DPA Microphones - 4062 CORE Omni Miniature Lavalier Microphone

As mentioned elsewhere, DPA probably gets the title of “best sound”. I have 12 (8 406x and 4 606x). Cos-11D sounds great, and from my understanding, is touted for its ubiquity. It’s not the most expensive lav. The capsule itself is small enough (in the direction that you want it to be). It’s not the absolute most durable, but will outlast most DPA’s. It hits a sweet spot of price:build:sound. People like the accessories.

I use both Sanken and DPA. I find that DPA sounds more natural, but to my ear gets a touch dark if somebody has a deep voice, while the Sankin “pops” voices out a bit more, though can be slightly sibilant if somebody has a higher pitched thin voice. However, I’ve had a couple of DPAs go DOA on me now, but have some Sankens that are a decade or more old and most are still working! (and when it was time to get a couple new lavs, I went with Sanken instead of DPA. One of my DPAs now has intermittent problems, and another one was ruled to be non-repairable).

DPA LAVs are stellar for this type of stuff. However, you’re gonna shell out some money for em. (Lol - I know not the answer you’re looking for)

As others said, it could be sounding bad inside the mask, and it could feedback if you have loud monitoring. That said, as others said, DPA lavs. You can wire them to a preamp or to a tx, they have models that sustain huge amounts of SPL, they have been used for decades hidden on talents, in the hair, on the chest, in a hat, they're tiny and sound surprisingly good.

In my limited experience, if it’s that long a shot (a hundred feet is quite a distance), lip sync isn’t an issue, and the sound is usually taken as a guide at best - with the actual dialogue either being wild tracks, or using the real dialog from the individual closer angles. If you do want proper audio takes of it, and decent wireless system will work - even the much maligned Sennheiser G4, but certainly anything like “proper” PSC radio kit from Lectro or Wisy. What’s the best lav mic? DPA. Do you really “need” DPA? Maybe. But all the common choices from Sony, Sanken, and Sennheiser work well.

I agree. In comparison to 4061 and 6061 the Cos11 don't really hold up. I think they work great on deep male voices but fall short on female actors and sibilants... DPAs are so much closer to the boom sound! The only downside is they can be a little bit harder to get rustle-free.

I terminate and repair mics as a side gig. DPA’s definitely sound better and I’ve started using them as my main mics now. The external shell is much better than Sankens. I find the shell of sankens deteriorates pretty badly eventually and that doesn’t seem to happen with DPA’s. That being said, the internal cabling of DPA’s is a lot more brittle than sankens and I’m finding myself repairing a lot more DPA’s than I ever did sankens. I’ve also chocked it down to the fact that everything is moving over to lemo 3 pin connectors and they’re just not as sturdy as the old TA5’s and their strain relief is no where near as good.