Xvive U45D Review: The Stereo In-Ear System That Fixed My Biggest Complaint (And Created a New One)

The last time I reviewed an Xvive in-ear system, there was one thing that kept bugging me about the U45. It's a great product, it fits perfectly where it sits in the market, but it's mono. And I love stereo. That's exactly where the Xvive U45D comes in.

Straight up: Xvive sent me this one, and that's because I asked them to. As with every video where a company sends me something, they get no say in what I say — you're hearing all of this from me. And for what it's worth, I'd happily have paid for it, which I'll get into as we go.

The U45D is essentially the U45 but in stereo. Same 5.8GHz system, same concept, except you're paying roughly £50 more for the stereo version over the mono. It fixes my mono problem completely. It also throws up a couple of new ones that I find genuinely annoying.

What's in the Box?

You actually get quite a lot. The box itself is good quality, and when you're spending a decent chunk of money — relative to your budget and what you can afford — it's always nice to receive something that feels good quality. Straight away, you do.

Open it up, past the manuals and the paperwork, and you get a carry case. This is new for the U45D — I didn't get one with the U45 — and it's really good quality. The rest is what you'd expect:

   
1. Transmitter
   
2. Receiver (bodypack)
   
3. Dual USB-C charging cable
   
4. XLR to 1/4" jack adapters
   
5. Mini XLR adapter for the transmitter input
 

That dual USB-C charging cable is my favourite thing in the world. I said it in my last video and I'll say it again — it's genius. I've used it on gigs constantly and it's just one of those things in life that works.

How the Stereo Actually Works

This is the bit I both love and hate.

The transmitter isn't a box with two inputs. Xvive have kept the plug-straight-into-the-desk design from the U45, and instead they've split it — so you've got the same U45-style transmitter with an expansion cable hanging off it that turns it into the U45D.

When I first saw this I thought it was really weird. Having it in person, I've come round to it — because it means you keep the same Xvive form factor you're expecting, and you can still use it as a mono transmitter. That's actually genius. Only one output available at the venue? Take off the expansion and plug it in mono.

If you're a session drummer, or you play a lot of weddings in different rooms where you never quite know what you're walking into, that flexibility matters more than it sounds like it should.

Worth flagging: the input on the transmitter is a mini XLR. If you haven't come across one before, they can be a bit finicky purely because they're a small version of an XLR — but they do exactly the same job. It's just an XLR, smaller.

The Four Modes

The U45D gives you four output modes: Stereo, Left, Right and Mix. Again, I love that they haven't just done one thing — they've clearly thought about how this actually gets used.

   
1. Stereo — both channels, as you'd expect
   
2. Left — everything coming down the left channel, to both ears
   
3. Right — everything coming down the right channel, to both ears
   
4. Mix — sums both channels to mono and sends that to both ears
 

This is great, and here's why it matters for us specifically. I've been in loads of situations where I've been handed a mono mix but I'm also sending click. Being able to split those and control the volume of my own click — without having to pester a sound engineer because some songs want it louder and some want it quieter — is a proper problem solved. It's just a whole thing otherwise.

The other feature I genuinely adore, and it was one of my complaints about the U45 and Xvive systems generally: you can now scan. Hold the channel button down and it'll find the best channel available. It's not amazing, but if you're somewhere with a lot of signals and frequencies flying around, it's invaluable. I'd argue that feature is invaluable on anything wireless.

Setting It Up on a Gig

Now the bits I don't like.

I haven't had this unit for that long, but I've used Xvive for a good few years now, so I'm very familiar with how they behave and how reliable they are. If you want the full reliability rundown, my U45 video covers using them on actual gigs.

Quick context on why wireless gets cheap or expensive. When you go to the top of the scale — Shure PSM1000s, where you're talking multiple thousands of pounds — that's because their channel frequencies are really thin. Putting it as simply as possible: thin channels mean you can squeeze far more transmitters and receivers into one frequency band. With something around the £285 mark, that frequency band gets wider, because of the transmitters and receivers and the technology going into them. So you get six channels. Think of it as a big curve on the WiFi — you can only fit six into the band they're using.

Which brings me to the thing that genuinely baffles me. Every other Xvive uses numbers, one to six. Logical. Obvious. The U45D uses colours.

It gets worse under bright stage lights. There's a white channel — the fact that exists at all is bonkers — and possibly a blue or yellow one, and they start becoming genuinely hard to see. You end up doing the whole cupped-hands-over-the-unit thing just to check what you're on. Just give me numbers. One to six. Easy as that.

The other practical gripe is plugging into a mixer. You might want to extend the transmitter with an XLR, and because it's stereo, that means two XLRs. The connectors themselves are thinner than the U45's, which I like — but it can get very cramped if you're slotting in between channels that are already taken. Sometimes it feels like you're bending things to make it fit.

Tech Specs

It runs on 5.8GHz, same as the U45, which is better than 2.4GHz — a bit more powerful, a bit more range. Although when I say more range, I mean in the 5.8GHz world.

Line-of-sight range is 30 metres, roughly 100 feet, and this matters more than the number suggests. Like I said on the U45 video, the range is fine on paper — but if you're working alongside people running multiple U45s or Xvives, or there are just a lot of frequencies about, you will get dropouts. I've had them.

The reference I made last time was Butlins. Think of it as a holiday park with multiple stages all in one place — you're on one stage, there's a band on the floor below you on another, and one next door in the next theatre. Every one of those stages is running wireless on different signals. You might cross paths, or you might just struggle.

The fix is easy enough: if the desk is tucked in the wings or backstage somewhere, run an XLR so the transmitter is close to you. Once you've done that you're still wireless, you can still roam the stage, and it's fine.

The audio side is a bit odd:

   
1. 24-bit — great
   
2. 41.6kHz — not 44.1, not 48. Strange
   
3. 20Hz – 20kHz — a really good frequency range, and I like seeing it go all the way down to 20Hz
   
4. 110dB dynamic range — again, great
 

The 41.6kHz is the weird one. Apparently it's just what works and what they found sounds best. I don't know — but it works.

Battery is around five hours, and that'll drop off over the years as batteries do. Charging from completely flat is about two and a half hours, zero to 100. Anywhere in between is significantly less.

Should You Buy One?

The big question every time.

I like what Xvive are doing. For years and years you simply couldn't buy a good wireless in-ear system, and stereo was unheard of — everyone built theirs mono to save money. What we're seeing now is a middle gap opening up between hideously cheap and hideously expensive, and that middle gap is where most of us actually live.

The U45D sits right in it. A stereo in-ear system at a relatively good price, depending on your budget. It's not breaking the bank, and it's a generally quite reliable system for what you're getting. It's not a Sennheiser G4, and it's certainly not a Shure PSM — but it isn't pretending to be. Non-committal, good price, does what you want it to do.

So yes — I'd absolutely recommend the U45D. Just make sure it's what you're looking for within that market. You could buy one, job done, never think about it again.