# Eartec Comstar Wireless Intercom Opinions?



## Chris Chapman (Jan 14, 2014)

I'm replacing my ancient Telex BTR-200 & 300 wireless intercom stations, and the Eartec Comstar system looks like it has an attractive price point. Anyone have any experience with these systems and how well they interface with a wired Clear-Com system?


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## BillESC (Jan 14, 2014)

Chris Chapman said:


> I'm replacing my ancient Telex BTR-200 & 300 wireless intercom stations, and the Eartec Comstar system looks like it has an attractive price point. Anyone have any experience with these systems and how well they interface with a wired Clear-Com system?



We use one in our space and am quite happy with it. We don't have in interfaced with a wired system but Eartec offer an interface.

Disclaimer: Eartec Dealer.


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## jonliles (Jan 14, 2014)

I had the Comstar set. Bought it from Bill. Loved it. Worked well. In the 100 yo building my theatre troupe was in, I could walk away about 39 yds, step next door, and order pizzas while the SM was on the other end repeating orders to me. The only odd thing we ran into, every once in awhile, we would pick up the drive through from wendy's - but that was rare.


Sent using Tapatalk


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## Chris Chapman (Jan 15, 2014)

BillESC said:


> We use one in our space and am quite happy with it. We don't have in interfaced with a wired system but Eartec offer an interface.
> 
> Disclaimer: Eartec Dealer.


Bill, Is there sidetone control in the or even sidetone with the XT-Plus, Compak and Ultralite CS setups?


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## BillESC (Jan 15, 2014)

I'm not sure what a sidetone is?


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## Chris Chapman (Jan 16, 2014)

Sidetone is hearing your own voice in your headset. I'm being told some Eartec systems didn't have sidetone at all, and no indicator light on the beltpack to tell you whether your mic was on or not.


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## BillESC (Jan 16, 2014)

Our Comstar system has sidetone. A system using belt packs that I installed at a local church also provided sidetone.

BTW, I've always referred to hearing yourself as radio...


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## gafftaper (Jan 16, 2014)

I had an Eartec wireless system with an interface to my clear com system, in my previous theater. It was purchased about 6-7 years ago so we are probably talking two-three generations of technology earlier. It never worked. There was no manual or documentation included with it. There was no tech support available on their website. I contacted the company for help on how to make it work. No one at Eartec answered the phone and my emails were never returned. This was part of a new equipment package for a new theater. Our purchasing department got a little over eager on some purchases and some things, like the Eartec equipment was purchased early and sat for months while the building was completed. By the time I had a working clear com system to try the Eartec equipment with, the warranty had long expired. So technically Eartec had no obligation to any warranty. However brand new out of the box it didn't work and they never responded to any of my efforts to contact them and get any support making it work. 

Based on the messages above it sounds like things may have changed at Eartec and their products are now pretty good. However a few years ago, my theater spent a couple thousand dollars on Eartec products that NEVER worked and any efforts to contact the company for support were completely ignored. They completely ripped me off and I will never buy Eartec products again. So I advise others to proceed with caution.


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## BillESC (Jan 16, 2014)

Gaff, 

I'm sorry you had such an experience. My phone calls and emails are answered immediately. I even had Eartec ship out a system to a local theatre to demo and the only expense to me was the return shipping. BTW, the theatre ended up buying the system a few months later when the budget was approved.


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## museav (Jan 16, 2014)

I think Eartec may be an example, and far from the only one, of where the availability of the information being requested, the relationship of the requester with the manufacturer, the potential of a resulting sale, etc. may influence the responsiveness experienced. That may simply be a result of being a smaller company that has to prioritize their resources.


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## Ben Blackburn (Jan 22, 2014)

The church where I am taking over as Technical Ministries Director got a set of 8 Comstar single and dual muff headsets (not the beltpack style) about a year ago.
3 of them are no longer working, one after about 6 months. The microphone quits so you can hear but not talk. (I may actually leave one this way for that special production guy...  One the mic boom fell completly out when the wires pulled off the mic after the glue fell out.
Most of them have had the glue that holds the flex boom into the swivel fail, so it is only the wires holding them in.

I pulled one apart to see what was wrong, and found that the way they are designed and built, the stiff wire from the mic boom swivel has a very short jump before it is soldered to the circuit board, and when the boom is swiveled it twists that wire until it breaks at the edge of the solder joint. 
It is plainly obvious that this would happen over time too!
The wire needs to be longer with a loop in it or something.

