What's the best mobile/iPhone headset mic out there?
May 15, 2012 1:33 PM   Subscribe

All iPhone / mobile headphone reviews go into (sometimes) excruciating detail about the sound qualities and quality of the headset, but I've found very few that actually talk about the mic quality. So I ask: are there candidates for "best mic"?
posted by theNonsuch to Computers & Internet (3 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
That's a very good question. Can I ask what you want to use the mic for? I wanted to use a pair of headphones with a mic for playing flute with real-time effects, and found that two expensive headphones I tried (from Etymotic and Denon) had mics that distorted badly for flute. I went back to using the iPhone built in mic (which performs well at fairly high SPLs), and a Tascam IU2 for performance.
posted by iotic at 2:15 PM on May 15, 2012


Radio journalists are beginning to use iPhones to record voice reports in the field, especially in situations where a full recording setup would attract unwelcome attention. The microphones are heavy on the treble and somewhat prone to popping when compared to a conventional mic and recorder, but still produce acceptable quality for broadcast. I've used older Nokias and an HTC Wildfire and their microphones are significantly worse - I'd never use then for broadcast work.
posted by embrangled at 4:48 PM on May 15, 2012


Also note, there is some fairly drastic bass attenuation going on for both the built-in and headset mics - at least for the iPhone 4. The only way to get around this is be using an audio interface connected to the dock connector.
posted by iotic at 11:33 PM on May 15, 2012


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