DPA Microphones - 6061 CORE Subminiature Loud SPL Lavalier Microphone

DPA 6061 hidden in the hair. Alternatively PCC 160s on the floor.

The COS-11 is a great choice, a good balance between sound quality and robust build quality. If you are patient you can find deals on lightly used ones on the Facebook sound groups. The DPA 6060 or 6061 is arguably the best sounding lav mic and easier to hide, but they are a bit more fragile at the head and definitely more expensive. If it breaks at the head, that's it. That said, I use exclusively DPA 6061. If they break on the job it's L&D and the company takes care of it. They are also fantastic for hair mics and to hide in hats.

At this level of gear it’s not really an “across the board best” situation. In my opinion the best sounding lavs are the DPA 6060 and 6061 but they’re not as sturdy as the Cos-11. The Cos 11 sounds good, especially on male voices and is a very durable mic. Also the support from these companies is better than a prosumer company like Deity or Rode so that’s another factor.

To some degree, if you physically **wear** a lavalier and keep it close to your mouth, it will eliminate a lot of the room from the sound. The trick is you have more potential for mic noise if you bump it or the cable in use. There's an art to placing lav mics carefully on people (as is done everyday in film & TV). There are great condensor lavs like the Sanken COS-11, the DPA 6000 & 4000 series, the Sennheiser MKE series, and the Countryman B6.

So You asked for “The Best”. For the life of Me I can’t understand why people name drop Sanken Cos-11. It will do the job. Way overrated? Absolutely. I’d go with DPA 6060 - 6061 with CORE+. They have High SPL and are super clean. I run mostly with Neumann shotguns and I’ve actually had editors say they were confused because the DPA’s sounded as good! (In several cases) Mic placement is going to be everything. If You have the budget, double micing in two different places on the body may be benificial in case of rustling etc. If You can record 32 bit, also helpful for screamers or soft spoken actors. Hope that helps!

I also find this to be true, mixing lavs and booms is one of the most important things to get right. Dpa6060/61 and schoeps mk41 mix together extremely well.

Lectrosonics system with DPA 6060s or 6061s depending on how dynamic the dialog will be.

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.