A "how are people using IEMs" Thread

[timwat]

Eric asked in the Alto thread, "How are people using IEMs (in ear monitors)?" 

 

I think there are two general classes of IEM users:

 

1) situation where you have a dedicated monitor engineer

2) anything else, where the user is responsible for figuring out what's in your own ears

 

Situation 2 runs the gamut from having a personal Avion mixer at your side (so you can dial in your own 16-channel mix) to trying to replace your powered monitor with a pair of IEMs (like was suggested in the Alto thread). Sometimes you have the ability to mix your own IEM feed with a phone app (because FOH is using a Behringer or Personus mixer that has a free app), and sometimes it is completely low-tech DIY.

 

Over the years I'm been in a lot of these different situations. 

 

With Situation 1:

• Success with a dedicated monitor engineer requires having sufficient time at sound check to dial in what works for you.
• In my anecdotal, that has generally worked quite well as long as the bus arrives on time at venue and monitor engineer isn't hungover or a jerk.

 

With Situation 2:

• If you have an Avion, Hear Tech or similar personal mixer, life is self-explanatory. But typically I've only found this in studios, churches, and similar.
• Most times, no personal mixer. So try to have all the possible phone apps from all the major brands already successfully downloaded, installed, and working. That way, if you get to venue and find they are using a compatible mixer, all you need to do is ask the engineer for the mixer's IP address, connect to the mixer's internal WiFi and you can mix your own ears.
• At the very least, have a Rolls Pm50 or similar "more me" mixer in your gig bag. This allows me to monitor my rig in stereo, and have a separate channel for a mono feed from FOH. What you request from FOH depends on what you want to hear. If they can give me a separate monitor feed, awesome. If not, just give me a duplicate of FOH and I'll "more me" enough so I can get through the gig.
• Many wireless IEM systems (transmitter and belt pack receiver) have a mixer function, where rather than sending a stereo signal, there's a mode that lets you feed two mono signals and mix them together on the belt pack. This can get you through a gig, although you'll be hearing everything in mono. But in my anecdotal, this is often finicky in practice and less than satisfactory. I punted on this and went with the hardwired Rolls system. For KB players, since we seldom stroll the lip of the stage (unless you're Keytaring), many of us trade wireless mobility for the satisfaction of hearing ourselves in stereo.

 

As always, some essential safety tips:

• ALWAYS use a system with a limiter and ALWAYS make sure the limiter is engaged. Any ignorant roadie mistakenly unplugging the wrong cord can send a "POP" through the system that will kill your hearing. Gino Vanelli was sidelined for over a year because of this.
• If you sing, do NOT do the "one ear in, one ear out" thing to monitor your own voice. You'll perceive the IEM volume as too low, turn up the volume as a result, and over time that will kill your hearing.
• With any IEM (custom molded or universal), the key is getting a tight, snug (but not painful) seal with your ear canal. If the seal is poor, bass will be anemic and it will sound like crap. With a good seal, even inexpensive less-than-$50 IEMs will sound better than spendy self-powered PA speakers. 
• This means experiment with different ear tips - both size and material. Silicon sounds different than foam. Different sizes (even between your ears...they're not identical size) - you may end up using a medium in one ear and a large in the other.

 

What about the rest of you? More suggestions? Better ideas than what I've got above?

[cphollis]

I use the Behringer equivalent, their PM-16 with my main band.  Two of the channels are "main mix", and then I can season to taste using the remaining 14 knobs.  Everything is fully assignable.  Most digital mixers support an app, so I'm good there.   I just wait until everyone is done with their s**t before mixing mine.

 

If no such mixer is available for a non-band gig, I bring an XR-18 (overkill, but it's what I have) and run two stereo pair to it, in addition to the monitor feed, so five inputs.  I sent one stereo pair mix to the main mixer (I could send two pair), each with it's own L and R aux mixed so that the monitor feed is not present.  The "main" outputs go to my ears, with monitor feed blended in.  The same could be achieved with two of something like a Yamaha MG6 mixer.

