The JOBY Wavo Air is a fully featured wireless microphone system that’s ideal for content creators
- Manufacturer: JOBY
- Model: Wavo Air
- Type: 2.4 GHz Wireless microphone system
- Platforms: PC, Mobile, Camera
- Price: £219.95 MSRP
- Reviewed on: PC, Mobile, Camera
- Supplied by: JOBY
JOBY Wavo Air Review
Hey, it’s OMA Monster with TGA and today we’re checking out the JOBY Wavo Air.
The JOBY Wavo Air is a wireless microphone system that is not only compatible with cameras but also with phones and, with the right attachments, even a GoPro. It’s a pretty awesome option for content creators in general. I’ve been using it for about a month and I’ve kind of fallen in love with it. It’s honestly one of the most useful and easy-to-use Systems I’ve ever used. You get quite a few accessories with the JOBY: you get two transmitters, one receiver, a couple of clips, a Gorilla Pod mount, two wind jammers, and really nicely included, two lapel (lavalier) mics. I love that these are included because I feel like if you’re buying a wireless microphone system, especially one that has two transmitters, a big part of that is probably so you can do interview-style content or dual personal content and these always look professional.
Taking a look at the receivers and transmitters, they’re quite big for what they are; I’ve used a couple of competitors and they’re a little bit smaller. The JOBY is definitely a little bit on the plasticky side, too, and depending on what you like, this might be a little bit red and vibrant and stand-outish, but it hasn’t really been an issue. I quite like them, they still feel really solid. They’ve survived going to the beach with me, they’ve survived being carried around in a little case and I really do love the mounting system how any accessory can just click onto the back and you can snap it off quite easily. It has a little clip that I find quite genius just in the fact that it’s half a clip and you pop it on and the actual JOBY becomes the other half of the clip.
There are some instructions in there on how to wire this so that it tucks down your top and sits there quite neatly, but I could not figure out how you are meant to do it. I know that some of the others I’ve used have actually got a little loop on the end where your wire’s meant to go, but this one doesn’t, so when you are clipping on you’ve just got to be careful that you don’t accidentally clip the wire inside of those little teeth.
In my experience, this little lapel mic doesn’t sound as good as the stock transmitter which is a real shame. It’s a really nice little lapel, but I wish it sounded just a little bit better. There’s no reason you couldn’t buy a better quality lapel mic if necessary, but even so, I still appreciate that these come included with the kit.
The transmitter so far has been a fantastic microphone, and the Wavo Air comes with two transmitters as stock and these don’t seem to have increased the price in comparison with other microphone systems too much. It’s well worth it just in case you do want something a little bit cleaner and you could work on the audio in post-production and make it sound a hell of a lot better than it does stock. (Video was recorded with raw, unedited audio to give you an accurate idea of how the JOBY Wavo Air sounds.)
The most common camera on the planet is the mobile phone in your pocket and luckily JOBY comes fully equipped to work with them. The Wavo Air comes packaged with a TRS to TRS cable which is for use with your cameras and stuff like that, and it also comes with a TRRS to TRS cable which is what you need if you are connecting to a phone or even most computers. Depending on your mobile phone you may need an adaptor to connect it, either to a lightning or USB-C port if you don’t have a microphone jack built in.
After listening to the recordings on my comparison devices, I’m confident that the JOBY transmitter is my personal favourite overall. The lapel mic doesn’t sound as bad as I remember – but it takes a little bit of messing with to optimise the sound. The JOBY transmitters do have volume controls on the side so you can adjust the gain, and I think I might have had the gain a little bit too high the last few times I tried the lapel mic, but it still doesn’t sound as good as the transmitter mics do. The lapel mic sounds a bit more warm and bassy and a little bit more muffled, and the transmitter mics sound just a little bit more natural to my ear.
