Nux B-7PSM wireless in-ear monitoring

Musicwolf

Background

I play guitar and, depending upon which band, also sing.  Gigging a couple of times each month, mostly in pubs but also small clubs, and I go direct to PA from my Helix.  I've used in-ear monitors for a while but, until now, I've always gone wired.  Monitoring setup is Behringer XR-18 mixer > Behringer P16-M Personal Monitor > Shure SE535 with custom mould Snugs tips.

On the 'stages' we play there isn't really much chance to move about but, even so, wired can sometimes be a faff with either standing on cables or as happened at the gig before last, and not for the first time, I took my guitar off at the end of the set then walked off stage with my in-ears still tethered.  I've often looked at wireless setups but was of the opinion that it was an unnecessary complication and cost for minimal benefit.

I spotted these, the Nux B-7PSMs.  Digital, running in the 5,8 GHz band, and stereo.  £135, so I thought that I'd give them a go.

The on-line reviews were split.  Just about everybody liked the design, the simplicity, the in-case charging etc, but the reviewers were diametrically opposed when it came to sound quality with many complaining about digital noise / distortion / static.  Judging from comments this was a feature / limitation of the system rather than faulty individual units.  One reviewer on YouTube attempted to record this noise but, even on quality headphones, I couldn't hear it.

When I first plugged the system in I did a quick test using Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones (rather than faff around with my in-ears).  Sound quality was great with no detectable noise, however, as soon as I switched to the SE535s (26 ohms vs. 80 Ohms for the DT770s. The SE's are also more sensitive) you can hear the background noise and I can see why some people will find it unacceptable.  I persevered and, as soon as you start playing, it wasn't a problem for me.

I gigged these last night, in a pub, and I couldn't have been happier.  As the other guitarist had drawn up the set list (he got the gig, and it was his local) I found myself switching between guitars several times through the night.  I had my main electric setup using my old Line 6 G30 wireless and my PRS SE Hollowbody II Piezo with my new Lekato WS-60 2.4 GHz Stereo transmitter (separate feeds for piezo and mag feeds).  Latency on the Lekato is relatively high, I've measured it at around 12 ms, the Nux is <5ms plus there's going to be some latency in the Helix - but I'm able to work with it.  I didn't experience any dropouts whatsoever.

Whether the Nux will work for you is going to depend upon;

Your age / hearing.  I'm 61 years of age, and I've had these ears from new, so my hearing isn't the same as it was at 21 or even 31.  As you get older your ability to hear the higher frequencies drops off, and this is where the noise is present.

Your tolerance / expectations.  If you're familiar with the Insights Colour Energies stuff then if I were to tell you that I'm a (strong) Red / Yellow then you know what I mean.  I'm all about the big picture, getting the job done etc, I'm not about detail (that's for other people).  As long as I can hear myself well enough to perform then I'm good to go, what matters is how I interact with the audience.   If you're the sort of person who will spend hours dismantling their car because they can hear a squeak - then these probably aren't for you. 

We got to the end of last night's gig and the other guitarist was complaining about the sound from his monitor whilst the singer said that she struggled to hear herself on a couple of numbers.  I was perfectly happy with my sound.  Most importantly, the audience were happy.

Jonathangus

We had a dep bassist join us for a gig a few weeks back.  He has this set and I tried them at a rehearsal.  They seemed to work OK, but I needed much more time to get a mix of my guitar and vocal to really try them out.

One thing I can't seem to find an answer for, though - are they designed to take a line-level feed from an Aux out, or plug into a headphone out?

Musicwolf

Jonathangus said:

One thing I can't seem to find an answer for, though - are they designed to take a line-level feed from an Aux out, or plug into a headphone out?

So far I've only used them with the transmitter plugged into the headphone out on the P16-M (with the P16-M level set pretty low).  I may try feeding it from the Aux Out on the XR-18, but that's going to involve a trip into the loft to hunt out the right cables.

I'm likely going to continue using the P16-M as it's very easy to tweak my monitor mix on the fly plus I can quickly plug my in-ears in directly should I encounter a problem with the Nux.

Danny1969

Musicwolf said:

Jonathangus said:

One thing I can't seem to find an answer for, though - are they designed to take a line-level feed from an Aux out, or plug into a headphone out?

