Re: Budget friendly wireless...
If you're spending $1300 / ch, try clicking the new Lectrosonics ad to see their wireless price comparison chart. Their Venue system actually comes in at a price comparable to ULX's. (I wasn't aware of this until we started running that advertisement, I always thought they were priced in the UHF-R range.)
When I was in a position to purchase 60+ channels of wireless, I went for ULX/P. Another time when I made a purchase of 24 channels, I went with the same. These were both ~4-5 years ago. At the time, I had never used anything from Lectro, and to be honest, barely knew of the company's existence. Cost per channel at the quantities I purchased was about $1k. That included either a 58HH, or a (plastic) bodypack with either a Countryman B3/B6 lavalier. If I were doing that again now, I'd probably be looking at Lectrosonics.
For lavs where I was, Countryman was a great choice. Bodypacks didn't hold up very well though. Receivers were fine, we only had one or two issues with the displays on them. Sound quality... it's ULX. Nothing spectacular, but you know what to expect, and can make it work. I think it's the minimum somewhat acceptable product of Shure wireless. We were located in rural area where frequency coordination wasn't a problem, but note that you can't fit too many of them together in a dense area. Phil LaDue can probably chime in on how that's doing now that it's been installed for a few years. With that said, I do love the higher end Shure products.
For real budget wireless though- I recently was sent out with some AKG D5 handhelds / receivers. I don't recall the models, but they sounded a lot better than the budget Shure gear. 470 maybe?
