Sennheiser EM 500 G4 Wireless Mic Receiver

The EM 500 G4 is Sennheiser's mid-tier wireless receiver in the Evolution Wireless G4 line — a half-rack, single-channel unit that slots into the same physical space and wiring plan as its sibling, the EM 300 G4. The meaningful upgrade here is bandwidth: 88 MHz of switching range versus the 300's 42 MHz, which matters the moment your rig starts moving between cities or into markets where the RF landscape changes night to night. For a touring monitor rig or a production company running the same hardware across multiple clients and venues, that extra tuning headroom is the whole reason this receiver exists.

At 1U shared between two units and only 200 mm deep, the 500 G4 fits comfortably in a dense receiver rack fed by an antenna distro. Both BNC inputs are there for true diversity, and the XLR output means you're going straight to a splitter, combiner, or console input without adapters at show time. Power draw sits at 6 W typical, topping out at 10 W — low enough that eight of these on a single distro isn't a thermal concern. The G4 platform's on-board RF scanning and easy frequency coordination are well established; the 500 just gives you a wider canvas to work within when the scan comes back crowded.

Pick the 500 G4 if your work takes you into major metro venues, festival sites, or any situation where you can't guarantee clean spectrum in the 300's narrower window. If you're staff at a single fixed venue with a stable, well-mapped RF environment, the 300 G4 will save you real money per channel with no practical penalty. Conversely, if you're running a large channel count on a dense touring rig and need maximum coordination headroom, look at the G4 1000 or 2000 series before committing — the 500 is excellent, but its feature set stops short of the advanced networking and intermodulation tools on the upper tier.