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RODE Wireless Micro | Compact Wireless Microphone System Review
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Jan 1, 2025
The RODE Wireless Micro compact wireless microphone system is a great option if your video capture is mobile based. Check out strengths and weaknesses in Dustin's review | Check out the text review: | Purchase the RODE Wireless Micro @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/41RvoaL | Adorama https://howl.link/7xqg3mqz86msp | Amazon https://amzn.to/4gANH7U | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/4sa99 | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/41AejSw | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/4gcg1Op | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4g4T4fT Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.link/nt4zdz1goa7ql Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Fioboc Clothing: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Concept
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:06
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott over the years I
0:12
have used a wide variety of wireless
0:15
mics from a variety of companies but
0:18
when a serious Audio company like road
0:20
comes up with their own take on the
0:22
genre I suspect that it's going to be
0:24
interesting so I thought that I would
0:27
check out how their new wireless micro
0:30
mics work now this is a little bit
0:31
different review for me cuz I'm actually
0:33
filming on my phone using the microphone
0:35
system this particular system that I'm
0:37
reviewing today is designed for mobile
0:40
applications not for cameras but rather
0:42
for mobile applications and it comes in
0:44
two flavors I either iOS or Android with
0:48
either a lightning or a USBC type Port
0:52
now it is a plug- inpl solution that
0:54
promises to do all the heaving Lifting
0:56
for you and allow you to focus on your
0:58
own content creation the price tag is
1:01
149 in the US and 199 here in Canada so
1:06
we'll start by taking a look at the
1:07
overall feature set the things that they
1:10
claim then we'll take a look at some
1:11
tests I'll tell you some things that I
1:13
like some things that I don't and then
1:14
give you my conclusion so here we have
1:17
in each one of the transmitters this is
1:19
a dual transmitter set and so right now
1:22
I've taken the second transmitter out of
1:23
the box so we're going to get some
1:24
double audio here for a moment so it is
1:27
designed for like an interview type
1:28
application here but it has in camera
1:32
micro or I should say in transmitter
1:34
microphones and then it has an automatic
1:36
pairing and so you're not gon to have to
1:37
do anything as far as you know trying to
1:40
figure out channels or anything or even
1:42
levels for that matter it's all
1:43
essentially just plug and play the
1:46
receiver connects directly into the
1:48
smartphone with no cables required but
1:50
you do have to choose which flavor you
1:52
want either lightning or USBC it has a
1:56
patent pending acoustic chamber design
1:58
that is uh designed to to capture very
2:01
clear and audio while mitigating the
2:04
wind noise though there are some dead
2:07
cat or furry windscreen type things that
2:10
are you can clip onto them if you're in
2:12
a really windy type environment it also
2:14
has their own intelligent gain Assist
2:16
Technology that will automatically set
2:19
your levels and so to make sure that
2:20
your sound is balanced and is not
2:23
peaking or running too low battery life
2:26
for the transmitters runs at 7 hours
2:30
then of course you have this pocket size
2:31
charging case that is really sleek and
2:34
well executed I give them high marks for
2:36
that and it has 490 Mah uh battery life
2:40
storage and so it will give you two
2:43
complete charges so up to 21 hours for
2:46
the whole system in running obviously
2:47
the receiver itself because it's
2:49
plugging into the phone it has no
2:51
separate power source it's going to be
2:53
powered from your actual device itself
2:56
charging case charges via USBC it will
2:59
take 3 hours to charge it completely
3:01
back up one thing you will note is that
3:04
these while they're not the smallest
3:06
that I've seen they are very Compact and
3:08
they're also very lightweight the
3:10
transmitters themselves weigh 12 G or
3:12
0.4 o the receiver is just 6 G or 0.2 Oz
3:18
the condenser mics built into the
3:21
transmitters are omnidirectional so
3:23
picking up you know primarily the sound
3:25
right here but also a little bit of
3:27
sound all around so the biggest reason
3:28
why they're Omni Direct like this is so
3:31
that if someone turns away and isn't
3:33
kind of speaking directly into them
3:34
they're still going to pick up okay in
3:36
that setting operating range is rated at
3:39
100 m we will test that 328 ft and it
3:43
works seamlessly with roads Free iOS
3:45
video app which is called Road capture
3:48
there's also a couple of other Road apps
3:50
called Road Central and Road reporter
3:53
however you're not tied into just one of
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the road apps it is going to work as a
3:57
generic mic with any other app it's just
3:59
going to be a little bit more
4:00
implemented uh and give you a few more
4:02
controls if you're working with a road
4:04
specific app I'm looking at the black
4:07
finish today but there is also a white
4:09
finish version as well that you're going
4:11
to you can check out as well finish here
4:13
is kind of a piano black on the actual
4:16
transmitters themselves looks pretty
4:18
Sleek uh I don't love piano black in a
4:20
vehicle because it's going to get a lot
4:22
of scratches and high traffic I'm less
4:24
concerned with something like this it
4:26
looks sleek it looks good so how about
4:28
some of the tests that I did we're going
4:29
to I'm going to go into a series of
4:31
audio tests here one in a smaller room
4:34
just my office that I my home office
4:37
then in a larger living room family
4:39
space and then testing It Outdoors as
4:42
well is to see how it Compares with
4:44
recording with the on board mic so let's
4:46
jump into those three different
4:48
scenarios okay for our first test we'll
4:50
hear how the audio is in my home office
4:55
and so a room that has a hard floor and
5:00
you know obviously all the stuff various
5:03
gear that I am reviewing and all around
5:07
and so here's how my voice sounds just
5:09
using the onboard
5:10
microphone all right now for our second
5:13
test you can see that I have got the
5:15
road mic on and I've got the receiver
5:18
plugged into the camera itself and so
5:21
let's see how different the audio sounds
5:23
under this
5:24
circumstance okay now for a secondary
5:27
test I'm in a much larger space kind of
5:30
a large common area in our home again
5:34
similar type hard surfaces be it tile or
5:38
again hardwood and so let's see how the
5:40
audio sounds in this space okay now
5:43
we'll try again in this same space using
5:45
the road microphone and see how the
5:49
audio Compares all right so in this case
5:53
