I see I have this blog still up. Just wanted to say that the X2 I modded is still going quite strong. The receiver has been in my pedalboard since the mod, and the only problems I've had were with the bodypack cable which have been replaced. Sennheiser cables work well for this, and I had one custom made by a company that gives the option of Neutric jacks. As long as your lead singer doesn't decide to start banging her tambourine against the bodypack, you're good to go.
The X2 is long out of production, but Line 6 has the X2 people making their wireless systems. X2's concept of digital wireless is now being emulated by Shure, and the other companies.
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
A Bit of a Follow Up
I'm still waiting on those pics that Aaron took while doing the mod, otherwise I would have posted them. As soon as he gets them to me, I'll get them posted.
Upon posing further tests, the brick walls on our practice space seem to be the limit on where I get signal with the newly modded XDS95. That said, the mod can be chalked up to an improvement to an extent, because the building is 1600 square-feet, and I was getting signal from the furthest distance from corner to corner. There's some pathagrium theorum stuff that gets involved here, but you get the idea. Definitely more than the 10-20' I was getting in the same building.
The real test will be my next show. This will be a 4-day festival in June, with possibility of playing 2 or more different locations. I also have a pair of 7dBi antennas that I can try out. If it weren't for the fact that these are way too big for my board, they'd probably be in there already.
Upon posing further tests, the brick walls on our practice space seem to be the limit on where I get signal with the newly modded XDS95. That said, the mod can be chalked up to an improvement to an extent, because the building is 1600 square-feet, and I was getting signal from the furthest distance from corner to corner. There's some pathagrium theorum stuff that gets involved here, but you get the idea. Definitely more than the 10-20' I was getting in the same building.
The real test will be my next show. This will be a 4-day festival in June, with possibility of playing 2 or more different locations. I also have a pair of 7dBi antennas that I can try out. If it weren't for the fact that these are way too big for my board, they'd probably be in there already.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
It's Complete!
Well, I recieved the newly modded XDR-1 reciever for my X2 XDS95 today. I haven't had a chance to rigorously test it, as the space next to ours was being used for recording. That said, I plugged it in, fired up the Ampeg and the transmitter, and played with the same clear cable sound I had before (I have 2 XRD-1 recievers, and the one that was modded was the back-up and not the one that's usually mounted in my board... until now).
I will be conducting further tests on this mod later this week, ie turn up the amp, and run around like an asshole. Actually, whenever you see Youtube videos that demo wireless systems, you always see a guy playing, and walking out into the open which gives no sense of interferance, and I've seen videos where they run uphill, which is a) unrealistc, and b) increases the transmitter's operating range, thus negating the accuracy of the test. My testing will be more realistic, in that it'll be in our practice space that's in part of an old tannery, with brick walls, more than likely with lead paint, and with businesses around it opperating several wireless devices of other applications. In true conditions of live shows these days, everyone in that crowd is going to be weilding a cellphone, will probably be having smartphone capabilities, and could be checking their Facebook status or whatever while you're trying to entertain them. This is all interferance you're not going to experience in your back yard on a day nice enough to take a liesurely stroll while ripping out some bithin' riffs.
Aaron; my guitarist who did the mod for me has photos of the process. From what he tells me and what I've seen in the pictures, what's not pictured or really explained on Maraz's blog, the antennas are pretty much soldered to the existing antennas. The stock antennas are on the 2 sections that have cut-aways, one on the AC input area of the board, and one on the side. What we are expecting from our mod, is even more range than the original mod.
We'll have more info for you soon, thanks for checking this out.
I will be conducting further tests on this mod later this week, ie turn up the amp, and run around like an asshole. Actually, whenever you see Youtube videos that demo wireless systems, you always see a guy playing, and walking out into the open which gives no sense of interferance, and I've seen videos where they run uphill, which is a) unrealistc, and b) increases the transmitter's operating range, thus negating the accuracy of the test. My testing will be more realistic, in that it'll be in our practice space that's in part of an old tannery, with brick walls, more than likely with lead paint, and with businesses around it opperating several wireless devices of other applications. In true conditions of live shows these days, everyone in that crowd is going to be weilding a cellphone, will probably be having smartphone capabilities, and could be checking their Facebook status or whatever while you're trying to entertain them. This is all interferance you're not going to experience in your back yard on a day nice enough to take a liesurely stroll while ripping out some bithin' riffs.
Aaron; my guitarist who did the mod for me has photos of the process. From what he tells me and what I've seen in the pictures, what's not pictured or really explained on Maraz's blog, the antennas are pretty much soldered to the existing antennas. The stock antennas are on the 2 sections that have cut-aways, one on the AC input area of the board, and one on the side. What we are expecting from our mod, is even more range than the original mod.
We'll have more info for you soon, thanks for checking this out.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Starting the Projcect
About two years ago, I invested in two XDS95 systems by X2, which had at the time been just bought out by Line 6. These units are still available new through certain websites, and as of today can be purchased for $129 street. They were actually discontinued last year, and replaced with Line 6's Relay series. These are great units as well, made by the same people, but bring the cost back up over $200. I had bought two of these XRS95 units, as I wanted 2 transmitters, and it was only $20 more to get two full units, than to buy a second transmitter only (and I didn't have to special order anything). At the time, Shure's lowest line PG14 system was $100 more than the XDS95.
