Our iPhone does a great job of capturing a scene’s colors and tones, and you might think the best iPhone microphone is just the one that is built in, but the quality of its audio recordings may be subpar to the HDR quality of the iPhone’s video footage.
However, the further away your subject gets from the mic the more the audio quality will diminish. We may also pick up unwanted background or ambient sounds and wind blowing on the iPhone’s mic can completely ruin a recording thanks to the low-frequency rumble that it produces.
Fortunately, there are plenty of microphones available that will elevate the quality of our audio recordings so that they match the production values of our HDR video clips from the best iPhones.
But what sort of mic do we need? If we’re a wedding videographers then we won’t have time to wire people up with individual mics, so we need an on-camera shotgun mic that will capture better-sounding audio as we document the day like a 'fly on the wall'. If we’re a YouTube vlogger and like to walk and talk while presenting to camera then we’ll need a wireless solution that lets us roam freely with a clip-on mic while a receiver attached to the iPhone captures our voice from a distance.
All of the mics featured in this buying guide have links to our full reviews, most of which contain a video that lets us hear each mic in action. This will help us make an informed choice so that we can find an iPhone-compatible mic that suits our film-making needs (and budget).
George has been freelancing as a photo fixing and creative tutorial writer since 2002, working for award winning titles such as Digital Camera, PhotoPlus, N-Photo and Practical Photoshop. He's expert in communicating the ins and outs of Photoshop and Lightroom, as well as producing video production tutorials on Final Cut Pro and iMovie for magazines such as iCreate and Mac Format. He also produces regular and exclusive Photoshop CC tutorials for his YouTube channel.
The Quick List
If you can’t afford to lose sound due to signal drop-out or wind noise then it’s well worth investing in this pro wireless mic kit
The Godox WES is a highly recommended entry-level budget wireless microphone kit that will improve your YouTube show’s audio production values (compared to using your camera’s built-in mic).
This directional gun mic helps reduce the presence of unwanted background noise while keeping your subject’s voice sounding loud and clear. The mic looks more professional mounted on the supplied cage.
This is not the most powerful wireless mic but it will still elevate your audio production values without blowing your budget.
When shooting in noisy and unpredictable locations this directional gun mic will reduce the presence of unwanted ambient noise.
The 32-bit float on-board recording gives the Wireless Pro the edge over other wireless mic systems but at a pro price! For a cheaper alternative, we’d recommend the Saramonic BlinkMe.
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This wireless mic goes the distance and is quick to set up, with lossless on-board recording giving you extra peace of mind.
The best iPhone microphones 2024
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Best iPhone Microphone overall
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Professional sound recordists can’t afford to fail when it comes to capturing clean crisp audio from a distance. Wind noise and signal drop-out can ruin a take (or lose crucial sound information in a documentary shoot). Wireless mic kits give you the freedom to walk and talk from a distance but many of them (like the 7Artisans DMic-S) can lose contact if you lose line of sight between the transmitter and the receiver.
I took the Saramonic BlinkMe to a windy location and was impressed at how the combination of a physical windshield and software noise reduction made wind noise become negligible. I was even more astonished when at a considerable distance my voice was loud, clean, and clear - even when my line of sight was interrupted by a four-foot-thick brick wall!
For a ‘belt and braces’ approach the transmitters have an on-board recording feature so in the unlikely event of a drop out you can replace missing sound with a high-quality .wav file recorded on the transmitters. As a bonus, there’s also a secondary safety track recorded at -6dB. This is useful if your mic’s sound levels are too high and there’s distortion due to peaking. The circular transmitter mics can cause clothing to sag a little, especially when attached to the magnetic clip mount but for sheer power and performance, this is a desirable iPhone mic kit.
