Phenyx Pro PDP-G
2,4GHz Digital Portable Wireless Guitar System
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Phenyx Pro PDP-G
2,4GHz Digital Portable Wireless Guitar System
The guys at Phenyx Pro gave me the new version of their wireless guitar system to try out, the PDP-G.
To be clear, I’m not a Phenyx Pro affiliate or dealer etc. However, I have had the predecessor of this system for the past two years and use it all the time. So Phenyx Pro decided to give me the new version to test, with zero obligation, just to test it. So that’s what I’ve done, and here’s what I think…
The most obvious thing to point out is that a wireless system means you are not tripping over or snagging your guitar cable, meaning you can move around more freely. That’s the whole point, and straight off the bat, this product achieves just that with no problem whatsoever.
The things that I’m looking at here (the things I need to take into account when using any wireless system live) are listed below as bullet points with my rating (out of 10) of this product scored against each point, along with anything else that I note.
Latency — 5ms. Honestly, I cannot hear or feel any delay at all when playing with this unit. I’ve seen other systems advertising as low as 3ms latency. If you can hear the difference between 3ms and 5ms or feel 5ms in delay when playing, then you’re super sensitive!
9
Transmission distance = 50 metres!! I don’t ever need more than 10 metres and that’s the absolute maximum!
9
Interference/crosstalk/signal-to-noise ratio — I have never experienced any of these whilst using this system or its predecessor. I don’t notice any kind of background noise being generated by this unit, it’s like a high-quality guitar cable.
9
User channels — this is useful if there is someone else using a wireless system or you want to use two of these systems on two different guitars. There are 18 to select from, so it is very unlikely you’ll run into any issues with not having enough channels to share.
9
Configuration and Adjustability. I use my system with three different guitars. An electro-acoustic, a passive electric guitar and an active electric guitar. The output level of each of these is vastly different. The PDP-G’s receiver allows you to adjust the line output volume to avoid distortion from a high output signal. This is a bit fiddly, as there is no way to see exactly what level you’ve set this to, however, it is very useful.
7
Features — it has a mute button, which is really useful. It is 270-degree foldable, which is also really useful. There are no other additional features… I’ve used UHF wireless systems in the past, by comparison, this digital 2.4GHz system is ultra-stable and seamless to use, and you don’t need to worry about user licences etc.
7
Charge time — 2 hours, not super quick, but not slow
7
Use duration — they say 5 hours, mine fully charged lasted about that long. Personally, I don’t think it’s long enough… If I forgot to switch my system off after a soundcheck and came back two hours later to play two sets, I’d be right on the line of its available use time. I think 8 hours minimum would be better.
5
Overall I think this is a great product. It is not super expensive, having said that, you can also buy cheaper systems.
If it had a partner mobile app — so that you could see visually and toggle what channel you’d set the unit to, see how much charge you had left, see and adjust what line level you’d set, see if mute was on and toggle, store line level and channel setups for individual units/guitars etc — well, with that it would be formidable.
Also, it would be great if it came with a protective storage case that allowed charging whilst stored away safely (it ships in a cardboard box, with a foam inlay, and you can’t plug in the USB charger whilst it’s in the foam inlay. I think USB-C charging would have been a better option because with USB-C plugs you don’t have to worry about which way around you plug in the charging cable.
I hope this is useful.
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