Sennheiser AVX - Wireless audio made easy!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,330 words · ~6 min read
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sennheiser's AVX system really caught my eye at neb this year it promised to be a
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reliable system for capturing quality audio particularly if you're a oneman
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band kind of shooter but does it deliver on that promise let's find out oh yeah
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and if you guys have any interest in seeing a manly Cable Management guide
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where lonus cable manages his desk in a manly way like this
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video the Logitech g303 features a
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precise tracking and RGB lighting to match your setup click now to learn more
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audio especially for beginners can be one of the most overlooked parts of
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making videos but Pros know that even the best video with rubbish audio
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provides an awful experience for the viewer so we've been using sennheiser's
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G3 Wireless lavalier system for quite a while now and it's been great but comes
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with a few minor inconveniences like the talent and the camera operator needing
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to shout across the room to diagnose things like one of the packs being dead
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the AVX by contrast is made with Simplicity in mind there are no settings
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to tweak and it works mindlessly so that the operator can focus on making a good
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video the AVX comes in a few different flavors depending on your needs our kit
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included the AVX receiver a handheld mic transmitter the body pack transmitter
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siser standard me2 lavalier and various accessories and cables physically the
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AVX receiver is quite small compared to the Sennheiser G3 shedding most of the
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bulk by using its own proprietary battery on the right side of the
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receiver you will find three buttons AF out check SL power and pair as well as
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LEDs that display battery information and pairing status on the left side of
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the receiver we have the male 320° rotating XLR input which paired with
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sennheiser's hot shoe accessory allows you to position the transmitter in the
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ideal placement for your setup moving on to the body pack while the style is
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quite different from the G3 your talent will feel right at home with a familiar
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mute button on the top a mic input a digital display that shows connection
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strength and battery life and on the left side of the unit we have the power
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and pair buttons lastly we have the Sennheiser handheld transmitter which
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comes standard with the md42 mic capsule the handheld transmitter Sports a
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similar display to the body pack and has a power and pair button on the bottom of
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the unit now I mentioned proprietary battery packs which would normally have
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resulted in me ending the video right here declaring the AVX an utter failure
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of a product but ciser is fortunately smarter than that and equipped each pack
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with a micro USB power input so while you could purchase extra battery packs
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for long shoots I'd recommend grabbing a cheap external battery bank and
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strapping it to your rig with something like a bongo tie senzer claims 4 to 5
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hours of battery life for the receiver and 11 hours for the transmitters which
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seemed accurate based on my use of the AVX on Linus's latest personal rig
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update 2015 which you can watch here and the receiver automatically detects
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phantom power coming from a camera or audio recorder turning itself off if
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phantom power is not detected to save your battery life a nice touch so let's
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talk about what the AVX was actually like to use the pairing process is quite
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painless I simply had to hold the pairing buttons for 3 seconds on both
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the transmitter and the receiver I wanted to use and the audio was up in no
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time once pairing was complete the units will connect to each other in a mere 5
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seconds once powered on this is where I began to see the benefit of the avx's
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Simplicity there have been times where we have fussed with the incorrect
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Channel and gain configuration with our G3 kits things that contribute nothing
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to the quality of our content and just waste time so instead of having the user
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decide on a channel the ABX actively searches for the cleanest channel
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available over a 1900 100 MHz band increasing signal strength or changing
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channels on the fly at signs of interference range was surprisingly
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solid even at a distance and through walls so I'm pretty impressed with the
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range of the AVX currently I'm standing on our not finished b-roll set and Ed is
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actually standing in Linus's office behind one of the Windows that's a fair
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distance away and it's more than we would ever shoot in terms of distance
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for using the AVX for audio pretty
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impressive now the big question you might have for me at this point is how
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does it sound well in my opinion quite good since we've been using the AVX for
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this video since the beginning what surprised me most was how well
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Sennheiser has implemented Auto gain control with even lonus being unable to
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clip the audio in a significant way with all of his excited yelling Brandon what
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is this doing here I don't know what you're talking about Brandon how many
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times do I have to tell you stop leaving your cotton balls
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everywhere and for those wondering how the handheld mic transmitter sounds have
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a listen so here's an example of what the Sennheiser AVX handheld transmitter
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sounds like I'm currently sitting in the new office warehouse where I'm testing
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the mic going into a zoom H5 recorder so
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in conclusion the AVX delivers on its promise of Simplicity while not
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compromising on audio quality I see it being used by all the shooters in oneman
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bang kinds of situations where they're doing everything from producing camera
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and audio but also for those of you who are looking for an easy to use quality
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audio solution however be prepared to pay a premium for the ease of use with
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the price PR of the AVX coming in at almost 50% more than a standard G3 kit
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with the same mic personally I plan on implementing the AVX when we do our show
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coverage going forward speaking of going forward Mast drop has another one of
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available over there for $67.99 and the Caster also features
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at this discounted price thanks to their group bu model I essentially the more
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people that buy the more the price goes down to a set minimum with its minimum
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price being just under 30% below MSRP you can check out this drop and many
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others at the link in the description at drawlin techtips so head over there now
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if you're interested that link does not give us a kickback or anything it just
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tells them that we sent you so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked
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