A cheaper than Comtek or ListenTech listening solution?

Shawn Philip Nelson

Shawn Philip Nelson

Veteran
Hey guys,
I'm wanting a wireless listening solution for my sets but don't want to bite the bullet for Comtek or even ListenTek. I know, I know, you get what you pay for. But, since I am not recording and this is for purely listening I'm wondering if I am can get away with a bit cheaper solution? Has anyone heard of Landmark Audio? They have a transmitter+5 receiver solution for under $700! They say it's compatible with all ALD stuff and that they have a range of 200 ft. Any opinions?

http://www.landmarkfm.com/index.html
 
i am not familiar with landmark.

however, i am a BIG fan of icom ic r5
http://www.icomamerica.com/products/receivers/r5/
at $200 new (add $25 for smaller antenna, add $15 for pleather case or pay arounf $165 ebay)

These gems are little known but fantastic. instead of being locked down to a certain block or only a few frequencies, we are talking about a unit that covers 0.150-1309.995 MHz :shocked:

best bang for your buck.
 
depending on your specific needs why not just a sound devices headphone amp with three separate volume controls and either run a long xlr to the video village where the people who want to listen will be

or still use the sd headphone amp and use a g2 wireless to take the sound out of your mixer etc. and then have the receiver feed the sound into the headphone amp?

unless you are at a level where your getting a ton of $ for your time and for your kit i just can't see the need for comtek but again everyone's situation is different.

if your working in hollywood or at a high end level comtek or something very similar is as i understand pretty much expected and assumed that you will have it.

matthew
 
On any real shoot everybody that thinks they're important to the day wants to hear what's going on... it's just protocol... but yeah... if you're bringing a comtek package and 4 people or more get to hear the production audio... besides you, your cameraman, and your boom op... so 7 people listening. You should be getting something in the range of $600 for that day... assuming the rest of your package is up to par.

This is a pricey way to do it... but I use G2s to let people listen. On the coms I've used everybody just turns the volume all the way up anyway... then for other times when you don't have to please everybody... or need more wireless sets... you have 'em.

There's a lot of ways to go about it... thanks for the post TVsound... I'm going to check that out. For me wireless and listening are like lights... you can never have too many. Never. On a big shoot we run out everytime... everybody thinks they need to hear the production audio.

EDIT: I just checked that icom unit out TVsound... I'm going to look into that more... that looks to be a real winner. Thanks again for posting!

Also... ther's an eartec system that gives you 2-way communication between 2 headsets... and then 2 more that just listen to the one MAIN headset... so 1 set talks to 3... and one of the 3 talks back with the main w/o the other 2 hearing what that set transmits back. That's a great way to handle a director, assistant director situation. Everybody needs to hear the director... but really only one guy has to reply to him.

EARTEC TD904PRO

306129.jpg


This is almost $800 though... but for 4 sets it's not too bad.
 
Last edited:
shawneous said:
Hey guys,
I'm wanting a wireless listening solution for my sets but don't want to bite the bullet for Comtek or even ListenTek. I know, I know, you get what you pay for. But, since I am not recording and this is for purely listening I'm wondering if I am can get away with a bit cheaper solution? Has anyone heard of Landmark Audio? They have a transmitter+5 receiver solution for under $700! They say it's compatible with all ALD stuff and that they have a range of 200 ft. Any opinions?

http://www.landmarkfm.com/index.html
Click to expand...

I actually tried one of their receivers a few years back ($30 for a Comtek compatable receiver seemed worth a try). Suffice it to say, I want my $30 back. Yes the receiver was able to pick up the signal but it was EXTREMELY noisy and had a loud constant buzz on the signal making the receiver entirerly useless. I actually wasted the shipping getting it exchanged but the new one had the same affect.

Save your money and get something that works. I have a Listentech receiver waiting at home (been on the road for several weeks now) that I bought on Phil's recommendation. Will report back my impressions when I am home.

If the production isn't paying enough for Comteks they can deal with a headphone splitter at video village.

Cheers
 
Yeah, I've decided what I really need is a 4 out Behringer Headphone amp ($40) and 4 HD201 Sennheiser cans setup at video village. $120 and I've got up to 4 VIPs listening nicely.
 
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