 

Once you get used to it, you don't want to go back.

[stoken6]

31 minutes ago, timwat said:

What about the rest of you? More suggestions? Better ideas than what I've got above?

Good summary. Most of the bands I play with have a digital mixer and can in theory give me my own IEM mix. Most of those have paired their phones with the desk, and subsequently forgotten the wifi/desk password, so I can't.

 

So a Rolls PM351 "more me" personal mixer does the job. I ask for any kind of mix, FoH, lead singer's monitor mix, anything - and add more me to it. 

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Stokely]

We don't have a dedicated engineer, so option #1 is right out.

I use a Rolls pm55p.  Our bass player has a similar unit, his has one feature mine doesn't:  it has stereo mic AND monitor ins, while mine only has stereo monitor.  His however doesn't have a limiter.

As cphollis uses, I also have a Behringer pm16 that I use with our PA and a few other regular gigs where they have Behringers with ultranet.

Despite the limiter on the PM16, I got blasted a few weeks ago when the singer was messing with her remote in-ear pack. No clue what happened.  It's possible i had the limiter threshold too high, or else perhaps it would have been EVEN LOUDER without it.   Scared me honestly.

My rule of thumb is:  if I can't control my own mix, I don't use in-ears.  Even if they can provide me a line level signal I can plug into my Rolls, or an ultranet--if they can't get me going with their mixer using an ipad app I punt and use a wedge.  I simply don't trust that they aren't going to completely mess up my mix in the middle of a show, or blast me despite the limiter.   With a wedge at least I have a shot at hearing enough to keep playing if my wedge mix sucks.

If our drummer had an electric kit I'd go back to a wedge I think.  I prefer it overall, even though I do like stereo in-ear mixes and I do like the clarity of in-ears.  Pros and cons.  But as long as I'm next to an acoustic drum kit with a medium-loud drummer using regular sticks, I try my best to use IEMs.

[Nathanael_I]

I've often been the engineer for option #1 in the original post.  In the studio, I provide IEM mixes through the Focusrite AM2 boxes straight out of ProTools.  Very clean.

 

I've been #2 exclusively on Aviom or Behringer boxes when I play.  This also works great.

 

I vastly prefer IEM to wedges. 

[CEB]

1) Dedicated desk. They Basically zero in the monitor mix at sound check. 
 

2) The players run MX-Q so we can make necessary adjustments during the show.   We have ran other apps depending on the contractor. I have used Avions also about 10+ years ago. 
 

3) I have no keyboards in my monitor mix being sent to me. I run the Shure Transceiver in dual mono mix mode.  I control the amount of keys being sent to channel B of the Shure.  This is a remnant from before we had MX-Q and everything was done by the desk. I didn’t trust the desk to make sure I could hear what I was playing.  We have all probably experienced what it is like when the tech gets the sends confused. Leaving it like it is was fine and not worth rewiring the rack.   Besides you never know when there will be a new sound contractor and you will not have a self mixing app. 
 

I use the term tech. NOT engineer. Engineers have licenses. It cost a lot of money to raise and send enigineers to university. 

[EricBarker]

So here's my situation. I play in 6 bands of varying genres and degrees of professionalism in rural Alaska. No dedicated engineers, and house staff runs the gamut from "you're so good, why are you in Alaska?" to "I have to teach you what Stereo means" (not kidding). No clue who we'll end up with until we get to the venue. Often times there's no one, bar tender points to an 8channel Mackie and says "knock yerself out" (happened last week). Digital Mixers are spotty, most equipment is 20yo or older. Alaska summer means festivals. About 50% of my gigs are outdoor festivals, and then bar gigs that spin off of that. All of this equals, "I don't trust anyone, and can expect anything". Frankly, "Bob's Country Bunker" is far more sophisticated than many local venues.

What I've been doing is taking a small personal amp (Behringer Eurolive 150W), pointing it right at my face, and letting FoH do whatever they want in the monitors. I'm half ready to just replace that setup with an IEM system, 100% me, and just let stage volume give me the rest.

