Members Audiopile Posted December 31, 2013 Members Share Posted December 31, 2013 I'm a recent user of AT M3 IEM's.I seem to be "against the wall" concerning dynamic range compression with the system... something that I haven't previously experienced with my Shure PSM-200 IEM system.To be fair, all my experience with my PSM-200 system has been with analogue equipment, and all my recent experience with the M3 system has been with a Behringer X-32 board... I think I have some gain structure problems going on... but before I spend a lot more time trying to figure out what the heck is going on, I'm wondering if others have noticed this situation to be somewhat relative to the M3 system (that I'm trying to fix something that's unfixable?) I'll get through tonight's gig with the M3... but I think there's room for considerable improvement... somehow or another. AT's tech dude wasn't much "help".And... soon as I can pry my PSM-200 system away from the person I loaned it to about a year ago... I'll do some side-by-side with the M3 system.I have no doubts in my mind that something's amiss. I don't expect perfection on my budget, but perfection would be nice (especially if pert-near opulence just involves some deft knob twisting). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted December 31, 2013 Members Share Posted December 31, 2013 Where are you operating on the transmitter meter? IIRC there are 2 different limiting mechanisms going on, one in the transmitter link (overmod) and one in the receiver's audio path. Limiting against one or the other may result in a limited sound without reaching your target bud SPL. Specifically, watch the transmitter level to be sure you are not running into overmod limiting. Once you are sure of that (and there are no other limiters in the audio path on the console's aux outputs), you then only have the receiver's audio path limiting which is the most important one as it's directly related to max SPL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Audiopile Posted January 1, 2014 Author Members Share Posted January 1, 2014 agedhorse wrote: Where are you operating on the transmitter meter? IIRC there are 2 different limiting mechanisms going on, one in the transmitter link (overmod) and one in the receiver's audio path. Limiting against one or the other may result in a limited sound without reaching your target bud SPL. Specifically, watch the transmitter level to be sure you are not running into overmod limiting. Once you are sure of that (and there are no other limiters in the audio path on the console's aux outputs), you then only have the receiver's audio path limiting which is the most important one as it's directly related to max SPL. Joel sez we're not overdriving the transmitters. I defeated the limiting on the receiver and that helped "some"... about 6dB... but still... the bud SPL is 6 - 10dB below ambient (the stage volume with my buds in) at full volume on the receiver, and we aren't all that loud stage volume wise (likely under 100dB where I stand). I get a lot of white noise with no signal... any signal the white noise goes away. One voice or instrument is clear and dynamic... as instruments or voices are added, the dynamic range compresses... 3 vocals and two guitars all at the same time and it's just "gak, gak, gak" clipped limiting in beat... Add my bass in and all hope of distinguishing anything goes away as the sound then turns to just blip, blip, blip (some audible noise between clipped muting... but it's in rhythm to the beat... so I can play with the buds in, but I can hear and play way better with them out (no monitors what-so-ever)). My PMS 200 is absolutely nothing like this (it actually works in a manner than one would expect).Oh, and Joel sez "it sounds great" where he's patching in with the same model buds on the transmitters.I dunno... maybe the frequency I'm running on got sold and it don't work no more. (a can on a string monitor system would sound better). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted January 1, 2014 Members Share Posted January 1, 2014 Let me look into it, I have an m3 system here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Audiopile Posted January 1, 2014 Author Members Share Posted January 1, 2014 Problem solved (I think).After much "trying this and trying that"... I changed ear buds... and voila. I hadn't previously unplugged the first set of ear buds since first plugging them in. I don't know what was up with that... after playing a set with the second set of buds, I changed back to the first set and they worked just as well.All seems fine now. All I can think is maybe I didn't have the first set screwed down tight enough or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted January 1, 2014 Members Share Posted January 1, 2014 It's possible that the plug was not fully seated, iirc the headphone drivers are btl which can operate oddly when not properly loaded. (ie one channel returning through the other chdnnel's bud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Audiopile Posted January 1, 2014 Author Members Share Posted January 1, 2014 agedhorse wrote: iirc the headphone drivers are btl which can operate oddly when not properly loaded. (ie one channel returning through the other chdnnel's bud Could explain some about BTL? I Google and read about Bridge-tied Load... the explanation I read was... well... I dunno (But then it is New Year's morning... The first cup of coffee was unusually late, and seemingly not very effective this morning). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted January 2, 2014 Members Share Posted January 2, 2014 Absurd, The M2 system generally ships with a MUCH cheaper set of buds. The M2 system is a with the EP3 buds as an option but I would think very very few ship this way. The EP3 is a much better bud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members abzurd Posted January 2, 2014 Members Share Posted January 2, 2014 agedhorse wrote: Absurd, The M2 system generally ships with a MUCH cheaper set of buds. The M2 system is a with the EP3 buds as an option but I would think very very few ship this way. The EP3 is a much better bud. Well here's the weird thing.... Check out AT's own site. Notice the 2 pictures. They aren't the same buds. Pic one are the buds I have. Pic 2 is a different model and doesn't have a screw on connector. FWIW, my buds look like pic 1 and every other pic of the EP3 I can find online looks like pic 1 as well.Also, many online retailer claim that the EP3 ships standard with the M2.Edit: All the pics of the M2 and M3 show the same EP3 buds, or at least they look exactly alike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.