Read our full Saramonic BlinkMe review for more details
The best plug and play mic for phones
Specifications
Reasons to buy
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Some wireless mic kits in this guide require you to attach the receiver to your smartphone or camera via a cable. You may even have to buy a third-party adaptor to attach the cable to an iPhone that’s older than the 15 range. Cables cause a transmitter to dangle, which can make it get snagged if your phone is mounted on a gimbal. The beauty of the Godox WES is that its receiver has a little connecting port that plugs straight into an iPhone’s Lightning port (if you buy the Godox WES1 kit) or an Android smartphone (or iPhone 15) if you buy the Godox Wes2 kit). No dangling cables are required. This makes it an easy job to clip the transmitter to your lapel, plug the receiver into your phone and start recording video with high-quality audio. The only downside to the receiver’s plug-in design is that it may not be attachable if your phone is in a cage such as the Neewer iPhone 15 Pro Max cage, as the cage’s handles can get in the way of the plugged-in receiver.
The Godox WES is one of the cheaper wireless kits in this guide but it produces excellent quality audio from up to 200 meters with line of sight (and only minimal drop-out the you turn your back to the camera at around 100 meters). Its affordable price and ‘plug and play’ nature should make it attractive if you’ve not bought a wireless mic kit before. iPhone users should be especially interested as the WES meets Apple’s MFi (Made for iPhone) manufacturing standards (though do make sure you buy the Lighting (WES1) version if you own a 14 or older model. If you own an iPhone 15 then there WES2 kit is the one you need.
Read our full Godox WES2 review for more
Best all-in-one iPhone microphone kit
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
To use a directional shotgun mic you’ll need to be able to mount it onto your iPhone. Most gun mics (such as the Joby Wavo Plus) require you to buy a separate cage or smartphone tripod clamp that has a cold shoe adaptor to which you can attach the gun mic (see our FAQ section for more on that).
SmallRig’s iPhone cage has a collection of built-in cold shoe mounts that you can use to attach the kit’s supplied gun mic to your iPhone (as well as a shoe-mountable LED lamp). The kit’s gun mic has a plastic shock mount which is designed to reduce camera handling sounds from spoiling your audio recording.
It is set to a cardioid polar pattern so when you’re recording a subject it will focus on their voice while keeping unwanted background sounds to a minimum (which is dealing with a noisy wedding). The kit ships with a range of mic-to-phone cables including a 3.5mm-jack-to-lighting adaptor that enables you to plug it into older iPhone models such as the 14 Pro range. There’s also a supplied wool cover to help reduce wind noise.
By shooting with a mic mounted on this rig you’ll not get mistaken for a wedding guest with an iPhone, so if you need to look more professional then a directional gun mic (and its accompanying accessories) should suit your needs.
Read our full SmallRig All-in-One Video Kit For Smartphone Creators review for more details
Best iPhone wireless microphone on a budget
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
If you need to speak to your tripod-mounted iPhone from a distance then a wireless mic set like 7Artisans DMic-S is a great solution. You simply clip one of its two transmitters to your shirt and attach the receiver to your iPhone (using the supplied 3.5mm jack to lighting adaptor cable). The transmitter then sends your audio wirelessly to the receiver so that you can be heard loud and clear from a distance without being tethered to your iPhone by a cable. The kit's second transmitter enables you to record an interviewee’s voice in addition to your own (or you can co-present your vlog with a friend).
This isn’t the best wireless mic in our guide - that’s probably the Saramonic BlinkMe. When I turned my back on the receiver then the audio signal was prone to drop out (whereas it remained loud and clear on the BlinkMe even when transmitting through walls!) However, at $100 cheaper than the Saramonic Blink Me the DMic-S won’t blow your budget and it will still enable you to capture much better sound than you can from your iPhone’s built-in mic - especially at a distance. So if you balance its cost with its functionality it deserves a place in this buying guide. Just don’t turn your back on it!
