For those who have tried both... Shure PSM 900 or Sennheiser EW 300 G3?

Severed said:
Well after debating, scrutinizing and procrastinating, I've just ordered the Carvin EM900 set. $399 USD. I'll post back with a review when I get them.
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Well long story short I was completely robbed.......

$399 USD + $35 USD for rack brackets.... oh and shipping to Canada is 4x normal price so another $80 USD. ended up being nearly $600 after exchange rate. Then they send it out and it gets to customs and I get a phone call saying that I need a broker because Carvin didn't assign one??? Never heard of this before, hmmm ok then, with no choice I have to allow UPS to broker on my behalf.......so add duty, taxes and brokerage fees another $95 CDN.......Total = $700 CDN for a $399 USD item..... anyone else see something wrong with this picture?

I could have just picked up a Sienhiesser G3 or M3 or whatever it is for $750 CDN locally.

At any rate, the EM900 works and sounds ok. No noise, No interference. Definitely worth the $399..... Definitely NOT worth $700........
 
Severed said:
Well long story short I was completely robbed.......

$399 USD + $35 USD for rack brackets.... oh and shipping to Canada is 4x normal price so another $80 USD. ended up being nearly $600 after exchange rate. Then they send it out and it gets to customs and I get a phone call saying that I need a broker because Carvin didn't assign one??? Never heard of this before, hmmm ok then, with no choice I have to allow UPS to broker on my behalf.......so add duty, taxes and brokerage fees another $95 CDN.......Total = $700 CDN for a $399 USD item..... anyone else see something wrong with this picture?

I could have just picked up a Sienhiesser G3 or M3 or whatever it is for $750 CDN locally.

At any rate, the EM900 works and sounds ok. No noise, No interference. Definitely worth the $399..... Definitely NOT worth $700........
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Ouch! That's awful.
 
I have the Sennheisers and the Shure PSM 900. Both are very good, but my preference is the PSM 900. To me it just has a warmer sound that is a little more pleasant to my ears.
 
I'm resurrecting this thread for updates from others:

I've had been using the Carvin EM900 with Westone UM1's for a while. Jan 2014 I upgraded to 1964 Qi's (quad drivers) and for the last 18 months have been doing 6-10 gigs a month with them. MONO mode, being fed from a X32 Producer, IEM mixing via my iPad and the X32Q app. Overall, the reception/sounds/quality is pretty good.

The receiver sits in my right jeans back pocket. I get occasional RF dropouts, and occasional interference from the G90 xmitter mounted (up high) on my guitar strap. The other band members use G30's mounted to their pedal boards, so the interference might come from their transmitters (while we wander around the stage).

I'm NOT NEW TO THE EIM WORLD.. having used wired (Aviom, P16M) and other wireless variations, but I'm no touring pro either! But I have used phones/ears for many years and don't REALLY require a stereo feed/mix, as the sound stage on Quads works very well, even in mono.

So...
been looking at [potentially upgrading] to either the PSM1000 and the Senn EW G3 IEM units. No interest in the included buds, but wondering if upgrading the transmitter/receivers from the Carvin to either of these is worth the $1000 price tag.

Will the difference be noticeable in terms of reception/sound quality.. ?
Other than adjustable limiters and a few other "extras"... what am I getting?
Would you make the jump?

thanks in advance.
 
Also interested in PSM900 vs Senn EW G3 opinions. My main desire is to have less dropouts (using fairly old PSM700s now). I also use the G90 guitar wireless as s0c9 mentioned.
 
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I upgraded from the em900 carvin to the IEMG3 Sennheiser, and been using the Sennheiser for a few gigs now and it's been fine, no dropouts, and i'm using an X2 wireless about a foot away from my IEM.
 
dpeterson said:
I upgraded from the em900 carvin to the IEMG3 Sennheiser, and been using the Sennheiser for a few gigs now and it's been fine, no dropouts, and i'm using an X2 wireless about a foot away from my IEM.
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So is there any massive differences in audio quality, etc? In others words.. is what you get for $1000 worth the upgrade from the EM900's ???
That's the $1000 question I'm asking.. :)
 
For the sake of argument, take a look at the Shure PSM300 - all new, digital - I got one and love it. I have it in a rack with my ULXD4 Shure Beta 58 wireless and a TC Helicon Voicelive Rack. I had the guy at the music store talk me out of the Shure PSM1000. I'm glad he did, I love this thing. I got the better version with the Metal bodypack.

http://i.imgur.com/GvRK2m2.jpg
 
Thanks for your opinions, guys.

