LD Systems MEI 1000 G2

I was told by many people, that any wireless in ear divices below 600.- are unusable and not even worth to be tried out.
This is why I decided to run a comparison between the LD Systems MEI 1000 G2 (299.-) and a Sennheiser ew IEM G4 (1'033.-).
Sound Quality:
The Sennheiser has better audio quality and less noise. The LD Systems quality is however enough for my requirements, and the noise is only audible when there is no sound being transmitted and I started to filter it out automatically after a short while.
Wireless IEMs seem to have an inherent issue with very low and very high frequency sounds. In this regards and specifically for bass guitar sound, the LD Systems is lacking. While the sennheiser handles low end better, it is still far from perfect and in essence not three times better than the LD Systems.

Build Quality:
Both senders are encased in a metal housing and have no advantage over one another. The sennheiser body pack has a metal housing as well and semms a lot sturdier than the LD Systems. Both devices have been in use in Live situations and I have dropped the LD Systems a few times already without noticing any subsequent issues. While the sennheiser will probably last longer than the LD Systems I don't think it will outlast it by more than 3 time.

Configurability:
The sennheiser offers more configurability options and a more intuitive menu. But within half an hour of fiddeling more I had the LD Systems setup just as good as the sennheiser.

Quality of Life Features:
The Sennheiser has a sync function to automatically set the body pack to the same frequency as the sender. If you need to change frequencies often, this might be quite nice. In my experience, once you have a good frequency distribution between all your wireless devices, there is seldom a need to change the frequencies.
The LD Systems body pack produces a loud pop when you turn it on. I therefore tend to turn it on before pluggin my head phones in. This is not an issue on the Sennheiser body pack.


Conclusion:
Yes the Sennheiser is better than the LD Systems, but not so much so, that it warrants a 700.- price increase. In my opinion this money is better spent in proper in ear monitoring head phones or devices like the Behringers PM16 Personal Mixers to improve your in ear monitoring sound sound. The LD Systems works for me to perfectly hear all 6 instruments in my (Folk Metal) Band. This is however mostly thanks to my good in ear head phones (Vision Ears Custom Fits) and the channel wise stereo panning I can create on my PM16.

One point in favor of the sennheiser or the slightly less expensive shure devices is their options to manage the frequencies of multiple devices from computer software, that calculated the perfect frequency distribution as well as automaticall avoids frequencies that are already in use (if you have a frequency scanner antenna).
But there are also free tools that will do this for you. The only difference is, that you need to enter the frequencies for each device manually.

Rating:
Assume that the Sennheiser gets a rating of 5 stars across. In terms of sound, the LD Systems is almos as good in the most important category: sound.
In regards to quality, the Sennheiser needs to outlast 3 sequentially bought LD Systems before justifying its price.
Both the lack in handling and features can be overcome by not requiering a plug and play solution and spending maybe an hour more for the initial setup

For a reasonable price you get a pretty solid IEM system. I bought this system for live use with my band. If you are coming from floor wedges, this is definitely an upgrade in any circumstance. However, it does not beat the high end models, which I will get into shortly.

The build quality is good and does not feel flimsy. The EQ boost to raise the lows and the highs is also nice to have. Navigating the channels and frequencies is cumbersome, there is no clear explanation to what frequencies the channels correspond.

As far as audio quality goes, it's ok. There is low volume noise, which is only noticeable when it's quiet and nothing is being played. The lows and highs are rolled off, which can be boosted by the built in EQ of the receiver pack. I transmitted a regular MP3 for testing and there is a definite loss of quality. Does it bother me live? Not at all.

If you are looking to step into the realm of IEMs, this is definitely a good budget system to start with!

Out of the box everything is well packaged and quick to set up. The plastic carrying case is fine for gig use travelling by car. A quick selection of channel gives you the best frequency for the room and to avoid any other band members using a similar system. The transmission is consistent but is mono unless you use two input cables. The transmission only very occasionally drops out while moving around but the sound quality is clear. For half the price of other brands, this is a great price point solution for most applications used with re-chargeable batteries. The pocket receiver unit does need to be handled with a bit of care but will withstand occasional drops.

I tried this system out on both a large and small stages. Playing drums is difficult with ordinary monitors but these have been very good. I've not lost signal or had a drop out in any gigs. I work with a over head and kick mic as well as the test of the band mixed through the auxiliaries on the SX20 mixing desk straight into the transeiver and they never struggled to give me the sound. My hearing is now suffering so thats why I decided to try this system better and the results are excellent. No more ringing ears or struggling to hear the vocalist and my drumming has improved as I'm not having to hit everything harder so I can hear it. although I've upgraded the buds to more professional ones I think the 1000 g2 system works well and is well worth the price I've paid. I'll never go gigging without them now they are an essential part of my kit

Pros- price, adequate feature set, reasonable build quality, rack ears included, range is excellent.
Cons- external PSU, limiter either on or off, EQ either on or off (HF boost is very harsh), quite a bit of system noise (though not intrusive once playing even quietly)

I'm using this with my UE5 in ears, so I can't comment on the bundled ear buds. I'm a keyboard player so I've often been happy with using a hard wired monitor feed, but I just wanted a cheap solution for times when I need to move around a bit more -get my keytar out! The sound quality of this unit is not as good as higher end IEM tranmitter/receivers, but it cost half of what my actual IEMs cost so you get what you pay for. The background noise is not intrusive though and the slight loss of definition is not really a deal breaker. There is some top end attenuation but the built in EQ (a HF boost) is too brutal to use. I would like to be able to adjust the limiter rather than relying on a preset level.