First Impressions & Audio Samples of the Purple Panda Lav Mic Kit

I heard about this inexpensive lavalier mic and decided to give it a try as I occasionally do on-location recordings and interviews for some of the podcasts on my network and I am always interested in ways to get good clean audio. The Purple Panda Lav Mic Kit looked like an affordable option for this purpose. It came to about $24 with shipping for the kit.

Here's how it was advertised:

The product arrived inside a simple bubblewrap lined manila envelope. I would have liked to see it in a box to protect it, but so far my unit seems to have survived the postal service without damage.

Here is what I received:

Contents: The velvet pouch, lav mic with a decent length of cord (didn't measure, but guessing at least 3 ft.), additional extension cable (about 10 ft.), TRS adapter for digital recorders, adapter for DSLR cameras, an extra mic clip, and a mini dead cat windscreen in addition to the foam one that comes installed on the mic, instructions for which cables to use for different devices.

I recorded a couple of quick tests with my smartphone and with my Roland R-05 digital audio recorder. The following are two tests recorded in a room in my house that is not sound treated and is quite reverberant and since this mic is a condenser it picks up lots of room tone. There is no processing on this audio at all.

Unprocessed Audio recorded with Smartphone - Large Room

Unprocessed Audio Recorded with Digital Recorder - Large Room

Then I went into a smaller room and recorded a test there; also unprocessed.

Next, I took the mic outside to record see how it handled recording my voice while there was outdoor ambiance in the background. This audio was recorded with my LG smartphone.

And finally, in case you wished to hear the first three tests after I did some noise reduction and ran some EQ and compression, here you go.

All things considered, I think this mic is a good value and it seems to be of solid build quality. The audio I got from it seemed very good considering the environments which I was recording in. It is definitely worth checking out.

Well, there you are. My first impressions and a couple quick audio tests of the Purple Panda Lav Mic Kit. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments.

You can grab this kit on Amazon through my affiliate link if you wish. If not, you can purchase directly from Purple Panda at this link.

Adios!