Sanken - COS-11D (XLR Terminated)

I find the DPA 4060 or 6060 as good as it gets, but the Cos-11 is a workhorse, something I’ve noticed with Cos is the black cable is the best, the grey and white tend to perish more easily, another aspect to consider is the mounting options, I think DPAs clips are better. Finally a midway option could be a Countryman, they sound good are robust and will fit DPA clips arguably better than the DPA mics themselves

Sorry I didn’t quite understand the question, do you mean which Cos-11 or which Countryman, is Cos-11 I meant to say that the black coloured mic, is more inherently robust than the white or grey, same mic same model but the black lasts longer, if talking about Countryman, then I’m talking about the B3, I think the B6 sounds more superior, but is less robust also it doesn’t handle water as well as the B6, hope that helps :)

Depends on your wireless system, some capsules require more power than others. You can't go wrong with Deity W.Lav Pro, Countryman B3 or a Sanken COS11-D, those will serve you a long time and they all sound good (specially the Sanken). Those capsules I mentioned start from 100 USD (without adapter) and they all work with consumer and prosumer wireless like the Røde and DJI, just make sure to get one with the right connector, if you have Sony wireless, you need a connector with the Sony spec (different wiring than Sennheiser and the rest of brand that use 3.5).

Personally, I use the W.Lav Pro for low budget stuff and I keep those as backups, for bigger projects I go with Sanken. The W.Lav Pro is really good for the price, has a small profile and is water resistant. The Sanken COS11-D is the workhorse of capsules, it sounds great and it can handle sweat and humid environments like a champ, it's bigger than the Deity or DPA, but it's really good. Most lavs can be helped with EQ, you can't go wrong with either, but Sanken has made a name and it's true and tested. If you can, rent or borrow one and listen to them side by side, nothing beats trusting your ears.

The Cos-11 is a good lav but to me it sounds too punchy and doesn't mix as well with a boom mic. It's also larger and the cable is thicker. Which can make it trickier to hide. The DPA 4060/6060 sound much more natural when mixed with boom mics. When I was working on Game of Thrones post specifically asked for 4060's from the beginning.

The best is DPA 6060, 4060 sounds better in my opinion, but 6060 has a smaller profile, but cos11d is a work horse for sure.

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).

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.

Sanken COS-11D is the industry standard for a number of reasons. Get it if you can afford it because you can't really go wrong. If money is tight get the Deity.

You can also buy them from some suppliers "as is" so it's just the lav itself and not all of the accessories. It's brings the cost down a decent amount. You can also buy used to save a few bucks!

Cos-11s are incredible mics for the price you buy them for. Yes, DPA6060 probably sounds better, but at twice the price, I find myself sticking with my Cos-11s for their durability. In general, the Cos-11s might not always be the *perfect* choice, but they will never ever be the wrong choice (outside of specialized uses like underwater/sports)

The best professional quality? That would be a current Lectrosonics, Zaxcom, Sound Devices, or Wisycom wireless system. There are many models of transmitters and receivers, but for argument sake let’s say Lectro DBSM and DCR822. As for lav mics themselves? DPA 4060, DPA 6060 or Sanken COS-11D. All great. (There’s tonnes of other options top, those are just too of mind). Boom mic will sound better in general though, and best would be a Schoeps CMIT5U or miniCMIT or SuperCMIT for exteriors, Sanken CS-3e for very noisy locations that need a laser-like focus, and a Schoeps CMC6 MK41 or Sennheiser MKH50 for interiors. Best would be used with a plug-on transmitter like a Lectrosonics DPR-A or HMa, and the paired receiver running into either a Sound Devices, Zaxcom, Sonosax, or Aaton recorder with maybe a Sonosax or old Cooper 208D mixer in front of it. (Again there’s tonnes of somewhat equivalent options for mics, transmitters, and mixers, I’m just illustrating a point.) Then presuming that’s all utilized properly and recorded well (meaning proper wirelesss signal distribution and power distribution and proper gain staging), it would be a matter of taking the best of both worlds, the open natural sound of the boom and combined it with the up front body of the lav, using Auto Align Post 2 to phase align the two. Then some in depth editing of cut/fill/fade, layer in additional ambience, foley, library effects, sound design, etc. and mix using EQ/compression/reverb/etc.. with a high degree of automation across many parameters written in through a physical control surface for fader moves. Listening while moving a physical control gives way better and faster results than drawing automation lines and curves on with a mouse. or wait… did you not actually mean THE BEST MOVIE-LIKE QUALITY for realsies? People seem to get okay results with the DJI for a cheap, social-media-quality, streamlined, user friendly system. [If you learn](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk55CEmjflkbEK-P8jag5pqZ1CpbjaVwZ&si=5dkXp77d7NCOQdaG) how to do a half decent job in post production you could probably squeeze a lot more life out of it too. Or if you can tolerate a little more complexity in operation, a Sennheiser G4 system would probably sound better. Best upgrade you could do for it is to replace the kit mic with something better like a Sanken COS-11D. Just gotta make sure it’s wired correctly. Recording separately from the camera and syncing up afterwards also will help since camera audio inputs typically have terrible noise floors. A cheap entry level recorder like the Sound Devices MixPre series would be where to look for that. Again increasing complexity. Sorry, didn’t mean to be snarky at the start, but it’s extremely unrealistic to expect the BEST or MOVIE-LIKE out of inexpensive consumer/prosumer grade gear. The truth is that there is an unbelievable amount of cost and skill that goes into getting that movie sound you’re talking about. There’s a reason it’s a whole department.

"Best" can be quite subjective when it comes to any microphones. The COS-11 is one of the standards, and for good reason. There are other mics that are flatter in response, quieter, etc. But none sound like the COS-11. On some voices, this sonic signature is an advantage, while on others, not so much. Many mixers keep several different mics on hand, all wired for whatever transmitters they use, and choose certain mics for certain situations.