The IEM (in ear monitors) Bible thread - a guide to help every musician

[Chienmortbb]

21 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

We do the small venues too and didn't have a problems. However we went to 5.8 in the first place was I used to use the internal router on the X18. As soon as I turned the XVive U4 on, there was no X18 connection. You could have one or the other, so I had to go to a an external 5.8 router.

I had a similar experience, the guitarist turned on is new Wireless system and the mixer disappeared. 

 

One of the problems with 2.4GHz is that, as well as the overuse of the band, Wi-Fi channels overlap. 5.8GHz do not, having a guard band between channels. To avoid any issues, you should also do a scan using your phone. iPhone and iPad have a utility called Airport Utility that allows you to see any close networks. Also, you must secure your network AND hide the SSID.

[Chienmortbb]

On 06/01/2026 at 12:43, TimR said:

Yes. I guess one problem with WiFi is people having their phones searching for SSIDs all the time. Latching onto your transmitter and trying to see if they can connect. 

Hide the SSID?

 

[dave_bass5]

33 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

Hide the SSID?

 

Yep, thats why I already do. Everyone in the band has our network(s) already set in their phones (not that most use it). 

[Buddster]

2 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

Hide the SSID?

 

I tried to hide it, but ended up going to the clinic 

[Muzz]

Just for the record, our BL did a recap of 2025, and we did 56 gigs (I also did, IIRC, 8-10 gigs with other bands), and looking at dates, 42 of them were with the Lekato MS-02 system. Probably a dozen rehearsals, too. No dropouts, no issues, most gigs they're switched on for about three hours from start of soundcheck to inevitable encores, no battery life issues. I may have been lucky, but I'm stil rolling with the MS-02s, especially for the money. Still running in mono, mainly because the BL won't cluster two channels to one out of his XR-18 to give me a stereo feed.

[Woodinblack]

46 minutes ago, Muzz said:

 42 of them were with the Lekato MS-02 system. Probably a dozen rehearsals, too. No dropouts, no issues, most gigs they're switched on for about three hours from start of soundcheck to inevitable encores, no battery life issues.

 

I have never actually ever had a problem with the MS-02, just they feel a bit flakey, and on mine the power button is not the best (it works, but its like if you push it too much it goes off again). I think they are a great system for the price (wish the stereo / mono and on/off buttons were further apart!) and I will keep them as a backup

 

46 minutes ago, Muzz said:

Still running in mono, mainly because the BL won't cluster two channels to one out of his XR-18 to give me a stereo feed.

 

My channels aren't linked, I never got round to it, I just use 5 and 6 as a pair, and set them manually as I want them. 

[dave_bass5]

Good to hear the MS-02 is up to gigs. I got my singer a set for Christmas. When we set them up at home with the XR18 in stereo, running a virtual soundcheck from the recoding of the last gig, she said ‘and whats the difference from my U4?’ 🙄
We did notice a bit of cutting out as she was handling it. Not signal as such, it seemed the output jack was a bit cutting out. We were using headphones with a chunky jack so i put it down to that. 

Edited Thursday at 10:12 by dave_bass5

[dave_bass5]

1 hour ago, Muzz said:

Still running in mono, mainly because the BL won't cluster two channels to one out of his XR-18 to give me a stereo feed.

Can you not do it yourself in whatever app you are using, or do you mean he doesn’t want it done?

[Al Krow]

22 hours ago, javi_bassist said:

That Swift wireless system seems interesting. In Thomann however, it has not so good reviews. The thing about dropouts I guess it depends on your gigs. I currently use the Xvive U45 (5.8) and I never had an issue. The rest of my band use the U4 (2.4) running simultaneously 3 U4 and never had an issue either. I must say that with my Line 6 wireless (G10s and G30) I had some dropouts sometimes, but I still use them. I use also the Fender Telepath and I had issues when using it close to the U45. 

 

Thanks for pointing out the mixed Thomann reviews of the Swiff WX520 - very helpful. Given I've just recommended the unit to our singer, for whom it will be a significant outlay, I've had a read through (and pulled the reviews together in English translation in the attached note, in case of use for anyone else). I found the review by a chap called Jonz particularly good. He very helpfully listed the pros and cons and was obviously loving it, until it broke after 6 months! Shame.

Swiff Audio WX520 - Thomann Reviews.pdf

Edited Thursday at 11:19 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

3 hours ago, Muzz said:

Just for the record, our BL did a recap of 2025, and we did 56 gigs (I also did, IIRC, 8-10 gigs with other bands), and looking at dates, 42 of them were with the Lekato MS-02 system. Probably a dozen rehearsals, too. No dropouts, no issues, most gigs they're switched on for about three hours from start of soundcheck to inevitable encores, no battery life issues. I may have been lucky, but I'm stil rolling with the MS-02s, especially for the money. Still running in mono, mainly because the BL won't cluster two channels to one out of his XR-18 to give me a stereo feed.

