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Lavalier mics are one of the easiest to use. Be it a youtube video or a presentation, whenever you need a hands-free experience, you can always count on Lavalier microphone.
These are lightweight, portable, and can provide clear audio quality; on top of that, if you use a wired lavalier microphone, you can easily hide the wire under your clothes, and you are good to go.
Like any other microphone, they come with various functionality and under different price ranges. For this reason, I have curated a list of some of the best lavalier microphones and included a guide through which you can select the best lavalier mic according to your needs.
The 8 Best Lavalier Mic
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Rode SmartLav+ Lavalier Microphone
Product Dimensions: 5 x 1 x 3 inches.
Connectivity Technology: Wired.
Positive: Easy To Use, Comfort To Store, Sounds Extremely Well.
Negative: Some Compatibility Issues.
The Rode SmartLav+ Lavalier Microphone provides crystal clear audio from a discreet and compact design that can go with you anywhere. It is engineered to pick up omnidirectional sound and has a care plan that can clip onto almost any garment.
In addition, this microphone connects to virtually any smart device through its 3.5mm headphone jack, USB-C adaptor, or lightning connector. Its RF interference shielding technology ensures there won’t be any buzzing hums or clicks in your recordings.
Customer Review For Rode SmartLav+ Lavalier Microphone
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SYNCO Wireless Microphone
Product Dimensions: 3.31 x 3.11 x 1.93 inches.
Connectivity Technology: Auxiliary.
Positive: Provide Fast Charging, Delivers High-Fidelity Transmission, and Offers Nine Vocal Effects.
Negative: A Bit Difficult To Use.
The SYNCO Wireless Microphone is the perfect solution for anyone needing a convenient yet powerful microphone system. This device provides 45 minutes of use with just 10 minutes of charging, and it can even record up to five hours on a single charge! The signal range is also incredible – providing stable and clear sound from a distance of 492ft/150m.
The integrated filters reduce low-frequency noise while reproducing authentic and clean voices. Additionally, contact pairing makes the connection more accessible than ever. You can activate nine creative effects with just a button on the receiver. Finally, its charging case features a dynamic light strip that displays battery, charging, vocal development, and pairing situations at all times.
Customer Review For SYNCO Wireless Microphone
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Sony ECM77B Electret Microphone
Product Dimensions: 1.63 x 4.07 x 9.25 inches.
Connectivity Technology: XLR.
Positive: Omni-directional, Easy To Use, Comfortable To Carry.
Negative: A Bit Expensive.
The Sony ECM77B Electret Condenser Lavalier Microphone is a highly versatile audio accessory that offers high sound quality wherever you go. This small, lightweight yet durable microphone is perfect for lectures and interviews. With this device, you’ll be able to capture full sound without distractions like wind or noise.
With its clean, crisp sound and Omnidirectional pickup design, you can record any voice or instrument in any environment. Plus, it’s easy to install: add a 9-volt battery to power it up and connect the XLR connector.
Customer Review For Sony ECM77B Electret Microphone
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BOYA by M1 Collar Microphone
Product Dimensions: 3.39 x 4.33 x 4.25 inches.
Connectivity Technology: Wired.
Positive: Versatile In compatibility, Omni-Directional Design, and Easy-Access Controls.
Negative: Audio Quality Could Be Better.
If a crystal clear audio capture is your goal, then the BOYA by M1 collar microphone only needs to be part of your equipment. Its accurate omnidirectional design delivers pristine sound quality for any of your preferences – whether you are using it on a smartphone, DSLR camera, camcorder, audio recorder, or PC.
It picks up little handling noise. It is highly effective in windy conditions as it comes with a foam windscreen that minimizes air movement. Moreover, this high-end condenser comes with an adapter cable that covers a range of 3.5mm to 6.3mm jack capacities and includes a lapel clip to ensure your mic’s fixed in place even when movement is involved.
Customer Review For BOYA by M1 Collar Microphone
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Sennheiser Professional ME 2 Microphone
Product Dimensions: 6.69 x 0.59 x 0.59 inches.
Connectivity Technology: Wireless.
Positive: Easy To Handle, Offers a Wide Range Of Applications, Compatible With Bodypack Transmitters.
Negative: Pricy Than Others.
The Sennheiser Professional ME 2 Microphone is the perfect tool for a wide range of speech and vocal applications. With high speech intelligibility, this lightweight fastener allows easy attachment to any clothing, making it an ideal choice for users who need portability and clear sound quality.
