The 12 Best battery powered Mic preamps (2023 reviews)

If you often find yourself confused about good preamp, triton audio battery powered mic preamp should be your first option for buying. This little preamp can be attached to the microphone, between cables, or attached to the interface. It is specially designed for condenser microphones. Your fethead phantom will latch straight onto any xlr equipped microphone, or anywhere else in the signal path between microphone and preamp/mixer. This should lower the signal noise produced by the field recorder. It is also an indispensable tool for mobile recording and a real upgrade for camera microphone preamps, because it lowers the noise floor.

This would work for your condenser mic, but it doesn’t block the phantom power used to power unit and it will let the phantom power pass through into the mic. The Phantom Power Blocker also prevents shorts when connecting unbalanced TRS cables to XLRs.

Why We Like This:

Loud and clear with condenser mic
Increased response and adds value to your studio
Blocks phantom power while allowing signal to pass freely

Best For podcast: IK Multimedia battery powered Mic Preamp

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If you often find yourself scrambling for convenient and suitable preamp, ik multimedia battery powered mic preamp should be your first option for buying. This portable preamp with xlr input and true +48v phantom power ensure a clean, crisp sound with any dynamic mic, condenser mic or ribbon mic. The headphone Jack can be used to listen and monitor what is being recorded. It's readily recognized when paired and the connecting cable feels designed for long, reliable use. The gain and headphone level controls are numbered, to make it easy to repeat settings.

It is easy to use, and has indicator lights that work in bright sunlight. There are bright lights on top of the unit so you will always know when it is on, and when Phantom power is engaged. The design is sleek and unobtrusive making it easy to deploy with all types of image/video recording devices.

Why We Like This:

Excellent audio quality and compact design
A great portable, versatile interface with good sound quality
A must-have accessory for any recording enthusiast

Best With room correction: Xvive battery powered Mic Preamp

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The xvive battery powered mic preamp is specially designed for your daily usage and has all useful features. The sound quality of running a lapel condenser mic through it is perfect. It comes with Xvive’s u3 microphone wireless system, plug-and-play, and transform any dynamic mic into a high-performance wireless mic. It also has two non-skid rubber pads/feet on the bottom.

The interface works well and the XLR connectors are of good quality with no wobbly inputs. It is perfect for powering condenser mics. You can even plug a dynamic mic straight into your camera and get great sound when you combine the p1 with a cloudlifter or other in-line preamps. The p1 allows you to use microphones and devices that require external power in any setup.

Why We Like This:

Long lasting charge power and flawless performance
Clean sound, solid build, and long lasting battery
Versatile, portable and easy to use
Feels nice and solid and very quiet

Best With exception Of The Mac Pro Line: Saramonic battery powered Mic Preamp

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The saramonic battery powered mic preamp's superior materials makes sure that it ages well with use. The Smartrig ii from Saramonic is an easy solution to connect any xlr microphone or 6.3mm guitar to your iphone 8 8 plus 7 7 plus 6, ipod touch, or ipad and android devices. It has an XLR and 1/4" input all in one. It can be used in streaming videos. It does have a +48v phantom power switch. The indicator lights make it easy to tell if your mic is hot or not.

The cable is designed to go into a combo headphone and mic Jack as found on phones, tablets and laptops that have only one combo Jack. It is great for capturing audio for your video or live stream from your phone.

Why We Like This:

Economical way to connect a balanced microphone to ipad
Works great with garageband on iphone or ipad
Worked perfect with condenser mic and samsung phone

Best For home Studio: Behringer battery powered Mic Preamp

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Not everyone likes to purchase preamp for their daily usage, but the behringer battery powered mic preamp would be an anomoly. It is a great device with a straightforward and intuitive design. It provides 8 clean preamps and new input, and requires zero setup. It can be used as stabdalone, but only with the analog outputs. It will also pass the sound at the analog inputs to the analog outputs.

It has switchable phantom power to all inputs, and its nice with drums because all microphone inputs can be recorded in their separate tracks all at once. It is great for your road setup, or at home if you aren't an audio label snob.

Why We Like This:

Work perfectly, simple to set up as well
Best bang-for-your-buck unit with 8 channels
One of the new comers and featured product

Best For boosting weak Dynamic Mic Signal: DBX battery powered Mic Preamp

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Compared with other preamp in this category, the dbx battery powered mic preamp has a convenient design. As a mic preamp it works great for dynamic mics such as the Shure SM27B which needs a lot of gain. It is made by dbx, mc-6 mini-comp, and that unit is fantastic, sounds great and is a very powerful tool. Not only will it save time but it gives professional body to your voice. If you are passionate about getting the right sound, this will be a great addition plus it will save you precious time not having to go back for sound.

This gate is fast and works flawlessly. It is fresh out of the box and this piece works/sounds great. For singers, the unit will provide compression, de-essing and it can add some richness to your sound. This is what all podcaster's need to give your voice the proper body and no-noise output. It is perfect for non-treated rooms with computer noise, and the preamp is very quiet.

