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 went through a lot trying to get what I needed out of this device. I included a video of me looping on the rc 505 right into the digital Dolby app (highly recommended) on my iPhone 7 for some end result reference. I wanted professional sounding audio sent out of all my gear (guitars, mics, loop pedal, etc) while recording video, as well as live social media posts. I started with the Smartrig II. This had some downfalls for what I was looking for. It shipped quickly when I paid an extra couple of bucks. Couple of days maybe. I ran into a few snags upon setting up. The biggest one, no real time headphone monitoring, which was an absolute must for me. The smartrig II only monitors processed sound after recording. Doesn’t fly for looping or a multi instrumentalist. Second, when using an iPhone auxiliary/headphone adapter to plug this baby into your phone, you have to have the actual Apple one or it won’t work. I also struggled with finding apps that would recognize my new mic setup, but this could’ve been alongside the other issues I was having. If you are wanting some apps that will in fact work, Dolby has a good one. Filmic Pro (costs around $20 I think). And I believe Mavis works as well. I like Dolby because it will allow you to make tons of adjustments to your recorded audio and it’s free. I set up a return and bought the Smartrig plus. Shipping was super quick again. This one was a bit more expensive but has some great added perks. Two inputs of course. But real time, in-ear monitoring 👏🏼 Alas. Both have the phantom power which works great. And they both have the option for DSLR (will update when I’ve tried it with my canon rebel t6). As for both devices, getting the gain set right, especially out of multiple inputs into a looper and out that into the Smartrig - little challenging. It took a lot of time to get it to stop hissing, or to get the loud crunch of overwhelming gain to mellow. A little goes a long way and it’s a fine line between not registering your sound or overdoing it. I had to record a sample video over and over again and make adjustments. So once you get it right, don’t touch it. This took hours. Be patient. Overall, this is exactly what I needed. Perhaps including that the cheaper version doesn’t allow real time monitoring in the future. Great product. This changes the game for getting good, simple, music/video performances on your phone. Again, be patient. It will work. And never stop creating ✌🏼

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.

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.

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.

I bought this and it failed after 2 days of use. The metal lead that touches one of the battery leads in the battery compartment broke when removing the battery - yes i have had plenty of experiences in removing batteries, so I don't think it was me. I bought the smartrig +Di after this failed, and it worked much better for the iphone, especially with not needing an extra connection to make it work with the lightning port. Also, these devices don't have pro-audio A/D converters - it sounds lifeless and dull compared to my audio soundcards (Motu, Craneborne) but it is a super simple process for bringing direct audio into the iphone. I think the prices are to high, but the Smartrig+Di works without failure for mobile filming when using external audio sources.

Edit May 2024: Still working perfectly. Edit April 2023: I've had it for over two years now and it works as well as the day I got it. Quite pleased. I paid thirty-five bucks for this unit; at the time of writing it's listed for twenty-five. I think even at 35 it was a great deal, especially compared to the cost of professional musician-type XLR audio interfaces. I have a powered mic on my desk, and I plug my headphones into this unit. Then I plug the Smartrig into my PC with a headset splitter type cable, and presto, mic and headphones both connected. The indicator lights make it easy to tell if your mic is hot or not. I prefer to flip the little switch on the front of the interface rather than fussing with on-screen mute buttons these days. The gain/"volume" knob is pretty nice too, lets you easily adjust how loud you come in. I know, you can adjust all of that through the operating system, but there's a big something to be said for having a tactile control right on your desk. Sound in and out both sound nice and clear. The rig did tend to chew through 9V batteries with extended use. I had to replace them every, maybe, four days? five days? with frequent use. You will probably want to get rechargeable batteries to use with it. Unfortunately, the commercial available "9V battery eliminator" kits that you can buy cheaply all seem to rely on the clip-style 9V connector. The SmartRig has spring contacts inside, so you can't use the snap-together clips. I don't mind voiding warranties, so I 3D printed a 9V-sized adapter that presses round head screws against the springs, so I could connect a 9V adapter to it.

This is awesome. I used this to record a video performance of acoustic guitar and vocals with a quality XLR condenser microphone. The difference compared to the onboard phone mic is remarkable. So why 3 stars? The headphone jack does not work at all. Bummer. I contacted the company I purchased it from they said I need to contact the manufacturer. I'm probably not going to bother returning it because I can still record with it but its annoying that it doesn't work completely as the headphone jack would be really helpful for microphone placement. Still this unit greatly improved the audio on my recordings. I would still recommend it.

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.