Samson Stage 5 Lavalier Microphone Wireless System. Any experience?

IjabaFilms

IjabaFilms

Well-known member
Hey there,

I just picked up a Samson Stage 5 Lavalier Microphone Wireless System and it feels pretty flimsy. Anyone use one of these? And if so, how good are they?

I've never used a wireless system so I'm not sure what to expect. The level bars only light up less than half way. Im not sure if this is ok.

I plan to use it on the groom at weddings.
 
The Samson wireless gear I've tried has suffered from terrible build quality and was very prone to signal dropouts and interference.
 
Thanks. I opened this thing up and I'm like "wow this feels like a toy". Saw a review just now on B&H that says something similar to your experience. Hmmm I was wondering too because I was on another board and someone mentioned they had good results with theirs so I wanted to see about experiences here.
 
You have to take reviews with a grain of salt. Especially on seller websites, customer reviews too often be very misleading. There's really no way to know the reviewer's real-world professional experience (any one submitting a B&H or Amazon review can call him/her self a pro). So what are the standards they use? What's their frame of reference? Do they even realize half the garbage they hear is bad signal?

Bob from Rockport may be putting it on his kid's soccer coach during a game, and simply because the signal gets from point A (the coach/transmitter) to point B (the receiver/camera) he considers it a great unit. Forget that the signal sounds awful, is saturated with hiss, and tends to over-modulate frequently. Bob's recording the coach's voice from 15' away, and that's pretty amazing to him. All this for $150? Really?

Pete from Spokane shoots wedding vids on Digital8. He loves his, 'cause he can interview folks at the reception and it gets the voice form the mic to the camera. Again, forget the poor quality... it still works for Pete. Pete may not get the good work from clients who know about quality, but he's affordable and gets the clients who don't know the difference.

My wife's grandmother turned 80 and had a huge party. They spent thousands on a videographer, who scooted a Digital8 camera around on a tripod and dolly to interview friends and family. His assistant (wife) used the lav as a hand-held interview mic, which just rubbed me the wrong way. Nothing like a hand sticking into the frame, holding a little mic capsule with the cable hanging down, to make for an award-winning interview. I saw the finished product. The sound was deplorable (and the video wasn't that greaet, either). But the guy got his check.

And as for dropouts, I have honestly heard some one justify drop-outs in a cheap wireless unit as "just the nature of the beast... they're gonna do that, but you just have to work around it." Well, yes... every wireless mic will drop out at some point. Even the highest-end Lectros aren't impervious to a dropout every now and again. It happens. But every few minutes, or more, at an effective range of 25'? Not with any reasonable system. And Bob agrees with the salesman. So does Pete.

Samson and Azden are both wireless systems to avoid. Read the reviews on the sellers' sites, but also do some other research where you know you can mostly verify the experience of the reviewers. There's lots of discussion on various wireless systems in these forums... and you'll find a lot of reliable recommendations.

Don't cheap out on wireless. The lowest investment you can make and still expect reliable performance is about $500 for a Sennheiser G2.
 
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