Today, we're finally going to be taking a look
at the Saramonic UwMic9 system, and I say finally
because I received many requests from you guys to cover it
and I've actually had this system
for about seven months now.
I've just been taking my time with it and really exploring
its strengths and weaknesses, because I know for many of you,
it's your #1 pick for best value wireless system,
and I can see why.
Let's get undone!
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening, everybody?
I'm Gerald Undone and I'm Ron Burgundy?
So, I've been testing more
than just the basic body pack and transmitter.
I've also got the XLR transmitter,
the XLR receiver as well as the dual channel kit.
This is probably my favourite thing about this system.
All of these items are very well priced
and can be acquired individually and can be mixed
and matched to suit your needs.
And they all have two channel capability,
so you could run a simple one channel body pack,
or you could add an XLR transmitter
and send both mics to the same receiver,
which can separate the mic channels into stereo left
and right to make it better for mixing levels later on.
In fact, that's what I'm doing right now.
I have my Samson C02 transmitting wirelessly along
with this lav to a receiver plugged into my Zoom F6
and I can mix these mics together to add a bit more body
to your typical lav mic sound,
since I don't usually sound too great on lav mics.
But, for a sample, here's what just
the Samson C02 sounds like, transmitted wirelessly.
[tonal audio] Gamma radiation
is a penetrating electromagnetic radiation
arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei.
It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic
waves and so imparts the highest photon energy.
[normal audio] And here's what the lav sounds like.
[soft echoes] Gamma radiation is a penetrating
electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive
decay of atomic nuclei.
It consists of the shortest wavelength
electromagnetic waves
and so imparts the highest photon energy.
[normal audio] The only drawback to this is that I have
noticed the faintest amount of channel bleed on the system.
It's not a lot and can easily be hidden in post, but it is there.
To capture this, I had one transmitter
recording some music in a different soundproof location,
from where I was wearing the second transmitter,
and you can hear a little bit of the music,
about two to three dB worth,
in the quiet parts of my transmission.
You have to really crank up the volume to hear it,
but it's there.
[rough ambient static]
[muffled dance beats]
Bonus points if you can make out the song
that was bleeding through.
Leave your guesses in the comments.
You can also receive two channels on the XLR receiver,
but keep in mind that XLR is mono,
so your two channels will be downmixed together
on that particular receiver.
But even more useful is the fact that you can also use
multiple receivers in a single configuration.
So, let's say that you have the two channel body pack kit,
and you put a transmitter on each of your two subjects,
and then send that to the included receiver
which was fed into your camera.
You could get another receiver, maybe the XLR version
and connect it to a separate recorder with XLR inputs
and both receivers would get the same audio feed
simultaneously from your talent.
So that customization and interchangeability
is something I really appreciate about the system,
and considering that the components of the system
are much cheaper than the competition,
you can build out a pretty versatile kit
from for less money than some of the competition's
one channel packages.
All of the receivers come with headphone jacks as well
so you can monitor your audio even if your camera
doesn't have a headphone port.
And the build quality of the components is also very good.
Regardless of the receiver or transmitter chosen,
they're all metal and have nice, rugged exteriors.
There is one piece on them, however,
which is not very rugged
and that's the battery tray on the original kit.
Now these, you need to be a little bit careful with
as they're made of pretty flimsy plastic.
Now, I haven't had any issues with mine,
but I've read reviews online where they broke for people,
and I could totally see that happening if you're not careful.
The newer devices though, like the XLR receiver,
for example, have addressed this by using a metal door
instead of a plastic tray.
Now, speaking of batteries, I know that some of you
will probably appreciate that you can swap out AA batteries
on these components because when I reviewed
the Deity Connect system, some of you expressed concern
about having built-in lithium batteries.
So, if you're in that camp,
you'll be pleased with this power solution.
However, in those same reviews online,
I've read some complaints that AA batteries
don't last long enough,
but I haven't found this to be true at all.
I think it's possible that those individuals might have been
using cheap alkaline batteries,
because I've been using Eneloop rechargeables
and I get over 12 hours of runtime with a full charge
on the transmitters and over seven hours on the receiver
and that was with both channels running
and the transmitter set to high.
