The Rode Wireless Pro has been the king of 32-bit compact wireless mics for a couple of years now. But with the brand new DJI Mic 3 and Hollyland’s Lark Max 2 bringing some genuinely unique features to the competition, the Rode suddenly feels kind of basic. So, the real question isn’t which mic system is the best overall. In this article, I’ll compare the DJI Mic 3 vs Rode Wireless Pro vs Hollyland Lark Max 2.
What’s Included in Each Kit
DJI Mic 3 Accessories
Starting with the DJI Mic 3, you get a travel pouch, charging case, two transmitters, one receiver, four windscreens (a gray set and a black set), a USB-C cable, and a short 3.5mm coiled cable. After years of me complaining, we finally got a coiled cable! You also get two magnets, two magnetic rotating clips, a USB-C adapter, and a lightning adapter. You also have available a Sony hot shoe adapter, which is sold separately.
Rode Wireless Pro Accessories
When it comes to the infamous Rode Wireless Pro, you get a charging case, an accessory case, two transmitters, one receiver, USB-C to USB-C cable, USB-C to lightning cable, a 3.5mm coiled cable, a USB-C data/charging cable, three windscreens, two pro lavalier microphones that are locking on that jack, two lavalier windscreens, magnetic support, and lavalier labels. A ton of accessories with that system, but honestly, it’s nothing compared to the Hollyland.
Hollyland Lark Max 2 Accessories
I’m going to be addressing the combo that comes with the wireless monitoring kit just because that’s the one that I’ve been using and testing. With the Hollyland Lark Max 2, you get a travel pouch, a charging case, two transmitters, one receiver, a USB-C mobile adapter that’s independent, a USB-C charging cable, two 3.5mm coiled cables (a short coiled cable and a long coiled cable shout out to them, I really like that), a USB-C to lightning cable, two magnets, two lavalier microphones, two windscreens for the transmitter, two windscreens for the lavalier, and then two very unique USB-C to 3.5mm adapters to get that lavalier support.
Pricing
Each of these systems ranges in price quite a bit. The brand new DJI Mic 3 is going to run you $329 for the two transmitter kit. The Rode Wireless Pro is $399, but I have seen this on sale multiple times for $319, $350. it’s all over the place. Wait for those sales to pop up and get it a little bit cheaper. The Hollyland Lark Max 2 without the wireless earphone kit is going to be $249, and with the kit, it’s going to be $279.
Design and Build Quality
Rode Wireless Pro
The charging case of the Rode Wireless Pro when it first came out actually impressed me a lot. I really like the zipper combination that happens. It feels durable, has a grippy texture around it, and holds your transmitters and receiver with the magnetic support and the windscreens on it. But honestly, a charging case is really simple. You’ve got a USB-C port on the back.
Now, the accessory case really annoyed me for a long time. You kind of just shoved everything into it. It’s the same shape and size as the charging case. So I actually switched from this to these cord bag pouches. Now, I know that this is much larger, but it’s more convenient in my opinion. This fits in a Pelican case much nicer. I’ve been a big fan of this thing and really enjoy them. If you’re interested, I’ll leave a link to these in the description.
The Rode transmitter is the biggest of the bunch here and the heaviest of the bunch, but definitely has some more pro features that we’ll talk about. It’s got a reflective glossy finish with a discrete little Rode logo on the front. It also has a 3.5mm jack for the lavalier microphone, which is locking. It’s got a USB-C port on the side, as well as a record and link button on the top and a custom button on the bottom.
The receiver is basically an identical design to the transmitter, except there’s no lavalier port and there’s a little screen on the front. It is a pretty small screen and it’s not touchscreen but you do have a custom button on the bottom to add markers, and then you’ve got a USB-C on the side as well as a 3.5mm input. There’s no headphone jack in here, so you can’t monitor your audio with just the receiver. You also have a gain and channel button on the top and a link button, as well as a clip on the back that also works as your hot shoe insert for putting this on a camera.
DJI Mic 3
The case of the DJI Mic 3 is a little bit smaller than the Mic 2 and a little bit bigger than the Mic Mini, but it’s the same design. It’s got that locking port on the front and holds everything that you need inside of it, including the magnets, the windscreens, the USB-C adapter, even the 3.5mm cable. This will hold everything that you need. Even the extra windscreens you can shove into the top of here and close it, and it’ll all fit. It does have USB-C on the back, which is now supported to transfer files on the computer.
