Joby gets serious about audio with new mics for podcasters and streamers

Joby is still better-known for its GorillaPods than any of its audio gear, but it’s aiming to change that with a significantly expanded lineup. The company has introduced several microphones built for creatives like podcasters and streamers, and it’s clearly chasing after incumbents like Blue and Rode. The Wavo Pod (pictured above), for instance, is a USB condenser microphone aimed at would-be Blue Yeti buyers. The simple upright design and boom support will seem familiar, but Joby is counting on the 24-bit/48KHz sampling (versus the Yeti’s 16-bit/48KHz), an included pop filter and a lower $100 price to sway customers. It’s available today.

The Wavo Pro (middle) and Wavo Pro DS, meanwhile, are shotgun mics (similar to Rode’s) built to pair with mirrorless cameras used by vloggers and some streamers. The $300 Pro touts active noise reduction through a hybrid analog/digital system, a secondary 3.5mm mic input and visual monitoring through Bluetooth-connected apps for Android and iOS. It’s available now, but you can wait until March 4th for the $250 Pro DS with a slightly “streamlined” (read: cut-down in unspecified ways) experience.

Other models are more specialized. The $250 Wavo Air (below) is an instant-pair 2.4GHz wireless microphone kit that packs two transmitters, two lavalier mics and adapters to plug into cameras and phones. The $80 Wavo Lav Pro is billed as Joby’s first “pro-grade” lavalier mic with a higher-end capsule and foam windscreen, an 8.2ft cable to reduce vibrations and a 3.5mm TRS connector. Both the Air and Lav Pro are available now.

These introductions won’t necessarily sway you if you’re already leaning towards more established options. With that said, the pricing and features seem compelling in some cases, particularly for the Pod, Pro and Air. It’s just a question of whether they fare well in real-world conditions, and whether Joby’s ecosystem (including GorillaPods) might influence your choice.