I am walking through deep snow as you
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can see at the moment and I am operating
5:59
outdoors and so let's see how the audio
6:02
works here all right now this time with
6:05
the road microphone let's walk through
6:07
the
6:09
same patch of snow here and in the same
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audio environment and to see how the
6:16
difference in the microphone is compared
6:18
to the onboard microphone quality so my
6:20
conclusion after having run and then you
6:23
know listen to those tests is I would
6:25
say that you're obviously going to get
6:26
much less environmental noise that's
6:28
particularly noticeable Outdoors where
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there is more environmental noise
6:32
obviously you're going to cut down with
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some echo in uh spaces where there would
6:36
be more Echo I also found that the voice
6:38
mix is better obviously even without
6:41
doing any kind of customizing EQ and I
6:44
also found that the gain isn't
6:45
artificially boosted the way that it is
6:47
with the onboard mic by the way I'm
6:49
using this on an iPhone 14 so the other
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thing main thing that I wanted to test
6:55
was the actual range claim and so what
6:57
we're going to do is jump into a range
6:59
test and I'll explain that okay in this
7:02
test what I'm going to do is I'm
7:03
actually going to test the range and so
7:05
I'm going to walk away from the camera
7:07
it is rated at up to 100 m range and so
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I'm going to call each step we'll call
7:14
that one meter it might be a little bit
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less than that every stride but what
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we'll do is I'm going to count all the
7:19
way up to 100 very likely as I walk away
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from the camera and there is no line of
7:23
sight we'll actually find that it will
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cut out probably fairly early but I'm
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going to walk all the way up to 100 I'm
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going to turn around and start start
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counting out 100 as we come we'll see
7:31
how effective it is at picking up my
7:33
voice as I walk along 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 1 22 23
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24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 3 34 35 36 7
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38 39 40 1 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51
8:02
52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64
8:07
65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 7 8
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9 8 81 82 3 84 85 86 7 8 89 91 92 93 945
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96 97 98 99 100 okay now I'm at 100
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we'll see how it goes coming back one 2
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3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
8:30
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 7 28 29 30 31 32
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33 34 35 36 7 38 39 40 41 42 3 44 45 46
8:39
7 48 49 50 2 53 54 5 56 57 58 59 60 61
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62 63 64 65 66 6 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75
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76 7 78 79 80 81 2 83 84 85 6 7 8 9 90
8:53
91 2 93 94 5 96 97 98 99
9:00
100 and hopefully we've been nice and
9:02
hot for the last few strides so
9:05
obviously you saw the same thing that I
9:07
did in that while the audio was starting
9:09
to to kind of cut out and not be uh
9:12
Flawless in terms of the transmission it
9:14
still was transmitting just imperfectly
9:18
even at the 100 meter mark and it was
9:20
still synced up and so very importantly
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when I made that turn and it had a line
9:23
of sight once again uh the audio was
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immediately there and and very very good
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and so so while I have used other
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systems that claim higher uh ratings
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than that in terms of the range I would
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say that this performs as well or better
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of anything that I have tested and so in
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this sense I would say that they were
9:42
more conservative not just doing the
9:44
range for marketing but it really did
9:45
back it up and I think it worked within
9:47
that real range scenario particularly
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obviously when you have line of sight
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which is the way all of these are tested
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so let's talk about some things that I
9:55
like I really do like the next level
9:57
compact packaging and so compared to
9:59
some other type systems this packaging
10:01
is even smaller the charging case is
10:03
about the size of what I'll often see
10:05
for something like Bluetooth buds so
10:07
really really Compact and it uses the
10:09
space well inside there's not any kind
10:12
of wasted space all good on that front I
10:15
also like the uh integration of the clip
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SL magnetic attachment magnetic is is
10:21
good and strong the clip works fine as
10:23
well so you have some varied options
10:25
there depending on what you're going to
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connect to if you have you know
10:28
something like this where you could clip
10:30
on fine but if you're wearing like a
10:31
t-shirt for example something like that
10:33
is going to be a much better solution in
10:35
this case I would say that the piano
10:37
black finish looks nice in this
10:39
application I haven't used it long term
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so I can't tell you how well it's going
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to hold up as far as that finish but so
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far my initial impressions are very good
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I also appreciate on the receiver itself
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that there are two green indicator
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lights one for each one of the
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transmitters and they are bright and
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they're easy to see and so it is nice so
