Recently Tube Shooter did a full review of IK Multimedia's new iRig Pre 2 mobile microphone interface. Tube Shooter is a website magazine devoted to news, reviews and features about video-making for the web.

One of the new features of iRig Pre 2 is how seamlessly it works with DSLR cameras and the British reviewer here does a thorough job of testing the interface in that application, offering his unbiased opinion at the end.

In his own words

"This is my overview and review of the IK Multimedia iRig Pre 2, the updated version of their iRig Pre preamplifier. It provides a single mono balanced XLR input to an unbalanced 3.5mm TRRS (and TRS) jack for connecting balanced professional microphones to devices such as older iPhones & iPads, camcorders, DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.

I shall be looking at it from the perspective of the spoken word. Realistically, the main thing about a little preamp like this is how quiet and clean the gain is. What you really want is just nice, clean, quiet amplification."

iRig Pre 2 sound tests

"There is plenty of gain. In my tests, a setting of 2 to 3 out of 10 was enough to blast a signal into both a camcorder and an iPhone, with the camcorder needing its own gain reduced to almost zero to keep the signal from overloading.

If like mine, your camcorder or other recording device provides headphone monitoring that's slightly delayed due to signal processing, there's a headphone jack on the iRig Pre 2, which can be set to directly monitor the sound being sent to the recorder. Hence, no delay.

The question is then how does it sound? The good thing about the iRig Pre 2 is that it's got a lot of gain. So you can turn up its output and therefore turn down the input signal on your camcorder and minimize any electronic noise that might be introduced at recording."

The reviewer then tests the iRig Pre 2 using a Sennheiser ME66 on an iPhone SE, iPad Mini, Sony NX80 camcorder, Sony AX53 camcorder and Tascam DR-10C beltpack recorder.

In conclusion

"To me, it sounds very good: nice, clean, crisp, clear audio with very low noise and for 50 quid (pounds sterling), it's certainly a very cheap way of getting balanced XLR microphone audio into your camcorder or phone or whatever.

However, as you push your XLR cable in, you can see the whole jack just moving inside the iRig Pre 2 very slightly. The jack itself is made by Neutrik who makes great quality connectors.

Also, it's not a locking connector. So if you stood on the cable, or you accidentally yanked on the cable, you could pull it out.

All in all, I think for the price it is a good device for what it is!"

Thank you, Tube Shooter for the in-depth review! In response to the point about the XLR jack, it's important to know that the casing and Neutrik XLR connector on the iRig Pre 2 are exactly the same as the more expensive iRig Pre HD, which has been out for over two years without any reported XLR jack issues.

Also, IK does not use locking connectors on any of our products. The Neutrik jack offers a perfectly tight fit. Moreover, if someone or something did pull hard on the cable, it's better for it to come out than damage any equipment.

We agree that for pure convenience and sound quality, the iRig Pre 2 is an excellent value to improve audio when shooting video.

Learn more on iRig Pre 2

Visit the Tube Shooter's website