Iem Series: Fill & Download for Free

A seemingly simple question, but not so easy to answer. It greatly depends on the kind(s) of music and events you want to go into. I mainly mix the following kinds of music and events:church music and other spiritual eventsclassic soulbandsrock, pop, covermusichard rockworldmusicspeech and conferencesno punk, no metal, no DJ-events (unless they are just the in-between act in an event of mainly live-music), no techno or EDMI do not rent out equipment, people book me, and I bring the equipment I need for the jobYou will need at least:a means of transportationa place (dry, secure and easily reachable, so either on ground level or with a lift) for storagea talent for planning and organisinga mixer (plus multicore if you do not use a small digital mixer with remote control)a set of vocal microphonesa set of instrumental micsa front-PA-system plus amping (or you go for active systems which, in this size, is preferable in my experience)a monitor system for the stage plus amping (or you use active systems)tons of good (!) mic cables and (!) mic standsa small power distribution systemhalf a dozen DI-boxes and similar toolsand maybe a basic set of stage lightsALL your equipment must be in flight cases or at least in good gig bags, and that right from the beginning - which adds about 10 to 15% to the price of each piece of equipment you will ever buy; plus, you should have at least one thing like the rock’n’roller to be able to roll your equipment instead of lugging all of it: See Thomann - RockNRollerpossibly a few wireless micspossibly some IEM systems for in-ear-monitoringsome basic stage lightsIf you do not have 1, 2 and 3, then make sure you have it before you even start. Or don’t start at all.List points 4 to 13 are the basics, without any them, you can only equip the smallest and very specialised events, but if you want be generally ready to serve all kinds of smaller events, you need them all.14 to 16 are optional or may come later.The mixer will cost you 1000 to 2000 USD at least (from here on: all prices including the casing and the required add-ons). No recommendations here, because taste varies and technical progress is our friend.You should at least have 4 identical vocal mics - the Shure SM58 is an accepted standard, better is the Shure Beta 58a. My preference is the Sennheiser e945. I have all of these (and a few more), and with the Beta 58a or the e945, you will never fail. HEIL sound PR-20 and PR-22 are equally good (and they cost less), but are not known in all parts of the world. Same is true for the products of Audix, Beyerdynamic, AKG and audio technica - great stuff, but some artists will begin a discussion about your equipment and might believe it to be sub-par. Shure and Sennheiser - never an issue.Including a case, this will be 500 to 1000 USD.For the instrumental mics, it greatly depends on your predominant kinds of events. A set for drum miking plus some for guitar amps and basic percussion - again, the Shure Beta series and the Sennheiser e900 series are your friends on all occasions, but do not forget HEIL, Beyerdynamic, AKG, Audix and audio technica before you make a decision.Including a case, this will be 700 to 2000 USD. But if you are a freak and collector like me, this can be bottomless.If you need choir mics, you need four identical small-diaphragm condenser mics of at least mid-quality. These will also be great for drum overheads and HiHat and other percussion or acoustic instruments. Minimum is Sennheiser e614 or something from Shure in the same price range, or Shure Beta or Sennheiser e914.Including a case, this will be 700 to 1800 USD (but possibly, you already have some of these for your drum mics - in 30 years, I never needed choir mics PLUS many overhead mics for drums at the same time).A few good mic cables of 10 and 15 feet (I would say 4 of each), most with 25 to 35 feet length (15 to 20 is a good start).This will be 500 to 800 USD including a case/box.Mic stands: Do not select the cheap stuff of 20 to 25 USD per piece, they will fail you after 2 or 3 years of use. Use the 45 to 55 USD per piece price range. Can you buy K&M (König&Mayer) in your country? They never fail, and if you need replacement parts, you can buy those at very reasonable prices even after DECADES! I have stands which are 35 years old, and they work like on day