Saramonic has announced the new Saramonic K9 professional digital UHF wireless microphone system. Targeted towards higher-end filmmakers, the K9 offers a range of features suited to higher end productions and set ups.
It avoids the now-ubiquitous 2.4GHz frequencies in order to minimise interference. Instead, it uses a 550-960MHz UHF system with various frequency ranges for legal use around the world. It also records 32-bit float internally, with microSD card support up to 512GB and native timecode, and you can sync up to 48 devices.
Note: This is the review for the International version of the Saramonic K9 kit and the features described will relate specifically to that version. There are some limitations with the USA version of the K9 that will be detailed below.
What comes in the Saramonic K9 kit
The Saramonic K9 presents a pretty significant step up in terms of quality and capability for Saramonic. Compared to the company’s older UHF microphone setups, it sees upgrades across the board, both in the transmitters and receiver as well as the accessories that come with it.
Like other recent Saramonic’s microphone releases, the Saramonic K9 comes in a Pelican-style hard case with custom-cut foam inserts for the included units and accessories. We’ll start at the top and then work our way down.
On the top, we’ve got the two transmitters and the receiver along with removable antennas for each. There’s also a USB-C to USB-A adapter for connecting the transmitters to your computer via USB cable (that’s in the bottom layer).
The receiver and transmitters are powered by AA batteries, and six of them come included in the case. There is also a lithium rechargeable battery pack available separately. So, no matter what your battery preference, both sides of the argument are covered.
In the bottom layer, we see all of the included accessories. There are two 32GB microSD cards, a cold shoe mount for the receiver along with three belt clips. Several cables are included for plugging the receiver into your camera, field recorder or your computer.
There’s also a lav mic case with two included lav mics. These are extremely tiny lav mics with screwlock fittings to ensure they don’t come out of the receiver accidentally. Also in the case are a couple of foam windshields, a couple of furry windshields, and two lav mic clips for attaching it to clothing.
There are also several coloured sticky tabs, allowing you to colour-code your transmitters to keep track of which is which.
Key features of the Saramonic K9
As I mentioned, the K9 brings some significant updates over Saramonic’s previous UHF microphone systems. I’ve been using the Saramonic UwMic9 for the last nine years as the UHF mic system in my gear bag, but that’s now finally being retired.
The UwMic9 is a great system, but it’s fairly limited. I can’t legally use it everywhere due to its frequency limitations, it doesn’t record internally and it doesn’t offer timecode. It is extremely reliable, though. That changes with the K9, though.
Worldwide legal frequency ranges
The Saramonic K9 fixes these issues and more. It offers a range of frequencies that allow you to use it all over the world. You can’t use all of the frequencies everywhere, though, so check what’s legal in your intended use area and then dial your system in to that.
Overall, it claims a range from 550-960 MHz, but this is split into smaller bands for different regions. Here in the UK, free wireless UHF frequencies are pretty limited, so there’s a band for 863.0-865.0 MHz, and the auto frequency detection forces it to work within that band only.
For other parts of the world, other bands are available – although the list tops out at 865MHz, not 960MHz. Some will be license-free while others require a license – or are just illegal to use. There are also limits on the maximum transmitter power allowed in each of the different regions around the world.
- 550.0-606.0 MHz
- 606.5-613.5 MHz
- 614.0-630.0 MHz
- 630.0-694.0 MHz
- 694.0-703.0 MHz
- 823.0-832.0 MHz
- 863.0-865.0 MHz
Once you’ve chosen the band, though, it will restrict the transmitters and receiver to that band, with auto-frequency selection within that band. If you’re using them with the smartphone app, the app can actually use your smartphone’s GPS in order to determine the correct band.
Saramonic says that its proprietary LNA technology guarantees a strong and clear signal, even at long distances. Auto frequency scanning allows it to choose the cleanest signal based on the current environment. So, you’ll want to do this for each new location you record in.
Do note, however, that radio frequency ranges and maximum allowed power can and often does change. So, be sure to double check the legal requirements where you’re going to be recording before choosing a frequency band.
32-Bit Float Audio
Rapidly becoming standard with microphones that offer internal recording, the Saramonic K9 supports 32-bit float recording. This allows for an extremely wide range of recording, allowing you to capture both quiet and loud sounds without having to worry about the levels.
Now, the thing 32-bit float audio doesn’t negate is the need for proper microphone positioning. If the microphone is too far from your subject, even though you’ll get a decent level in the edit, you’re still going to get room echo and your subject will still sound distant.
But, with good microphone placement, you shouldn’t have to worry about the levels at all. There have been complaints in the past about software not fully supporting 32-bit float audio, but it’s not 2020 anymore.
