Review on 🎙️ Dayton Audio iMM-6 Calibrated Measurement Microphone for iPhone, iPad, Android Tablets – Black by Sean Baller

I bought this for a car audio project a few years ago and was curious to see how this little guy would pair up with the tried and true MiniDSP UMIK-1 USB microphone. I tested both near-field microphones on a MarkAudio CHR-70.3 horn. I imported the provided calibration curves into REW and set up the mics to both record at the same SPL. I did a few swipes to ensure consistency and was very surprised with the results. In the graphic, red = iMM-6 and blue = UMIK-1. Both microphones worked up to about 17 kHz with a difference of about +-1 dB to each other. Impressive! The iMM-6 does have a few minor drawbacks, namely it's not calibrated for sound pressure measurement (unlike the UMIK-1), cheaper construction and a smaller diaphragm means it will clip the sound at high volumes compared to higher quality mics/ distorted. However, for $20 you get a fairly powerful tool that has proven to be a good guideline for setting up my systems. The only thing that really disappointed me wasn't the microphone but the mobile software. I supposedly bought one of the best mobile measurement apps (AudioTools by Studio Six), but I didn't find it very useful as there was no way to export data from my phone to Excel for further analysis. I haven't found much use for this application other than testing white noise. REW or AudioNet CARMA for PC are much more powerful tools and if you can I would recommend using this mic with a device capable of running these programs. FYI, it connects via a standard smartphone TRRS connector and will not connect to older computer mic inputs unless you have a TRRS-TRS splitter (purchased from Radioshack). Also, I recommend a TRRS extension cable to isolate the mic and get more consistent measurements. Finally, there are several reviewers here who bought it for the record and were disappointed, and I can confidently attest that it's not fit for purpose. It is a measuring instrument and should only be used as such. Consider purchasing a Tascam recorder or similar microphone if you need voice or instrument recording capabilities.