one.Pro tip: If your drum mics for Snare and Toms are clip-ons, you do not have to buy, case and carry (!) stands for those. Leads to money saved, a cleaner stage and way less ballast.You may have seen that I am a friend of standardisation - (almost) all mics of one stage will be from the same maker with me. They have comparable characteristics which makes working with them easier, you get experience quicker and will be better able to predict your results. The same holds true for loudspeakers. In your range of events, I recommend from personal experience:RCF 700 series - I use the predecessors (400 series) for 7 or 8 years now, and they have not failed me once in hundreds of events; light weight, great sound, more than enough SPL; the 400 and 700 series are more or less identical, just the 700 have a bit more power and can go slightly louderQSC K-series or (somewhat above that) the kW-series - great stuff with zero hiss from the speakers themselvesI would recommend 2 top speakers with 12 inch woofer and 1 or 2 inches tweeter for the front plus (depending on the application, or you start small and get more when you need them) between one and four subwoofers from the same series.So tops: QSC K-12 or kW-12 or RCF 712a or 722a or 732aFor monitoring, I recommend four to 6 speakers from the same series, but smaller models as your tops.So QSC K-10 (I do not know of there is a kW-10). From RCF, you may even use the 708a which are speakers with an 8 inch woofer - RCF build their speakers into a somewhat larger housing, so they produce more bass response than you would expect from them. I own six RCF 408a (the predecessor to the 708a), and oftentimes I get booked because of the great monitor sound I create for the bands I mix. And that includes really loud hard rock bands.With ALL modern speaker systems, you MUST buy the fitting covers right from the start, or your equipment will look worn down after only two or three shows. The covers from QSC and RCF are expensive, but they are worth every cent - very robust and practical to use.So let me roughly sum this up: Including power distribution and the basic add-ons like a few DI-boxes, you end up with 8k to 16k USD.I will not cover lights, wireless mics or IEM systems here, that will easily be another 1k to 5k USD. Only so much: Your wireless mics should be the same mic type as your normal vocal mics so you can mix them.Certainly other people may recommend other things, but this is how I do it for over 30 years, and it has gone from a little hobby to a serious side-job with serious revenue.A few bottom rules:Buying cheap means buying twice. So in the end you save nothing.Buying no case for your equipment is a a road to pain. Get used to buying casing for all your equipment.Give your clients what they want and need, and then a little more - be reliable, attentive, polite and professional, esp. under stress. That WILL lead to repeat business.

Do you guys know some people who have weird ears? Like the helpless friend who many a times, have to forego an earphone purchase because it wouldn’t fit in?Anyway…I’m going to take an example of, and elaborate on a slightly less touched aspect of this whole “boycott china” thing:I’m sure many of you have seen this awesome review (if you haven’t, then thank me later):A glorious sennheiser HD 800 headphone worth a whopping 84.5K INR!!!Headphones are big, right? Possibly what goes inside them must be quite a lot and even more expensive…err, but wait, what?>>>>>>>>>>Another gem… nearly DOUBLE the price of a headphone like that!>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Some funny reviews…>>>>>>>>>>Which is actually based on this… the original and legendary Shure SE846Ah, thank the heavens for the great discount, making it only 73,000!SO, the thing is, for a long, long time, these products lived in a galaxy far, far away from normal people. Mind you, these are the most widely popular mainstream of extreme high end audio gadgets. Products even more insanely priced did, and do exist in Audiophile world — A section of nerds who focus and debate on all-things-music but especially the technology that goes in all the gadgets that make their audio-experience all the more richer.So I was a poor aspiring audiophile, with weird ears and majority of earphones around 2007–2010, when I got my first mobile, wouldn’t fit in my ears. :(If