 

That's a very tidy haul, Muzz - congrats! (And hopefully you're not about to tell me that bookings were down 40% and it was actually a really crap year for you guys!)

 

Are you guys doing a mixture of pub and function work or predominantly doing one or the other?

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

 I found the review by a chap called Jonz particularly good. He very helpfully listed the pros and cons and was obviously loving it, until it broke after 6 months! Shame.

 

Thats not ideal, my U4 took 13 months to break (ie, just outside waranty)!

[Al Krow]

56 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

That's not ideal, my U4 took 13 months to break (ie, just outside waranty)!

 

Interestingly, the U45 has had superb reviews on Thomann:

Xvive U45 4.9★ (28 reviews)

Swiff WX520 3.8★ (21 reviews)

 

and the older U4 which has been around the block a fair bit longer:

Xvive U4 4.5★ (361 reviews)

[dave_bass5]

My wife’s U4 had to be exchanged within a month or so IIR. She has had the replacement quite a while now and it’s been fine. 

[Linus27]

After giving IEM a quick go last year with a Behringer P2 and being pretty successful on the few songs at a gig I tried it on, I fancy giving it a more series go and going full on wireless.

 

I'm thinking of giving either the Swiff WX520 or Xvive U45 a go. I wouldn't mind a personal monitor station and I'm ok for earbuds as I love the KZ ZS10 Pro's that I bought.

 

The only bit I'm unsure about is how to connect the personal headphone monitor. I get that the XLR from my Sansamp will go to the FOH desk. Would I then run a line from the FOH desk into the Line Input of the personal headphone monitor and a line from my Output of my Sansamp into the Instrument In on the personal headphone monitor. This would give me the FOH mix and my bass mix that I can adjust individually to my taste. I would then plug the IEM base into Headphone Output and then the IEM backpack to my strap/back pocket.

 

Does that sound about right or is that wrong? Is there a simpler way of being able to adjust my bass volume and the FOH mix individually in my IEM?

 

Below is the personal headphone monitor I'm thinking about getting.

 

 

[javi_bassist]

8 hours ago, Linus27 said:

After giving IEM a quick go last year with a Behringer P2 and being pretty successful on the few songs at a gig I tried it on, I fancy giving it a more series go and going full on wireless.

 

I'm thinking of giving either the Swiff WX520 or Xvive U45 a go. I wouldn't mind a personal monitor station and I'm ok for earbuds as I love the KZ ZS10 Pro's that I bought.

 

The only bit I'm unsure about is how to connect the personal headphone monitor. I get that the XLR from my Sansamp will go to the FOH desk. Would I then run a line from the FOH desk into the Line Input of the personal headphone monitor and a line from my Output of my Sansamp into the Instrument In on the personal headphone monitor. This would give me the FOH mix and my bass mix that I can adjust individually to my taste. I would then plug the IEM base into Headphone Output and then the IEM backpack to my strap/back pocket.

 

Does that sound about right or is that wrong? Is there a simpler way of being able to adjust my bass volume and the FOH mix individually in my IEM?

 

Below is the personal headphone monitor I'm thinking about getting.

 

 

 

That is exactly what I do with the Rolls. I also ask the soundguy not to send any bass in my mix, to avoid phase issues.

[Phil Starr]

9 hours ago, Linus27 said:

After giving IEM a quick go last year with a Behringer P2 and being pretty successful on the few songs at a gig I tried it on, I fancy giving it a more series go and going full on wireless.

 

I'm thinking of giving either the Swiff WX520 or Xvive U45 a go. I wouldn't mind a personal monitor station and I'm ok for earbuds as I love the KZ ZS10 Pro's that I bought.

 

The only bit I'm unsure about is how to connect the personal headphone monitor. I get that the XLR from my Sansamp will go to the FOH desk. Would I then run a line from the FOH desk into the Line Input of the personal headphone monitor and a line from my Output of my Sansamp into the Instrument In on the personal headphone monitor. This would give me the FOH mix and my bass mix that I can adjust individually to my taste. I would then plug the IEM base into Headphone Output and then the IEM backpack to my strap/back pocket.

 

Does that sound about right or is that wrong? Is there a simpler way of being able to adjust my bass volume and the FOH mix individually in my IEM?

 

Below is the personal headphone monitor I'm thinking about getting.

 

 

I don't have one of these but there seems to be a simpler way which gives you better control. The Rolls has a built in DI splitter for the instrument. 

 

Plug your bass into the jack 'inst in' Your mic into 'mic in'

Use the 'mic out' to send to the PA 

Use 'left out' to send your bass to the PA, 'right out' to send to your bass amp if you have one.

