- Three diversity options for maximum flexibility
- 24 bit/48 kHz digital for flawless audio
- AES 256-bit, CTR mode encryption, with 4 different key policies available
- High IP3 performance of +15 dBm for tough RF environments
- Analog and AES3 digital audio outputs
- External DC powering options and USB input for firmware updates and data transfer
- Full integration with Sound Devices 8-Series mixer/recorders with v1.09 firmware and 8-Series v9.30
The DSR4 digital receiver provides the highest level of RF and audio performance available with a versatile feature set in a compact design for field and location production. Settings can be made from the front panel with tactile buttons and color LCD interface, making the unit ideal for use in portable bag systems and on sound carts. An RF spectrum analyzer and SmartTune are built into the receiver to alleviate interference problems in an increasingly congested RF spectrum.
The mechanical design of the receiver fits into the Super-Slot ecosystem and combines field-proven features developed over many years of experience in motion picture and television production. To decrease weight, the DSR4 provides a four channel receiver in one unit powered by external DC. The receiver is also equipped with an IR port for data transfer between units. The machined aluminum housing and panels are surfaced with a hardanodized finish with laser etched markings to withstand the rigors of field production.
The RF gain stages in the front end use a newly developed design to provide low noise RF amplification, excellent sensitivity and extremely low susceptibility to intermodulation and de-sensitization.
5 Short “deep dive” videos on key features and functions in the DSR4 receiver
Features, capabilities, and how-tos in these videos include independent tuning ranges and compat modes, RF spectrum scanning, manual tuning, Smarttune auto frequency selection, and tuning groups with names and compat modes, known as “Party Dialing.”
Click play to start the playlist
Included Accessories
- 1 – Quickstart Guide
- 1 – PN 27372 – IR Reflector
- 1 – PN 27373 – Adhesive strip for attaching IR Reflector
- A1B1 units (all)
2 – AMJ-19 jointed SMA antennas
2 – AMJ-22 jointed SMA antennas - B1C1 units (all)
2 – AMJ-22 jointed SMA antennas
2 – AMJ-25 jointed SMA antennas - 941 units (all)
2 – AMJ-944 jointed SMA antennas - 961 units (all)
2 – AMJ-961 jointed SMA antennas
Accessories
Below is a link to the current firmware update file for the DSR4 receiver. This is a zip file, after downloading extract it into a temporary folder. Use the Wireless Designer™ program to update firmware, instructions are found here.
Note: This is a link to the Wireless Designer firmware update file, which bundles the latest firmware for multiple products. Wireless Designer will automatically choose the right firmware images from the file. To update firmware in the DSR4 receiver, Wireless Designer version 2.0.43 (Windows) or 2.0.40 (macOS) or higher is required.
| Title | File Size | File Type | Date | Filename | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firmware for Units Updated with Wireless Designer | 34 MB | zip | June 25, 2026 | wd_v10Jun2026.zip |
DSR4 v1.35 (SUPER)/v1.30 (FPGA)
- Fixed a bug introduced in v1.30 where, in Vector Diversity mode (only), Smart Tune always selected the lowest frequency in the tuning range.
DSR4 v1.33 (SUPER)/v1.30 (FPGA)
- Added legacy analog FM compatibility modes IFB, ‘Mode 7’ and Q3.
- Added a fixed RF attenuator feature for use under unusually strong signal conditions. Available settings are 0 dB, 3 dB, and 6 dB. The default setting is 0 dB.
- Smart Tune now skips over restricted or unavailable frequencies. Previously it would display them, creating the perception that it might possibly select one, even though it would not.
- Added band plan “B1+” to the Smart Tune feature. This is available in the DSR4-B1C1 model when the locale setting is “NA”. The “B1+” band plan includes frequencies in the ranges 537.600 – 607.950 and 614.050 – 614.375 MHz.
- Modified the “B1C1” band plan used by the Smart Tune feature when where the locale setting is “NA”. In that case the “B1C1” band plan includes frequencies in the ranges 537.600 – 607.950, 614.050 – 615.950 and 653.050 – 662.950 MHz.
- Modified the “C1” band plan used by the Smart Tune feature when where the locale setting is “NA”. In that case the “C1” band plan includes frequencies in the ranges 614.400 – 615.950 and 653.050 – 662.950 MHz.