you see anything like this, it wouldn’t fit in my listening organs —They’d just fall off, however twisty and un-wiggly I’d made them in my ears…I realized I’d need something like these…IEMs or In ear monitors, earphones, earplugs whatever you want to call them…And curiosity got me thinking: what are the best money can buy when I go higher-up in IEM world?And that’s when I embarked on a google journey which’d eventually take me to legendary Shure SE846 (pictured above - no, not immediately above but 2 pictures above, like… oh fine, I’d also add it below, happy?) and Sennheiser IE800.What’s so especial about them?Well atleast about Shure SE846 I distinctly remember this:Do you see all the electronics inside the tiny earphone?Well apparently they’re balanced armature mini speakers (drivers as we call them).4 of them!Per side!8 speakers for your 2 earsBalanced armature drivers itself is a big deal, but 4 of them, per side, was mind f***ing insane! That’s what 98,000 Rs. (Normal US price 999$) get you. As much as I oohed and aahed over technology, the numbers made my subconscious more lusty for them. I know better now, that number of drivers alone isn’t ALL there is to making a quality listening device. but numbers’ lure never really went away, and today I own a pair of IEMs which have 6 drivers per side! yes, even more than SE846! 5 balanced armature (already more than shure flagship) + even one traditional Dynamic Driver thrown in for good measure.12 speakers for 2 ears. Its like 5.1 channel per ear.For how much?A mere 2900/-I can almost hear you guys…”Wait, what did you say? 2900? 2900? like untees sau? NO f***in’ way, man!”But its the truth!They’re called KZ ZSX Terminator. I have this model —39 dollars equates roughly to 2918 Rs. currentlySo how did this miracle happen? Technology worth 999$ ending up in 39$ piece of…well, y’know.Simple.The said brand, KZ is a damned chinese maker.It started in 2007.Remember when I said a lot of good quality audio stuff remained out of reach or prohibitively expensive for most of normal people?A little known Chinese brand called “Fiio” entered audio market in 2006 by designing speakers for another chinese mp3 player brand: meizu (the same company which also makes phones you might’ve heard of.) that plan didn’t work-out ‘exactly’ according to plan but they got a lift off.However, the major breakthrough success knocked on their doors when a member at head-fi - the world’s largest audiophile internet forum - stumbled on a portable headphone amplifier made by them called E3, Priced 1.3$. (Yes, that low). With a couple of nifty little neat tricks packaged in a clever polished design. Price to performance ratio was unbelievable. Nowhere as good as top-players in the market, yes, but nearly 80% performance at nearly 10 times less price.Some of the other forum-members tried it too, just out of curiosity. And universally agreed the praise by patient zero was rightly deserved. “You should try it too!” was the message. It became a pandemic…err, avalanche and soon lots of other chinese makers also jumped in, catering to western audiophiles craving for more and more, at less and lesser prices. Chinese manufacturers also indulged in undercutting each other, which ultimately benefited the consumers.Keep in mind these buyers, at head-fi, had a natural high purchase ceiling. They owned both very high end audio equipment and dirt-cheap experimental stuff like these. Praises coming from oh-so-knowledgeable souls like them, produced a word of mouth effect that was irresistible proof to newbies when they’d come across phrases like “I rarely go back to my old favorite <insert random xyz from established western audio-equipment-maker here> now.”There’s even a word for this phenomenon today : “Chi-fi”Over time, chinese manufacturers improved both audio-quality/outer design (even if copied from foreign manufacturers) and the areas of High End Audio they delved into. There was a refinement in hardware that was nearly impossible to distinguish from Seenheiser and Shure. They never closed the gap, okay, but nor did they intend to. Their only goal was to flood the market.KZ was a slightly more than evolutionary brand in this process. Mass producing multitudes of models with minor variations inside and outside, at extremely, extremely competitive prices. it was Fiio of Fiio moment for even