Ask foir a FOH mix without bass to feed into your 'line input'

 

You now have complete control of the mix in your in-ears and the PA is getting a clean feed of your bass and mic. The feed from the bass is isolated through a transformer and there are ground lifts on both feeds to the PA should you need to kill any hum

 

p

[Al Krow]

12 hours ago, Linus27 said:

After giving IEM a quick go last year with a Behringer P2 and being pretty successful on the few songs at a gig I tried it on, I fancy giving it a more series go and going full on wireless.

 

I'm thinking of giving either the Swiff WX520 or Xvive U45 a go. I wouldn't mind a personal monitor station and I'm ok for earbuds as I love the KZ ZS10 Pro's that I bought.

 

The only bit I'm unsure about is how to connect the personal headphone monitor. I get that the XLR from my Sansamp will go to the FOH desk. Would I then run a line from the FOH desk into the Line Input of the personal headphone monitor and a line from my Output of my Sansamp into the Instrument In on the personal headphone monitor. This would give me the FOH mix and my bass mix that I can adjust individually to my taste. I would then plug the IEM base into Headphone Output and then the IEM backpack to my strap/back pocket.

 

Does that sound about right or is that wrong? Is there a simpler way of being able to adjust my bass volume and the FOH mix individually in my IEM?

 

Below is the personal headphone monitor I'm thinking about getting.

 

I think this depends on the capability of your desk. If it can deliver a tailored monitor mix to your IEMs, then you can go directly from the desk to your Swiff or U45 with no need for the Rolls.

 

Our old Soundcraft MTK analogue desk provided 2 aux outs with personalised mixes, plus 2 group + 1 headphone out that were FoH mixes.

 

Our current A&H CQ desk can provide up to 6 personalised monitor outs, which is ideal for a small band using IEMs (although additional outputs could be useful if we want to have personal stereo mixes down the line - not possible with the U45 btw as that is mono).

[Woodinblack]

2 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Our current A&H CQ desk can provide up to 6 personalised monitor outs, which is ideal for a small band using IEMs (although additional outputs could be useful if we want to have personal stereo mixes down the line - not possible with the U45 btw as that is mono).

 

Does the A&H CQ desk not have the equivilent of the Behringer personal mixers that are good for headphone outs? With the XR18 (or 32 or whatever), you could use a single P16-D to route personalised stereo feeds to 16 IEM setups (through individual P16s). I doubt you would ever need to but I assume you could actually stack those!

[Greg Edwards69]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Does the A&H CQ desk not have the equivilent of the Behringer personal mixers that are good for headphone outs? With the XR18 (or 32 or whatever), you could use a single P16-D to route personalised stereo feeds to 16 IEM setups (through individual P16s). I doubt you would ever need to but I assume you could actually stack those!

No, they don't have hardware personal monitor mixers for this CQ line of mixers - only the higher-end stuff. There is, however, a personal mixer app for smartphones that replicates many of the same behaviours, and it's free. It just lacks the immediacy and 'hands-on' approach of hardware.

 

CQ4You • Allen & Heath

[Wombat]

So you can 'plug your IEMs' into the CQ mixer and use the app. You don't need a signal amplifier in the chain?

[warwickhunt]

4 minutes ago, Wombat said:

So you can 'plug your IEMs' into the CQ mixer and use the app. You don't need a signal amplifier in the chain?

 

Output from the CQ mixer to your IEM transmitter, to your receiver/IEM... yes.

 

All mixing for your output done via the app.

Edited 13 hours ago by warwickhunt

[Chienmortbb]

 They always show the CQ18, but the CQ20 has XLRs for the output.

Edited 13 hours ago by Chienmortbb

[dave_bass5]

39 minutes ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

No, they don't have hardware personal monitor mixers for this CQ line of mixers - only the higher-end stuff. There is, however, a personal mixer app for smartphones that replicates many of the same behaviours, and it's free. It just lacks the immediacy and 'hands-on' approach of hardware.

 

CQ4You • Allen & Heath

I get the impression that the P-16 comment was about adding more monitor mixes rather than remote operation.

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

There is, however, a personal mixer app for smartphones that replicates many of the same behaviours, and it's free.

 

Indeed - but that is just adjusting standard AUX outs, which you could do on mixing station or whatever on the behringer, the X18 also has 6 outs (its what I use in my main group). Just does limit the number of stereo outs you can get from a mixer to 3. 

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Wombat said:

So you can 'plug your IEMs' into the CQ mixer and use the app. You don't need a signal amplifier in the chain?

 

Your IEM system, transmitter, whatever (which is an amplifier), so some additional hardware not directly the headphones themselves.