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The Phenyx Pro PTU-7000 is an amazing value if you are looking for multiple wireless mics. But is it any good? Find out in Dustin's review. | Purchase the Phenyx Pro PTU-7000 @ https://amzn.to/4gNov0W | Amazon Canada https://link.amazon/B04c3QhUC
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Table of Contents:
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0:00 - Intro and Concept
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:10
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to take a look at Fenix Pros PTU7000
0:16
series. I'm specifically looking at this
0:19
wireless mic system when it comes to
0:22
lapel and then also headset level mics
0:24
rather than handhelds because that's
0:26
what we were looking for to add to our
0:28
existing system at the church that I
0:30
pastor. And so Fenix Pro is an up
0:32
andcoming budget alternative to some of
0:34
the more established and much more
0:36
expensive brands. And so I was
0:37
interested in seeing if their rack
0:39
mountable system would, you know, kind
0:42
of mesh with the existing system that we
0:44
have. We are using an Allen and Heath
0:46
QU24. And our typical handhelds, our
0:48
Sennheiser EW100 G4s, so we are used to
0:52
having good quality of sound in our
0:54
building. And so I was interesting to
0:56
see how these budget alternatives would
0:59
actually fit into the system, how that
1:00
they would hold up and how their sound
1:02
quality would hold up. So we're going to
1:03
be doing a lot of this review in the
1:05
test environment, which is the church
1:07
building. But before I do that, I'm
1:08
going to give you a quick run through
1:09
some of the specs and then we'll jump
1:11
into some real world tests and examples.
1:14
So, this whole system cost just $320.
1:18
And so, that gives you a rack mountable
1:20
receiver that has uh four XLR outputs on
1:24
the back, one quarterinch unbalanced
1:26
output for combined audio, and then four
1:30
different uh transmitter body packs
1:32
along with a total of eight different
1:35
microphones. And so, there are cardio
1:37
cardioid style mics with both lapel or
1:39
lavalier style and then also headset
1:42
options. And so each um of the body
1:44
packs comes with two different mic
1:46
options to use. And so you're getting a
1:47
total of eight microphones and four body
1:49
packs along with the receiver for 320
1:52
bucks. Pretty awesome. Their claimed
1:54
range is up to 100 meters. Actual body
1:57
packs have are up to eight hours of
2:00
battery life. And it is a 4 channel UHF
2:03
receiver and it is mostly operating or
2:06
entirely operating in the 500 megahertz
2:08
frequency band which is good getting it
2:10
away from the traditional Wi-Fi type
2:12
channels. And so each channel has about
2:14
12 megahertz of play and 1 2 3 4 each
2:18
one of them is operating in a little bit
2:20
different frequency range and you have
2:21
some different frequency options but
2:23
within about 12 megahertz of play for
2:26
each channel. And so those are the basic
2:29
specifications. This is the box that it
2:30
comes in. Let's take a look at how it
2:32
actually held up when my tech guy from
2:35
the church and I began to work on the
2:37
review and incorporate into our system.
2:39
Okay, for the initial synchronization,
2:41
all you've got to do is open up the
2:43
battery compartment. These are a little
2:45
finicky. You got to pinch in and uh
2:47
getting both of them to release at the
2:49
same time could be a little bit of a
2:50
trouble sometimes. Power on the unit
2:52
itself. There is a little red box here
2:54
that represents where the IR signal is
2:56
going to sync up with. And there are two
2:58
options on the actual main receiver
3:01
itself. And so I'm going to line up and
3:04
allow that to be seen.
3:06
>> Then we'll go ahead and talk there so it
3:08
lights up.
3:09
>> Testing, testing, testing. One, two,
3:12
two, two.
3:19
So you'll have to mute this audio of me
3:21
saying that. There you go.
3:22
>> All right. So testing now the overear
3:25
option with the actual mic extension
3:27
here. Uh definitely there is a higher
3:30
gain level because the mic is more
3:32
directionally in front of your mouth.
3:33
You want to be careful with your mic
3:35
position. Uh if you get it a little bit
3:37
high here while you're getting nice and
3:38
rich here. You're also more likely to
3:39
pick up
3:41
uh noise is coming from your breathing.
3:44
And so I would say probably better to
3:46
get a little bit less gain uh
3:48
sensitivity here and actually get a
3:50
little bit more balance of sound. But
3:51
once again, the quality of the
3:53
microphone is actually really, really
3:54
good. And I definitely would be happy
3:56
speaking. As far as the fit of this, it
3:59
seems to fit on there comfortably. Um,
4:02
I'm typically going to be speaking for
4:04
40 to 50 minutes, and I would say at
4:06
least over under short-term use. I'll
4:08
test it long-term, I would say that it's
4:10
comfortable enough for that kind of
4:12
situation without any kind of issues. So
4:14
far, I'm actually impressed with the
4:16
quality of sound from both microphones,
4:19
and it matches reasonably well with our,
4:21
you know, expensive Sennheiser handheld
4:25
mics that we typically use. Okay, so
4:27
we're going to do just take a look
4:29
around this room. This is a fairly large
4:31
space and so we're wanting to see if
4:33
there's any dead zones in the actual
4:35
wireless pack. I've got the pack back
4:37
here tucked underneath my shirt. The
4:39
receiver is located here. So, as I start
4:42
to move out, I'm going to go around the
4:45
room and just see if there are any dead
4:47
zones where in a room like this, I'm
4:49
getting any kind of drop. This is a
4:51
steel building, has a metal roof to it,
4:55
and so as far as external signals,
4:57
definitely will do a lot of blocking out
4:58
there. But so far, as I move around this
5:01
space, I'm getting consistent sound. No
5:04
dead zones here. I'm going to go to the
5:07
far back corner over on this side and
5:08
then I'll step out into the lobby and
5:10
see even with some internal walls um
5:13
blocking signal. See if I'm still
5:15
getting a wireless signal. Stepping out
5:17
into the lobby here and we can see as I
5:20
move into this space. I think as far as
5:22
what I can hear that I'm still getting
5:25
consistent sound. So in most venues that
5:28
at least I would be working in, this
5:30
would be sufficient signal for picking
5:32
up all throughout without any kind of
5:34
dead spots.
