Review: Hollyland Lark M1 is the wireless interview microphone

With the increasingly digital world, workers from different fronts are starting to look for equipment that will facilitate their jobs. For content creators looking for a microphone that can be used with their cell phone and that has good audio quality.

On this front, Showmetech had the opportunity to experience the Hollyland Lark M1, a kit of wireless microphones that connect to smartphones and seek to provide a more complete experience for users who want quality in the audio of their content. If you do interviews, record podcasts or make vlogs, check out our review below:

Design

Speaking of the design, the kit is very beautiful and effective. The two wireless microphones are compact, weigh about 12 grams, and have small clips to be attached to the user's clothing – in addition to small LEDs that indicate when it is paired with the smartphone.

Weighing only 12 grams is a big advantage. Heavy microphones can make your clothes messy and with the Lark M1 this doesn't happen, you can barely feel it on your shirt.

On the front of the charging case, four small lights show the current charge of the microphones. On the receiver, three buttons, one to activate mono mode, another for stereo and the last one controlling active noise cancellation, are located next to the USB Type-C input used for charging the device outside the case, if necessary – you will. forgot her somewhere, huh.

In the charging case, also compact and with an attractive black and yellow look, a small receiver is also included which, using a cable, is connected to the smartphone and is close to the device's camera, receiving and recording the audio captured by the microphones. 

Still talking about the case, it is one of the main differentials when compared to other models that don't have the practicality of putting the microphones and the receiver in a case to carry everything at once. Plus point for the equipment!

The audio receiver, by the way, is connected to the smartphone via a cable – which right out of the box is made for 3.5mm inputs, which is not available on some smartphones anymore, such as the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S22, which makes that the user has to look for an adapter to use the device – something that, honestly, should be included in the box.

Installation and use

Installing the kit on the smartphone is very simple: the user connects the receiver to the cell phone with the cable, which then starts flashing lights indicating the pairing, and when they stay steady it means that the device is already working. The microphones, in turn, do not need any initial configuration, starting their activities as soon as they detect the connection of the receiver.

The device's automatic connection process worked every time I tested it, and honestly helped make using the device more comfortable. As for the audio, the experience is also very interesting, although it requires configuration of the capture volume – whenever I recorded something directly from the initial connection, the volume of the content was very low.

At the same time, as much as the buttons can change the capture to mono or stereo, the audio capture settings will have a lot of variation from the recording application used on the cell phone. In the case of my S20 FE, using Samsung's default, there wasn't much I could edit natively, although the results were still very satisfying.

Active noise cancellation is also present in the device, and honestly it was the part that I had the most problems with. Being activated by pressing a button on the receiver, the truth is that it can sometimes confuse the voice with ambient noises, especially in places with a lot of echo, and change the quality of the capture, which in general it is excellent taking away those little moments. The problem could easily be solved with a tweak of the function, but no voice recording application that has this kind of possibility has had results, showing that the hollyland left this function as something fixed on the device - but it's a minor issue, and it won't affect users much.

A warning, however, for those who want to hear the capture in which it occurs, it is necessary to have a headset connected to the smartphone, since the Hollyland Lark 1 kit does not have functions for this type of feedback.

Finally, for those who are concerned about the operating distance: in my tests, a distance from about 150 meters started to give small breaks in the audio, but not enough to render the devices unusable. More than 200 meters, however, is the limit, with the device no longer receiving audio from microphones at distances greater than that.

And frankly, 150 meters is more than enough for the audience this device is intended for. Don't forget that there are 150 meters in a straight line with no obstacles between the microphone and the receiver. As for battery life, 8 hours of use are quoted by the manufacturer, and in tests the time really proved to be this.

Conclusion

I was very satisfied with the results that the Hollyland Lark M1 presented me during the tests. Being a device with a specific niche of use, it needs to stand out in order to have good results – and the reality is that it does just that.

Of course some issues are present, but overall the experience was fantastic and served its purpose. The recommendation, then, for those who need to capture audio interviews in the day-to-day rush, is positive, with the certainty that the device will not let you down.

The Hollyland Lark M1 can be purchased for R$ 1.300 in Americanas.

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