By Mark Farmer
As an employee of a live sound reinforcement company I have the pleasure of working with various types of equipment everyday, including an artist’s personal gear. At the top of that list are wireless microphones. “Get prepared”, are two words that come into my mind when the word wireless is mentioned. Some days are flawless, but occasionally during the show there are some crackles and drop outs. Problems like the latter can be avoided using a trusted company like Electro-Voice. Having used their wireless mics for a few years now, I was excited to see and hear the new improvements on the newest wireless product, the Eletro-Voice MS2500.
Features
This is a dual diversity or two channel unit capable of being used with a hand-held mic or a lavalier/belt pack combo. This hand-held version includes the familiar,
N\D757B supercardioid dynamic mic capsule. Some companies are not providing the element with the microphone. The mic requires a 9 volt battery. To monitor on/off operation and the condition of the battery,EV installed two LED’s on the hand-held itself. Two switches, one for power up and the other for turning the mic element on and off, are also provided. The microphone has a small screw available to adjust the audio input level to the transmitter.
The receiver is a single rack space metal unit weighing in at 6 lbs. Even though the List price is $946.00, with a little hunting this mic could be found priced between,
$600.00-$650.00. Which makes this wireless a very good value. The front panel shows some thought from EV. An orange signal light and a green diversity channel LED are installed to monitor transmitting information. A 10 LED bar graph is shown to set up optimum gain over the airwaves.
To the rear is another fine layout by EV. The old UHF antenna connectors have been replaced, by more of a standard in the industry. I like the upgrade to BNC since more of the wireless units I run into have BNC connectors. Another new addition is a 1/4” line output jack. This is a must have since some smaller consoles only have 1/4” jacks available, or when no direct box is available. Of course the standard XLR output jack is nearby. Next to the two output jacks is a Line/Mic switch to adjust for high or low level gain for the 3 pin output. An “Audio Adjust” potentiometer is located between the two outputs for general output gain. The manual suggests starting at the “2:00” position for optimum level. The 115/235 volt switch is available for those European travel days.
In Use
If there is one piece of sound equipment I could set up with my eyes closed it would be a wireless microphone. Many times the band shows up late and hands me a wireless box.
Electro-Voice makes things just as easy with its simple layout.
Working at a local festival, I took to set up and research. Plug in and battery up was easy as pie. Next was my scream test for input and then adjustment to prevent overload to the mic(transmitter).I have learned to make sure that a handheld or lavalier mic can not be overloaded at any volume. One of the studies my colleague and I attempted was a distance test. With the receiver set up at front of house, he walked while I listened at mix position. As he got smaller and further into the woods, I was amazed at the distance we covered with the unit. It did not start to crackle and lose signal until my co-worker was out of shouting range. I must note that this unit reached further distances than the EV wireless I had been using for the past years.
The sound quality was as expected for this EV product. No noises or drifting were induced by outside interference. This mic sounded much like a wired Electro-VoiceN\DYM757 I could not believe it was wireless.The N\DYM® supercardioid diaphragm held up well and did not strain or gack under loud volumes. Again, as in the past, I was able to get about 3-4 hours of hard battery use out of the handheld unit.
Summary
I have the utmost respect for the products and warranties of Electro-Voice. I appreciate a product that performs like it should and does what it is supposed to. The handling of the mic, ease of design, and sound quality are some perks to this product. For the investment, the Electro-Voice MS2500 can not be beat.

Mark Farmer is a Audio Engineer with Live Technologies in Columbus, Ohio and can be reached thru the Internet: mixthat@columbus.rr.com

Product Points
Electro-Voice MS2500
Plus
+Ease of use and design
+Quality of sound
+Product quality
+Electro-Voice name

Minus
+Maybe some spruce up
of the manual

The Score
A great entrance into the high end wireless market.

Electro-Voice
Buchanan, Michigan