I also found it interesting that when I opened it up, a small amount of stress was put on the speaker wire, and the wire popped off the solder pad! It didn't break the wire, the solder blob on the end of the wire popped off the solder pad on the board as cold solder joints tend to do. Makes me wonder about the rest of the solder joints, and the overall design/build quality...

It looks like they are priced at the ClearCom level, but built to a child's walkietalkie quailty. (not even a semi-name brand FRS)

Another issue is the battery design. It goes in easily, but then it doesn't want to come out! It sticks, and there is no grab point or anything, so you are digging at the smooth edge with fingernails, or pulling the corner of the sticky label.
The charger sometimes locks up and doesn't recognize a battery and has to be power-cycled.

A simple design issue is the microphone mute system.
When you power the headset up, the mic is on. if you press the mute button it beeps and mutes. 
If you press it again, it beeps and mutes. Or does it unmute? What state did I have it in?? 
The problem is the beep is the same for muting or unmuting!
It causes endless hassle and unwanted live mics because there is no simple way to tell if it is muted or unmuted!
Usually either I remove/replace the battery (see above...) so I have a known state, or a sharp breath into the microphone is *usually* loud enough to be able to hear if it is on, but not always. So blow, press the button, blow again, wonder if it is another dead mic, or you didn't blow right, repeat. Then load a battery into another headset, put it on, and then blow into the first mic and repeat...
Another few cents in having 2 distinct tones would save so much hassle! grr

The headsets are bulky and heavy, and can't be comfortably stashed around the neck, unless you like your neck in traction or have cervical spine injuries. 
There is a lot of bulk that is excess design burden, and not functional.

Other than the above, they seem to function and sound all right, but they need to re-design a few things!

Oh, and if you are using more than 4 in a group, you have to push a button on the base station to combine the 2 groups. If the power blinks or the power strip is switched off, it resets to 2 groups and you have to go back and reset the base station. This feature should be replaced with a mechanical switch so when it powers up it is in the desired mode.

One addition I would suggest is vibrate, so that for the sound guy or somebody who takes it off to talk to a performer, they will know when their attention is needed. Basically an "alert" or "call" button that vibrates the headset/beltpack.

So that is my review of the system, now I have a question for Bill etc.

What kind of a warranty do they have for obvious defects in materials and workmanship?
These units sit all week in their cloth bags in the case in the sanctuary, get used gently by production staff people sitting in chairs 2 to 4 services a week, and then returned to the case.
The way the glue on the booms is failing is just turning to dust, the solder joints are faulty, and the wires don't have strain relief.
Who do I talk to about getting these repaired, or do I just warn people away and repair them myself until we can get something better?

I tried calling them, but just got the message about the bad storms keeping them out of the office, and this round of asking The Google is the first I have had time to resume the subject.

Anyway, I hope I am able to report that they made it good and are already redesigning these flaws, but that is the story so far!

Ben


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## BillESC (Jan 22, 2014)

Ben,

A bit over a year in use, one of our boom mics became intermittent. I called Eartec and spoke with James. He told me to sent the unit in along with a note outlining the problem. It was promptly repaired and shipped back at no expense to us.

Call 800-399-5994 and ask for James.

They are located in New England so the storm could certainly be a factor. I'm in Virginia and most everything is closed today.


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## gafftaper (Jan 23, 2014)

Like I said it's been nearly 7 years so the company could have changed a LOT since I had my issues with them. The technology certainly is better. The units I had used a belt pack about the same size, but heavier, than a 2lb block of cheddar, that you had to strap on with a 3" military grade webbing belt (I'm not making this up, it came with the belt). They took like 16 hours to charge... supposedly but then again I never got mine to work. Hopefully things work out better for you @Ben Blackburn . Let us know how it goes.


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## backstagebadger (Jan 24, 2014)

We have 3 of these, bought them 2 years ago. They work great for us! The only thing we don't like is that they are VERY tight on your ears and gave me a headache after the first 3 shows in a row on them.


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## Benjamin (Feb 5, 2014)

Have any of you used the compak, ie, the beltpacks?
We are in the process of adding som wireless intercom to our asl (clearcom) system.
The integrated headphone intercoms seems quite fragile and we'd rather use the beltpacks so we could choose our own headsets and exchange/repair them if they get damaged. How is the construction of the beltpacks? Flimsy or robust? What connector(s) is there for the headset? If anyone have pictures or a manual of the beltpack that would be great, their website is definitely lacking..