Read our full 7Artisans DMic-S review for more details
Best iPhone microphone for documentary sound
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Wireless mics such as the Saramonic BlinkMe give you the freedom to record sound from a distance, but you do need to spend time clipping the transmitter to your ‘talking head’ subjects. If you’re in a busy and unpredictable location like a live event then you can plug a shotgun mic like the Joby Wavo Plus into your iPhone and capture better on-location sound.
Thanks to the Wavo Plus’s super-cardioid polar pattern the mic is very directional, picking up sound from directly in front of your iPhone while reducing the presence of distracting ambient sound from the sides and rear. The Wavo Plus also comes with a smartphone-friendly TRRS to TRS cable, though you’ll need to buy an adaptor to attach the cable’s 3.5mm jack to your iPhone’s Lightning or USB-C port (see FAQ section).
The Wavo Plus ships with a foam wind-jammer that is designed to reduce wind-induced rumbling. For a ‘belt-and-braces’ solution there’s also a high-pass filter that you can switch on to reduce the rumble of low-frequency sound. When filming yourself you can’t monitor the audio quality from headphones plugged into the mic’s socket so the -10db safety track could rescue a shoot if the levels on the main track are too high and distorted.
Read our full Joby Wavo Plus review for more details
Best iPhone Microphone for professionals
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The RODE Wireless Pro is a typical wireless mic system, with 2 transmitters and a receiver (but it does have some extra tricks up its sleeve as we’ll explain). You can attach the receiver to an iPhone using the supplied lightning cable adaptor. As with other wireless mic kits (such as the 7Artisans DMic-S wireless microphone), both transmitters and the receiver live in a carry case that enables you to charge all three units at once. This ensures that they will all perform with equal charge during a shoot.
Like the Saramonic BlinkMe, the Wireless Pro has on-board recording on its transmitters, so if the signal drops out due to loss of line of sight between transmitter and receiver you can still rescue the audio from the file that’s been recorded directly onto the transmitter.
Unlike the Saramonic BlinkMe’s onboard recorded files, the Wireless Pro captures a superior 32-bit float file. This game-changing format means you don’t have to worry as much about setting the gain wrong and capturing quiet or distorted audio. You can use the 32-bit float track to rescue problematic recordings in a post-production editing app.
Read our full Rode Wireless Pro review for more details
Best iPhone microphone for conversations
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Many wireless mic kits enable you to clip their boxy transmitters onto you and your interviewee’s shirt and broadcast both voices straight to the receiver plugged into your iPhone. These transmitters can look a bit conspicuous, especially if you’ve clipped the supplied fluffy windshield onto a transmitter’s built-in mic.
For a more discrete way to record your voice, you can clip the transmitter onto your belt (out of sight) and then plug a supplied lavalier cable mic into the transmitter. The lavalier clip mic’s cable can go inside your shirt with only its small mic visible when clipped to the top of your shirt.
While the Rode Wireless Pro also provides two lavalier cable mics, that kit costs almost twice the price of the Godox Virso M2. The Virso M2 is also powerful enough to transmit from 200 meters and it will even hear you if it loses line of sight - check out our test video that accompanies the full review of the Virso M2.
A professional sound recordist will want to monitor the sound coming into the receiver at all times and they can do so courtesy of the receiver’s headphone output socket. They can then hear problems such as drop out, wind noise, etc, and re-record the sequence if necessary. If you can’t monitor the sound (because you’re talking at a distance from the camera) then you can record sound directly onto a micro SD card inserted into the transmitter. If there is a drop out in the connection between the transmitter and receiver you can rescue your uninterrupted recording from the micro-SD card.
Read our full Godox Virso M2 review for more details
Best iPhone Microphone for a quick setup
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
Like the other wireless mic kits reviewed in this guide, the Hollyland Lark Max Duo has a charging case that keeps the two transmitters and the receiver fully and equally charged, enabling consistent performance from each unit. Both transmitters automatically pair with the receiver when you remove them from the case so you can start recording immediately.