Why We Like This:

A must have for any non-sound-proofed studio
Nice little unit for processing a mic signal before it goes into a daw
Built robustly and the controls have a positive click like feel to them
Excellent noise gate with a strong pre-amp

Best For XLR based Audio DAC: Manayo battery powered Mic Preamp

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The manayo battery powered mic preamp's material feels more premium than its price would suggest. This does the trick of amping up the volume on an SM57 into a basic interface for recording. It’s a thin tube and barely wider than an XLR connector. It will make the signal coming from the microphone louder, up to a point. It offers very clean gain with almost no detectable noise or coloration. This product requires phantom power in order to operate. Despite the diminutive size, it is quite capable of boosting the signal of your microphone substantially, giving you the sound output you need.

This is typically more than offset by running your mixer pre at a lower gain stage, reducing overall system noise.

Why We Like This:

Simple and effective product designed to be a value buy
Adds about 28 dbv of low distortion gain
Affordable clean boost for dynamic and ribbon mics

Best For musicians: Comica battery powered Mic Preamp

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Not everyone likes to purchase preamp for their regular usage, but the comica battery powered mic preamp would be an anomoly. The Comica Linkflex ad2 audio preamp has a stepless gain adjustment function, so you can increase or decrease the volume according to the actual situation. It is designed for cell phone use and has a 4 connector 3.5mm male connector. It comes with 3.5mm headphone output, and the preamp adapter can monitor the sound of the smartphone and mic. It’s a very cool gadget.

This amp has a number of features and it supports all kinds of devices and accessories. It comes with gain control knob, which is easy to adjust the volum and sensitivity of the audio input. The preamp is powered by a 9V battery and it lasts quite long. It hooked up easily and is great to go immediately.

Why We Like This:

Easy to use and worth the money
Can also be applied to sm7b microphone
High quality audio input for mics or instruments
A very smart and inexpensive audio preamp

Best For Dynamic preacher: ART battery powered Mic Preamp

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Best part: art battery powered mic preamp costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. The tube mp project series is a professional quality audio interface that lets you connect microphone, instrument, and line level signals to audio inputs to digital audio workstations as well as standard analog devices. The gain control ranges from clean and subtle to fully overdriven, giving you that "telephone" sort of sound often heard in blues-rock. The new ultra low noise discrete microphone preamp front end has an extremely flat and wide frequency response and handles a wide range of input signal levels with a minimum of coloration. The level knobs are "dented" and stop at determined spots as you turn them, a nice feature for keeping track of your settings.

One of the nice features of the USB is its hot swapping capability, allowing the tube mp to be connected and disconnected without turning your computer off. This unit will only give your microphone a "boost" and help control the level while you sing plus give it a "tube" sound, but it will not power your bose sound system. The compressor does its job without coloring the sound noticeably.

Why We Like This:

Lots of different flavors of compression with the various switch combinations
Works great for live streaming a sermon
Really well-built, great sound, easy to use

Best With ADAT: Focusrite battery powered Mic Preamp

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We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate preamp. The focusrite battery powered mic preamp is exactly that - it's a simple preamp that hits all the right notes. The Scarlett OctoPre will only work with interface's that have ADAT expansion. It offers eight balanced line outputs, sourced directly from their respective mic preamps for use on stage in a live environment. It features two newly designed instrument inputs with extended headroom. The controls for setting up sync options and sample rate are on the front panel of the OctoPre (while on the 18i8 they have to be done in software) making it simple to configure the OctoPre.

This is just an expansion of preamps to add to your interface via adat so if your interface has adat then you’re good. It will work great with your 18i20 and any other ADAT compatible interface.

Why We Like This:

You will be able to monitor the analog signal to the analog outputs
Great product to add inputs for your recording studio & great support from focusrite
Easy to use and a great value for anyone needing some extra mic inputs

Best With XLR Output: rolls battery powered Mic Preamp

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Rolls offers a variety of preamp for personal choice and yet maintaining quality in all the variants. The Rolls model MP13 microphone preamplifier (pre-amp) is a unit dedicated to a single simple task. The pre-amp stage uses a classic dual op-amp differential amplifier circuit straight out of any number of audio circuit application notes and handbooks. It has xlr and 1/4" outputs, xlr and 1/8" inputs, and a single gain control with a clip indicator. The preamp comes with a 'universal' power supply that should work with any AC supply voltage worldwide.

The MP13 comes with a wall-wart style power supply, of the newer switching supply' type that is small, lightweight, and able to work with a wide range of AC voltages anywhere in the world. All such marks are silk screened to the top of the case, where they would be obscured if you place anything on top. It is included for use with a condenser microphone. There are no extraneous bells and whistles, but it just does its job well.

Why We Like This:

Microphone signal / +5 volts / common-ground
Great all-in-one solution for a powered (condenser) mic with amplification
Level control is smooth and quiet

Best For stream: Coda music technologies battery powered Mic Preamp

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If you want nothing but a preamp that is suitable, this coda music technologies battery powered mic preamp is certainly a wise investment. It is a beast of an alternative to the cloud lifter. It works well with an sm57 and a guitar amp. It can introduce electronic noise into what should otherwise be clean input. It is a bit thick so it gets in the way of the rode psa100 scissor mount at certain mounting positions. It is easy to install and overall well made. It provides 28db of clean gain. It will make your dynamic or ribbon microphone louder, but keep in mind you will need to have an interface that can provide with 48v phantom power.

Why We Like This:

Reduce noise and add clarity to your podcast or livestream, by coda music technologies
Standard microphones for a minimal and stealth aesthetic
Fantastic inline preamp that is clean and adds extra juice to sm7b
External power necessary which is always a plus