches to the next free one. When using two receiver-units this can lead to both units trying to switch at the same time resulting in the behavior I described above.
Conclusion:
Using up to four channels with the AKG DMS70 system is the cheapest and easiest way to go wireless digitally.
More channels should only be used when you are really, really shure that you never have to use it in venues where you can't be sure that nothing else uses devices in the 2,4Ghz band.
Hope this of any help for someone considering to go for the AKG DMS70
The positive facts first:
The setup is very easy. Turn on the receiver, turn on one handheld, push the connect button on both until link lights up. Done. This has only to be done for the first time. Both units remeber this setting.
You have four receivers in a row, each with its own balanced XLR-out. But the four-channel receiver has another XLR-out that carries a mix of all four channels. Nice. At rehearsal we save channels on our mixer using only the mix-outs of our receivers.
The sound is quite fine.
Now the Negative:
The advertising-statement "up to 8 concurrent channels (2 systems)" is only true for rooms where really nothing else uses to 2,4Ghz band! We never had troubles in our rehearsal room which is located in the cellar of a private house, where you even can't connect to the WLAN-router in the living room one floor above. But when moving to any other location (we tried medium siced bars to venues with 400+ seats) the mics loose their "link" to the receivers at irregular intervals. (Sometimes everything works fine for minutes, and than you see blinking "link"-leds every few seconds). This "unlink" leads to silence on the involved channels for up to more than 2 seconds! If you switch off one receiver everything works fine. I connected to AKG-support and got the following answer: "Yes, two receivers will only work when all other equipment using 2,4GHz is switched off." I learned, that each four-channel-receiver can use one of three possible bands in the 2,4GHz range. So when it encounters difficulties on one channel it switches to the next free one. When using two receiver-units this can lead to both units trying to switch at the same time resulting in the behavior I described above.
Conclusion:
Using up to four channels with the AKG DMS70 system is the cheapest and easiest way to go wireless digitally.
More channels should only be used when you are really, really shure that you never have to use it in venues where you can't be sure that nothing else uses devices in the 2,4Ghz band.
Hope this of any help for someone considering to go for the AKG DMS70