The transmitter itself has an updated matte black finish on the front, but you still have that big DJI white logo on there. It’s not much bigger than the DJI Mic Mini. It’s honestly very similar in size to it, even though it has a lot more capabilities to it, and it has 32-bit internal recording. The mic capsule is on top of the transmitter and has an updated windscreen attachment similar to the Mic Mini, but now it just clips into the two little brackets on the top. It’s got a record button on the side, a link button on the side, and then you’ve got the charging tabs on the bottom.
The DJI Mic 3 receiver has an OLED touchscreen on the front of it. This is a really similar design to the DJI Mic 2, but the touchscreen feels really responsive. It also has an updated locking 3.5mm jack so it doesn’t slip out accidentally. The receiver also has a cold shoe clip on the bottom as well as a USB-C port, a headphone jack, and there’s also a power and back button on the side. So when you’re navigating the menu, instead of just swiping to go back, you can just use that button and it’ll take you back to the previous page.
Hollyland Lark Max 2
Per Hollyland Lark Max 2, you get every accessory under the sun. The pouch is now kind of an updated DJI Mic 3 idea. You’ve got your charging case, which slips into the side, as well as your wireless monitoring system, and then you have all of your accessories shoved into the other side. Now, the charging case of the Hollyland has a USB-C port on the back, which is not computer capable. This is just for charging.
Even though there’s a ton of accessories with this system, you can’t fit them all in the case like the other two, right? Even with the Rode Wireless Pro, you can still fit the magnets, the windscreens, and even the 3.5mm cable you can shove in there if you want to. With the Hollyland, you’re just fitting the transmitters and the receiver. You cannot fit the magnets with the transmitters.
The transmitter itself has kind of a tall, skinny design to it, kind of feels like a USB stick. But out of all the microphones, I think this is the most discrete of the bunch. This is kind of what we wanted from the other two brands. We just want a matte finish with a matte logo and be done with it, right? Hollyland’s been pretty good about that type of design. The windscreen has that nice clip-on design, so they’ve definitely done some updates there. But the magnetic support is similar to the Rode Wireless Pro where you slip it onto the clip and then the magnet just goes on top.
The transmitter itself has two buttons: a record button, a denoise, and a power button. Then you also have a USB-C port on the bottom, which has a unique solution to the 3.5mm problem. Again, people complained that there was no 3.5mm support with the Hollyland system when it first got launched. So they came out with a solution this little adapter. It’s a USB-C adapter that slides into the bottom of the USB-C, and now you have 3.5mm support on here. Really, really cool of Hollyland to listen to their audience and give this USB-C adapter after the fact. And it works great.he receiver itself is really similar to the DJI system.
You have a little wheel on the left side, a home button on the right side, and then you’ve got that OLED screen to navigate the menus and settings and stuff like that. You’ve got a 3.5mm camera out on the left side, as well as a headphone out on the right side. And then you have a power and locking button on that right side as well, and a USB-C port on the back. And then you’ve got a cold shoe slide on the bottom that is not a clip. But then per Hollyland fashion, you do have an independent receiver for smartphones, laptops, stuff like that that is USB-C capable.
Computer Connectivity and Apps
Let’s move on to computers. We’re going to start with the Rode because I think it’s the best of the bunch. The Rode Wireless Pro has the Rode Central app that you can download to your laptop, desktop, your iPhone, your tablets, and you can connect your transmitters independently with the USB-C or you can connect them through the case. When you plug it into the computer, both transmitters pop up immediately and you’re able to transfer files directly from there. Or you can open up the Rode Central app and navigate your system like that. You can transfer files, you can download files, you can change effects and settings and things.
The one downside is that a lot of the settings to change within the system are really easy to navigate and change in the Rode Central app, but as soon as you get away from that, the transmitter is a little bit lacking when it comes to changing settings. You can change the gain, you can change a couple of settings, but that’s about it.
Now Hollyland does have their mobile app, which is Lark Sound, where you can manage all the different settings, and you can plug in your mobile receiver and you can change the settings on that as well, and you can connect to the wireless monitors with it, but there’s not a desktop app as far as I know. Now, the mobile app is really good, and it’s really awesome for changing settings. It’s simple, it’s to the point, it’s reliable.