10:58
you can tell which one of the is synced
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and make sure that you're having a
11:02
stable connection there the materials
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themselves are soft touch they feel nice
11:07
I noted that even on the um in this case
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on the back of the magnetic portion that
11:14
it is really really nicely executed it's
11:16
a nice soft touch material the magnetic
11:19
attachment into the charge case is very
11:22
definite it's well executed so you're
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never going to have to worry about not
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having a not having a stable connection
11:28
uh for the actual charging process so I
11:30
appreciate that I have seen as noted
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higher ratings for the working distance
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but I haven't really seen better
11:37
performance so I was actually impressed
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that even with my back to it and walking
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away from even though it's having to go
11:44
through my body that the fact that it
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kept a connection even if it was an
11:48
imperfect connection uh is actually
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better than what I've previously seen
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testing a lot of these systems before I
11:54
also found that I actually quite like
11:56
the road capture software and as I've
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shown in a couple of these clips
12:00
actually enjoy having the picture and
12:02
picture option which could be very
12:04
useful for you know something like what
12:06
I'm doing where a lot of times I'm
12:07
wanting to both show you my face as I
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explain something but then also show you
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what it is that I'm actually you know
12:13
maybe testing or working on so something
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that I probably will make use of in the
12:18
future how about some things that I
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don't like I would have liked to have
12:22
had an option to have both lightning and
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USBC adapters in the kit itself my
12:28
iPhone 14
12:29
uses a lightning connection at this
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point but starting at iPhone 15 I know
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that they know that they switch to USBC
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furthermore my iPad here it uses USBC as
12:39
well and so right now I'm stuck with
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something that works on my phone but
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won't work on my tablet works on my
12:45
current phone but probably won't work on
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my next phone that I get early next year
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so I there are other solutions that I've
12:53
seen that you know enable you to have
12:55
both connectors within one box now you
12:57
can buy an adapter OB viously to
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probably make that work but anyway it's
13:01
not a great configuration second thing
13:04
that I didn't like is that I actually
13:05
had to remove my standard uh phone case
13:09
which is a peak design case uh that I
13:11
have on my phone all the time but as you
13:13
can see here I wasn't able to actually
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seat the connector into the phone using
13:18
my standard case so as a byproduct you
13:20
know no joy when it comes to actually
13:22
connecting for audio so I had to remove
13:24
the case to use that some competing um
13:28
package packages will have a built-in
13:30
recording option which is nice to have
13:33
as a backup and then so there is no such
13:35
thing here I also have noted that there
13:38
are some other competitors for example
13:40
from Hol land this is the main mic
13:43
system that I use which is the lar M2
13:45
and so it's got receiver for a the
13:49
phone here but it's also got the
13:51
receiver for a camera that I can connect
13:53
into a camera and so it's kind of two
13:56
systems in one whereas this road is only
13:58
one specific application and that is
14:00
just mobile so I can't use it on my
14:02
camera at all if I was able to use both
14:04
of those things I would actually really
14:05
love this particular package even more
14:09
so my conclusion is this this is not the
14:11
cheapest option on the market at 149 us
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but it does feel very well executed I
14:17
feel like the audio mix is good right
14:19
out of the box it is truly plug-and
14:21
playay it does feel a little bit better
14:23
made than some of the cheaper
14:24
competition just nicer feeling materials
14:27
and so a little less plasticky a little
14:29
more substantial feeling overall now
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it's not going to be the best option
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perhaps if you have mixed connectors in
14:36
what I've described and that you need
14:37
both USBC and then also lightning
14:40
because of multiple devices so there
14:42
might be an option that works better for
14:43
you in that regard and that is a step
14:45
that I would like to see Road take to
14:47
improve things my final word on this is
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I would say that there is nothing
14:52
revolutionary here no like killer
14:55
feature that I haven't seen previously
14:57
on other packages but it does feel like
14:59
the overall package is a little bit
15:01
better executed than some of the options
15:03
I've seen before so let's just say put
15:05
it this way it does the same thing as
15:07
what competitors do but it seems to do
15:09
it just a little bit better and so if
15:11
you're looking for you're not thrilled
15:13
about buying from kind of some of the
15:15
Lesser Brands and you want a more
15:17
established Audio company like Road
15:19
that's been around for a long time then
15:22
you can definitely check out the road
15:24
Wireless
15:25
micro microphone system it works really
15:28
cool and if your application is
15:30
recording from a mobile device it'll be
15:32
perfect for you I'm Dustin Abbott if you
15:34
want more information you can check out
15:36
the links in the description down below
15:38
either to my own website but then also
15:40
some buying links if you'd like to
15:41
purchase one for yourself as always
15:43
thanks for watching have a great day and
15:45
let the light in
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