5:36
So, what were the pros? Well, I was
5:38
pleasantly surprised by the sound
5:39
quality. Um, again, running it through
5:41
the Allen and Heath Q24. And so, we were
5:44
actually able to basically initially
5:46
just copy over the equalization settings
5:49
uh from the of the standard mic that I'm
5:51
personally using when I'm speaking or
5:53
singing. And and so, we found that the
5:55
sound quality as I went back and forth
5:57
was, you know, fairly remarkably
5:59
similar. it was lacked a little bit of
6:01
low-end relative to the Sennheiser Q or
6:04
G4s, but you know, those run about
6:06
$1,000 each without a receiver here in
6:09
Canada. And so, the sound was actually
6:11
surprisingly close. And then when I used
6:12
it in a real world setting, um, both for
6:15
speaking and then for singing as a part
6:17
of like a corral type practice, I was
6:19
impressed by really how well the sound
6:21
quality held up. And so, that was a huge
6:23
plus for me. I It definitely exceeded my
6:26
expectations. My expectations for sound
6:28
quality admittedly were a little bit on
6:30
the low side because I've used uh I've
6:33
used cheap lavalier type mics before and
6:35
often it's a miserable experience. I was
6:37
very pleasantly surprised at how natural
6:40
how normal I should say that my s my
6:42
voice sounded through the monitors and
6:43
then also in the house sound. I was also
6:47
uh pleasantly surprised by not having to
6:49
this point at least any issues with uh
6:52
drops um either in my actual test as I
6:55
was testing for it, but then more
6:56
importantly in real world use uh in our
6:58
building. I haven't experienced any
7:00
drops at all. No cutouts. And so that
7:01
was great. And then of course on the
7:03
plus side, the whole kit costs less than
7:05
a third of just one of our handheld
7:07
mics. And so obviously as a value for
7:09
money, pretty fantastic. On the the cons
7:13
side of the equation, things that stood
7:15
out to me is that the body pack
7:16
transmitters, they felt, you know, kind
7:18
of plasticky. I felt like the opening to
7:22
change out the batteries is a little bit
7:23
clunky. And I just I wonder how well
7:25
that that's going to hold up over the
7:26
long haul. And so, I mean, that's going
7:29
to have to be determined over a longer
7:31
period of use. But, um, you know, that's
7:33
that's an area that I wasn't wasn't
7:35
thrilled about. In one case, we needed
7:38
to sync up wanted to change the channel
7:40
on one of the uh actual transmitters and
7:43
we found that the control for changing
7:45
frequencies there it's not necessarily
7:47
straightforward and it doesn't feel like
7:49
you have a tremendous amount of
7:50
precision. It's it's more of an kind of
7:52
allowing to do kind of a little bit more
7:54
a fresh audio sync up and so I mean that
7:56
whole process I would have liked a
7:58
little bit more fine-tuning control
8:00
maybe on the actual receiver itself to
8:03
allow you to fine-tune that. So, that's
8:05
one area where I'll critique. There
8:06
isn't maybe as much versatility compared
8:09
to more high-end systems when it comes
8:11
to controlling little things like that.
8:14
At the same time, however, my
8:15
conclusion, and I got this both off of
8:18
my own personal experience, which is
8:19
most important, but also I was
8:21
interested in seeing in kind of cruising
8:22
the forums and seeing what people who
8:25
had used them longer term, what their
8:27
response was. And I found that for one
8:29
thing there is definitely a there was a
8:31
difference in positivity for those that
8:34
went up to the PTU7000.
8:36
Um and so they're you know slightly
8:38
better lineup as opposed to the lower
8:40
lineups. But people were that were using
8:42
the PTU7000 were pretty universally
8:46
impressed with both the quality and even
8:48
the durability. Some have been using
8:49
them for years without any issues and
8:52
some, you know, reported that they
8:53
hadn't had any issues with the Fenix
8:55
Pros, whereas they had had um issues
8:57
with some other major brands of similar
9:00
equipment that they were using. Now,
9:01
there certainly going to be industry
9:03
professionals there that will say you
9:04
get what you pay for, which is often
9:07
true, but of course, not everyone has an
9:09
AV budget that runs into the tens of
9:11
thousands. And so I can say that both
9:13
for myself and our primary tech guy that
9:16
we were actually impressed with both the
9:18
quality of sound and the quality of the
9:20
equipment for the price. So if you're
9:22
someone who's operating on a budget,
9:24
this is certainly an intriguing point of
9:25
entry. For us personally, we will use it
9:28
primarily for uh sometimes interspersing
9:31
for into like a corral type setting. And
9:33
so some of the strong voices will have,
9:34
you know, extra microphones. We'll use
9:36
it for dramas. And then of course for
9:38
speakers who don't like to use a
9:40
handheld mic and want a little more, you
9:42
know, flexibility. And so definitely
9:44
having these alternatives, we primarily
9:46
use handhelds, but when we want that
9:48
alternative, be able to lean on that for
9:50
occasional use at a much lower price
9:53
point is certainly intriguing for us. I
9:55
suspect it might be intriguing for you
9:57
as well. If you want more information,
9:58
feel free to check out the link in the
10:00
description down below. As always,
10:02
thanks for watching. Have a great day
10:03
and let the light in.
#Science