That said, I'm in the process of building my own band, and as a leader, I'd like to come up with something a bit more 20th century, if not 21st century. If I can at least equip my own 4-piece band with IEMs, that would be nice. But once again, I don't trust FoH, so it's gonna have to be 100% my own time and effort, so I'd like to find something simple and idiot proof, because when it comes to tech, my life is full of idiots. The other hangup is that I play with a lot of acoustic musicians: fiddle and banjo. They REALLY don't like things in their ears between them and their instrument.

[eric]

I am in a hybrid mode between 1 and 2. My steady gig has been 100% dedicated IEMs for over a decade and we don't have a "monitor engineer" though 90% of our gigs have a FOH engineer that also cares for monitors. We use Midas/Behringer and everyone has "the app on their iPhone or iPad" in addition to a human being standing out front asking what we need during sound check and the show. I have mostly been a "set it and forget it" guy and my keyboard rig has a submixer that allows me to dial in my stereo keyboard mix separately from a mono or stereo band mix feeding my IEMs. I've been doing it so long that it's pretty seamless and I rarely find a need to do anything aside from an occasional motion to the sound man "more lead vocal" or "more bass" or whatever.

 

I take my rig and it is transportable to different scenarios, most of which are on stages that have savvy monitor or FOH sound engineers and they are very happy to see my IEM rig (inclusive of all the XLR snakes for both keys and IEM sends) and I've done some gigs where I'm the ONLY person on stage doing IEMs and still it works great.

 

I've had a one or two gig situation where the house people are clueless about IEMs and I get nothing...in which case I usually still run IEMs and just pay close attention to what's happening on stage...I have thought about having a dedicated microphone for such a scenario, though it is so rare that I don't worry too much about it.

 

I'm also happy that my main band also has a dedicated IEM rehearsal rig and it is really nice to just plug and play there. Once you go ALL IN on IEMs, it is very hard to go back to the noise of powered monitors and such. I haven't done a gig in a few years where I needed to bring my own amplification. I keep some available, because you never know!

[obxa]

All of the above I split my time between church and regular gigs.

 

As mentioned above most churches use Aviom, or apps that control the personal monitor mix of their Yamaha, Berhrnger/Midas, or Pre-Sonus boards.    For concert/stage gigs, it's all the latter.  I've done many Christian artist shows who often rent an Aviom system because so many ministry folks are used to it.   The Aviom is like a Roland keyboard amp ;  not a hi-fidelity experience, ....more like blunt force trauma. LOL.   But is dead simple to use (with one hand), and very reliable.   My house church gig just switched back to the new Avioms, after using the proprietary MyMix system- which was finicky, and needed two hands to operate. 

 

1. I carry an (older)  Ipad mini with all the mixer apps  already installed to control most any IEM mix out there.   Having  dedicated control device makes things easier, than trying to multi-task your ipad.  You could even use an old phone you may have lying around, as most of the apps have legacy versions that still work.  I used to use a cheap Kindle for that purpose too,  but found not all apps were available for Android. That may have changed.

 

2. Any show I'm on, I bypass the artist's manager or other (typically misinformed) handlers, and call ahead to find out if production can do an in-ear mix. 98% of the time it's not an issue, and they usually appreciate the heads up.    Some can even do stereo.    Even most of the better cover bands here in my town are set up for IEM.  But if not, see #3 below.  For backline with real B3- I'll still use ears,  as I'm usually playing loud enough and  sitting close enough to still hear leakage.  But as is the norm lately:  most production people prefer to put the leslie off-stage, or downstage-which almost defeats the purpose, but I digress.

 

3.  What if IEMs "cant' be used"?   First:  I'm all about protecting my ears.  Second life is too short for mono.    So for any gig other than piano jazz cocktail- I still do ears even if the band-venue can't/doesn't. . Use a Mackie mixer to  listen to keys  ( pre) in stereo, then ask FOH  to send an FOH mix minus keys.  If they can't/won't do that,  I already always hook up an ambient PZM mic to pick up some stage sound and communicate- I'll  just crank it up more to hear the band from that.   Of course, I remove the mic mix to them.   