We are also thinking of pmr radios, they are cheaper and more reliable(?),
however, interfacing a full duplex system to a half duplex system introduces some inevitable issues regarding ptt etc...
(We already have an asl pmr interface which we have used with rented pmrs but now that we are now looking at getting our own wireless intercom we would preferably skip the issues regarding ptt.)

Are these systems a no-no? Everything negative i've found has been regarding the construction of the headsets,
i have not read anything bad about the beltpacks or the communication.
As you could probably guess, we are a church trying to balance between too expensive equipment and cheap equipment that promises too much..


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## Chris Chapman (Feb 6, 2014)

I just placed an order for the system using the compaks instead of the all in one headsets. I'll update the group when they arrive.


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## backstagebadger (Feb 6, 2014)

Benjamin said:


> Have any of you used the compak, ie, the beltpacks?



No, but other than the construction of the headsets, these work great. No problems thus far.


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## Chris Chapman (Feb 20, 2014)

So we got a 4 user system to start off with. First tests look promising. Haven't run in show conditions yet. I went with the ultralite headset instead of the all in one.
Things of note: sidetone level is a little quiet. There is a tone in the headset indicating mic on/off, but no LED to indicate a hot mic. The Power LED is SO bright it can function as a flashlight. (no joke). Gear feels solid and comfortable. I like that the beltpack doesn't have antennas to hang up on. I'm interfacing with a Clearcom wired system, and that was easy to get up and running. Packs use a two mini-connectors (I assume one for talk and one for listen) and the connection is nice and secure. I've attached pictures for real world comparison.


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## Chris Chapman (Mar 11, 2014)

So we have a show under our belts with the Eartec gear and here are the general opinions:

This biggest issue for me was sidetone. There is sidetone in the headset but it isn't controllable beyond the headset volume. There is no indicator beyond the beep of pushing the mic button whether your mic is hot or not. We had a lot of open comm during this tech & run.

Sound quality was OK, but quieter folks really need to eat the mic to be heard. Durability seems OK too.

Student opinions came down to a rating of 2/12 - 3 stars out of 5. The gear is functional and OK for the price point. Moving up to a more robust headset increases the cost of the system, but might be preferable. 

If you can't afford the big ticket pro-systems, I think the Eartec systems are an alternative you might want to check out.

I'd give the system 3 out of 5 stars.


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## museav (Mar 12, 2014)

Thanks for the review!


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## bdkdesigns (Jun 2, 2014)

Chris Chapman said:


> So we got a 4 user system to start off with. First tests look promising. Haven't run in show conditions yet. I went with the ultralite headset instead of the all in one.
> Things of note: sidetone level is a little quiet. There is a tone in the headset indicating mic on/off, but no LED to indicate a hot mic. The Power LED is SO bright it can function as a flashlight. (no joke). Gear feels solid and comfortable. I like that the beltpack doesn't have antennas to hang up on. I'm interfacing with a Clearcom wired system, and that was easy to get up and running. Packs use a two mini-connectors (I assume one for talk and one for listen) and the connection is nice and secure. I've attached pictures for real world comparison.



We just got some in today and we go into tech tomorrow. We don't seem to be too far apart in purchase times but ours has a LED to indicate a hot mic, it's just reversed so that a hot mic isn't lit and an off mic is lit.

I am a bit concerned though as they aren't very loud in their loudest setting, which can be problematic for musicals. I might be grabbing an earplug from the shop...assuming we put them in right away. As long as we don't have any issues, we are going to switch it out from our old Clearcom system.


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## bdkdesigns (Jun 4, 2014)

So it has worked out pretty well so far. Hearing people hasn't been as tough as I was expecting, in fact I had to turn it down at some points. I think that ear muff does a much better job blocking out sound than I was expecting. We are using their UltraLite headset which they classify as mid weight. It was pretty comfy all day too. 

I've been sitting at the center of our house for tech and we just had a new sound system installed that made the house MUCH louder at first until the A1 got used to it and adjusted. 

I will say that the one thing that is annoying to me is that the volume control buttons are just arrows and have no indication of up or down. This is fine if you are wearing it because your orientation doesn't change but having it sit on a tech table is another story.