These days, most DAWs and video editing applications support 32-bit float audio without issue. For my own needs, I use Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve. I’ve had no issues using 32-bit float audio in either of these for several years now.
Of course, you’re not just limited to 32-bit float. It’s also capable of recording regular 24-bit audio, too. However, you’re going to want to monitor this to ensure you’re not peaking. Because if 24-bit clips, it’s gone.
Tiny lav mics with plug-in power
The Saramonic K9 comes with a pair of very tiny lav mics. Here it is side-by-side with the Rode Lavalier II, which is already pretty small. The microphones are this slim as the K9 kit is targeted primarily towards filmmakers, although it works extremely well for regular interviews, too.
Why is the size so important for filmmakers, though? Well, it makes it much easier to hide. Thinner microphones are more easily hidden underneath clothing. They can be applied to the subject’s skin without creating a bulge under their shirt. Or they can be more easily taped underneath the brim of a cap, for example.
They have screwlock 3.5mm plugs on the end to ensure that they don’t accidentally pull out during fast action and movement.
But you’re not limited to just these microphones. If you have another favourite, the Saramonic K9 transmitters provide options for using microphones that require 3v or 5v plug-in power. You can even set the input to line level and feed it a signal from a microphone preamp or other device with a line level output for wireless transmission.
A configurable 75/100/150MHz low-cut filter is also built into each transmitter to help deal with low-frequency environment noise. There’s nothing worse than having unwanted rumble from passing traffic in your recording. Of course, you can disable this, if required.
One-tap timecode sync
While it’s not so common on most consumer wireless microphones, a professional wireless microphone system wouldn’t be complete without timecode support. And the Saramonic K9 is no exception here.
Each transmitter allows you to manually set the timecode or jam sync from an external timecode generator, and then easily sync up that timecode to other K9 transmitters on your set. You’re also able to set your frame rate here, allowing for easy syncing, and all of the popular frame rates are included.
- 23.98fps
- 24fps
- 25fps
- 29.97fps
- 29.97fps (drop-frame)
- 30fps
For video with faster frame rates, such as 50fps, 59.94fps or 60fps, you’d choose the frame rate that evenly multiplies into your video frame rate.
The only downside of the timecode system is that the receiver itself doesn’t provide the option of outputting timecode audio to your camera. This is a popular and common way of working with something like the Rode Wireless Pro, which does output audio timecode from the receiver, allowing you to send timecode into cameras through the mic input that don’t natively support timecode.
Of course, with the target audience for the Saramonic K9, this isn’t really that unexpected. Most customers looking to buy a $999 wireless microphone system are more than likely going to be using cameras that do have native timecode support. So, it won’t be an issue.
But if you don’t already have one, you will want to budget in some kind of timecode generator that you can jam sync into the K9 and feed into your camera(s) if you want to be able to easily sync things in the edit.
The Saramonic K9 Transmitters
Both the transmitters and the receiver feature a durable aluminium housing. This helps to keep them tough and rugged without being too heavy. They feature a colour OLED display on the front to provide status and allow you to go through the menu options.
You’ll notice that there aren’t any visible buttons on the microphone. This is because they’re hidden underneath the flap that houses the battery. While it might feel quite annoying at first, this is actually a fantastic design feature – and quite common among microphones of this type.
The reason it’s fantastic is because it prevents accidental button presses while recording. If the buttons are covered, your subject can run and jump and do whatever they want without worrying if they accidentally stopped the recording or changed a setting mid-shoot.
Under this flap, as you can see, are the batteries. And hidden behind the batteries is the slot for the microSD card. The K9 kit comes supplied with a pair of 32GB microSD cards. I can’t speak to the reliability of this brand, and Saramonic doesn’t state the maximum supported capacity, but you might want to pick up a couple of your preferred brand.
The good news is that you don’t have to open it up and take out the batteries to access the files. You can plug the transmitter straight into your computer (or tablet or smartphone) and access the files directly, like any other USB storage device. And you don’t need any funky drivers or proprietary software running in the background to do it.
Going back up to the top, above the OLED display, with have various indicator LEDs. These let us know when we’re recording, when we have power, when the microphone’s muted or if it’s even picking up a signal from the microphone.
Above these are the two sockets for the wireless antenna and the microphone input. On the right hand side, we also have a headphone jack for monitoring. This might not be all that useful for on-camera subjects,
On the other side is the USB socket for either charging – if you’re using the lithium rechargeable pack – or for communication with your computer to transfer files over.
The menu system is fairly simple to navigate using the four buttons on the front of the unit. The far right button brings up the menu and also acts as an “ok” or select button, with the power button acting as a “back” button and the two buttons in between serving as up and down.