 

BTW- Using an ambient mic has made all the difference in the world to feeling closed off, or simply being able to communicate.  On some gigs I  sometimes use a cheap Audio Technica stereo mic instead of the PZM.  The stereo ambient mic makes things a little nicer when it's the sole source of hearing rest of band....or hearing bar patrons screaming "Freebird"  WagonWheel.

 

4. On some regular wedding/bar gigs- I've have one or two BL's complain they couldn't hear me just being in their wedges.   So I'll  bring my battered Behringer stereo keyboard amp.  It sounds worse than the Roland it's a clone of.  😄   However,  it does have a great stereo mixer, Fx,  headphone out, and channel one can do minus mix.  I point it at whomever wants it, or turn off the speaker.  It's often easier to set up than using a mixer

 

 Ear protection LIMITERS  Done a ton of research on this.  With  last 25  years of IEMs I've had damaging mishaps with volunteers in churches, and also "pros" in secular world.  When I was using a full rack with my rig, used to have a DBX limiter wired into my IEM. Too much to carry for a hit & run gig.  There are some very overpriced IEM limiters..  I've even looked at the things they make for kids headphones or those with sensory issues.  My Shure  IEM pack has a great limiter built in, but it's a PITA to hook up with the XLRs it uses.    So now, no matter what rig I'm using- I just put one of these Behringer personal mix things  at the end of the chain. It has a brute force limiter, which is all you need.   Run a stereo cable from the headphone out into it , and it's handy to control overall volume too, especially clipped to my belt or music stand..  It's also stereo.  Considered the  Rolls  stereo more-me thing, but it needs a power supply and wasn't as compact.

 

BTW I'm guilty of blowing up my own ears at home.   In the studio, I always patch in a software brickwall limter while  playing around with synths or fx. Take it off when ready to mix.    I sometimes also patch a Brickwall into my Mainstage presets.  

 

[CowboyNQ]

I don’t use IEM’s, but the lead vocalist, bsssist and drummer in one of my bands do.

 

My guys could never really get along with their IEMs until the band switched to a 32 channel digital desk with splitters so we could all run our own monitor mixes via smartphone app.

 

It was a complete game changer for the band in many ways, and we greatly prefer it to relying on a separate monitor tech, or worse still, expecting it to be run from FOH.

[John H Carter]

I don't think this has been mentioned yet, but well worth having a"room" mic that you can mix in to get a sense of connection with audience and the band. 

[RABid]

I've been asked to sub for the drummer at church. IEM's is the biggest reason I am holding off. Ear buds will not stay in my ears so I would have to small headphones, or maybe hook over the ear phones. The other issue, while the church has a nice system with individual controls for each musician, they have one set of IEM's per seat. Subs use the same IEM's as regulars and in some cases that means 4 people using the same IEM's. I've been told you really don't want to share in ear devices.

[Chris Link]

I prefer the Westone AM Pro 30s to my old Shures with complete isolation. IIRC, the Westones have a -13dB port which allows one to carry on a conversation and avoids the "in a box" feeling that comes with complete isolation. I generally put KBs, vocals, unamplified instruments and occasionally lead guitar in my mix. Bass and drums are typically plenty loud but more than tolerable at -13dB. I had custom silicone molds made to get a good, comfortable fit.

 

I am stationary so I'm hard wired into a Rolls PM55P with the limiter. I don't necessarily trust a $99 piece of gear with my hearing so I also use a PreservEars passive limiter.

 

 

[stoken6]

11 hours ago, RABid said:

Subs use the same IEM's as regulars and in some cases that means 4 people using the same IEM's. I've been told you really don't want to share in ear devices.

In my experience, subs are asked "bring your own buds" - i.e. the earphones that go in your ears. They plug into a 1/8in TRS socket into a personal headphone amp (shared between the sub and the regular).

