Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I spent countless hours testing this mic using an iPhone 3GS, iPhone 5S, iPod Touch 5G, and two $100 handheld digital field recorders (H1 and DR-40). I also used a cheap $15 Radioshack lav mic and my Apple EarPods headset mic to compare the smartLav+ against. Furthermore, to make sure I had all bases covered, I downloaded 5 different HD audio recording apps from the iTunes app store in addition to the recommended (but not included) Rode HD audio recording app ($5.99). These are my findings all summed up: The Rode smartLav+ has amazing build quality! Which is noteworthy but not surprising given the premium price. What is however surprising (and hugely disappointing) is that, after hours of testing, I found that the sound quality of the smartLav+ is at best only 10% better than the Apple EarPods' built in microphone. This Rode mic just does not live up to all the hype and it should realistically be priced at $20-$30... Sidenote 1: In terms of audio quality (especially background noise filtering/suppression), the cheap and flimsy $15 Radioshack lav mic easily has the smartLav+ beat... no contest whatsoever. I could record 20 minutes of audio with the smartLav+, spend an hour or two in post-production fixing it, and it still wouldn't sound half as good as the raw recording done by a flimsy RadioShack mic.............. Sidenote 2: Rode recommends you use their super special audio recording app which is not included in the purchase of the smartLav+ and costs $5.99 in the App store... Don't! It makes no difference. It's no better than any one of the HD audio recording apps that I tested including a few free ones. Sidenote 3: Knowing what I know now, I find it hard to believe that these 5 Star reviews are genuine... There is no way anyone who has actually used the smartLav+ could possibly think all that highly of it.