It also comes with a mini-jack for bodypack transmitters from the wireless evolution series, giving users plenty of connectivity options. Finally, its subtly designed matte black surface adds an attractive look to its practical qualities.
Customer Review For Sennheiser Professional ME 2 Microphone
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Shure MVL Lavalier Microphone
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 3.3 x 1.6 inches.
Connectivity Technology: RF.
Positive: Easy To Adjust With Clip, Windscreen For Clarity Of Speech, Blocks Errant Noise.
Negative: Disappointed Sound Quality.
The Shure MVL Lavalier Microphone is perfect for capturing clear audio while maintaining a discreet appearance onscreen. Its TRRS connector plugs conveniently into any smartphone or tablet with a headset microphone input jack, providing you with true portability and flexibility.
Its high-quality design and construction make it incredibly durable according to Shure technology standards. Best of all, you don’t have to worry about RF/GSM interference distorting your recordings. The mic features interference protection to block out extra noise artifacts from external sources.
Customer Review For Shure MVL Lavalier Microphone
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Audio-Technica AT899 Condenser Microphone
Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 10.4 x 1.6 inches.
Connectivity Technology: XLR.
Positive: Provide Low-profile Design, Offers The Convenience Of Battery, and Delivers Maximum Intelligibility.
Negative: Some Technical Issues.
Audio-Technica AT899 is a lavalier microphone with all the capabilities of a condenser microphone. As a result, you could consider it the ultimate tool for the vocalist who needs stunning clarity and accurate sound reproduction. Furthermore, with its low-profile design, you won’t even know it’s there, ensuring minimum visibility and minimal interference to your performance.
Not only is it conveniently powered by either battery or phantom power, but it also features a switchable low-frequency roll-off that helps reduce unwanted popping sounds. In addition, it includes clothing clips to viper clips, windscreens, and interchangeable single and double mic holders.
Customer Review For Audio-Technica AT899 Condenser Microphone
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Giant Squid Mono Microphone
Product Dimensions: 72 x 3 x 3 inches.
Connectivity Technology: Wired.
Positive: Includes Long Cable, Provide Molded Mini Plug, Sounds Great.
Negative: Not Lon-lasting.
The Giant Squid Mono Microphone is a highly advanced audio device with impressive capabilities. It has a wide frequency response range between 20 to 20,000 Hz and a sensitivity level between -35 and +4 decibels.
Not just that, it also comes with 6 feet of cable, along with a high-quality molded 1/8 inch (3.5 mm) stereo mini plug, thus boosting its functionality and usability. Furthermore, it offers an excellent sound-to-noise ratio of more than 62 dB for better clarity of audio recordings without background noise interference.
Customer Review For Giant Squid Mono Microphone
What Are Lavalier Mics?
Discreet mics smaller in size could be easily clipped on your clothes for recording sounds in the recording setup or the transmitter, known as lavalier mics.
You might have seen them when you watch your favorite YouTubers or several times a person presenting the news on the news channels also wear them.
Generally speaking, you can find their application when there is a requirement for free hand movements, at that instance, Lavalier mics have been used.
The lavalier mics can help capture clean audio quality. They are also incredibly lightweight, so you can move around while putting them on your clothes without worrying about their falling out.
Lavalier mics, also known as body mics, come in wired and wireless varieties with different ways of connecting to audio devices.
While you could notice a lavalier mic in every media person’s bag, it also has a prominent place in other places, including your room, where a lavalier mic is available for virtual meetings.
Things To Consider While Looking For The Best Lavalier Mics
While looking for lavaliers or lavalier mics, you should be sure of your actual requirement and if they could be considered suitable for your purpose.
Although it is essential to select microphones, keeping your budget in mind, there are various other attributes that you should look for while looking for the best lavalier mics for your need
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Pick-Up Pattern
While choosing the best lavalier mic for your need, you should check for its polar pattern or pickup pattern, which means the direction from which it would select or record audio.
Generally, mics are manufactured using different pickup patterns that decide which these microphones would reject or record sound.
The three most common directions of picking up audio are bi-directional, omnidirectional, and cardioid.
In a bi-directional polar pattern, the microphone could pick up audio from two sides while rejecting the noise from the other side.
In an omnidirectional pickup pattern, as simple as the name implies, the lavalier mic could record sound from all directions while safely attached to the coat’s lapel or the jacket’s collar.
