LD Systems U508 IEM

I spend a lot of time researching in ear monitor (IEM) systems and came across this from LD systems. As this was a first time adventure into IEM for myself and my band I didn’t want to spend thousands on something that might not even be right for us at all!

I am a bass player in a wedding/function band and for years we have been used to playing with back line amps and floor monitors. I myself run the sound from the stage. For years now we have always battled with floor monitors and vocalists struggling to hear themselves, I got it to a point where we just put up with it. We knew the FOH sounded good so we just got on with our own stage mix. Enter in ear monitoring…

I looked at Sennhiser and Shure but both just seemed a little out our budget. So we when for 2 x LD system U508 with 3 of the body packs that go with them (giving me 4 mixes) To set up a whole band on IEM is expensive! For example, I use (L) as mix 1 and (R) as mix 2 and use the body pack in mono. Meaning I get 2 mixes out of 1 receiver if that makes sense.

I had heard from a few people (online) that the LD system headphones aren’t great so I decided to spend the extra on 5 sets of Sennhiser pro 100 ear buds. These are great btw. The tone is very flat with not much bass but the sound cancellation is brilliant on them and I find them very comfortable too which is a must when you are playing for 3+ hours!

As a bass player, playing bass alone with the system isn’t great…at low volumes it’s fine but as soon as the volume on the body pack goes near half way you start to hear a white noise/interference when playing notes…especially the low notes on the bass.

In a band situation, which will be likely 99% of the time! You don’t hear this at all when playing bass with all the other instruments (kick, snare, OH, guitar, keys and vocals) and I must admit it sounds great once you mess around with everyone’s mixes and is overall very quiet (no hiss, no cracks and no drops outs!) I found I did have to have my bass up high on the mixes tho to be able to hear myself.

Tbh, if you have the volume past half way on the body pack I find it far too loud anyway which kinda defeats the purpose of IEMs!

It’s very odd at first if it’s the first time using IEM. As a bass player I found it very strange not to have an amp behind me, but tbh you get used to it in no time!

We all felt the vocals sounded the best tho. It was brilliant being able to hear yourself, it was crystal clear and was probably the first time in 15 years that my singer hasn’t moaned at my for not hearing himself!

The construction of the thing is good too. Good solid receiver (Mine is in a rack) and the body packs feel very well made. One of the best things about it is the scan feature. Once you have scanned it on the channel you want it’s just a case of each band member turning their packs on and that’s it! You only need to do the scan once on first use and set up. Then from then on at each gig it’s just a case of turning packs on. Very easy.

Overall, very pleased with this system. Is the sound amazing?? No! Does it sound better than floor monitors?? Yes! 100%! As a bass player I miss the low end but I have faith that my subs FOH will do this for me and what I hear is only what I hear! For singing though it’s a must, I can’t believe we waited so long to adventure into the world of IEM. I would be interested to see how much better a very expensive Sennhiser or Shure could be as I am very happy with this LD system.

Definitely a must buy if you are thinking about getting into IEM for the first time and don’t want to spend thousands!

OK.. so there are lots of plus points around this unit! I decided to go with this one as it fit my budget and I already have great quality headphones!
The one thing I instantly loved was that this product works straight out of the box with little or no fuss. Took it out, plugged it in, turned on the receiver and Boom; there it was!
As a gigging musician, the quicker it works, the more time I have to work on other stuff! It gets 10/10 for that alone!
I'm a Singer/Guitarist and the flexibility it gives me is class. I'm using it in stereo with the QR-16 desk so I can separate everything which gives me loads of scope for my personal mix.
The menu on the unit is extremely easy to use. You can easily set your in-ear mix to Mono or Stereo. The navigation is very, very easy to use. One thing I loved was the onboard EQ which can be changed and saved for different situations. I was able to roll off the bass end for when I use my in-ears as noise cancelling in loud rooms and I was able to boost it for when I'm wearing them looser and want to hear some of the room too.
The EQ sweep has High,Middle and Bass end so you can mess around with it easily and store your settings so it's instantly there when you power up the unit.
The price is great too and I've used the more expensive Sennheiser units also! The unit is well made, durable, comes in a decent carry case and rack mount frame and screws.
No interference noise in the headphones but it does have a squelch setting internally if you encounter it so you can dial it out
All in all, it's a Great unit with a Great price and No fuss!

This is the first IEM system I've used which is paired with Mackie mp-460 headphones. I play bass in a 4 piece band with guitar, keys, vocals and drums.

For the first gig where I used this system there was some interference from other kit, however I changed the XRL cable for a balanced and better quality one and it's been crystal clear ever since.

There is a bit of background noise as you start to push the volume, however when this starts to kick in they system is fairly loud anyway and it's probably a sign you can roll the volume back a little to save your hearing. I had previously use a Behringer P2 system which, to be fair to that product, is probably one of the cheapest on the market so the quality is never going to be amazing. However, whilst there is a large price difference between the 2 products, the difference in sound quality between them is also huge with the U508 being much clearer.

I've been using this with a wireless system for my bass after years of using stage monitors and cables. Whilst I was happy with my previous setup the freedom of movement the wireless kit provides is amazing for piece of mind that you won't catch your foot on a cable when performing and allows you to focus on the music (handy when you're in a progressive rock band). Whilst I could go back to my old cabled setup and have a slightly better sound, the convenience and freedom of a wireless system far outweighs the 5% drop in sound quality that comes with this. In short I'm a wireless convert and don't think I'll ever go back to a cabled setup.

I use it with my band and we toured europe recently. Never had any drop outs so far and only once encountered interference but just switched frequency and it was fine.

The other band we toured with had a couple of some cheaper wireless iem systems and i also lend them ours cause they were 5 people. The first time accidentally we set both systems at the same frequency. Theirs didn't work at all this one didn't have any problems at all. So i guess it's really resistant to interference.

My only complaint so far:
We use 2 receivers panned hard left/right to have 2 separate mono mixes with one transmitter. It works but this particular unit for some reason even if you pan the receivers all the way to the left or to the right they still get a very low volume signal of the other side. Once you get your mix though you can't really hear the other side. I'm taking a star just for this though i think it's a very simple thing to have fixed on a product like this.