 

When I subbed for this kind of band, my contract said that monitoring would be IEMs and that I should bring earphones, and everything else would be provided. In practice, the sound crew provided headphone amps that took a (mono) XLR input and raised it to headphone output. I ended up plugging it into my Rolls PM351 and had a "more me" capability on the gig.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Stokely]

A dedicated mixer with splitter(s), mentioned above, is what our band has considered doing...if we did more gigs without our PA we'd probably do it, as things are the percentage is pretty low so we get by.   

There's a wide variety of eartips for various IEMs (make sure you get them that match the shaft diameter of your earbuds).   I've found the "harpoon" double flange works well though I can't find some I like for my Sennheiser ie400 pros...the memory foam ones work pretty well, use the size that is just too big for your ears, compress them and pop them in quickly

I've considered an ambient mic on stage (probably using my Zoom H2), mainly for cymbals since we don't typically mic up the whole kit but it hasn't been that big a deal.  

Using someone else's earbuds would be....odd.   I've tried out our singer's when I thinking of buying but I changed out the tips on them.

[EricBarker]

So, if I'm getting this straight, you guys are going into a "throughput mixer" (for lack of a better term) from your boards and vocals, before it goes to FoH? I have an old 4-channel Shure P4M that takes XLR/TS inputs and can pass them through to XLR outs, but also a stereo mix down. I've never used it as it was given to me by my dying bandmate. It's racked to an old Shure Wireless system that I could never get to work.

Is that the kind of routing we're talking about? I'm just not sure about how to get all these channels to FoH and Personal Monitors at the same time with clean throughout.

[Stokely]

In my case I was talking about the entire band doing it, just to be clear.  The idea being that we bring our PA mixer, connecting to it from a splitter.  In our case that would normally be about 10-14 channels depending on drum mics and whether we go stereo.   FOH gets all those same individual channels and can do with them what it wants without affecting us in the slightest--our monitors come from our mixer.

It doesn't really go to a throughput mixer so much--all the instruments go to a splitter.  Then they all go to two different mixers (ours, acting as monitor mixer, and FOH probably via a snake on stage).  That's my impression anyway.

We know several band on our level (ie, small timers) doing this, again if we had more sound company gigs where we weren't using our PA then the extra expense and more stuff to bring would be worth it...as it is, the band leaders haven't wanted to dive in.

I do a mini version of this as many of you do just for keys, with a submixer.  Unless I'm using my p16m monitor, I have my submixer go to a Rolls so that I can monitor my keys before FOH gets their mitts on it, with volume controls for keys and for everything else minus keys.

[EricBarker]

Is your Splitter something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/Seismic-Audio-Channel-Splitter-SARMSS-16x515/dp/B01IO4GOKI?th=1

 

That would actually be quite a cheap system. I could rack it to my XR18, and get 3-4 stereo mixes for different instruments. I'll need to talk it over with my bandmates and local sound guys to see whether this is a workable system. My concern is it might be more intrusive to some of the local hacks, who just want you to come in and use their setup. Getting a FOH feed with a "More Me" personal mixer would likely be a more diplomatic approach. Also considering we often share the stage with 1-2 more bands over the course of a night.

[stoken6]

26 minutes ago, EricBarker said:

My concern is it might be more intrusive to some of the local hacks, who just want you to come in and use their setup.

That shouldn't be intrusive - one side of the snake goes to the venue, and they have to run FoH but not monitors.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[cphollis]

2 hours ago, EricBarker said:

So, if I'm getting this straight, you guys are going into a "throughput mixer" (for lack of a better term) from your boards and vocals, before it goes to FoH? I have an old 4-channel Shure P4M that takes XLR/TS inputs and can pass them through to XLR outs, but also a stereo mix down. I've never used it as it was given to me by my dying bandmate. It's racked to an old Shure Wireless system that I could never get to work.

Is that the kind of routing we're talking about? I'm just not sure about how to get all these channels to FoH and Personal Monitors at the same time with clean throughout.

Lots of ways to "stage mix" prior to sending to FOH, splitters not really required but certainly an option.