A cardio pickup pattern is a heart-shaped pickup pattern and is more directional and should be placed keeping in mind the distance of the subject’s mouth.
A cardioid pickup patterned lavalier microphone should be placed near your mouth to record a clean voice without buzzing, humming, or any other disturbance from the surroundings. It takes no audio from the backside of the mic, while it could take some audio from the left and right.
Suppose you are looking for a cardioid polar pattern mic. In that case, I suggest you go for a shotgun microphone instead of a lavalier mic since shotgun mics are Supercardioids in a polar pattern and give you awesome quality.
Being more directional, they could cancel out noise present in the environment. However, it also becomes crucial to take care of the place where you wish to use these microphones.
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Wired Or Wireless
There are two options available for lavalier microphones. Wired and wireless lavalier microphones.
- Wired lavalier microphones are considered reliable, but they cannot be carried around and may cause harm to the production process. Therefore, wired lavalier microphones should be regarded when looking for a budget-friendly yet effective lavalier mic and do not want to worry about battery power.
They are convenient and may also produce a higher audio quality, so if user-friendly is your thing and you do not wish to invest in anything fancy, you could look for wired, lavalier microphones.
While looking for the best lavalier mics, the wired ones could also be looked at for their ability to limit the dynamic range of the mic so that you could record much clearer and compressed audio.
- Wireless lavalier mics could offer you a better range of movement across the area, enabling you to move while deciding on audio or video.
One constraint you need to check for while selecting one of the best wireless lavalier mics for yourself is to check the wireless range. The range should be more than the distance of the wired lavalier mic. To be specific, a basic wireless lavalier range is around 50-60 feet.
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Connectors
While looking for lavalier microphones, another aspect that you should look for is its connectors. Connectors are wires or cords through which the lavalier mics could be easily attached to audio devices like smartphones, tablets,s or PCs.
Some lavalier mics could be connected using various connectors like 3.5-inch tips, rings, and sleep connectors, popularly known as TRS. They are the parts of the jack plug and are more versatile.
3.5 one also comes in TRRS connectors. They have three rings and a tip. This type has four conductors. These are left, right, ring and sleeve.
Another connector may include an XLR connector, an electric connector mainly used in lavalier microphones for professional setups for audio and video setups for stage performances or recording. It contains three to seven connector pins which vary from device to device. For example, you could choose a mic with an XLR connector, as it would record enhanced audio quality.
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Durability
Another attribute to consider while looking for lavalier mics is their durability under different conditions.
A mic like Sennheiser MKE1 Lavalier Microphone is considered some of the most durable. The manufacturer has specifically mentioned that they use a sweat-resistant protective membrane. As a result, they last longer.
Since they are tiny, you may carry them around carelessly; as a result, lavalier mics could get entangled in their wires. Sometimes, they face complex, sweaty situations that might negatively affect their work.
Thus, look for such lavalier mics that have good nods that could protect them from being affected by moisture or humid surroundings.
Moreover, durability could be an essential aspect as a lavalier mic with added durability to withstand humid conditions, and they could work just fine under hot weather conditions as well.
Hence, when selecting the lavalier mics for yourself, you should look at the manufacturers’ specifications and see if they have mentioned things about the kind of material that they have used.
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Additional Attachments
While it is understood that you must make your lavalier mics stay attached to your clothing when you deliver a speech or a dialogue, the tools or attachments that keep the mics positioned are also important.
Thus, there are options for magnetic attachment that use a metal disk set inside the clothing and a loop that comes along with it, which keeps the mic well placed onto it.
Alligator clips are amongst the most common attachments made up of available metal that usually notice and keep the lavalier mic in place.
Vampire clips are also available as attachments for the lavalier mic, which are sharp-looking clips with pointed pins that hook up the lavalier mic to the attire.
Various other attachments to look for while selecting lavalier microphones may include plastic sleeves or foams that could lower rustling noises when the mic is positioned inside a tie or a shirt.
You could choose these attachments per your needs and how you would like to attach your lavalier mic to your clothing. Typically, lavalier mics are available with simple attachments as per their size and are not too enormous.
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Budget
Your budget is one of the major deciding factors while looking for lavalier microphones. You could get a value-for-money lavalier microphone under $50 that could be easy to use and are compatible enough to connect to audio devices.
For example Rode SmartLav+ comes under $50. This is one of the basic mic that has a clip attachment. The manufacturers have added a foam pop shield to reduce the chances of mic catching the sounds from surrounding environment.
