Line 6 X2 XDR 955 Digital Wireless Vocal Mic

By revbill on Fri, 08/21/2009 - 11:54am

I have been a fan of the X2 ever since they were known as X-Wire back in the '90s. The digital transmission—which meant no companding—offered a sound at least as good as a premium cable.

It was only a guitar system at that point and X Wire got bought and the technology just disappeared. So fast forward about five years and Guy Coker (the brains behind X Wire) was out from under his non-compete and started X2. Making stuff that was every bit as good, maybe better than the X Wire stuff and a lot less expensive.

A few NAMM shows ago Guy was showing a prototype of a vocal mic using the same system and everyone from yours truly to Stevie Wonder was blown away at how great it sounded. And he set up two mics (at that point he was using an Audix capsule—I think an OM5—so he had a wired OM5 on a stand right next to his wireless version and you could got back and forth between the two, The difference was nothing less than stunning.

Shortly after that demo, X2 got bought again, but this time by one of the most forward looking companies in the business, Line 6. They started with several models of beltpack instrument systems which rocked (click HERE for the video review) and finally have released the X2 version of a vocal mic. It was worth the wait.

THE GEAR

The receiver—the XDR4—is the same one that ships with the top-of-the-line instrument system. While the trend out there often seems toward “feature creep” and enough parameters that it is easier to manage with a laptop than from the front panel, the XDR4 is the picture of simplicity.

The back panel sports a pair of BNC antenna connectors, a DC power input, a balanced XLR out and an unbalanced 1/4” out. (Just an interesting note, the 1/4” is unbalanced but TRS. The tip is “voiced” for what you would typically expect from a decent cable rolling off gently at 8 kHz while the ring is wired for full bandwidth. This is really for use with the guitar systems and makes allowances for guitarists who are not used to the kind of high end the X2 can transmit. The XLR is full bandwidth.)

The front panel is similarly simple. A power button, LED meters for battery life, and audio level and an RF signal present red LED. The only actual controls are a pair of buttons for channel up and channel down. That’s it. Done. The included rack ears include a pair of BNC couplers and cables for moving the antennae from the back of the unit to the front for rack use.

The handheld transmitter has th usual LCD readout but is similarly simple. A power switch and a channel button. When switched on it briefly reads “On” then for three seconds reads XDH4 (the model of the mic) and then changes to the channel number the transmitter is set for. The is an AF input indicator and a battery power meter. That’s it.

THE GIGS

Here is how simple it is to use. I took it out to a gig and never even read the manual. In fact I handed it to a guitar player without a manual and told him to put batteries in it and plug it into channel 14 on the snake. We did a sound check and all was well. As is the case with every wireless I have ever used the batteries included were of, well, middling quality. I suggested that the band might want to buy some good batteries and replace them for the actual gig. Of course he put one of them in backwards which made for a bit of a scramble when hit time came but it actually helped with the review.

How, you ask? It made me use a different mic on the lead singer for the first set. And it was a good mic that I know well but the difference in performance was huge. Plug in the XDH4 and bring up the channel gain and you may think it is broken until you actually speak into it because it has none of the hiss and noise that is so common in affordable wireless systems. No companding means actual dynamic range and 24-bit conversion means pristine sound quality.

I used the system on the same two gigs as with the KS speakers. Both had female singers up front and both of them had mic technique that was less than stellar, but in different ways. The first singer in the blues band moved around a lot in relation to the position of the mic. This was the “backward battery” gig and we ended up switching to an Audix OM2 that I had set up for a bass player who sang some backup. The super flat and tight OM2 was great for him but switching it to the lead singer meant riding a lot of fader a she moved around.

Though we did not use another mic with the lead singer of the Heart tribute, she has the pipes of a young Ann Wilson and does not back off the mic when she really steps on it.

Bottom line is that the XDH4 is very forgiving of less than perfect mic technique. Once we had it dialed in I rarely touched it again for the entire gig.

So what didn’t I like? Not much. Getting the batteries in ad out was a bit of a chore and not something I would want to have to do on a dark stage. Right now you won’t see a lot of these in sound company stock because they are limited to 5 frequencies. I run a bar band and between guitars, mics and personal monitors, we run 12-14 channels of wireless on any given gig. (OK , it’s a 10-piece bar band but you get it.) But for bands and musicians that needs just a few wireless channels this system is very hard to beat. It sounds great and is dead simple to use.

http://line6.com/xdr955/