Harley Benton AirBorne Pro 5.8Ghz Instrument

I bought this 1,5 years ago. I was a happy user until I changed to a bass with active pickups (EMG). Suddenly I heard this distortion while playing hard. First I thought I had blown my cabinet or something was wrong, but when taking this thing out of my board, there was no problem. I contacted Thomann and their response was very odd (translated from finnish):

"...not compatible with active electronics and problems may occur with them".

It clearly says in the description however that "suitable for all instruments with 6,35mm audio jack"

This equipment is completely useless with my current instrument and it seems Thomann is giving me a cold shoulder. You guys should change the description for this.

I bought this Harley Benton Wireless System because it seemed like great value for the money and in most ways it actually is.
The package came with two units: The receiver and the transmitter. It's made of plastic but it felt sturdy enough and is quite a feature packed piece of kit.

It has a display on both the receiver and transmitter, cable tone, built in tuner, a cradle on the receiver to charge the transmitter and a foot switch which toggles between the tuner and also acts as a bypass switch.

I also found the sound quality to be excellent with no dropout. I didn't bother testing the distance because i only use it in my studio.

The first thing i noticed when i unboxed the system was the rather large transmitter but i said to myself, this must be a good thing because it probably has a large battery inside that should give at least five hours solid playing time.
How wrong i was. Alas, this was not to be and herein lies the downfall of this otherwise excellent unit.

The battery time (at least on my unit) is awful. I'm Lucky to get just over a couple of hours playing time out of the transmitter and it seems to take even longer time to recharge when it's flat.
The receiver is ok because i have mine plugged into the mains, so no issues there. I would give up all the extra features just to have longer battery life but unfortunately this is not the case.

Conclusion:
If you want a feature packed affordable wireless system and don't care about battery life, then the Harley Benton wireless system is something you should consider.
However, if battery life is important to you, then i cannot recommend this system.

This is a fairly new product, but seems to provide a great value for the money. A more professional product would be 4-5 times the price.

The transmitter/receiver adds 5.87 ms latency - I measured it accurately. This is barely noticeable on its own, but will of course add to latency elsewhere in your chain. The transmitter seems to apply a high-pass filter with a cutoff around 45 Hz, which is certainly no problem for guitar. It also adds a little noise, but quite low and "white", so again no problem.
I've experienced no dropouts or connection issues, but have so far only used it at home.

When testing the sound quality with a guitar with an active pickup, the AirBorne was transparent if the Cable Tone filtering was set to off. Note that 'off' is all the way clockwise - opposite of what one might expect. Hence CCW = more filtering.
In an A/B setup with a strat with passive pickups and 3-6 m guitar cable the Cable Tone came in handy, in order to match the treble roll-off due to the guitar cable.
When switching between a wired and wireless connection to the same effects and amp, it's essential to compensate for the effect of the cable. Otherwise separate presets with different EQ would be required to accommodate this.

Pros:
- Great value for money
- Transparent sound quality
- Cable Tone filter useful, switching between playing wired and wireless
- Convenient built-in charger in the receiver
- Colour-coded channels, to easily see link between transmitter and receiver
- Potentially 5.8 GHz is less crowded than the 2.4 GHz band

Cons:
- Impossible to tell the difference between Power and Channel buttons (before pressing it), with the transmitter plugged in
- Counter-intuitive direction of the Cable Tone knob
- Low-battery indicator seemed to kick in just shortly before the transmitter switched off
- Might not trust the "dongle" transmitter in a live performance, but would prefer one tied to the strap.

I've used this in long rehearsals, and long gigs and I have not had a single drop out. I trust it in gigs and the battery got through the whole thing (I do charge it on the nest in the interval though just to make sure). I've read some reviews about battery life but I have not had any problem. It does take a while to charge though.
The cable feature is terrific. I use it at about half and it sounds great.
The tuner is OK too.
5.8Ghz takes it out of the busy Wi-fi area.
TOP TIP. I put a small piece of velcro on the unit and the guitar. It holds it in place and stops it flapping about.