The kit also has windshields that you can attach to the transmitters to keep wind rumble to a minimum, plus a pair of cabled lavalier mics for more discrete recordings (just like the Rode Wireless Pro and the Godox Virso M2 kits).
What makes the Lark Max Duo kit even quicker to work with is the way you attach the transmitter to your subject. You can clip a transmitter onto their shirt or jacket lapel using the conventional spring-mounted clip found on all transmitters.
Alternatively, the interviewee or presenter can wear a supplied magnetic pendant under their shirt, and when you’re ready to record simply tap the magnetic transmitter onto the pendant and it will ‘stick’ to the subject. Another welcome feature is the transmitter mics’ environmental noise cancellation (ENC) technology, plus 8GB of internal storage for on-board recordings of lossless Wav files.
Read our full Hollyland Lark Max Duo review for more details
How to choose the best iPhone microphone
The key decision you need to make is whether you need a wireless mic kit or an on-camera shotgun mic?
A shotgun mic is handy for roaming around while filming busy live events, with its hyper-cardioid polar pattern picking up what’s in front of the camera while reducing unwanted noise from the back and sides of your iPhone. This on-camera mic will suit documentary makers or wedding videographers.
However, if you need to present to the camera from a distance (or interview a subject as you walk and talk) then you’re better suited to a wireless mic system. With a wireless mic system, you can simply attach the lightweight receiver to your iPhone via a cable and let it dangle while it picks up sound from the transmitter attached to your distant subject.
However, unlike a gun mic, a wireless mic runs the risk of signal drop out but the ones featured in this guide are pretty reliable and many have on-board recording so you can replace drop-out in post.
Finally, our recommended mic kits contain two transmitters but you can save cash by searching for kits with one transmitter if you are a solo operator, such as Godox Virso M1, which is over £60 cheaper than the M2 kit we featured in this guide.
How do I attach a gun mic to an iPhone?
With a shotgun mic, you need a smartphone cage or smartphone tripod mount that has a cold shoe slot to attach the gun mic to, such as the JOBY GripTight. The mic slots into the cold shoe mount and you then plug it into your iPhone.
Do I need an adaptor to connect a mic to an iPhone?
Most mic kits come with a 3.5mm TRS - TRRS audio connect cable that is compatible with smartphones in general. To connect this cable to an iPhone 14 model or older you’ll need an adaptor such as the Ugreen Lightning to 3.5mm cable. To connect a mic to an iPhone 15 model you’ll need a 3.5mm to USB-C cable. Some wireless kits (such as the 7Artisans DMic-S do include an iPhone lighting adaptor cable).
How we choose the best iPhone microphones
When choosing mic kits for this buying guide we tried to be topical, so the majority of our recommendations were released in the last 12 months, this iPhone mic buying guide has been completely refreshed with new recommendations, and new models are added regularly.
We tend to get offered test units to play with before they are released which helps us keep up to speed with the latest technologies - for example, none of the wireless mics in our previous roundup had on-board recording. We’ve also aimed to include a range of different manufacturers and a range of prices to suit a range of budgets.
How we test the best iPhone microphones
Testing is the fun bit. From the supporting videos in the full reviews, you’ll see that I like to test iPhone mics in a wide range of locations, from wind-swept Scottish hills to urban city centers. This enables me to discover how effective the windshields and the software noise cancellation features are.
With wireless mics, I like to see how far I can get before the signal drops out, especially when the transmitter loses line of sight with the receiver. Because I test the mics with a top-of-the-range iPhone (the 7Artisans mic was recorded on an iPhone 15 Pro Max) I do get nervous when I’m around 60 meters away from the iPhone - especially when I’ve left it perched on a wall in the city!
I’ve been recording sound professionally since the late 1980s and the younger me would be astonished by the quality and range of modern wireless mic kits, especially as I no longer need to hold a heavy gun mic on a long pole just out of frame above the subject’s head! These digital days we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to iPhone mics as you can see from this buying guide’s candidates.