The top menu option allows you to choose your wireless frequency settings and also the timecode options. You’re able to dial in a band and then either manually choose a frequency or have the system automatically detect a clear frequency to use.
The timecode settings show you the current internal timecode and frame rate. If you’ve got an external timecode device plugged in, you’ll also see the external timecode signal. Along the bottom there are menu options for choosing your different sync settings. You’re also able to put your microphones into different groups.
Below this you’ve got your audio settings, allowing you to set your input gain. Even though it records 32-bit float, adding some input gain can help to improve the signal to noise ratio. However, if it’s set so high that your input clips, 32-bit float isn’t going to save you. I generally tend to run about +12dB with the supplied lavalier mics.
Here, you can also set the microphone input type. Most lavalier microphones work on 3v plug-in-power, although you do have the option of 5v. You can also set it to receive a line-level signal, allowing you to transmit output from field recorders or other devices.
Of course, you’ve got the low-cut filter with 75Hz, 100Hz and 150Hz options, as well as the audio monitor output options – which are basically on or off and a volume setting.
The next section lets us set our record options and browse the files. We can start & stop recording here, switch between 24-bit and 32-bit float audio recording. We can also choose between auto, manual or sync recording.
Auto recording starts recording as soon as the device turns on. Manual recording, as one would expect, allows you to manually start and stop the recording. Sync recording records once a timecode sync has been established, making for more reliable recordings if you’re using timecode.
The “Files” section allows you to browse and playback your recordings through the audio monitor output. However, it only seems to show the current day’s files. So, if you’ve recorded during the day and then you come to listen to the edit the day after, the files won’t be listed.
It’s designed primarily to be used as a quick review after recording to ensure you’ve got what you expected. It’s a very handy feature for reviewing your files without having to copy them to a computer or pull out your phone.
And at the bottom of the menus, we have the Device Management section, where you can configure various system options. You can set the battery type, to ensure that the battery level indicator is accurate, disable the LEDs to prevent them casing unwanted light in dark scenes and enable or disable Bluetooth to save battery life.
The bottom menu option in Device Management is the “Sys” option, which lets you access more configuration options, such as the auto screen off, the screen brightness, formatting the SD card or putting it into reader mode for USB connection to the computer.
You can assign shortcut buttons, set the date and time, language perform a full system reset, find out the current version information or perform a firmware upgrade. Many of the options found through the transmitter’s menu system can also be accessed through the smartphone app, but we’ll get to that.
The Saramonic K9 Receiver
The receiver is very similar in form to the transmitters, although there are some notable differences. On the front, we see a similar OLED, along with three LEDs across the top, which denote power and whether we’re receiving a signal from each of the two transmitters.
On top, you’ll see that the single antenna has been replaced by a pair of antennas. There are also a pair of 3.5mm audio outputs, allowing you to feed a signal both into your camera for recording and to a pair of headphones for monitoring.
The top also features a second display, letting you easily see the incoming signals from your two transmitters at a glance when it’s mounted on top of your camera.
As we’ve got two 3.5mm audio outputs on the top, there’s no socket on the side, although we do still have the USB-C socket on the left. As with the transmitter, this lets you either charge up the lithium battery pack or you can use it to connect it to your computer, tablet or smartphone.
While the receiver doesn’t have any recording capability, it does output digital audio over USB. So, you can plug it into your computer (or smartphone or tablet) and use it like you would any other digital audio interface straight in your DAW or video editing application.
Like the transmitters, the receiver hides its buttons underneath the battery cover flap to prevent accidentally hitting them or changing anything while recording. So, let’s talk about that menu system next.
Navigating through the Saramonic K9 receiver menu is the same as with the transmitter, although the options are a little different. In the wireless and frequency options, we get to configure the system as a whole, choosing our frequency band with either manual or automatic pairing.
We can scan the chosen frequency band to see how strong each of the individual frequencies within the range are. We can also set up preferred frequencies that the system will attempt to use if possible. If you’ve got a lot of microphones on your set, this is an invaluable feature.
You can also choose the colour of the microphones here, which ties in to the colour pads that are included in the set. While this is an aesthetic thing, it’s one that can become a big time saver when you want to ensure a person gets the same microphone every time. It also makes it easy to see which signal is coming from which microphone.
The output modes are next, allowing you to configure what comes out of the two 3.5mm sockets. You can either have one transmitter coming out of each – handy if you want to pass the signals through to a field recorder – both signals combined or, for the second output, a headphone monitor. The output levels for each can also be independently adjusted.
In the Device Management, you can make adjustments to both the primary and secondary screens, letting you choose between signal and level priority for the latter, with rotation options depending on the orientation of the receiver.