Similar to the Hollyland, the DJI Mic 3 also has the DJI Mimo app, and that’s where you’ll manage everything in there. You can use the USB-C adapter to connect the receiver to the app. And then connecting to the computer, you just plug in the USB-C cable to the case and it will pop up as a window just like the Rode Wireless Pro and the Hollyland.
The one thing I will note is I have had some situations where the receiver just doesn’t show up. Like it just won’t pop up as a window. So then I have to unplug it, plug it back in, and then sometimes I even have to open the case and then it will pop up as a window. Those errors are few and far between, but it has happened to me a few times. I think it’s worth mentioning.
Unique Features
Before we move on to the raw and mixed audio tests, all three of these systems have some really unique features that make them good for different scenarios, and I want to make sure I address that.
DJI Mic 3 Unique Features
The DJI Mic 3 also supports group recording. So you’ve got four transmitters and up to eight receivers that you can work with this system. So you can do some really, really cool multi-cam recording for podcasting and other stuff like that.
It also supports quad recording. That basically means that you can record four independent audio track outputs with Sony cameras. So using the Sony hot shoe adapter, it will record four different audio tracks for you that you can then sync up in post if you’re recording directly into the camera. I haven’t used this feature because I haven’t done a lot of multi-cam recording in my testing, but it’s really cool. You also have lossless 24-bit audio into the camera that’s 48 kHz.
Now, the biggest differentiator between the Mic 3 and these other two systems is going to be the DJI Osmo audio support. So if you’re using any type of Osmo system, if you’re using their drones, you’re using the Pocket, you’re using 360, this is going to connect to that wirelessly. I always ask people when they’re asking me about wireless microphones, “Well, what are you using to record?” If they say any type of DJI system, I’m like, Get the DJI. That’s going to be the best system for you.
All three of these systems have timecode. The DJI is the only one that has timecode in and out, though. You have internal 32-bit float recording that does dual 32-bit float. Like I mentioned before, you have three voice tone presets: regular, bright, and rich. I’ve been recording this entire thing with the regular voice tone preset. I don’t hear a massive difference between these three settings, but they can help with not doing as much work in post.
You also have two levels of noise cancellation. A lot of these systems are coming out with this feature. It’s kind of what they’re trying to do to make it unique. I’m not a big fan of internal noise cancellation, I just would rather do it in post. That’s me personally. But the noise cancellation is nice. It has two different settings, so you can have a less dampened setting and then a more dampened setting.
Now, I know the major problem with the Mic 3 there’s no 3.5mm jack. Out of all these three systems, it is the only one that doesn’t have 3.5mm support. I get that that’s a major con for a lot of people and is the reason that a lot of people are calling this like the Mic Mini Pro rather than the Mic 3, because without that, it doesn’t feel as much of an update from the Mic 2.
Hollyland Lark Max 2 Unique Features
Now, the Hollyland Lark Max 2, even though it’s not the smallest of the bunch (that goes to the Mic 3), it is definitely the lightest at 13.5 grams. While the Hollyland does support up to four transmitters, it does not support the four independent audio tracks just like the Mic 3 does. But it does have timecode support and it has your 32-bit float internal recordings. It does have the smallest internal recording capacity at only 8GB, which is significantly less than these other two systems.
But it does have something really cool that I think in the future will be really innovative and awesome it has 32-bit full-chain audio recording, which essentially means that you can transfer your 32-bit float recordings not just internally, but also to the receiver if the camera has support for that. So some of the new Lumix cameras and some recorders are able to support that full-chain recording, but it definitely needs some work. There’s some kinks that need to be worked out with it. So I think it’s going to be really cool in the future, and I love that Hollyland is thinking about that.
This does also have your internal noise cancellation, but instead of just having two different settings that you can turn on and off, like a low and a high denoise setting, it’s actually a stepless noise cancellation system. So you can adjust your noise cancellation by decibel like per decibel. It’s just like a little slider on the receiver. You can adjust that and change your noise cancellation depending on the scenario. I think this is the best implementation of noise cancellation I’ve ever seen.
Rode Wireless Pro Unique Features
Now, the Rode, which feels like the most old school of the bunch, only has a two transmitter maximum with its system, but it does have 32GB of internal onboard recording. So you can record 32-bit audio up to 40 hours, just like the DJI Mic. Like, look how far we’ve come as far as technology same internal recording, but literally like three times the size. Blows my mind. That’s crazy.
