by Today’s iOS devices include mono microphones that are good enough for general-purpose recording—making voice and video calls, capturing audio notes, and identifying tunes with Soundhound. But they’re not ideal for situations where you need higher-quality audio, such as when recording podcasts, lectures, or musical performances. In such situations, an external microphone is the way to go, and Zoom’s $125 iQ5 Professional Stereo Microphone captures good sounding stereo audio.
The design
The iQ5 is a Lightning-connector microphone, which means that it’s compatible with the iPhone 5 and later, the 5th-generation iPod touch, the 4th-generation and later iPad, and all iPad mini models. It comes from the same company that makes the well regarded H5 Four-Track Portable Recorder, and you can see the similarities in the design of the iQ5 as well as the free HandyRecorder app that works with it. However, unlike with the H5, which has two crossed microphones, the iQ5 bears a single perforated ball that contains the two microphone capsules. The ball sits atop the main unit, which hosts controls for adjusting mic gain and the width of the stereo field.
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