You can also enable automatic sleep modes for your two transmitters here. So, if you’re not able to get to your subject right away after the recording is finished, you can have them automatically turn themselves off after a set period of time.
The other options are similar to those on the transmitter, letting you adjust the battery type, screen brightness, check the firmware version, etc.
Overall, both the transmitter and the receiver offer easy navigation through the menus, letting you quickly configure it and access the settings you need.
The wired lavalier microphones
Unlike many of the smaller 2.4GHz wireless microphone systems on the market today, there are no microphones built into the transmitters. This isn’t really much of a surprise given the size of them. Nobody’s going to have one of these clipped to their chest while recording a video.
So, you need to plug in an external lav. The Saramonic K9 kit comes with two lavalier microphones bundled in. These are very tiny microphones boasting a dynamic range of 110dB and a maximum SPL of 118dB.
They operate on either 3v or 5v, so you’re able to choose either option in the transmitters. While shifting over to 5v won’t necessarily produce a “hotter” signal, it may provide a cleaner signal to noise ratio than using the 3v setting. It will, however, typically reduce the battery life in your transmitter.
The lavalier microphones supplied with the Saramonic K9 are both IP67 rated. There’s no IP rating for the transmitters, but these would typically be hidden underneath clothing. I still probably wouldn’t take them out in a hurricane, though.
Also supplied in the lavalier kit are foam windshields and fluffy windshields for outdoor use, along with a pair of clips to attach the microphones to clothing. For filmmakers who plan to completely hide the lavalier, their small size allows you to skip these in favour of taping them directly to the subject or clothing while remaining pretty much invisible.
The Saramonic Smartphone App
While a “companion app” is common for a lot of devices today, the app for the Saramonic K9 is not mandatory. In fact, for the first couple of weeks of testing out this microphone, a compatible app didn’t even exist.
What the app does do, though, is allow you to bypass the menu system for commonly used tasks. Things like setting your frequency bands and finding clear frequencies become a doddle, handled in a couple of clicks.
Timecode, too, is also very easy to configure. And with support for up to 48 simultaneous devices, you can easily sync up all of them with the tap of just a single button to ensure that everything remains in time with everything else.
Of course, running 48 wireless lavalier microphones isn’t all that common, even on busy film sets. So why 48 devices? Well, Saramonic has told me that we’ll see an XLR transmitter coming at some point, similar to the TX-XLR9 for their UwMic9 system. I don’t have any more details on it other than we’ll see it one day (which could be a week or a year fro now), but presumably, this will also support 32-bit recording and native timecode support.
Maybe the fact that it supports so many channels also suggests that Saramonic may be working on its own dedicated timecode units for plugging into cameras, too. Once you’ve got your master timecode device, a handful of mics and a bunch of cameras, it all adds up pretty quickly. If they are working on something, it would be nice to see some competition to Deity’s line of timecode products.
Saramonic K9 – US vs International version
The price on the international version of the Saramonic K9 is $999. The US version, on the other hand is $899. This isn’t a price break for Americans to help counter the new tariffs the US government is charging on imports from other countries. It’s because the US version simply isn’t as capable as the international version.
Specifically, the US version doesn’t offer 32-bit float recording. This is due to patent and licensing issues. You still get 24-bit audio recordings, just not 32-bit float. There is some good news, though. If you want 32-bit float recording badly enough to pay the extra for the international version, you can buy it directly from Saramonic.
What could be improved?
I only have one real complaint about the Saramonic K9 wireless microphone system. I wish the receiver was able to output the timecode signal to be able to jam-sync it into other devices – or to record an audio timecode signal in the camera.
It relies on having a dedicated timecode generator and a camera with native timecode support for best results. In fairness, it’s a $999 microphone ($899 for the US version), so it’s geared towards filmmakers who already work this way – and already own a dedicated timecode generator.
This, too, suggests that Saramonic may be working on its own dedicated timecode devices. It seems silly not to have it, really, when the microphones are so good. And if they aren’t, hopefully, this is something Saramonic will implement in a future K9 firmware update.
Saramonic K9 – Final Thoughts
The Saramonic K9 is a solid wireless microphone system geared towards professional use. Whether you’re recording interviews with lavs clipped onto your subject’s clothing or a filmmaker trying to keep the microphones as hidden as possible, The K9 has you covered.
It sounds great and having native timecode support with jam-sync allows you to quickly align everything in post for easy editing.
Sample recordings are coming soon and we’ll update this post when they’re ready.
Price and Availability
The international version of the Saramonic K9 is available to buy now from the Saramonic website for $999. The US version doesn’t appear to be available just yet, but I expect it’ll be popping up at retailers soon. We’ll be sure to add links when it does.