- The receiver now warns if channels are tuned to mutually incompatible frequencies. The warning will be active if:
- Channel 1 and channel 3 are tuned to the same frequency.
- Channel 2 and channel 4 are tuned to the same frequency.
- Channel 2 is 4.2 to 4.8 MHz above channel 1.
- Channel 4 is 4.2 to 4.8 MHz above channel 3.
Conflicts are indicated when the color of the channel *number* of affected receivers on the “Main” LCD view changes to RED. They are also indicated when the color of the *frequency* shown on the “Channel Detail” view of affected channels changes to RED. (The “Channel Detail” views are accessed by pressing the PWR/BACK button on the front panel of the receiver.)
- The default frequency settings are now:
- Band A1B1:
- Channel 1: 499.200
- Channel 2: 524.800
- Channel 3: 550.800
- Channel 4: 576.000
- Band B1C1:
- Channel 1: 537.600
- Channel 2: 588.800
- Channel 3: 614.500
- Channel 4: 653.100
- Block 941:
- Channel 1: 941.600
- Channel 2: 947.200
- Channel 3: 953.100
- Channel 4: 959.500
To restore factory default settings, choose the “Default” optionon the Settings menu.
- Band A1B1:
- Fixed a bug where the channel Mute setting was not restored to the default value of “unmuted” when the “Settings->Default” operation was invoked.
- Fixed a bug where, when attempting to change the locale in a DSR4-941 receiver, all options would displayed as “US”.
- Improved DSR4 diversity system to eliminate a rapid ticking noise heard when the transmitter is in motion and near the limit of its range.
- Reduced noise floor in IFB compatibility mode.
DSR4 v1.29 (SUPER)/v1.26 (FPGA)
- Fixed a problem causing firmware updates to fail if the DSR4 was installed into a Sound Devices SL-2 unit running Sound Devices firmware v10.x.
DSR4 v1.28 (SUPER)/v1.26 (FPGA)
- Battery timer feature now displays battery run times up to 100 hours.
- The Group Edit page now responds to the MENU+UP and MENU+DOWN button
shortcuts in the same way as the Frequency page, for faster editing. - When both audio output jacks are configured for AES3 digital audio
output, the analog audio output circuits are powered to reduce power
usage. This only works on units with main board hardware version 3
or higher.
DSR4 v1.27 (SUPER)/v1.26 (FPGA)
- When receiving digital encrypted signals, the transmitter’s name
and firmware version are now made available to Wireless Designer.
DSR4 v1.26 (SUPER)/v1.26 (FPGA)
- Added frequency diversity feature.
- Smart Tune now assigns the block correctly if a block-ambiguous frequency is selected and the transmitter’s tuning range is restricted to a single block.
- Added pilot tone reset facility to eliminate noise heard when moving between tuning group entries when operating in Digital Hybrid compatibility modes.
DSR4 v1.25 (SUPER)/v1.25 (FPGA)
- Now supports “named” tuning group entries in Wireless Designer version 2.1.00 and higher.
- Now reports the LB-50 battery type for digital transmitters where applicable.
- Fix bug preventing establishment of link in block 961 at frequencies 986.7 and higher when using digital hybrid compatibility modes.
DSR4 v1.21 (SUPER)/v1.23 (FPGA)
- D2 compatibility mode updated to improve reception of weak or distorted signals.
DSR4 v1.21 (SUPER)/v1.21 (FPGA)
- The Test Tone page is modified to allow individual control of the level and frequency of the tone on each of the four audio outputs.
- Improved audio meter responsiveness. Changed the scale to reflect industry standard digital audio metering, where +0 dBFS is the clip level.
- The About page is reorganized and now shows the serial number.
- Fixed a bug on the battery voltage display where digit ‘9’ appeared as the letter ‘F’.
- Fixed a bug causing one RSSI meter in a vector diversity pair to show an abnormally low reading until power is cycled.
DSR4 v1.15 (SUPER)/v1.07 (FPGA)
- FPGA now powers down unused circuits to save power.
- For Hybrid modes only, a diversity click silencer was imported from the SRC receiver design.
DSR4 v1.15 (SUPER)/v1.05 (FPGA)
- Added “Edit Names” option to the Settings menu.
- Now, when performing a Group Sync IR operation with group “all” selected, the confirmation message appears only after the transaction is complete.
- Corrected Digital Hybrid switched diversity switching thresholds and timings to eliminate unexpected clicks and dips in signal strength.
