Audio Hiss and Pop - Sennheiser Wireless Set

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xocomil

Well-known member
Hey all.

I have a Sennheiser EW100 G2 wireless transmitter and receiver.

Over the past few months it has picked up an annoying habit of picking up lots of static which builds over a minute or two until culminating in a loud pop. Then the audio receives returns to normal.

This could happen at the start, middle or end of an interview ... or could not happen at all.

I've changed some of the cabling to no avail. All connections are tight. I'm using the 3.5mm mini-plug connection.

The rubber protective sleeve on the transmitter's antenna started to come off (no idea why) and so I've taped it with electrical tape.

Also, I use rechargeable batteries, but have them fully charged before using.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.
Dave
 
Note carefully conditions when it happens: Location, time of day, distance, humidity, user clothing, etc. etc.

Attempt to create a test scenario where you can make the symptoms happen reliably.
Unless you can do that, you will never really be able to fix it (or know that it is fixed.)

Once you can do that, you can try some of the standard debugging (BrEnglish: "faultfinding") techniques like...

Try to isolate whether it is the transmitter or receiver. Easiest way is to just turn off the transmitter while it is happening.
Although unlikely to be the cause, at least try fresh primary (non-rechargable) batteries as an experiment.
Try replacing ALL the cables.
Try a different microphone.
Receiver also operating from batteries? (vs. some other external power method)?

I would at least use heat-shrink tubing vs. any sort of tape on the antenna.
I typically use an ordinary candle to shrink the tubing, no special tools required.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Richard. I'll try the things you mention. You prompted me to do a little more research and I found a post somewhere saying that 1.2V rechargeables might result in interference as they don't provide enough power for the wireless set to function properly. Any thoughts?
 
Their fully-charged voltage (1.2 V) is LOWER than the DISCHARGED value of good alkaline primary cells.
Many wireless gadgets do poorly (or not at all) with those secondary cells. That is a quite common problem.
I withdraw my statement about "unlikely to be the cause".
 
It certainly is possible that rechargeables will give less performance (3.0 volts vs 2.4). I don't have a G2 tech sheet, but the G3 says it works from 1.8v to 3.0v. So the rechargeable should be ok, at least for some time.
 
Thanks guys.

I might email Sennheiser and ask their opinion. And in the meantime I'll ditch the rechargeables and do some testing.
 
As I said over on the 'other' forum, The rechargeables' are lower in voltage but in my Senn and Lectro systems, I have no noticeable performance issues using rechargeables. (in 'RF hell' no less)
 
As I also mentioned in the other place - very odd having the same topic on two different forums, with many of the same participants - try the test with normal batteries before you do anything else. Every bit of kit responds differently to low battery voltage. Sennheisers do make that kind of swoosh noise as they get to the end. hence why my suspicion is battery related.
Paul
 
Thanks guys. As I said in the other place, Senn says rechargeables should be alright, but I'll take your advice Paul and try out throwaways before ordering new antennas, etc.

Cheers for all your help!
 
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