New IEM System day: T-Bone IEM 75

[uk_lefty]

This is quite long... Basically, these are really good if you're a beginner in the world of IEM.

 

Just in case anyone is wondering what these are like... A few weeks back Thomann were doing a deal on IEM kits. Not huge discounts but enough to tempt me into it. I have said in the past that I wouldn't go IEM, I felt I would feel disconnected, not be able to hear the audience feedback, we'd have nobody to check if FOH sound was any good... Well, curiosity got the better of me. 

 

I bought some Sure SE215 earphones for £85 and the T-Bone IEM 75 for £125.  These were the special offer prices and the exchange rates are the time. Thomann threw in some cleaning kit for the earphones, I also didn't realise that the T-Bone system came with its own earphones. 

 

I tried the earphones at home, I've heard so much about custom molds, number of drivers... These just sounded bl00dy good plugged into my multi-fx.  They're comfortable, with memory foam squishy bits to stick in your ear hole and moulded plastic to sit snug within the ear. Cannot fault them.  

 

I tested them out on a recent gig where we had a pro sound engineer at the venue and a big stage. I don't have a wireless for the bass anymore so just a long lead, but I could wander around freely. The T-Bone is dead easy to set up, I just put it on top of my amp so it had good lone of sight to my receiver. The receiver is a nice little unit that clips to your belt or guitar strap, takes two AA batteries that had no problem in a 2hr gig. I didn't get to test the range over more than five metres but it was fine for that. 

 

Sound quality... What I noticed was that by using this set up I still got enough ambient noise through that I could hear the audience and didn't feel disconnected. In my ears I needed to turn the volume up to a sweet spot where I got all the instruments through the earphones, I started off dead low and turned up slowly, initially thinking I had one of the guitars missing from the mic but I just needed to get to the right spot. Through the gig I had the vocals absolutely crystal clear and I wasn't straining to hear lead guitar or backing vox as I sometimes do with monitor mixes. I was able to have my bass amp a lot lower on stage volume than usual too.

 

After the gig my head felt so much clearer than when I play with a monitor mix and custom earplugs. It felt like a real game changer. I played the next week at a gig without IEMs just to feel the difference and for this weekend both gigs will go through IEMs. 

 

I'm pretty sure that the T-Bone and Sure set up is akin to playing a Harley Benton bass through a Fender Rumble 15. It's great for its price point, very usable, but more expensive kit will bring out more nuance. Right now, I don't need that nuance, I'm just enjoying what I've got!

 

Transportation-wise I just received a £20 flight case off Amazon that I've been able to get the set up into very snug. 

Edited Friday at 11:27 by uk_lefty

[PinkMohawk]

Very nice, look forward to ending up having to cart around a rack unit when the rest of the band realise that they should be on IEM's as well.