Saramonic Smartrig II XLR Microphone & 6.3mm Guitar Adapter with Phantom Power Preamp Amplifier for iPhone 8 8 Plus 7 7 Plus 6 iPad iPod, Android Smartphone

I have both the iRig and now this Saramonic device and I can say that this one is more useable. The volume knob is marked and it is easier to return to your dialed-in setting. I find that the amp is probably less powerful than the iRig (meaning it took more amplification by the knob adjustment to get the same signal level) but the noise level is exceptionally low. For my setup which is computer recording of voice using my custom microphone, I needed to put boost on the highest level and put both the device at 75% and the input volume to 75% for the best result. The resultant volume was comparable to a commercial song on iTunes.The device has a nice long cord which is really nice. I also bought the Rode SC3 3.5mm TRRS to TRS adapter to plug it into my computer, camcorder, etc but when plugging it into a Microsoft Surface or iPhone, the adapter is not needed.The ability to plug in a High Z device (guitar, etc) is really nice. My iRig was not capable of this. I don't think I will do this since I have no High Z devices, but it is nice to know I can.The supplied velcro is nice and long allowing me to strap it to the mic stand or tripod easily.I really like this device and it looks pretty solid. Well made.

Great for capturing audio for your video or live stream from your phone. I was getting some unwanted noise when I tried to connect a talking mic with my DI guitar signal, but I did get some connectors since that should remedy that, though I haven’t tried it yet. I’m happy with it. I record instrumental music for youtube and social media videos often and using this was a significant improvement. My audio was a bit lower volume than I had hoped but I’m confident that I just have to use it more to get that where I want it to be. I’ve only used it a few times so far. Thank you.

Works as advertised work fine with my iPad. Slight high end hiss in all circumstances. I wish it had a battery life indicator but other than that it does work as advertised And well worth the money.

I suspect confusion about how this thing works has led to some frustrations.It has a very nice XLR and 1/4" microphone input jack, so it's capable of working with either XLR or single ended microphones. However, the ONLY output is via a 3.5mm TRRS plug, intended, I gather, to be plugged into your corresponding cell phone jack. It also has a 3.5mm jack labeled as a headphone jack, which might lead one to incorrectly conclude that you can get output from the microphone directly to headphones. In fact the headphone jack is ONLY connected to the TRRS plug, so the only way you'd hear anything via headphones is if whatever device you've plugged the TRRS plug into feeds the audio signal back through the TRRS plug. In fairness, the accompanying manual does more or less say this.Of course most phones no longer have 3.5mm jacks of any sort, making this device pretty much useless as an external mic input for cell phones. But as a general purpose mic preamp that supports a variety of types of microphones it works quite well.Long story short, I just removed the TRRS plug entirely and replaced it with a standard RCA phono plug, connecting the ground to the white and shield wires, and the center pin to the green wire. This allows me to use the device as a simple mic preamp, which it does very well. It appears to have very low noise, and can also support mics that require 48V phantom power supplies, and it has plenty of gain and the capability of adjusting gain. In my configuration, the headphone plug does absolutely nothing, but that's pretty much what it was doing anyway! And you can't beat the price.

Absolutely a piece of garbage. Didn't work out of the box. Installed brand new 9V battery, green power LED came on but no sound no matter how it was connected to the PA. I have Mackie and Behringer XAir mixers, Bose 802 series II, JBL PRX One speakers. and know what I'm doing in regards to PA equipment. Returning for full refund. If I could give negative star rating I would. ):<

Time has come. I have had this thingamajig for about 3 weeks and I have to say; this thing exceeds expectations. The express reason I bought it is because I rough draft music in my phone and play bass in a band. If you have ever tried to record bass on your phone you know...So since then I have experimented with a condenser mic as well (I happened to use a Behringer C-1). It gets much better sound than your phone microphone will.I honestly expected to end up setting this aside and write off phone recording completely (an experiment brought about by the temporary death of my computer), but I am using it and recommending it to my serious musician friends interested in recording and arranging. Everyone has a phone. Musicians have microphones, headphones and wires. This is magic for this reason.The negative:The headphone output leaves a lot to be desired. I would like if there was a knob to blend the direct in with your phone return, to make zero latency monitoring possible.This seems obvious but I will state it anyways: be sure to keep your 9 volt fresh as possible. The preamp is d e c e n t when the battery is fully charged. It gets to be totally garbage after about 24 to 30 hrs of operation.I noticed is that it seems to be important to use the correct type of cables. I noticed that when I used a balanced cable with my passive bass, it was more susceptible to picking up interference.The casing is cheap and kind of crappy. Really; nothing else to say there.I recommend this (and the Band lab Application) for anyone who is a musician and wants to experiment with recording but is not prepared for the boulder that is computer based home recording. I have had a home setup and this does the job for me. If I were to restart my musical gear collection today with my current knowledge and $200 I would buy this, a pair of KST IEMs, cables, a mic stand and microphone. As a tightly budgeted father, if you gave me a $1000, I would pay mortgage a month out then buy the same setup.