Re: Budget earset mics - AT to Shure adapter cable
Here's my low budget review of these low budget mics:
My company just wrapped up providing audio support for a local community theatre's production of a "fringey" off-broadway style production. Because of the performance space, I decided that we would need headset mics as opposed to my usual supply of WL93's and WL185's. I have a rack of 8 Audio-technica lav packs with the OSP brand HS-06 headsets that rent out frequently to school musicals. We needed 11 mics in all so I needed a budget mic option for my remaining stock of Shure SC series VHF rack.
After reading Riley Casey's favorable review of the pyle headsets I decided to give them a shot. I initially set them up at the end of the input list not expecting much, expecting to use them for characters with few speaking lines. Once the rig was installed in the venue I began the normal process of ringing out the mics, which was not an easy task. One of the main speakers (JBL VRX932LAP) was actually BEHIND (upstage of) the cast. I started with the OSP headsets and spent about 10 minutes making careful cuts on the 01V96 parametric EQ, a little hacked, but stable and sounded reasonable.
Next I fired up the Pyle mics on the Shure SC packs. I started pushing the fader up and up and was amazed that I was getting 6-10db more GBF than the OSP mics. With just a few small cuts I was able to get damn near the benchmark of SM58 sound quality with my voice.
Regarding the RF and AF performance of the 2 systems. The audio-technica stuff has always been decent for me in terms of RF even without paddles or antenna distribution system for most small venues. The AF for whatever reason tends to overload with louder singers or yelling even with the pack gain all the way down. ---- The Shure SC series dates from the 1990's, but for it's time I think it was actually pretty high end stuff, and I have it racked up with a proper shure antenna distro and 1/4 wave antennas. You also seem to be able to get a lot more gain / attenuation on the audio input side of the shure packs which is nice. It's definitely nicer than the current PGX series stuff.
So after some initial testing, I decided to give the Pyles with the Shure packs a shot with the 4 lead characters. All things considered I have no complaints about the RF or AF performance of the Pyle and Shure combo. Like a lot of cheaper mics they don't seem to be as forgiving on some voices, but they were much better than the comparable $100 OSP headsets.
But here's the best part: This play involved a lot of fake blood around the character's mouths. One night during act 2, one of the PYLEs took a heavy dose of fake blood and stopped passing audio. I let it dry overnight and it started working again just fine the next day. Another night, one of the actors bent the metal ear hook tube a little too hard and the mic snapped in half causing it to short and stop working. Tossed it in the trash and took a new one out of the package and we were back in action. Finally, we had one more dose of fake blood in the mic during the first act. I took the mic during intermission, dunked it in some bottled water a few times, threw it on a 40W lightbulb to dry out real quick, and was able to limp through act 2 with just a few EQ tweaks and some added gain.
So what do I have to say about these mics? You can get some good audio quality out of them with a decent PA and RF setup. I likely wouldn't use them for my UHF-R systems, but in an application where your headsets are likely to be beat up and ruined, you won't shed a tear when you have to toss them in the trash AND they're so cheap you can always have plenty of replacements on hand. I felt a lot better just absorbing the modest cost of the trashed mic into the rental cost than having to hit a community theater with a $480 DPA replacement bill.
