These three sets of dual wireless microphones might look similar, but they have some pretty significant differences.
Let's take a closer look.
Hi, I'm Aaron Parecki.
Before we get started, I need to first mention that while I did buy the DJI microphone myself, Røde and Hollyland both sent me these microphones to check out last year.
But neither of these companies ever had any input into what I say in this or any other video.
And I'm not being paid to make this video by them either.
In fact, I think they might actually be surprised to see this video if they are even watching.
So with that out of the way, let's dive in.
I'm going to talk about the differences and similarities of these microphones and what I like and don't like about each.
And we're going to break this up into a few different categories.
I'll leave timestamps to all the sections below so you can jump around if you would like.
Let's start with the basics and talk about the physical size and how these attach to things.
The receivers are all quite different in size, but they all have a cold shoe clip.
This lets you clip it to the top of a camera or clip it to a cold shoe mount on a camera cage.
Or like I often do, clip it to the back of my ATEM Mini stand or YoloBox cage.
The DJI receiver actually has a trick.
You can slide off the cold shoe clip and swap it for the iPhone or USB-C adapter that comes with it.
And this actually lets you use it with a phone or tablet without any other cables or mounting adapters needed, which is a pretty neat trick.
As for the size, the DJI receiver is the smallest and the Lark 150 is by far the largest.
The Lark 150 has two physical knobs for adjusting the volume of the two microphone transmitters, and they're also buttons to mute each channel.
The Røde Wireless Go II has two buttons on the front, which do a combination of muting channels and adjusting the gain and changing between mono and stereo.
The DJI Mic is actually a touch screen, which is kind of surprising considering how small the screen is.
You can swipe down to get into the settings, adjust the volume, and even set the date.
And if you swipe up, you get the controls for each of the two mic transmitters.
So as you can see, these are three pretty different ways of interacting with the receivers.
Let's look at the mic transmitters next.
The transmitters of all three are more similar.
The DJI Mic is the smallest again, but the Lark 150 is actually smaller than the Røde Wireless Go.
All three have cold shoe clips and a mic capsule on the top.
But the DJI also has a trick with the cold shoe clips, which is that they're magnetic and it comes with this little magnet so you can use the backing behind the shirt and just have
it floating in the middle of a surface instead of relying on collars or little button flaps.
They also all three have an eighth inch jack to connect an external lav mic if you want, and they do all come with fuzzy windscreens too.
The Røde and DJI windscreens twist in like this.
And The Lark 150 has a little pin that goes into the 1/8" to hold it in place.
One of the other differences between the three receivers is the Hollyland and the DJI actually have headphone outputs in addition to the line out for the camera.
That means you can actually plug in headphones and monitor the audio from the microphones without having to worry about whether your camera has a headphone jack.
The DJI Mic and Lark 150 both come with a case for charging.
Both cases have a built in battery, and you put all the parts in the case and it charges them from the battery.
The cases themselves are then charged via USB-C.
The Wireless Go II does not come with a charging case.
It instead comes with three USB-C cables and you're expected to figure out on your own.
That said ZGCINE reached out to me a while ago to send me this charging case they made for the Røde Wireless Go II and that makes it work basically like the others.
Their case has a built in battery and you put all three parts into the slots and then you charge the case over USB-C.
And I am really glad to see they made this because it's definitely more convenient than having the three parts dangling off of USB cables somewhere.
The ZGCINE case and the Lark 150 case are about the same size, but the DJI Mic case is super, super tiny.
I love how small it is.
It is a lot nicer to throw in a backpack when it is so small.
But, one downside to it being this small is that there is no room inside the case for the 1/8" cable.
You can kind of squeeze that cable into the Røde case and there is actually a spot for it in the Lark 150 case.
But with the DJI, that does mean you need to carry that part separately.
Oh, and I should also mention that while the Røde doesn't come with a charging case, it does come with this sleeve that fits all the parts.
And I do end up carrying this around a fair bit instead of the charging case, if I know I'm not going to need to charge them for a particular project.
Next, I want to talk about connecting these microphones to a camera or a computer.
All three receivers have an 1/8" jack to connect to a camera or other device.
You plug the one end into the receiver and the other into your camera or other device.
It takes analog audio, but the Røde and DJI receivers are also USB audio interfaces and that means you can use them directly with a phone or a tablet as well
as a computer without an analog cable.
The DJI Mic comes with these little adapters that switch between the iPhone Lightning Port and the USB-C, and they actually fit inside the case, which is a nice touch, because
otherwise they'd be really easy to lose.
The Røde needs to be connected with a USB-C cable, so it's definitely less convenient to use it with phones or tablets.
Next, let's talk about recording.
The Røde and DJI Mic both have built in recording features in the mic capsules.
The Hollyland does not.
But there are some pretty big differences between how the Røde and the DJI work.
The Røde Wireless Go II can be configured to have the mic record to the internal memory on each transmitter.
You do have to use a computer to set this up, and the options are either to always record or never record.
If it's set to always record, then as soon as it's paired with the receiver and powered on, it will be recording.
There is no way to start or stop an individual recording.
The good part about this is that you'll never have to worry about forgetting to press record.
But the bad part is you end up with really long files and it's hard to actually find the audio you need later.
The DJI Mic has an actual record button on the side and you can toggle recording on and off on each microphone.
And in a recent firmware update they added an option to enable auto recording and that will make it start recording as soon as the mic is powered on.
Also a neat trick with the DJI is that you can actually start and stop recording from the receiver itself.
So once the mics are connected, you swipe up on the left or right side to bring up the settings for each transmitter.
And you can actually mute the transmitter from here, but you can also start and stop recording and you can even format the internal storage of the transmitter remotely too.
Lastly, let's talk about audio quality.
I saved this for last because audio quality is somewhat subjective and it also depends on your voice.
And there are a lot of other differences about these microphones that might make more of a difference for your workflow, regardless of the difference in the sound.
So this is not going to be a super scientific test.
What I am going to do is I'm going to give you samples of my voice in this room with the three microphones.
Also, for the sake of keeping things simple, I'm only going to record these samples with the built in mic on the transmitter, not with an external lav mic.
And I'm also going to record all of them from the receiver into a camera.
That way we're comparing all of them on fair ground, taking into account the wireless connection as well.
Before I record, I will listen to the output from the camera and adjust the gain on the transmitter so that they're all about at the same level and not clipping.
So here we go.
This is a recording from the Røde Wireless Go II.
Be sure to give this video a thumbs up if you've enjoyed it.
This is recorded using the built in mic and the mic transmitter and the receiver is connected to the main camera I'm using for this video.
This is a recording from the Hollyland Lark 150.
This is recorded using the built in mic in the transmitter and the receiver is connected to the main camera I'm recording this video with.
This is a recording from the DJI mic.
I go live on this channel every Sunday at 10am Pacific to answer your questions and talk about live streaming.
This is recorded using the built in mic in the transmitter and the receiver again is connected to the main camera I'm using for this video.
Let's also do a quick test of how directional this is.
I'm going to hold this in front of my face and then I'm going to point it off to the side here and off to the side there.
And then you can see how directional the microphone is here.
I'm holding the mic in front of me and I'm going to point it off to the side and keep talking and point it off to the side over here.
And then you can hear the difference of how directional it is here.
I'm holding the mic in front of my face and I'm going to point it off to the sides over here and off to the side over there.
And now you can hear the difference of how directional this microphone is.
And there you have it.
Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one.