Sennheiser AVX Digital Wireless Microphone System Review

So here it is, finally after 4 weeks of working with it; my review of the Sennheiser AVX wireless microphone system.

Sennheiser recently introduced their new digital wireless system called AVX. There are various kits available and in this episode I used the kit with the body pack transmitter, receiver, and MKE2 lavalier microphone (their higher-end pro lavalier microphone). We looked at various aspects of the AVX system including how well it does in terms of outdoor distance, dynamic range which Sennheiser touts as preventing clipping distortion when your talent suddenly gets very loud, sound quality of the MKE2 lavalier microphone, latency, rejection of RF and WiFi interference, battery life, and others. Let’s see how it does!

Sennheiser AVX Wireless Microphone System: Battery, Distance, Interference Tests

Sennheiser recently introduced their new digital wireless system which they call AVX. There are various kits available and in this episode I used the kit with the transmitter, receiver, and MKE2 lavalier microphone (their higher-end pro lavalier microphone). Here we did a few tests to see how well the AVX does in terms of distance (keeping its signal without dropping out), managing WiFi and RF interference from phones, and how long the included Li-ion batteries last for the receiver and transmitter.

Sennheiser is clear to note that the AVX does not replace their G3 analogue wireless system (because it has more flexibility for professionals) but that AVX is aimed at videographers that are running solo and want to feed the audio directly into their camera.  It is aimed primarily at those using pro-level camcorders with XLR inputs but also comes with an XLR to 3.5mm adapter for those shooting with DSLR or mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras.

In this video, we compared it to the RODELink in the distance and interference test and found that the AVX was able to hold on to a signal a little bit longer than RODELINK. Though admittedly, I never shoot with my talent out of sight of the camera or audio recorder so they're both fine.

Full disclosure: I own two RODELink kits and have the AVX on loan from the good people at B&H Photo.