Shure GLXD or Line 6 Relay G90?

Fabio KTG

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Come at me people, I'm on the fence right now. Any reviews from owners out there? Ideally, I'd like to rack mount any wireless system that I decide upon, but sound, performance and reliability take priority first.

What are the pro and cons and how do they compare to a high quality guitar cable? I've watched some comparison videos but I'm still undecided.

HELP!
 
Sold my line 6 g55 to buy the glx-d. Absolutely loving it. Way better battery life. Lots of line 6 users here which is why I ended up with the g55 first. The glx-d has a lot of nice upgrades that mattered more to me. 16+hrs of battery life, channel jumping seamlessly, metal transmitter, battery charger right in the rack unit, threaded cable attachment to the transmitter (need to buy a separate cable though) check out the other thread floating around too. I pushed the shure pretty hard in that already haha. They are all different from a cable in ways. For me the tone is absolutely great....I use it everyday for a couple of hours...


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Switched from the L6 to the Shure GLX-D wireless about four months ago and I couldn't be happier. Build quality is just WAAAAYYY better then L6, as is battery life and signal quality. All around it's just a better designed and better built unit.......no doubt about it.
 
GLX-D for all the reasons above. Much smaller and lighter than a G90 too, although you will need a rack tray to mount it on... or just velcro it to the piece of gear underneath if you don't want the added weight of a tray.
 
Keep 'em coming, guys. ScottP said said about the tone being different on the Shure. Is that your experience too? If so, how?
 
Keep 'em coming, guys. ScottP said said about the tone being different on the Shure. Is that your experience too? If so, how?


The GLX-D is certainly no worse than the Line 6 Relay stuff in this regard. Almost ANY wireless system is going to sound slightly different than just a cable if you analyze it in a very clinical setting, though I do think that the practical difference these days is overstated sometimes... possibly due to residual paranoia from when wireless units sounded considerably different, or frustrated folks trying to plug them straight into sensitive fuzz pedals etc. Provided your unit is working correctly, if the difference is even perceptible to you, it should be negligible at most... like using a different cable or something.

FWIW, I don't notice a difference at all on my rig.

Hell, even if the difference was much more obvious, there is no rule that says good tone has to come from a cable. Case in point involving a 34 year old wireless rig:

 
^^thats a comparison of the pgx14 by the way. Id imagine the glx-d being digital would sound a lot different if anything probably closer to the relay. Just a guess though. If I can tonight ill do a comparison clip between cable and the shure tonight. I should have done one before I sold the g55. The rack unit is super light (it is plastic) also why I liked it. I have mine velcroed to my power conditioner.
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Heres a good clip of a Shure vs the Line6 you can make up your own mind of sound quality.

That's a different Shure unit to the one the OP is considering. (It's a PGX series in the video, which is UHF.)

EDIT: Whoops, Keg8605 beat me to it in the post above!




Wow, something sounds screwy with the clean G50 comparison in that video... it really sounds like the pickup selector got bumped, especially compared to this G50 test:

 
Wow... the difference between the Line 6 and cable is pretty obvious in dwg115's post almost like a pickup change, not so much on the Shure.
 
Here is something a did a while ago that might be of interest here. I recorded four samples as a comparison. One of them is running through a Monster cable. The other three are using the Line 6 G50 Relay with various cable simulation settings. I have written down in my notes which is which, but I haven't looked in a while, and I don't remember off hand.



I've been very happy with the Line 6 and have since upgraded to the G90 for the rackmount capability. However, it can conflict with Wifi, and you need to be careful when using it in an environment with Qmix. I have written down which channels should be used depending on which wifi channel is being used for the network. I'm very curious to se if this is easier to deal with using either the new Shure system or one of the new Line 6 units.

I have a Shure LX wireless from the mid 90's that I have used for a long time, and i was always happy with the performance of it. However, I did purchase a Shure SLX system not too long ago, and it was hands down the worst sounding wireless unit I have ever used. I immediately sold it and never even attempted to use it live. If anyone has questions on that, let me know. But Shure is a good company. I also use their wireless unit for IEM with great success. It sounds like their new digital wireless for guitar is a strong contender, especially compared to the Line 6 Relay, and I appreciate hearing some of the feedback from the people who have used it. It sounds like it has a lot of nice features, including the longer battery life.


Edit: I found my notes. The 4 samples are as follows:

1. Guitar through Line 6 G50 Relay with cable simulation set to 20 feet.
2. Guitar through Line 6 G50 Relay with cable simulation off.
3. Guitar through 20 ft Monster Cable.
4. Guitar through Line 6 G50 Relay with cable simulation set to 10 feet.

Other notes: When I said there were issues with the wifi when using the Line 6 Relay and Qmix at the same time, there was never an issue with the guitar wireless. That always worked flawlessly. The issue was the Qmix would not stay connected to the host. This problem is solved if you use the correct channel.

Also, I contacted Shure when I had issues with the SLX system. Their recommendation based on the issues I was having was to use one of their digital systems. The impression I get from both Shure and other reviews I've read, the Shure digital systems are much better than the current analog, at least under the $1000 price range.

I hope this helps.
 
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What kind of power does the GLX power supply use? Is it a universal power supply?

The pedal version accepts 9-15V 250mA DC (Tip + or -), and comes with a 12V 400mA universal power supply.

From what I remember of my brief time with the rack mount version, I think it requires 14-18V 500mA, probably due to the battery charger being on board as well. I think it comes with a 15V supply.
 
Mixed reviews so far....

Note that Shure use similar sounding names for different series of wireless. There have been 4 different kinds of Shure units mentioned in this thread so far: PGX, LX, SLX and of course the GLX-D you are considering. Nobody in this thread has mentioned having bad experiences with the GLXD.

Yet. :devilish:


Do you have access to a store where you can try both units out for yourself, side by side?
 
No, the new Shure stuff is all down South ATM. I'm way up north. I'll wait a little longer for any problems with the new Shure stuff to become apparent. Maybe Line 6 will have upgraded by then. I'll stick to custom made cables till then. Thanks for the help everyone.
 
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My point on the above post (Which I should have listed) was that the older PGX14 already sounds closer to the cable then the Line 6 G series. I always thought if I were to get a wireless system it would be one of the G series but listening to that changed my mind somewhat.
 
I've been really happy with my G90 rackmount system.
After looking at the Shure product video, I gotta say I really like the idea of an onboard rechargable battery system.
Still, haven't seen a comparison video of the exact items you are looking at Fabio.
 
I updated my post above to let everyone know what each of the fours samples are in the sound clip. My point was that at least with my test, the Line 6 without the cable simulation on was clearer to me than using a cable. Setting the simulation to around 10 feet actually better matched the sound I got from the 20 foot Monster cable. I watched the Rig Rundown of Mike Campbell's set-up, and his tech said some similar things. In that video, Mike was using the Line 6 G90, and preferred to run a small amount of the cable simulation to match the tone he was getting with using the cable.

One plus on the Shure side is that I've always had quick response from them when I email about issues I have, and they have been very helpful. The only shock I had was when I emailed expressing how dissatisfied I was with the sound quality of the SLX analog system I was using. They pretty much said that yep, that's how it sounds. But they did seem very confident that their digital systems were far superior. Unfortunately, I do not have experience with those. But based on comments here, I would like to try one out for a comparison.
 
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