So I have no complaints about power,
but I would recommend picking up
a couple of packs of Eneloops for them,
so you might want to factor that into the price.
The included accessories are complete and enough
to get everything going right out of the box
and the setup is nice and easy.
It does take a second to get used to navigating the menus,
but once you do, it's pretty intuitive.
The only grievance I have is that after the menu times out,
it defaults back to the first page
instead of resuming where you left off,
which can waste a bit of time during initial setup.
Now, this is a UHF system that operates from 514 to 596 MHz,
with 96 channels to choose from in that spread.
But it does have an autoscan feature
that'll suggest the best channel to you
and it's recommended that you use that when setting this up
in a new location or starting a new recording session.
Now, I tested the range on these both indoors and outdoors
and got satisfactory results.
The advertised range is a 100 meters,
but keep in mind that the 500 MHz spectrum
might produce different results
where you're shooting compared to me.
I also found the range to differ significantly
depending on which channel you choose.
For example, when shooting outside in the open air,
the higher channels with frequencies closer to 600 mHz
produced much better results and achieved
well beyond 100 meters, where the lower frequencies
had mostly dropped out by 100 meters
and had intermittent cutouts along the way.
-[ambient din] -12, 13, 14, 15, 16.
Gamma radiation is a penetrating electromagnetic radiation
arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei.
-70, 71. 7-- -[audio cutting]
75, 76, 77, 76, 79, 80.
[audio dropping]
...penetrating electromagnetic radiation--
...radioactive decay of atomic nuclei.
It consists of the shortest wavelength
of electromagnetic waves
and so imparts the highest photon energy.
[muffled audio] Radiation arising from the radioactive
decay of atomic nuclei.
It consists of the shortest wavelength
of electromagnetic waves
and so imparts the highest photon energy.
[normal audio] The audio quality does suffer
the further you get, but when using higher frequencies,
I had no issues reaching the advertised range
with acceptable clarity.
Indoors, however, I was really impressed.
I was able to leave my apartment,
go all the way down the hall into the stairwell
and still get clear audio.
[slight echo] Now, I'm in the stairwell.
[heavy steps]
And this is pretty far from the camera
and there's so many walls between that.
It would make no sense that this would even work.
[normal audio] So that must have put at least
five or six walls, half of them concrete,
between me and the receiver, plus whatever interference
generating devices would be located
in the different apartments, and I had no problems.
Now, audio quality is one that's tough to gauge
because it's a bit subjective and again,
I sound terrible on lav mics, but I found the noise floor
to be in the -65 to -70 dB range in my studio,
when using the normalized -23 LUFs,
which is pretty solid and great for the price.
And here's a sound sample comparing the fidelity
of my Samson C02 hardwired vs. transmitted
over the Saramonic system.
Judge that for yourself.
[clean, bass audio] Gamma radiation
is a penetrating electromagnetic radiation
arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei.
[clean, shriller audio] Gamma radiation
is a penetrating electromagnetic radiation
arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei.
[normal audio] My take is that the noise was only about
three to four dB worse on the wireless
and the clarity was perfectly acceptable, in my opinion.
The only thing that stood out to me was the lack of warmth
that often happens when wirelessly transmitting mics
that I'm used to hearing wired.
It gives it a touch of that telephone effect.
But again, I think you're getting
acceptable quality for the money,
because really, that's what this all comes down to.
You can't beat the price.
You can get this two channel system for $400 and then
you can add other components like additional receivers
and transmitters for only a $150 more.
So, value-wise, I totally see why you guys
have been recommending this system.
It's a great starter kit option.
There's definitely better systems out there,
but they start at almost double the price.
So, if you're on a tight budget or you're just starting out,
while it's not the best wireless system available,
it might just offer the best value.
But that's gonna be it for me.
I hope you found this video entertaining
or at least helpful, and if you did,
make sure you leave it the old thumbs up
and consider subscribing if you haven't already.
But if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
then it might be time to change out your batteries.
Alright... I'm done.