 

For example, there are enough inputs and outputs on the X32 to input the entire 16-channel band, drive custom mixes for each of our ears, and also output each input channel to someone else's main board.   I run a digital snake down to the main board (single piece of ethernet), and they are free to plug in there and do what they want.  Note that all the channels already have EQ, compression, FX as we control that.  This is more of an accommodation to certain event companies where it's gotta be "their board".  Most everyone knows how the X32 works, for example.

 

Most of the time, there is no external board, and the X32 does both jobs easily.  If you used the XR-18, you would be limited to the six auxes it provides.

[cphollis]

Also, not mentioned on this thread, you can get pretty awesome five driver IEMs for around $50, and upgrade the tips and cable for about $20 each.  Give them about 10 hours or so to break in, and you will be very pleasantly surprised.  I own a pair of Westone ambients, they really can't compare to a five driver design.  The "ambient mic" trick does work, but it also can be weird, especially if two very drunk people start having what should be a private conversation right next to your microphone.  I don't use one any more.  Like anything else, it takes a bit of adaptation.

[counterpoint]

14 minutes ago, cphollis said:

Lots of ways to "stage mix" prior to sending to FOH, splitters not really required.  For example, there are enough inputs and outputs on the X32 to input the entire band, drive custom mixes for each of our ears, and also feed each input channel to someone else's main board.   If there is no external board, the X32 does both jobs easily.

I have the Presonus 24r...same thing...   I know the X32 and the 24r/32r aren't cheap, but they will sure save you and your band from lot of complicated cable acrobatics.  These mixers have astounding capabilities...

[SamuelBLupowitz]

On 4/20/2023 at 3:19 PM, Stokely said:

I use a Rolls pm55p.  Our bass player has a similar unit, his has one feature mine doesn't:  it has stereo mic AND monitor ins, while mine only has stereo monitor.  His however doesn't have a limiter.

These are the two that I'm currently trying to decide between (the one your bass player has is in all likelihood the PM59). I'm trying to keep my rig from getting too big, so I don't want to add a rack mixer, but I'm tired of being forced to monitor my keys in mono when the PA doesn't have enough auxes, so I want to be able to monitor my keys in stereo straight out of my line mixer, and get everything else in mono from FOH. 

Anyone know of any units that have the stereo mic and monitor ins, AND a limiter? That would be ideal for me. If not, I'll probably with the pm55p. I'd rather only have a single XLR in than no limiter.

[Stokely]

If you do find one, let us know!  I had the same decision to make and also went with the limiter as it's rare that I get two (stereo) auxes anyway.    It is kind of a weird lineup Rolls has.

[Viv Savage]

I used a Rolls PM55P, also for the limiter, but for what it’s worth, I just couldn’t deal with the cheap power supply with short cord, and also think I was getting some noise from the power supply. Same thing caused me to ditch the Rolls MX28 for sub-mixing.   I’m currently using an Xvive U4 wireless unit + Westone ambients with our XR18 mixer.  I’m relatively happy with the simplicity of that setup but would really like to monitor in stereo using a wired setup. Anyone know the best way to do stereo IEMs on the XR18?  Seems I could either (1) route two Aux sends to the XR’s headphone out (I confirmed this can be done), then take the headphone out to something like a Behringer P2 for handy volume control, or (2) take two XLR Aux outputs from the mixer and merge them with a Y-cable into a single TRS to connect to a P2 / other headphone amp.   I’m in a bit over my head but (2) seems like it could cause issues going from the mixer’s balanced XLR Aux outputs to an unbalanced TRS cable, plus I’m not really sure how such a Y-cable would actually “merge” the two Aux outputs to create stereo.  Adding to my confusion, the 2 input channels I use for my keys are “stereo linked” on the XR so that I can control both faders by moving only one. So …. I’m guessing I would have disable that linkage in order to send a keys L signal to Aux 1 and a keys R signal to Aux 2.  Or … am I overthinking this?  🙂

[SamuelBLupowitz]

4 hours ago, Viv Savage said:

Anyone know the best way to do stereo IEMs on the XR18?  Seems I could either (1) route two Aux sends to the XR’s headphone out (I confirmed this can be done), then take the headphone out to something like a Behringer P2 for handy volume control, …

Will confirm, I have done exactly this with my drummer’s XR18.

