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.