If you watched the video and heard the audio from the GoPro media mod, you can kind of hear my issue with it and why I was drawn toward a new mic system that I could use across everything. With the media mod, as you move it around you can hear the audio change and it’s not consistent, and that bugs me. With the JOBY, I can turn away from the camera and pretty much move around the room and move away and it doesn’t change the audio, it’s right here on me in the perfect position all the time. I’ve been using the magnetic mount so I can easily position it where I want it and it will stay there. Of course, if you’re using the lapel mic you just plug it in and clip the module to your belt, your trousers, or to your pocket (or anywhere), then run the lapel cable up your T-shirt and it’s right where it needs to be.
I have loved every second of using the JOBY, and I cannot complain, I can’t think of a single thing that I don’t like. Obviously, the lapel mic, I would have liked it to have been better but at the same time, the lapel is very easily replaceable. It’s the one piece in this whole bundle that is not completely unique to the JOBY, so you could use any lapel mic and plug it in and it will work.
The transmitter mics are not interchangeable, as they are the main part of the mic system. As they are the key part of the system, having them produce the best audio is probably the best move. The fact that they come with everything you’re going to need is great, like the little wind jammer if you need it, and different attachment methods like the Gorilla Pod attachment (because it is JOBY at the end of the day, so they’re gonna support their own products).
The Wavo Air is packed straight out of the box, and it comes with pretty much everything you need. I have to give them credit for some of the stuff because a lot of companies don’t include a cable for separate connections. I have another microphone from another company that I definitely won’t be using anymore, but they did not include a cable for it to work with my phone, which was my main recording method at the time, and they charge an obscene amount for the cable. The JOBY came with this cable for my phone and it’s very nicely labeledl ‘smartphone’. Of course, you get the two lapel mics, and two clip attachments – there’s so much included, so much value, that it’s hard to argue with.
It’s really hard for me to say there is more that I want, but I would like them to release an official storage solution because the included box is an excellent way of keeping it all safe and organized. When you’ve got a camera to carry around, when you’ve got a GoPro and accessories to carry around, when you’ve got a million and one tripods and different attachments to carry around, and then you’ve got a mic system to carry around, a bespoke solution for travel that’s smaller than the original box would be extremely useful.
Despite my hesitancy about the lapel mics, it’s hard to criticise JOBY. A lot of companies wouldn’t include them, and often they’ll only include one receiver and one transmitter, so you’d have to buy additional transmitters separately, so props to JOBY for providing two transmitters and two lapels. But, I’d love it if I could buy a second set of the magnetic pendant and the attachment for the back of the JOBY, as I’d prefer to use this for interview content rather than the lapel microphones.
JOBY sells an attachment pack that comes with a little velcro strap that attaches either to the transmitter or to the microphone, and a little velcro pad and attachment for the back of the microphone that you can attach to the back of your phone, and then you can velcro the mic on and off. It also has a ball joint attachment which is quite nice – they’re not necessities but it’s just welcome extras. Realistically, everything you really need is included in the stock package, but those are the kinds of extras available if you really want to go to that extent. The one thing I do like is that the accessory pack comes with a little plate that you can mount all your attachments on. It’s an awesome idea and I think I might buy the package just because of that little mounting system so I could have it clipped up on my pegboard.
Once again, I have zero complaints and I am in love with this little mic system, I think they’re fantastic. If I was really going to nitpick I would maybe say include two of the little dangly magnetic pendants, or at least sell them separately so that we can use them, and I would maybe say if it was at all possible to make the red accent parts replaceable, or even just make little covers that we can put on these so that you can have them in all black or maybe change the color co-ordination to fit your branding. Some microphones out there use little coloured tabs to differentiate them, so if you’re doing a shoot and one of them needs to be adjusted independently from the rest, you can have a little color on there so it indicates whose mic is whose.
Summary
Overall, I can’t recommend the JOBY enough, it has been fantastic. I love it to pieces, and it is going to be my main microphone for recording. I want to say a massive thank you to JOBY for providing us with this kit and allowing us to review it. It’s been phenomenal and we appreciate it.
If you watch the video, at the end I’ve made some minor corrections in Premiere so you’ll be able to get a vague idea of what you can achieve in terms of editing because I’d assume that no one’s gonna use the output raw, but even if you do, the rest of the video hopefully shows that even without editing the audio is pretty damn good.
I hope you guys found the video and review helpful!