You also have intelligent gain assist, which I forgot to mention on the Mic 3. The Mic 3 does have dynamic gain assist, which is very similar to the intelligent gain assist on the Rode. And like DJI with other DJI cameras, this does connect to like your Rodecaster Duo, your Rodecaster Pro, or like the Streamer X. There’s no internal noise cancellation or voice effects or stuff like that, but like I’ve already mentioned before, that hasn’t really affected me.
Battery Life
As far as battery life goes, the DJI Mic 3 will give you 28 hours of battery life. Again, insane small system, huge battery life. So that will give you 8 hours on each transmitter and 10 hours on the receiver per charge. Now the Hollyland brings an insane 36 hours of battery life. So it gives you 11 hours per transmitter and 12 hours on the receiver.
Now again, the Rode, feeling a little old school, only gives you 21 hours of battery life. So that’ll give you 7 hours per transmitter and 7 hours on the receiver per charge.
Raw Audio Comparison
In order to give you a baseline of how these microphones sound in their raw natural state, I will recite the same phrase with each of these microphones starting with the internal 32-bit float and then with the 24-bit recorded into my Sony A7 IV. By the way, we’re in my basement right now, which is not sound treated, but the insulation is still throughout the ceilings and it’s an unfinished basement, so there’s not too much room echo and honestly, it does a decent job of getting rid of some of that reverb.
So that’s what all three of these microphones sound like in their raw natural state, both in 32-bit float and 24-bit into the camera. I think all three of these microphones are on a pretty even playing field when it comes to audio quality. I personally don’t think that that is going to be a main deciding factor when it comes to purchasing these systems. I think there are other aspects to pay attention to that are going to make the decision for people. Each one does have their own unique sound signature, but at the end of the day, all three of them sound fantastic.
Which One Is Right for You?
Okay, so after this long video, you’ve listened to the raw versus mixed audio test. You’ve seen all the different capabilities for each of these systems. At the end of the day, it really only comes down to what you want.
Rode Wireless Pro
I think the Rode Wireless Pro is the most basic of the bunch. For the last two years, this has been my daily workhorse, not just for social media, but for documentary shoots, narrative work, and even some commercial work that I’ve done. It’s a capable system that provides great 32-bit float recording, an awesome app and computer interface, and the locking 3.5mm ports for lav mics. In my opinion, this system is meant for the pro young filmmakers and creators out there, but it lacks a lot of the new innovative features that maybe some of these other systems have.
Hollyland Lark Max 2
I feel like the Hollyland is a solid middle ground between these two systems, and I would honestly call it the bang-for-buck option. It’s got timecode, it’s got a USB-C port on the bottom, and some other pro features that make it great for some higher-end operations. But I also think the system has some new creator features, social media features that make it super awesome for plug-and-play.
First of all, you’ve got that independent USB-C receiver for smartphones and tablets. You’ve got noise cancellation and audio enhancement features for less time in post. I’m not a huge fan of the clip and magnet system that’s on here, but I think it’s good enough for the situation. And I’m also not the biggest fan of the fact that the case doesn’t hold any other accessories, but I guess that’s the trade-off for this being the most affordable of the bunch at $250. I think the wireless monitoring is cool, but the audio quality needs a serious improvement.
DJI Mic 3
Now, I personally think it’s clear who the DJI Mic 3 is for. But let me break it down. In my opinion, I think the biggest pro of the DJI Mic 3 and any of the DJI Mic systems for that matter is the DJI ecosystem. If you’re using any type of DJI camera consistently to make content the Action, the 360, the Osmo Pocket, get the DJI system. It doesn’t have to be the Mic 3, but just get a DJI system. It’s going to be so much more seamless to work with and is going to be the best option of the bunch.
If you need 32-bit recording, get the Mic 2 or get the Mic 3. If you want to be compact, get the Mic 3. I still love the Rode Wireless Pro for when I’m on set or need a system that will support pro filmmaker situations, but for just making YouTube content and social media content in order to maintain high quality and still use my DJI cameras and 32-bit float recording to capture more content faster.
Table of Contents
Article Summary
There is no single “best” microphone system only the best system for your specific needs. Your choice should be driven by your camera ecosystem, workflow requirements, budget, and the type of content you create. The DJI Mic 3 excels in the DJI ecosystem, the Rode Wireless Pro serves traditional filmmakers, and the Hollyland Lark Max 2 offers the most features per dollar spent.
Read More: DJI Mic 2 vs RODE Wireless Pro | A Comprehensive Comparison
