Phenyx Pro UHF Stereo Wireless in Ear Monitor System, Wireless IEM, 900MHz Band Selectable Frequency, Rack Mountable, 160 ft. Operation, Suitable for Stage, Studio, Exhibit, Lecture, Speech (PTM-10)

I run an Amphitheater on the beach in South Florida and recently converted my stage over to all IEM.Running 5 shows a week, I had previously been running Sennheiser G3 systems, which worked well, however; these systems were in the 500mhz bandwidth which is extremely congested in my area so drop outs have plagued the system. (no antennae combiner 👎🏼).Figured I’d try the Phenyx Pro in 900mhz for the frequency, and cost.First of all the cost:Sennheiser systems are $1100, packs are $500. Replacing a busted pack when a careless musician drops or loses your pack isn’t fun.$225 for a system, and $69 for a Phenyx pack? Much easier to swallow.The pack is plastic, which kind of works in my favor considering I’m directly on the beach and the salt ait and humidity just disintegrates metal, so yeah…. Let’s try this thing.Ease of use:In my experience, Musicians don’t generally learn gear other than the instruments they play. So, ease of use is important here.Previously I would recommend the Shure systems to most as they are so much easier to configure than the Sennheiser which gets confusing and allows too many options which tend to result in issues when usees don’t understand what they’re changing. Not everyone wants to be a tech head, they wanna turn it on and go - maybe push a button every now and then to fix an issue, but menus and menus don’t do well with someone trying to concentrate on a performance.This Phenyx system is straight forward, select the frequency and go, very much like the Shure.Not a lot you can screw up here, and with the frequency range being 900mhz, much easier to find a free channel than the Sennheiser or Shure (both being in the 450-600mhz range).Frequency:900mhz is far less congested than 450-600mhz, and for god sake please stop buying those 2.4ghz things…..Sound quality:On par with my Sennheiser G3, but without the interference so even better, flawless sound!I’ve done 4 shows with the PTM-10 so far this week and have questioned each musician who has used the pack and they’ve been so happy that two have purchased their own already.Range:I tested the pack out to front of house and was able to get signal 150’ back from the stage but there were drop outs at that point. As long as you have a clean frequency, range will not be an issue on stage and you’ll be safe going down into the audience a bit - you’ll most likely wanna pop them out anyway at that point but just in case you shouldn’t have issues within sight of the transmitter.Reliability….In my case, I’m using this nightly and giving it to people who probably don’t care to be too careful since it’s not their gear so I’m worried about the antennae as it’s pretty flimsy and I can see it getting yanked out or broken off. So, I’ve opted to put two pieces of heat shrink to reinforce it a bit which I believe will help.It’s been dropped twice already, unscathed.Phenyx has a 1 year warranty though so I feel comfortable for the next year.I’ve found nothing negative about the PTM-10, nothing.It’s easier to use than the more expensive systems, it sounds just as good, and it has less flaws due to the frequency group (in my case / location).Hopefully Phenyx will release an IEM antennae combiner system, so I can have a rack of their IEM’s without worry!

I lead a large 17-piece jazz band. We’re a community band with a very limited budget. Our PA is rather simple with two main speakers, and two inputs for vocals and keys. As you can imagine, a 17-piece band can be quite loud, which is problematic for our vocalist. With the main speakers doubling as vocal monitor, the struggle for the vocalist to hear herself sing is quite real.I was offered a chance to test the Phenyx Pro PTM-10 In Ear Stereo monitoring system. First, as with all Phenyx Pro products, the packaging is very nice. The PTM-10 system is housed in its own hard plastic carrying case, no need to carry around the retail package like some other products. The package includes the transmitter, receiver, antennae, batteries, earbuds, and rack mounting kit. Everything you’d need to use this product right out of the box.SETUP/TEST: Setup is extremely easy. I plugged in the transmitter, put batteries in the receiver (Bodypack), connected the transmitter to the PA, and voila, I could hear anything coming from the PA through the ear buds. The manual is nicely written. I navigated through all of the settings on the bodypack and transmitter. Changing Groups and Channels is very easy. I ran the system in stereo mode which was very nice. I did not play with the balance much as it wasn’t needed in our setup. The audio coming through ear buds was very clean. Being able to mute the body pack and adjust the volume with the body pack is a nice feature.QUALITY: The quality of all most Phenyx Products is very good. The transmitter unit is made of metal, not cheap plastic on PTM-10. Including the rubber feet to keep the unit from sliding is a nice touch. The Bodypack that came with the unit is made of plastic, but it doesn’t feel cheap. The buttons on the bodypack are responsive and very "clicky", you know you pressed the button. A nice feature is having the ability to lock the settings on the body pack so there’s no accidental changing of settings. Overall, the PTM-10 is a well-built product.VALUE: You can’t beat the value of this product. The PTM-10 is a professional level product without the professional level price tag. The value vs quality is the #1 reason to purchase this product.CUSTOMER SERVICE: The PTM-10 unit sent to me came with a defective bodypack. Anytime the antennae would get bumped, nothing but static came through the earbuds. I contacted Phenyx via email and a new bodypack was sent out within a couple days. The new Bodypack worked flawlessly. I appreciate the quick response from Phenyx Pro in getting the bodypack replaced.OVERALL: If you are in the need for an IEM system, I would highly recommend the PTM-10. It’s a quality professional product without a hefty professional price tag.