Ask ten worship leaders whether your team should switch to in-ear monitors and you will get ten strong opinions. It is one of the most common questions we hear from Phoenix Valley churches, and the honest answer is that both approaches can work. What matters is understanding the tradeoffs before you spend a dollar.
First, What Monitors Actually Do
Monitors let the musicians and vocalists on your platform hear themselves and each other. Without them, your worship team is essentially playing blind, guessing at pitch and timing. There are two main ways to deliver that sound: floor wedges, which are angled speakers pointed back at the performers, and in-ear monitors, which are earpieces that feed a personalized mix directly into each person’s ears.
The Case for In-Ear Monitors
In-ear monitors, often called IEMs, have become the default for many growing churches, and for good reasons.
Each person gets their own mix. The drummer can crank up the click and bass while the lead vocalist dials in mostly their own voice, and neither choice affects anyone else. Many systems let each musician adjust their mix right from a phone app.
Stage volume drops dramatically. This is the big one. When you remove floor wedges, you remove a huge source of stage noise, which means fewer feedback problems and a cleaner sound in the room. If your church has ever wrestled with feedback during service or a stage that feels like a wall of noise, IEMs are often the fix. They also pair beautifully with a strategy for taming loud drums, since the whole platform gets quieter at once.
Consistency improves. Musicians hear the same mix every week regardless of where they stand, which tightens up the whole team over time.
The Case Against In-Ears
They are not a magic fix, and pretending otherwise sets churches up for disappointment.
Isolation can feel strange. In-ears seal you off from the room. Some vocalists feel disconnected from the congregation and the energy of the space, and it can take weeks to adjust. A few people simply never love the feeling.
They demand more from your system. A proper IEM setup needs enough auxiliary sends or a personal monitor mixing system, and running individual mixes is more work than pointing a wedge at someone. This is where a networked audio backbone helps, and churches that have moved to Dante audio find personal monitoring much easier to manage.
Cost adds up. Quality earpieces, wireless packs, and a mixing solution for a full band is a real investment, though it often costs less than replacing a whole wedge system.
The Case for Keeping Wedges
Floor wedges are not obsolete. They give a tactile, room-filling feel that many musicians love, and they let the team communicate naturally without feeling sealed off. For a smaller church with a two or three person team and a modest budget, well-placed wedges may be all you need. The key is positioning them correctly so they aim at ears, not microphones, which keeps feedback in check.
The Hybrid Approach Most Churches Land On
Here is the setup we install most often for Valley churches: in-ears for the people who benefit most, usually the drummer, bass player, and vocalists, and a wedge or two for anyone who wants that open feel. This gets you the lower stage volume and cleaner mix of in-ears without forcing anyone into a setup they hate.
How to Roll It Out Without a Revolt
Whatever you choose, change management matters as much as gear. Introduce in-ears gradually, start with one or two willing team members, and give everyone time to adjust. Train your team so they understand their mixing app, because a bad first experience sours people fast. Churches that invest in training their AV and worship volunteers have far smoother monitor transitions than those that just hand out earpieces and hope.
Not sure whether your platform is ready for in-ears, or how to design a system that fits your team and your budget? Explore what we do, then reach out to us and we will help you build a monitoring setup your team will actually want to use.
About Brilliance AV: Brilliance AV is a church AVL design and installation company based in Tempe, Arizona, serving churches across the Phoenix Valley. Our team designs, installs, and supports audio, video, and lighting systems built for real worship spaces. Call us at (480) 903-4432, email hello@brillianceav.com, or reach out through our contact page to start the conversation.