DSR4 v1.14 (SUPER)/v1.04 (FPGA)
- Fixed a bug affecting talkback functionality, where receiver channel 3 would not time out after the carrier went away; sometimes the talkback mode could not be changed.
- Fixed a problem introduced in FPGA v1.02, where faint artifacts could be heard in the noise floor of Digital Hybrid transmissions when the transmitter’s battery was low.
- Corrected audio phase inversion observed in certain units shipped after March 31, 2023.
- The receiver is now more tolerant of slightly off-frequency transmitter pilot tones in FM compatibility modes.
DSR4 v1.13 (SUPER)/v1.02 (FPGA)
- Made changes for ease of manufacturing. No new features.
DSR4 v1.10 (SUPER)/v1.02 (FPGA)
- Audio outputs are now always muted during scans.
- Fix vulnerability causing transmitter battery voltage indications to be too low when the transmitted signal contained high levels of low frequency audio.
- To minimize power usage, AGC control voltages are now forced to 0 when receivers are powered down.
- The ‘scan=0’ serial command update now restores original receiver frequencies, as is done when scanning from the front panel.
- Fix bug causing the ‘evolts?’ serial query to report 0 instead of the detected input voltage.
DSR4 v1.09 (SUPER)/v1.01 (FPGA)
- Receiver name on Detail page is now dynamically updated if altered via a serial command.
- Now, when canceling an edit to a frequency group entry, the correct group ID appears in the title bar.
- In the “Powering Off…” screen, residual pixels from the previously displayed page no longer appear.
- Fixed screen refresh bug causing left-over characters to appear in the Level field on the Test Tone page.
- Sending all groups via IR no longer causes the receiving unit to display “SYNC OK” before the transfer is complete.
- On the Group Sync page, the Group identifier field now correctly shows “all” instead of ” – ” when sending or getting all groups.
- Added escape character capability to all “name” serial command queries. Double quote characters are escaped as \”, backslashes as \\.
- Fixed ‘sendfreq’, ‘sendall’, ‘getfreq’, and ‘getall’ serial commands to support all 4 receivers instead of only the first 2.
- Added ‘nextgrpentry’ and ‘prevgrpentry’ serial command queries. These are used when a tuning group is active to select the “next” or “previous” frequency in the group exactly as if the UP or DOWN buttons were pressed by the operator. These commands have no effect if no tuning group is active.
- The ‘pollsd’ serial command now returns rssi values in the correct range of 0 to 240, with 255 as a placeholder for “no data yet”.
- Fixed bug causing ‘scan?’ serial command query to return an ERROR response.
DSR4 v1.05 (SUPER)/v1.01 (FPGA)
- Improved the Tuning Group “Group Edit” user interface page. Extended tuning group entries to include an optional user defined name and an optional compatibility mode associated with the entry.
- In Entry Edit page reached through the Group Edit page, the option to delete an entry is now a toggleable checkbox. To delete an entry, press MENU/SEL to navigate to the “Del” checkbox and press either the UP or DOWN button to check the box. Then press MENU/SEL again to show the “Go” soft button. Pressing the DOWN button will delete the entry and return to the Group Edit page.
- The Frequency page was redesigned to present more tuning group information including tuning group name, tuning group compatability mode and tuning group entry label.
- The Smart Tune and Scan pages have been reformatted to present data more effectively.
- Added new keypad shortcut: simultaneously pressing the UP and DOWN buttons opens the Frequency page.
- Added frequency “block” and hex code information to the Detail page, when applicable.
- The Rx Ch Detail page now shows the name of a tuning group only if one is active.
- The Test Tone page now offers a finer degree of control. Frequency can now be adjusted in 100 Hz steps from 100 to 1000 Hz, and in 1 kHz steps from 1 kHz to 20 kHz. The level can now be adjusted in 1 dB steps. Also, it’s now possible to turn the test tone on or off for each output channel individually. The selected frequency and level settings apply to all channels.
- RSSI strip charts no longer always display one pixel at the bottom.
- Fixed bug where the block setting on the TxInfo page for a channel did not always correctly restrict the channel’s tuning range.
DSR4 v1.01 (SUPER)/v1.00 (FPGA)
- Initial production release.













































