Summary: This was a surprisingly short thread, but we've included it here because it's critical to be sure that those who use in-ear monitors are also taking steps to protect against hearing loss.
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From: Pat Prendergast (Lacomb, LA)
Subject: Re: Personal Headphone Mixers
Ron Hagelganz wrote:
<"Our worship leader plays piano and is currently
using a wedge, but we have
recently rented a set of Garwood wireless in-ear monitors and
will be going
to those very soon.">
I went to the Garwood web site, got the number, and called but that location had suspended operations. Their answering machine gave another number but they were closed for the day. I placed the call at 3 pm. Can you give any additional info or tell me about other manufacturers of IEM type monitors. I know Nady makes some but don't know much about them. I've tried search engines to no avail.
Thanks,
Pat Prendergast
Living Word Assembly
Lacomb, LA
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From: Curt Taipale (Taipale Media Systems, Inc.)
Subject: Re: Personal Headphone Mixers
<"Can you give any additional info or tell me about
other manufacturers of IEM
type monitors.">
Pat,
It sounds like you've tracked this down to the fence. Just
to double check,
the URL I have for Garwood is <http://www.garwood-radio.com>?
I just logged
onto their site and it has today's date as the latest update,
which suggests
to me that everything is okay with the company. Here's the US
distributor
info that I pulled off their site - is this the number you called?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GARWOOD COMMUNICATIONS INC.
305 River Road
Tullytown, PA 19007
Tel: +1 215 949 3200, Fax: +1 215 949 8500
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
That IS different than the number in my
'97 NAMM show book which was: 215-860-6866.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Have you looked at Shure? They make both a wireless in-ear
monitor system as
well as a hardwired version. Here's the link to that page on their
site:
<http://www.shure.com/psmindex.html>.
As I recall, Future Sonics is another manufacturer of in-ear
monitors. Anyone
know of other companies?
Curt
curt@churchsoundcheck.com
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From: Curt Taipale (Taipale Media Systems, Inc.)
Subject: Drilling for ear wax
Hi y'all!
One other thought while we're on this topic of stuffing
things in our ears. I
know we mentioned this last fall, but if you're going to start
using in-ear
monitors please be sure that you're using some sort of brick wall
limiter in
the signal flow.
A few years ago I was sitting in a workshop with some of
the folks from the
live sound industry, and they were addressing the issue of in-ear
monitors.
Their comment was unanimous and sobering - when some major artist
(like Phil
Collins) would request in-ear monitors for their tour, the sound
company would
agree to provide the equipment, BUT, they would in turn require
that the
artist provide their own engineer. In other words, they didn't
want the
liability of blowing out Phil Collins' (or anyone's) ears.
Don't take this lightly - this is serious stuff. Once your
hearing is gone,
it's gone. And everyone has a different sensitivity. A brick wall
limiter
(like an Aphex Dominator for example) can be worth every penny
the day your
choir mics go into feedback and that suddenly loud sound goes
directly into
your worship leader's or even your pastor's ears.
The info on the Shure wireless system says it has a built-in
limiter with a
compression ratio of greater than 10 to 1. The info on their hardwired
version just says it has a limiter, with no more details.
All that to say, I wouldn't buy an IEM unit from any manufacturer
without
checking for that feature. It the unit doesn't have a quality
limiter built-
in, then the Aphex Dominator is another safe solution, but it's
not
inexpensive. Is another less expensive limiter just as good? I
don't know.
If everyone's sensitivity is slightly different, then what are
the tolerances?
If it were my ears on the line, I'd be willing to pay for the
best solution I
could get my hands on.
Just some stuff worth thinking about. Maybe someone else
in the group has
checked this out more carefully, and could offer up some advice.
Curt
curt@churchsoundcheck.com