Before investing, ask yourself what you really need most - is it he headset/hands-free facility, or is it the wireless bit? Remember, you can get wired headset mics.

You can get many different qualities of wireless mics. Search Ebay, and you'll find something that costs less than 10 pounds. They're rubbish, of course, but may be fine for kids singing in their bedroom.

Move up to around 50 pounds, and you'll find some low-end branded kit. Again not fantastic quality, but fine for karaoke maybe.

If that's not good enough, spend around 100-150 pounds and you can get some decent low-end Sennheiser (Freeport) or Trantec S4 kit, which is very useable.

And 300-400 pounds will buy you some semi-pro gear. Sennheiser G2, Trantec S5 etc

If that's not good enough for you, you can pick up some pro-level kit for around 2000-3000 pounds per unit. That's the stuff the broadcasters use.

But if you want even better quality, spend 10 pounds on a bit of cable...

Seriously - the radio link is the weakest link in the chain. If you need the mobility, then go for it (and the Sennheiser freeport kit, or the Trantec S4.4, which is effectively the same component, are all decent products in the £100+ category). But if all you want is a headset, maybe consider a wired one. That way, you avoid interference, frequency clashes, dropouts, the need to change batteries...

If going wireless, best to get something with switchable frequencies, in case you find yourself on the same freq as the church next door - what's worse - them picking up you or you picking up them?


A decent head mic to use with the wireless beltpack can cost hundreds of pounds - brands like DPA or Countryman are the ones used in west-end shows etc. But there are also a lot of budget ones on the market which give perfectly acceptable results. Places like CPC in the UK sell them for around 30 pounds.