Wireless mic upgrade question

[Chevymetal]

Hello Everyone,

I’ll try to make this as precise as possible.
We have a small business that requires the use of a wireless lav mic system in recording our demo videos .
For several years we have been using the Sony WCS-999 wireless system and while it’s done ok we would like to improve the audio quality.
The camcorder we use is a Panasonic HDC-TM900 which does a fine job for our application but has no XLR connections.
So, after much reading we're leaning towards the Sennheiser G3 wireless system.
My questions are this:
1.  Do you think plugging the G3 system directly into the 3.5mm mini jack will be fine or do we need to add an XLR Adapter like the BeachTek DXA-2A?
2. And if we add the adapter is it a good idea to add a second directional mic such as a Rode VideoMic?

Thanks
 

[BruceMol]

The G3 is an excellent wireless system, I have a couple of them and found them to be clean, quiet and relaible. I mostly use it with a cam that has XLR but found no problem using the supplied cable to plug into 3.5 size socket. 1.  No need for the BeachTek DXA-2A unless you are going to use more than one mic and need to balance inputs. 2. if you are adding a second mic the Rode Videomic is good, I use one of those too but if you camera is moving, buy the pro version of that mic because there is less suspension noise.

[Chevymetal]

Bruce,

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to share that great information. 

I'm going to go ahead and order the G3 system and hopefully we'll get a nice improvement over our old setup.

Thanks again.

[brunerww]

 

Hi Chevymetal – I agree with Bruce. You don't really need the Beachtek.  That said, you may still want to get one.

 

I have the TM900 also, and it is a great camera – but the challenge is the quality of the camcorder's preamps, not just the quality of your external mic.  Yes, you'll be able to connect the G3 directly to the camera with the included XLR to 3.5mm jack , but you' ll still be stuck with the TM900's noisy preamps.  I recommend getting something like the Beachtek. For $179 at Amazon (as of this post), it's a good investment.

 

Good luck with your audio upgrade!

 

Bill

Hybrid Camera Revolution

[Chevymetal]

Bill,

 

That is great information. Thank-you for sharing that.

Sounds like I'll be adding the BeachTek afterall.

 

Take care

[Author]

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