Reedsburg, WI (January 31, 2023)—While best known for its location recording systems used on film and TV productions around the world, Sound Devices used the NAMM Show to launch itself into a whole new product category as it debuted its Astral Wireless Guitar System, based around the RF technology employed in its other product lines.
An implementation of the company’s Astral-series wireless product ecosystem designed specifically for use by guitar and bass players, the A20-TX Smart Guitar Cable and A20-TX Guitar Strap Clip work with Sound Devices’ A20-Nexus True-Diversity Wireless Receivers and A20-TX Transmitters.
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The patent-pending A20-TX Smart Guitar Cable utilizes circuitry within the ¼” plug to allow for user-adjustable capacitance and impedance to make sure that the guitar’s pickups interact the same way with the wireless transmitter as they would hard-wired via a length of guitar cable. According to the company, this retains sonic character and “feel” of the guitar and amp interaction. The system also makes use of Sound Devices’ proprietary SpectraBand technology that offers a global tuning range of 169-1525 MHz, and reportedly has a latency of 1.9ms.
The system allows for adjustment of cable capacitance from 0 pF to 1500 pF in 25 pF steps, corresponding as 1 to 60 feet of typical guitar cable in 1-foot steps. Also, users can select input impedances of 100k, 1M, and 10M ohms, allowing the guitar’s pickup to “see” the same input characteristics as the amplifier. The system offers 18V of signal headroom at ¼” plug, resulting in 140dB of dynamic range with any guitar or bass. Parameters can be adjusted on the transmitter or receiver.
