Looking for multi-channel wireless mic system

[dane]

Posting this on multiple forums--

Does anyone have any experience with such things? Recommended brands to try or avoid?

We need at least a dual wireless mic system (headset or lapel-- not handheld) for our church's children's ministry (skits).. of course if I could find a good 3- or 4- channel wireless system that'd be icing on the cake.

Found this Pyle quad-headset mic system at Amazon if anyone knows much about Pyle mic system quality:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MCKAT2

thanks in advance,
..dane

[woofersus]

I have a lot of experience with such things. I hate to tell you this, but wireless mics are something you don't want to go super cheap on, and the Pyle is scraping the bottom. The issue is that

a) Cheapo brands like that will grossly overstate range or state it in the best possible conditions - like standing on a mountain summit, with the receiver on another peak exactly 200ft away on a cloudless 68.3 degree day with no airplanes within 100 miles.
b) VHF non-diversity systems will suffer terrible interference when you are not in ideal circumstances. Flourescent lights? Interference. Wireless Router? Interference. Cell phones? Interference. Trucker's radio driving by outside? Recipe for disaster in a church service. (I've seen it happen) In fact, I've seen some similar systems that cut in and out just because somebody walked in front of the antennae like it needed line-of-sight.
c) The microphone quality you get is terrible. I know there were some good reviews for that item, but alll I can say is that many people in that particular arena are used to terrible, garbled, unintelligible sound from their sound systems. Show me a component not worth wasting $1 on and I'll show you somebody who thinks it's the cat's meow.

The end result is that you have a system that has limited range, suffers drop-outs, gets interference from many sources that cause annoying static in the system like a bad radio station, won't work right if the people wearing the mics get too close together, and when it does work correctly, the sound quality is so low that you can't hardly understand what's being said anyway - especially children who will speak very quietly in such situations - so you turn it up and get all kinds of feedback issues from the crappy mic capsules.

I would recommend starting with 2 decent wirelss mic systems and saving some cash to add later. You're better off to buy something 2-3x as expensive that will last for years than to buy something like that Pyle and have to replace it in every year with something that sucks just as bad.

I would take a look at this or this. If you must go cheapy, then stay away from Pyle and take a look at this or this.

[dane]

Thanks for that info. I heard from someone else also that VHF is to be avoided. Shure has a couple nice primer PDF's on their website which I found to be a good and helpful read.

I have been eyeing the Nady before I saw your reply but a reviewer called them "nasty nady" and was extremely displeased. Of course it's hard to judge with online reviews (as you noted, the Pyle had good reviews but your experience shows vastly the opposite)...

The two Audio-Technica's didn't look to include the mic in their package-- just the transmitter and receiver. Unless I can save money buying piecemeal I'd rather keep it simple.

The Sennheiser is quite a bit more expensive.. but if that's what it takes, then I guess that's what it takes. :(

I may PM you offline for a lengthier discussion..

thanks,
..dane