chinese manufacturers. (the cheapest Fiio multi-driver IEM is worth 6,000 Rs. The cheapest KZ for that matter would be less than 1,000 Rs.).Currently, Head-Fi has a thread called “Knowledge Zenith (KZ) impressions thread” started 3 years ago, with 3370 pages and 50,541 posts! and still going on…But anyway, KZ, they just make earphones - thank God for Fiio, which also makes other devices.Like DAC. short for “Digital to Analog Converter”A DAC in the simplest terms, is a little piece of electronics that translates the 4.5 mb mp3, or a 450 MB flac files for that matter, to actual audio you enjoy through your ears.Which finally brings me to end of 2019, when Fiio launched a DAC called BTR5, at 10,000 Rs, it was exactly the kind of product I was waiting for nearly all my life.I like freedom, of choice, of portability, of multitasking.If I buy a bluetooth headset, I’m stuck with their drivers. Bluetooth headsets by default have lower audio quality than their wired counterparts (IEM types anyway). That’s the reason I’ve always searched for bluetooth enabled 3.5 mm adapters - preferably with a display. A device which only receives bluetooth signals and allows me to choose which earphones to pair with them.Something like this:A trusty old SONY SBH52 which I still use, and which is still working like a champ, without any single problem ever. Talk about Japanese endurance like a Katana sword!But then comes another problem inherent to trusty old bluetooth, it uses SBC codec, which means 128 kbps AAC at max. So no matter how good your earphones are themselves, they’re only gonna sound as good as this standard. no HD audio. Still another problem is if you use high impedance headphones, (like at the start of this answer, the 300 ohm Sennheiser HD 800) they just won’t power up or sound as good as they normally do with this tiny Bluetooth adapter.BTR 5 solves not just all these problems but goes above and beyond call of duty.It uses a well respected DAC - ess sabre 9218p. The kind which can be found in LG V series phones for a while now.2 of them! (Dual Dac (or more) solutions were reserved only for very high end DAC systems, until now.)Its got a f***ing FPGA! I’m not gonna explain what that is, google the term and then have your eyes popped at seeing this baby inside a portable, clip-on bluetooth DAC!It supports nearly all bluetooth codecs available on the planet right now, the popular ones that is. More importantly it supports LDAC, a SONY developed bluetooth transmission standard that allows upto 900 kbps over BT 5.0, well suitable for HD audio.Its got not just 1 but 2 different audio jacks, regular 3.5 mm and a special 2.5 mm balanced output.The latter of which can deliver north of 240mW at 32 Ohm.It does 32 bit/ 384 kHz and DSD 265 decoding.It can be used as wired USB dac as well - apart from wireless.Unlike sbh 52, it has received a lot of firmware updates.Has a OLED screen, (although can’t be used as caller-id)Has an excellent mic.It does all of this while being shorter than my SBH52. takes nearly same space and has the identical battery life.In-short it’s 99% of my life long dream come true….Fiio had sent maybe just 5 units at dec-2019 launch to India, all of which sold-out before I could make a move. I saved money since then, sent them emails about next availability, posted on their facebook page, and checked AliExpress about offers so I could import it directly from overseas…I was so, so desperate to get it…BUT I WON’T BUY IT NOW. NOT ANYMORE…I think everyone knows the reason.I won’t support this company, by buying something from them, by giving them my money, a transaction that might fund economy of a country which constantly does a lot of bad things, to a lot of other sovereign nations, not just my own.To justify it, sure, numbers do a lot of magic, but here’s the other side of coin too:A lot of HD audio debate is about if you can really notice a difference. Beyond 320 kbps. That 32 bit 384kHz/DSD 256 decoding sounds good on paper but you’ll always doubt if its real or just placebo effect.I don’t have HD 800 or any of these high end headphones worth 84K! (hehe) so there is no immediate need for balanced output.I’d also need to shell out dough for Amazon Music HD, or Tidal or Spotify Premium.The KZ ZSX that I have are just 24 ohm, small enough to be driven by smartphone or PC.They work well even with SBH 52Which