Neewer CM28 Review : How is it this good?
Neewer CM28 Review: These mics are incredible.
Welcome to my Neewer CM28 Review, I never expected these lavalier microphones to completely blow me away but that’s exactly what happened. The sound quality is amazing, the build quality is brilliant and the price is truly fantastic. This kit has to be one of the best wireless mic kits you can get today, they are simply incredible for the price.
Over the last few weeks, I have tested the Neewer CM28 mics in the quietness of my studio and in some fairly extreme conditions and they have always delivered great results no matter where I used them. More on those extreme conditions later.
Let’s first look at what you get with the kit.
What do you get with the Neewer CM28 mic kit?
Before we even talk about the mics themselves, let me tell you that the carrying case they come in is not just a neat little box for keeping the CM28 kit together in, it also charges the mics when you put them back in this case. Crazily, this beautiful little case also has its own internal battery so you can charge the two mics and receiver on the go without needing a power source nearby.
That’s truly incredible and something I genuinely didn’t think you would be getting at this price point.
Before we even get to what’s actually inside the carrying case I should tell you that you also get a carrying pouch and inside this pouch there is a 3.5mm audio cable, a USB-C to USB -A cable and two microphone windshields included (more about them later on).
Before we get into performance, what’s in the box and audio quality I think it’s important to talk about the price and how ridiculously cheap this wireless microphone set is.
Neewer CM28 Price
This is where we come to the CM28 price at the time of writing this Neewer CM28 Review they cost just $139.- on the official Neewer website and the good news here is Neewer have given me a discount code (more about that here) for this Neewer CM28 review, so you can save another 21% off that price, which is utterly crazy. They are also available on Amazon and a few more resellers.
Simply use HAYES21 at checkout here on the Neewer website to save yourself 21% immediately.
If you purchase a product via my discount code or via one of the links on this page I may make a slight commission form the sale but you also get a discount so it’s win win for everyone really.
Checkout my full Neewer CM28 Review video below where I show you exactly what you get, how it all works and I also record some unedited audio in both my studio and out and about in some extreme conditions. You can also read on below where I talk you through my thoughts on the CM28 kit.
What’s inside the carrying case?
On opening the carrying case you will be greeted by not just the two lavalier microphones and the receiver but also a USB-C and Lightning adaptor. These adaptors simply plug into the receiver’s USB-C port so you can connect the kit to most USB-C or Lightning ported device then.
As soon as you open the case cover you will also see the battery indicator lights up on the front of the case itself, this tells you how much charge is left in the internal case battery. The 4 bars on the front of the case mark the 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% charged levels so you always know what’s left in the case’s battery.
How do you charge the Mics?
As I mentioned before, to charge the mics and receiver you just simply need to put them back in the case and it starts charging them immediately via its internal battery.
The mics will last for 8-9 hours per charge, that’s more than enough for most uses without needing a recharge. If you need to recharge the mics it only takes 1.5 hours to fully charge them again so it’s super fast.
You charge the carrying case via the USB-C port on the back of the case with the supplied USB cable, which simply plugs into a standard USB port.
Neewer CM28 Connectivity.
The CM28 mic kit will work with nearly any device as it has both a USB-C and Lightning adaptor included with the kit so this means it will easily connect with your Android phone and tablet or with your iPhone and iPad.
The supplied 3.5mm cable will connect it to cameras with a standard mic input or laptops and computers with 3.5mm Mic inputs so this will work with nearly everything straight out of the box.
Even if it doesn’t connect to your device you still have the internal recording option.
CM28 internal recording capacity and sound quality.
Each of the CM28 Mics has 4gb of internal recording capacity which will give you approx 10 hours of internal recording time. The real beauty is it’s recording the audio as an uncompressed wave file, recording at 48khz so your audio quality is going to be crystal clear.
The real beauty of this is it’s all done internally on the mic itself so there is no transmission system involved and interference is not an issue even in busy function halls or events.