My bassist has the PSM300. He hasn't had problems with it yet. Just found out my singer is using the EW G3 (gee, why would I have ever bothered to look in our monitor rack- DOH!), going to check it out at the next rehearsal.

Still would like more opinions on the EW vs. PSM900 from folks here. :)
 
s0c9 said:
So is there any massive differences in audio quality, etc? In others words.. is what you get for $1000 worth the upgrade from the EM900's ???
That's the $1000 question I'm asking.. :)
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in audio quality they are about the same, little nod to the sennheiser for the onboard eq it has. The money is spent on channels, scanning, easy synching, diversity (uses your ear bud wire as a second antenna). The beltpack is infinitely better, smaller, easier to put in batteries, sexier ;). If you are not doing this a lot and traveling I can see the carvin doing fine. My son and singer both are using them fine. Mine just took a dump on me.

the psm300 is not digital either, part of it might be digital, but it's not digital transmission of the signal. If you look around, you can get deals on the sennheiser, mine was brand new and was $700.
 
dpeterson said:
in audio quality they are about the same, little nod to the sennheiser for the onboard eq it has. The money is spent on channels, scanning, easy synching, diversity (uses your ear bud wire as a second antenna). The beltpack is infinitely better, smaller, easier to put in batteries, sexier ;). If you are not doing this a lot and traveling I can see the carvin doing fine. My son and singer both are using them fine. Mine just took a dump on me.

the psm300 is not digital either, part of it might be digital, but it's not digital transmission of the signal. If you look around, you can get deals on the sennheiser, mine was brand new and was $700.
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thanks for the feedback... I've seen a few on the EW300/G3 in that kind of range, and I'd love to be able to to buy the package without the buds.. as I'm not going to use them.
 
Hey everyone. Bumping this thread again as I am in the same boat a few of you have been. I'm looking to replace my Carvin unit with either the Shure PSM 300 or the Sennheiser EW 300 G3.

Those of you that had the Carvin units, how do the replacements you bought compare?

I seem to get a lot of interference and dropouts on larger stages. The other thing I'm curious about is audio quality. Would either one of these units get me better audio quality than the Carvin?

Thanks in advance for your comments!

- J
 
After more use and experimentation, the Sennheiser sounds better, performs better. Maybe get an external antenna and mount on a mic stand more centrally might help your transmission.
 
dpeterson said:
After more use and experimentation, the Sennheiser sounds better, performs better. Maybe get an external antenna and mount on a mic stand more centrally might help your transmission.
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That's good to hear.

I'm still trying to distinguish the difference between the Sennheiser and the Shure PSM 300. From what I can tell, the Shure unit is both digital and analog; it processes the signal digitally, then transmits it in analog....the same way the Sennheiser unit does. However, the Shure unit only offers 15 different frequencies whereas the Sennheiser unit offers over 1600.

2 of my bandmates have the PSM 300 and love it, but with those, 2 G30 wireless units, 2 Sennheiser wireless instrument units, and another Shure wireless mic unit, I'm worried that we could get some interference if I went with the Shure.

Just wondering if there are any real benefits of the Shure vs Sennheiser units.
 
svl said:
Thanks for your opinions, guys.

My bassist has the PSM300. He hasn't had problems with it yet. Just found out my singer is using the EW G3 (gee, why would I have ever bothered to look in our monitor rack- DOH!), going to check it out at the next rehearsal.

Still would like more opinions on the EW vs. PSM900 from folks here. :)
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Any update on this? What were your thoughts on the EW G3 vs. the PSM 300 after checking them both out?
 
Bought the Senn last fall after extensively playing around with it and the PSM900 (the 300 didn't come close to cutting it for me). Fantastic unit, absolutely love it.
 
svl said:
Bought the Senn last fall after extensively playing around with it and the PSM900 (the 300 didn't come close to cutting it for me). Fantastic unit, absolutely love it.
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What made you go with the Sennheiser over the PSM 900? Just curious...the Sweetwater rep I talked to was really pushing it over the Sennheiser; likely because it's ~$500 more.

What about the PSM 300 turned you off?

Sorry for all of the questions, just trying to make sure I go with the "best" unit for me. :)
 
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