Having had this system for two years now, I can say the sound is better than ANYTHING I've owned or used for wireless systems (the XDS95 actually replaced my Shure T-Series). I use these for bass, but I also play some guitar, mainly a Gretsch G5120, and the XDS95 captures the cable sound with that too. The primary issue that I always had was the range. It can dropout at 15' or less some places. A few weeks ago I started thinking "There's gotta be a way to get antennas on this thing", and sure enough, I found a mod for that: http://xds95modification.blogspot.com/
Now, this guy did us XDS95 users a great service, and I (or should I say my guitarist who is better at electronics than I) will be attempting to do this mod. We appreciate the "XDS95 Modification" blog being available, but noticed some things that should be amended.
First off, the pictures on that blog don't show the actual connections being made to the board. It's as if he thought to take the pictures after he re-mounted the circuit board. Our goal is to have some decent pictures of the process that shows things a bit better.
Secondly, the parts needed for this mod ARE NOT available at any electronics store I checked, and seem to be only available online, and are parts you'd find on a D-Link wireless router. I tried to get an older D-link router from someone, but everyone I know pretty much has crapped out Linksys routers. Thus, the XDS95 we will be doing will have those parts. On a plus note, D-Link routers used the smaller 2dBi antennas, where as the Linksys has what appears to be 4dBi antennas, which should get better range than the antennas used in the aforementioned blog. The question came up about the physical size of the Linksys connections, and to get around that, we're going to try to mount the antenna to the opposite side of the chassis from where the previous blog says to, as the area I'm talking about is the battery compartment, which I never use batteries with the receiver, as it drains batteries quickly, and the XDR1 was designed to run off of 9-volt AC power like a boss pedal (I use a Visual Sound 1Spot in my pedalboard).
The main reason I'm going with the Linksys, is because a) I'm cheap, and this was free (a friend was throwing it out anyway), and b) the parts actually used in the mod are NOT available at just any electronics store here in Milwaukee, WI, and after inflated pricing on the pieces and shipping, it can get pricey, and I'm not real sure how mouch I trust the overseas eBayers.
So, as we progress, I will be posting on the details of the project. I stress again, I'm extremely thankful to Maraz for posting the original blog that gave us direction. His sharing of knowledge has made it easier for the rest of us to figure out how to extend the range of a great sounding wireless system that I've used and abused for two years now, and still works great.
As an aside, the other common complaint on these were the OEM cables for the bodypacks were terrible, and would crap out. I never experienced this problem, as I replaced the original 1/4" jacks with Switchcraft right-angle 1/4" jacks for my Fender P-Basses. With the OEM jack, and the sheilding, the cable end stuck out of the body over 4", and looked ridiculous, plus, I've always been a hardcore Switchcraft user.
Having had this system for two years now, I can say the sound is better than ANYTHING I've owned or used for wireless systems (the XDS95 actually replaced my Shure T-Series). I use these for bass, but I also play some guitar, mainly a Gretsch G5120, and the XDS95 captures the cable sound with that too. The primary issue that I always had was the range. It can dropout at 15' or less some places. A few weeks ago I started thinking "There's gotta be a way to get antennas on this thing", and sure enough, I found a mod for that: http://xds95modification.blogspot.com/
Now, this guy did us XDS95 users a great service, and I (or should I say my guitarist who is better at electronics than I) will be attempting to do this mod. We appreciate the "XDS95 Modification" blog being available, but noticed some things that should be amended.
First off, the pictures on that blog don't show the actual connections being made to the board. It's as if he thought to take the pictures after he re-mounted the circuit board. Our goal is to have some decent pictures of the process that shows things a bit better.
Secondly, the parts needed for this mod ARE NOT available at any electronics store I checked, and seem to be only available online, and are parts you'd find on a D-Link wireless router. I tried to get an older D-link router from someone, but everyone I know pretty much has crapped out Linksys routers. Thus, the XDS95 we will be doing will have those parts. On a plus note, D-Link routers used the smaller 2dBi antennas, where as the Linksys has what appears to be 4dBi antennas, which should get better range than the antennas used in the aforementioned blog. The question came up about the physical size of the Linksys connections, and to get around that, we're going to try to mount the antenna to the opposite side of the chassis from where the previous blog says to, as the area I'm talking about is the battery compartment, which I never use batteries with the receiver, as it drains batteries quickly, and the XDR1 was designed to run off of 9-volt AC power like a boss pedal (I use a Visual Sound 1Spot in my pedalboard).
The main reason I'm going with the Linksys, is because a) I'm cheap, and this was free (a friend was throwing it out anyway), and b) the parts actually used in the mod are NOT available at just any electronics store here in Milwaukee, WI, and after inflated pricing on the pieces and shipping, it can get pricey, and I'm not real sure how mouch I trust the overseas eBayers.
So, as we progress, I will be posting on the details of the project. I stress again, I'm extremely thankful to Maraz for posting the original blog that gave us direction. His sharing of knowledge has made it easier for the rest of us to figure out how to extend the range of a great sounding wireless system that I've used and abused for two years now, and still works great.
As an aside, the other common complaint on these were the OEM cables for the bodypacks were terrible, and would crap out. I never experienced this problem, as I replaced the original 1/4" jacks with Switchcraft right-angle 1/4" jacks for my Fender P-Basses. With the OEM jack, and the sheilding, the cable end stuck out of the body over 4", and looked ridiculous, plus, I've always been a hardcore Switchcraft user.
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