by the way has a caller-id.And I have weird ears.but here are more alarming set of numbersThe cost of Fiio BTR-5 - 10,000 Rs, converted to US dollars = 133.71$, and if I buy it —-The cost to equip a single Chinese Soldier is 1523$. (around 8.77% of it is potentially funded by me.)Half of it is due to a standard rifle QBZ 95 worth 614.59$ (around 21.77% is potentially funded by me)The second highest focus goes to helmet which is 225.83$ (Around 59.20%, of it is potentially funded by me.)A case of 5.8x42 mm “DBP87″ rounds containing 1000 pieces, the ones used in that QBZ-95 rifle in 1st point, is 220$ (export price, at home, for use of PLA army, reduce it by 40% so it becomes 132$ - its a guess.) ~100% of it is potentially funded by me.But we all know the 1996 agreement according to which both sides will not use firearms, which effectively nullifies such statistics warfare.So more importantly, alarmingly, and horribly we come to this monstrosity which I’m sure you guys remember well:The nail studded clubs/rods used by chinese who barbarically used them repeatedly to bypass no-firearm treaty — and repelled by Indian bravehearts in Galwan Valley by 16 Bihar of India.If you search for “prices of nails in china” and go to the famous Alibaba owned by jack Ma — who was a CCP member all along and once pledged, along with some other chinese “business tycoons” that he’d ‘hand over control of their businesses to the Communist Party if need arises’— you’d have everything for a rough calculation.You’ll get a ton of them (its supposedly US ton which = 907.185kg) from a supplier for 800$.Assuming the nails in these horrible pictures are 2″ long, you’d get 400 pcs of them per kg.400 x 907.185 = 3,62,874 nails.For use of PLA Army I’d again reduce price by 30%. So it becomes 560$ for a ton. 133.71$ becomes 23.87 % of 560$. That will get me…err sorry PLA Army, 86,618 nails for my trouble.Now if I assume each of these barbaric weapons held 10 nails each that means roughly 8662 clubs.According to various reports chinese have deployed 2–4 divisions of total 20,000 - 40,000 men (these numbers can vary on developing ground situations.)If one chinese division contains 10,000 men and if ALL of them are provided these clubs, then I’d have provided funds to equip 86.62% of a whole division single-handedly by purchasing one little thing measuring 72 x 32 x 11.1 mmNo sir, ain’t gonna happen!So I’ll live with the excellent Realtek ALC 1150 onboard codec on my Asus motherboard. which provides enough power and nearly zero hissing sound to my KZ ZSX terminator.No I won’t throw them in fire as well. That’ll be stupid.Look, I love what Fiio did to audio market and KZ is still doing with it (whether its a forced labor is another matter)But I love my country MORE….WAY MORE!End of discussion.And I would do nothing that’ll endanger the brave soldiers who make it safe for me at home to write this post..And if I indeed need to go bonkers in future and have to buy that “ZIndagi Badal Gayi” Headphones/Earphones worth 84.5k/150k then I’ll spend much more and buy a Chord Mojo to power itA proper FPGA driven DAC that kills everything else in its way.But for now…I’d settle for import/buying of only absolutely needed components and only till they’re needed…Entertainment can kiss my a**!Next time you get that urge to save a few pennies to have that “80% experience at nearly 10 times less cost” - do remember my post. Maybe it’ll be for a different device, but allow me to still use the Hi-Fi audio analogy — “Imagine the experience, of Hi-Fi screams of our dying soldiers in a smiliar situation like Galwan Valley, in full surround sound and HD audio, that’ll be on YOU.”..JAI HIND.Sources: People's Liberation Army Ground Force - Wikipedia.China deploys 20,000 troops along LAC; India wary of division in Xinjiang.India, China complete troop disengagement at three friction points, focus now on Finger areaFiiO`s Foundations - A brief history of FiiO as written by FiiO. UPDATED 6/2016 -expatinjapanSmall Caliber Small Arms RoundsWholesale Factory Price Galvanized Steel Common Polished Wire Iron Nail - Buy High Quality Wholesale Factory Iron Framing N Series U Type Metallic Common Nails For Pneumatic Gun,Factory Direct Manufactured Furniture Large Round Head Common Nails,Common Nails Polished Low Price Product on Alibaba.comAll images sourced by Google Images.