If you feel that you will not be able to spend fifty bucks, then you could go for even cheaper options. For example something like Boys M1 collar microphone comes under $15. This will serve a basic purpose.
On the other hand, if budget isn’t really an issue for you and you could easily be flexible while looking for lavalier mics, you could go a bit up in the price range and get premium lavalier microphones under $300.
Under this price range, you could choose from more versatile, lavalier mic options. In addition, they may have Omnidirectional pick patterns while also being available with an easy installation.
To give you an example, you can go for something like Sony ECM77B Electret Microphone. It comes just a notch above $250. This is a condenser lavalier mic. If you go for this, you will have all the capabilities of a condenser mic and a lavalier mic as well. The plus point with this mic is that you can run it either on AA batteries or an phantom power.
You could even use them for webinars and video chats as they could deliver crystal clear sound quality. The lavalier mic in these price ranges may have wire or be wireless.
How To Setup Lavalier Microphones?
While lavalier microphones come with various benefits, their setup should also be known to you. Especially when you have an interview or another critical event and do not even know how to set up your lavalier microphones. They could easily be set up following these easy steps-
- Select the position where you need to attach your lavalier mic: It is essential where these mics are to be placed and on which type of clothing they would be attached so that they might not just slip away. You also need to ensure that you have a proper attachment to attach the mic to the speaker’s clothing.
- Properly conceal your cable: It wouldn’t look visually attractive to notice a cord following you while you speak over the mic. At the same time, Securing the lavalier mic’s cable is essential, as it could ruin the audio recording.
- Connect the lavalier mic to your recording device: In the third step, you need to connect the mic to the recording device. Connectors will allow a safe connection between your recording devices and your mic. Compatible ones could only require a secure plug-in to get started with the recording.
- Run a microphone check before getting started: Once you have connected your mic to the recording device, you must ensure that you are testing the connection. You should double-check the clip positioning, check your voice, and leave no room for muffling and rumbling.
Benefits Of Using A Lavalier Mics
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Enhanced Sound Quality
One of the advantages of using lavalier mics is the clear sound quality they deliver. Lavalier microphones have the perk of positioning them on the person. This will allow you to move around freely and use your hand movements while speaking.
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Convenient
Lavalier microphones are compact and small, making them suitable for sound or audio recording. They could be carried around easily as they’re neither too sturdy in size nor complicated to use. Using a receiver, you can drastically improve the sound quality from a lavalier mic.
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Portable
Lavalier mics are easily portable, and they hardly take up any space. Whether you have a wired lavalier microphone or a wireless one, you could carry them even in your pockets, and are not bigger than your sunglass cases. Thus, you wouldn’t have to bring additional baggage to keep them while going to the video shoot venue.
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Affordable
If you’re a video creator or someone who records podcasts or takes interviews, you could invest in these lavalier headphones that have a flexible price range from costing as low as $15. Thus, lavalier mics are affordable and easy to operate.
Conclusion
By now, you must goten an idea of which Lavalier mic to select. I have listed most options that start as low as $14.95 and go as high as 277.49. Hence, you can make out that there is a wide variety of lavalier mics. They could be used even If you use a mobile to record a video or audio. You could also use them if you have a professional setup just to get clear audio.
If you feel that I have not listed a lavalier mic as per your needs, then you can go ahead and read out guide on how to choose a lavalier mic, and using those suggestions, you will be able to find the best lavalier mic for yourself.
Also, if you feel that you know a lavalier mic that is not present in the list I curated, then let me know about the same in the comments below.
FAQs
A wireless lavalier mic could last after a full battery charge for about 8 to 10 hours. Some wireless lavalier mics could also have an in-built battery that would work as per their available capacities. A wired lavalier mic could last as long as the connected audio device allows it to function. It doesn’t require an additional battery to work.
An ideal placement for lavalier mics could be around mid-chest. However, it should neither be positioned too high, as it could mess up the audio quality and cause rumbling nor should it be attached too low on the clothing from the mouth of the speaker, as it could result in poor audio levels.
There could be enough rumbling from the clothes that could be heard through these mics, which is a downside of using lavalier mics. But, this downside could be evaded if you arrange for attachments like foams that could cover these mics from excessive rumbling and noises.
Whenever the speaker needs hands-free movement, and at the same time, they require clean audio quality, then they could look for using a lavalier mic.