[Tom Williams]

Quote

Anyone know the best way to do stereo IEMs on the XR18?  Seems I could either (1) route two Aux sends to the XR’s headphone out (I confirmed this can be done), then take the headphone out to something like a Behringer P2 for handy volume control, or (2) take two XLR Aux outputs from the mixer and merge them with a Y-cable into a single TRS to connect to a P2 / other headphone amp.  

If you want to hear a stereo mix, either go with the headphone output or use a pair of busses into a Behringer P1.

 

If you're going to use a P2, consider condensing to mono inside the mixer, and then sending that mono feed to the P2. 

I would never recommend merging two balanced audio lines at the wire level.

 

And if you have $300 to burn, get a P16M personal monitor submixer.  I adore mine.

 

Tangential rant: as a volunteer church FOH sound <s> engineer </s> tech, I have more than once wanted to do physical harm to the otherwise excellent musician on stage who does his IEM one ear on / one ear off.  He ends up mixing from the stage for his own balance, singing backups probably 40 dB too quiet, turning his mic into an auxiliary drum overhead and generally f***ing up all attempts for the house sound guy to deal with the balance.

[obxa]

On 4/23/2023 at 8:37 PM, Chris Link said:

I don't necessarily trust a $99 piece of gear with my hearing so I also use a PreservEars passive limiter.

I've danced around the PreservEar thing forever but the price and lack of return put me off.  i've never known anyone that actually owns one. Could you please share how they've  worked for you?  After I posted above, I noticed Behringer  removed all mention of the limiter in any latest P2 catalog descriptions, which worries me.   Going to email them. 

 

On 4/24/2023 at 4:37 PM, cphollis said:

Also, not mentioned on this thread, you can get pretty awesome five driver IEMs for around $50, and upgrade the tips and cable for about $20 each

I've mentioned in other threads about buying these in bulk for guests  who don't have  IEMs at my Church- they work great. So much  I've started using them myself doing the exact mods you mentioned.      I've got  2 driver Westones, and my old Shure E5's , and the knock offs sound better.  Plus less stress if they get stepped on or lost.  I've A/Bd them with a buddy's (uber-expensive) 1964s and they hold up very well. 

 

Comply tips make all the difference in the world., available for most any IEM and well worth it.   First time users of IEMs usually struggle because it's all about the seal.

[Chris Link]

As far as I can tell, the Preservears are doing their job. I do have to increase the output from the Rolls or my laptop to get the same volume but can’t detect any loss of sound quality. 
 

Unfortunately, their website has disappeared so I don’t know as they are still in business. 

[Stokely]

If you are mostly or always using the XR18 (as my band does), get the P16M as mentioned above if you want stereo.  Although--my first one stopped working, the headphone out did at least, after about 8 months.  Luckily I had bought from sweetwater so the warranty applied, they ended up sending me a brand new one.  I did have to eat the shipping back.

I've also been able to use it with other Behringer mixers at sound company gigs--by default the first 16 channels are routed to ultranet so the sound engineer doesn't have to do anything unless he's changed it (and if so, I'll just use an aux with my Rolls).  I have both headphone amps on my pedalboard, which isn't the best for tweaking but it does mean the wall warts are all pre-wired and I don't have to mess with them.  Normally I have my monitor mix in place after a song or two and it's no biggie.

I'm an outlier in that I don't like the KZ earbuds (5 driver) I bought.  Too bright and harsh.  Given the universal good reviews, It's likely mine are a faulty pair, they do work and I use them as a backup option.  I bought a new cable hoping it would help, and also because the stock one tangles as much as braided fishing line    I have Shure 215s, solid and reliable; custom triples that I can't wear because I can't sing in them; Sennheiser ie 400 pros are my current ones, they sound great and are really small and light.