So far I've only used them with the transmitter plugged into the headphone out on the P16-M (with the P16-M level set pretty low).  I may try feeding it from the Aux Out on the XR-18, but that's going to involve a trip into the loft to hunt out the right cables.

I'm likely going to continue using the P16-M as it's very easy to tweak my monitor mix on the fly plus I can quickly plug my in-ears in directly should I encounter a problem with the Nux.

The Nux can't take a normal Aux line level in stereo  because it's unbalanced, if you convert to single ended then you lose 6dB right off the bat  .... it can probably run balanced from a single XRL in mono though 


You won't really be able to find any direct cables that will do the job in stereo. To get a stereo feed from 2 Aux sockets on balanced XRL's  converted to TRS you first need to convert them to single ended  .... so need to short pin 3 to pin 1 on both female XLR's . Then connect all the grounds together and use one XRL's pin 2 for left and the other XRL's pin 2 for right. 

Setting up stereo IEM's on the X18 is also a pain in the arse, because you can't pair 2 auxs for stereo like you can on normal desks. Or at least every time I've had to mix on one I couldn't see a way of doing it. The P16 is a far better bet. 

Musicwolf

Danny1969 said:

Setting up stereo IEM's on the X18 is also a pain in the arse, because you can't pair 2 auxs for stereo like you can on normal desks. Or at least every time I've had to mix on one I couldn't see a way of doing it. The P16 is a far better bet.

You can link channels (but I seem to spend 5 minutes looking for the right menu each time I do it).

Select one of the busses that you wish to link, then click on that strip (far right hand of screen) and select channel at the top of the page.  Stereo link button is there.

What you can't do is pan things differently in the stereo aux bus compared to the main bus. Bit of a pain since I run the PA in mono (because virtually non of the audience can get a stereo image) whilst I prefer stereo in-ears.

Danny1969

Musicwolf said:

Danny1969 said:

Setting up stereo IEM's on the X18 is also a pain in the arse, because you can't pair 2 auxs for stereo like you can on normal desks. Or at least every time I've had to mix on one I couldn't see a way of doing it. The P16 is a far better bet.

You can link channels (but I seem to spend 5 minutes looking for the right menu each time I do it).

Select one of the busses that you wish to link, then click on that strip (far right hand of screen) and select channel at the top of the page.  Stereo link button is there.

What you can't do is pan things differently in the stereo aux bus compared to the main bus. Bit of a pain since I run the PA in mono (because virtually non of the audience can get a stereo image) whilst I prefer stereo in-ears.

It's the panning I want to do though ... I work for a corp band mainly doing London Award gigs and they are all on stereo IEM's running from an MR18 which is a glorified X18  ..... So presently to set up a stereo IEM mic on aux 1 and aux 2 I have to treat aux 1 as  the left ear and send some stuff to that, then treat aux 2 as the right ear and send some stuff to that etc

With a normal desk I can just  pair 2 aux sends into a stereo bus , name it after the performer .. let's say Jason for example. Then to set an IEM mix just click on Jason, choose a channel like the hi hat etc ... set the level and move the pan slider to where he wants it in his ears. 

I thought maybe this issue had been resolved by now

Jonathangus

@Musicwolf - how are you getting on with the Nux?

Musicwolf

Jonathangus said:

@Musicwolf - how are you getting on with the Nux?

To be honest, I've not used it much.

The Nux was fine, and the background noise was not a problem in a live environment.  The problem has been finding a suitable wireless transmitter for my guitar.

I play a PRS SE Semi-hollow piezo, with separate outputs for the piezo and magnetic pickups.  This means that I require a two-channel or stereo system.  I did find one, a Lekato Air Bridge, but the latency was just too high.  Because I'm tethered by a guitar lead it makes no sense to add the complication of wireless IEMs when I can just have an additional lead.  The only benefit of wireless IEM would be to stop me from taking my guitar off and trying to walk away with my IEMs still attached (which I've done at least twice).

Jonathangus

Ah, that sounds tricky.  I tried the wired IEM dual cable thingy I built at last Friday's gig, and it didn't work too well (nothing wrong in principle, but something I obviously need to troubleshoot).  But I'd quite like to go back to using my guitar wireless also, hence looking at a wireless IEM solution.