REVIEW
LINE6 XD-V WIRELESS SYSTEM Line6 shakes up the wireless market with a system that’s got plenty going for it. Text: Christopher Holder
NEED TO KNOW Price V70 (Handheld version): $699 V70C (Lapel version): $699 V70HS (Headset version): $799 Contact Musiclink Australia (03) 9765 6530 atdept@musiclink.com.au www.musiclink.com.au Pros Sounds great. No interference problems. Easy to configure. Choice of mic models very useful. Cons Max of 12 channels. ‘Saggy’ mic clip with weight of transmitter Summary A well priced, well designed, great sounding wireless system that’s easy to learn and configure. Well suited to just about any small to medium application.
AT 76
Imagine a vocal mic that allowed you to almost instantly swap capsules: SM58 for one gig, Audix OM5 the next; Beta 58 one song, Sennheiser e835 the next. Or put it this way, have you ever taken one vocal mic to a gig then realised the vocalist was totally unsuited to it and you’d be much better off with another? Sure, you can make it work, but we all know how important it is to find the best mic match for a vocal, and sometimes that search can last years. SEARCH FOR A SUPER MIC MODEL
Line6 does a wireless range called the XD-V and the handheld mic in the V70 system allows you to do just that. There are six virtual mic models onboard, based on the performances of Shure’s SM58, Beta 58, the Sennheiser e835, Audix OM5, Electro-Voice ND767a, and the AudioTechnica AE4100. With a few swift taps on the two buttons on the handheld you can switch between models. Are they electron-for-electron clones of the real things? Who cares. They’re close enough and ultimately the best thing about it is you instantly have more tools in your locker. Only last weekend I had a guest vocalist who I started on the OM5 mic model, only to quickly realise a trusty SM58 was going to be way more suitable for the idiosyncracies of her voice. So between songs during soundcheck I made the virtual switch on the mic. Immediately I felt like I was way more in the ‘ballpark’ than I ever could be with the three-band EQ of my analogue mixing console. You might be thinking: that’s a good party trick, but hardly worth wagering the farm on. And, to be honest, when I first heard about the Line6 wireless I was of the same opinion: “here’s a company with instrument modelling smarts trying to find new ways in which to package its IP”.
Turns out the mic modelling is only one aspect of a really well conceived system. 2.4GHZ: WHAT’S THE DOWNSIDE?
XD-V is a complete wireless range. Handheld, guitar, lapel, headset; there’s a system for most applications. They all share the same RX212 receiver unit. So effectively XD-V is no different to any other wireless system, like a Shure SLX, except in one key respect: XD-V works in the 2.4GHz range, not UHF. As you’re probably aware, 2.4GHz is a popular frequency. Wi-fi and Bluetooth use 2.4GHz, so in other words, unless you’re reading this article in The Kimberley, you’re bathing in it – your cordless phones, wireless router, wireless mouse etc, are all operating on the same frequency range. The reason why 2.4GHz is so popular, is because it doesn’t require a license. And from an audio perspective that’s great news: you have a system that will operate anywhere in the world – no need to worry about finding a slice of available UHF spectrum or experiencing random interference. Brilliant! So why then doesn’t every wireless mic or in-ear system use 2.4GHz then? To operate in the 2.4GHz range you need to work digitally – unlike UHF which works with analogue signals. So, to be ‘heard’ in the crush of this wireless digital blizzard we’re engulfed in, you need some fairly serious error correction – packets of data will be dropped hither and thither so you need to employ methods whereby your receiver takes a look at the data stream from a variety of ‘angles’ and grabs the one with the most integrity [check out the Digital Diversity box item]. All this cross-checking takes time. And this traditionally has been the main killer: latency. Line6 quotes a latency figure of 4ms. This is loads better than