Re: Budget friendly wireless...
SHURE is a well known brand name. When renting gear to the average masses, brand name matters more than the grade, as Silas pointed out. Yes, I use Shure and JBL gear for that very reason.
Now, as far as quality versus price, there are often times better solutions out there. The cheap SHURE mic systems are nothing but garbage. The PG and PGX mics are barely good enough for spoken word use. The SLX line would be acceptable for a crappy bar band, but generally I wouldn't recommend anything below the ULX line from SHURE. Of course, the UHF-R is the way to go if you want equal quality to your wired counterpart.
Anyway, what I'd recommend doing is setting up your rack with all matching wireless gear, instead of a mishmash of other stuff. The reasons to do this are plenty. First off, the channel assignments are designed to work together. Once you start mixing, it requires a lot more thought to make sure you aren't going to get interference. Secondly, it allows easy swapping of parts as needed.
If looking at a system for cheap rentals, in the SHURE line, the SLX line isn't horrid. But, what is the real difference in rental cost from a SLX to a ULX system? I'd rent out a ULX system for $45. The SLX system would rent out for $30. Not a huge difference, for quite a bit of difference in quality.