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## chouston (Nov 15, 2014)

We are looking to replace our intercom system as well. We have to go wireless since we doing have a permanent performance space in our school. We literally build a theatre in the large atrium area in the middle of our building. 

I first ran across Eartec at USITT this past spring. I certainly do like the price point, tough the equipment seemed a little on the light side compared to Clear Com and the like, but I can get a 6 person system for a fraction of what it would cost to replace our old Clear Com 4 person system. Plus I like the 2 channel conferencing feature. That means when I'm running an event where I have a stage crew and a video crew at an event like graduation, the two crews can communicate separately, but I can switch from one crew to the other or bring them both together when I need to. This seems like the right system for us. I just hope it turns out to be reliable.

Also, as far as I can tell, the system operates in the 1900 Mhz range, which should not interfere with our wireless mics with run at the 540 to 690 Mhz range.


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## Ben Blackburn (Nov 16, 2014)

So a comment on @chouston 's post, and then an update on my previous post.

If I remember correctly, the Comstar system uses to channels with up to 4 units per channel, and those channels can be run separate or conferenced.
Each headset is numbered, and they are programmed to work on channel 1 or 2, so when the system is set up (usually at the factory), it is decided how many headsets on on each channel, and there is no easy way to change it, or switch between channels like with a ClearCom/Portacom wired system with the A/B switch.
So you can run 2 crews, but with a 6 channel, I think it will come from the factory as 3 and 3. My 8 unit is 4 and 4.

Now for my update.
So on Bill's suggestion I talked to James, and then later with others.
I sent the entire set back, they repaired the faulty ones and redid the ones that hadn't failed yet (they had a known bad batch), replaced missing ear pads and mic windfoams, and returned them in like-new condition, with no cost to me except for shipping. The original set had come with 4 single-ears and 4 dual-ears, but I don't like the duals for most of the crew, so I asked them to swap it out so I ended up with only 2 dual ears, the rest single ears, and one beltpack style. They had used ones in stock, and swapped me out no problem! I had to purchase a new headset for the beltpack was my only cost. No guarantees they can do this again, but they happened to have equivalent units available, and my units are babied and don't look used.

I talked to their tech folks about my complaint about the base station defaulting to 2 channel instead of Conference, and they said depending on the exact chip used, it might be switchable.
So I sent the base station also, and it came back set to Conference on power-up, switchable to 2 channel!
I am adding a live broadcast ministry, and when we get it going with a wired Portacom system through the cameras, I will send the base station back again and have them add the converter option that lets me plug the Portacom system into the Comstar system.

My other complaints about the mic mute tone being the same for mute and unmute, and the large clunky aspect, and the battery being hard to deal with still hold true, though they said they would look at making the mute tone different in a future version.

One thing I noticed on some of the swapped out sets they returned was a small foam rubber "dot" in the battery tray, which would help pop the batter back out. 

Anyway, they aren't ClearCom quality, but they did an excellent job of Customer Service, and minus the annoyances, they seem good!


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## jose lemus (Jan 20, 2015)

Chris Chapman said:


> So we have a show under our belts with the Eartec gear and here are the general opinions:
> 
> This biggest issue for me was sidetone. There is sidetone in the headset but it isn't controllable beyond the headset volume. There is no indicator beyond the beep of pushing the mic button whether your mic is hot or not. We had a lot of open comm during this tech & run.
> 
> ...


What system do you suggest for church i need a four person system under $2,000 that is good.


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## gafftaper (Jan 20, 2015)

jose lemus said:


> What system do you suggest for church i need a four person system under $2,000 that is good.


First of all, be clear you are not going to get "good" for under $2000. You are going to get okay. I believe that most of the discussion above has been about the Comstar system. I believe that is the only option Eartec sells with full duplex conversation and the ability to interface with a wired system. If you don't need to interface with a wired system then the cheaper Simultalk series may work for you. The best thing to do would be to call your local dealer and ask for the options in your price range. If you don't have a dealer to call, send a private message here on CB to @BillESC he is an Eartec dealer.


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## Jay Ashworth (Jan 21, 2015)

BillESC said:


> Our Comstar system has sidetone. A system using belt packs that I installed at a local church also provided sidetone.
> 
> BTW, I've always referred to hearing yourself as radio...



Sidetone is the multi-industry standard term for that characteristic, dating back to at least 1960s telephony, and perhaps further.

It is usually adjustable, at least on base stations (my PI-200's for example), and it's done by unbalancing the hybrid.


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