This can also be used as a backup recording, if you are transmitting to a camera or another device and for some reason the Receiver is not plugged in or you forget to set the audio level or even switch it on don’t worry the internal recording is there as a fail-safe.
Audio Quality
The audio quality is fantastic and in all honesty, this mic punches well above its weight here. You can hear both the studio recording and the extreme wind recording I did in the video above. I have the video clearly labeled in chapters so it’s easy to find the audio recordings.
One Touch Noise Reduction
The One-button noise reduction has to be one of the best features on this mic and let me say when I did the extreme audio recordings in the video above I genuinely didn’t think the audio would be useable. To my surprise, the audio quality even with a gale blowing was very good so the one-touch noise recording works incredibly well.
To use the noise reduction you simply hold down the button for a second and the lower light on the transmitter will start flashing red then (it normally flashes blue when recording).
How does the CM28 compare to the Rode and DJI mics?
Price… With the CM28 kit being around 1/3 of the price of the Rode Go II kit and roughly half the price of the DJI Mic kit it got my attention fairly quickly. How could it be any good though as you usually get what you pay for right? That’s what I thought until I used the kit, they more than surprised me with their features and audio quality.
Audio Quality… Crazily the audio quality as I mentioned above is top-notch and not what I was expecting from what should be considered a budget wireless mic kit. So much so that one of my friends (a dedicated Rode Go II mic user) bought a pair after seeing my video review, he planned to use them as a backup set. After he gave them a quick test I got a message saying “How are they this good?”.
This confirmed it wasn’t just me and these mics really are that good.
So let’s just mark the audio quality as being very good and move on.
Size… The CM28 mics and receiver are considerably smaller than both the Rode Go II kit and the DJI Mic kit as they are roughly about 2/3 the size. This might not seem like much of an advantage here but I personally hate the sight of those bulkier Lav mics I see people wearing while vlogging or creating content.
Range… The Neewer CM28 kit will transmit up to 200m, the DJI Mic Kit will go up to 250m and the Rode Go II kit will go as far as 200m. If range is important to you here then the DJI has a 50m advantage here, then again most people will not be going over 50m from their recording device anyway.
Battery time… The Neewer CM28 kit will last approx 8-9 hours per charge, the DJI Mic Kit will last approx 5.5 hours per charge and the Rode Mic Go II will last up to 7 hours per charge.
The Neewer CM28 kit outpowers both the DJI and Rode kit here. A point to note here is the DJI Mic kit is advertised as having an 15 hour battery life but that includes recharging it in the carrying case.
Internal Audio recording… The Neewer CM28 kit records internally has a 4gb recording capacity and records for up to 10 hours of uncompressed audio. The DJI Mic Kit has an 8gb internal capacity and records up to 14 hours of uncompressed audio and the Rode Go II kit records for up to 7 hours of uncompressed audio.
The DJI Mic kit has the advantage here but generally, I have never found myself recording more than two hours at a time so they are all good here again.
Mounting options… All three of these systems have a clip at the back so you can quickly attach it to a jacket shirt or jumper collar but both the Neewer CM28 and DJI Mic kit have magnet mounting options so you can quickly attach it anywhere on your clothes.
Conclusion… There is very little to choose from between these three system which just goes to show you how good the Neewer CM28 mic kit is. Personally, I don’t think you can do any better for the price and I have loved using the CM28 mics. Well done Neewer, these mics get a massive thumbs up from me.
Check out my Neewer z2 review here this 76-watt speedlight is awesome or even better checkout my Neewer Q4 review here and find out more about this 400 watt battery powered strobe.
If you use a Nikon Z8 like me then check out this review I put up on the Best Nikon Z8 cage here.
If you have ever thought about buying a teleprompter then do check out my Neewer x17 ii Teleprompter review here it’s a real time saver.
See you out there,
Kieran.
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4.9