Hello LEWITT RAY, Goodbye RØDE PodMic — Why We Switched Microphones for the Focus Check Podcast

Audio Gear Review

by Felix TappeinerFebruary 23^rd, 2026

Subscribe to Reviews - Audio

Audio is often the unsung hero of a great production – viewers will forgive slightly soft focus far sooner than they’ll forgive bad sound. Yet for many filmmakers and content creators, microphone choice doesn’t get nearly the same obsessive attention as camera gear. This is the story of how a persistent audio problem led us to relying on a new, innovative microphone design.

Felix Tappeiner is the wizard that stands behind the production of our weekly Focus Check podcast – from A to Z, both video and audio. In this article, he shares his thoughts on our microphone switch.

For the past two years, we’ve been recording our weekly podcast Focus Check using the RØDE PodMic in combination with the RØDECaster Pro II, and for a long time, it worked just fine. However, we started receiving feedback from listeners that the hosts’ voices sometimes sounded uneven, and after digging into it, the culprit was clear: the proximity effect.

If you’re not familiar with the proximity effect, it is a low-frequency buildup that occurs when you get very close to a directional microphone, resulting in a boomy, bass-heavy sound. In post-production, this is finicky to fix as you’d need to manually adjust the EQ or automate gain reduction, which is time-consuming. With turnaround times of sometimes less than 24 hours per episode, that kind of detailed audio work is often simply not feasible. And realistically, when you’re hosting a show that runs over an hour – discussing, explaining, getting animated – you can’t always keep your distance from the mic perfectly consistent.

Enter the LEWITT RAY

Once I understood the problem, I knew there was a good solution. Full disclosure: I’m a former LEWITT employee, so I was already familiar with their products, but that’s also exactly why I knew the LEWITT RAY was built to solve this precise issue, thanks to its AURA technology.

The RAY is the first microphone to feature a time-of-light sensor that continuously measures the speaker’s distance from the capsule and adjusts both the level and tone accordingly in real time. Move away from the mic, and it boosts the signal; get too close, and it pulls back the level and rolls off the low frequencies to counteract the proximity effect. A small display on the front of the mic shows your current distance at a glance.

What’s particularly elegant is that all of this works on standard 48V phantom power from a mixer or even a capable camera. There’s no battery, no additional hardware, and no extra configuration needed. It’s fully analog signal processing happening inside the mic itself.

The practical result is a much more consistent signal going into our RØDECaster, which also plays nicely with the auto-gate we run on the mixer. Overall, it has noticeably reduced the time I spend in post riding faders and evening out levels.

A brief detour: The microphone industry vs. the camera industry

Since most of the CineD community comes from the camera and cinema tech world, I want to take a short detour into the microphone industry because I’ve always found the contrast between the two fascinating.

One thing that strikes anyone working in audio is how common it is to clone vintage microphone designs. There are entire companies whose business model is essentially reproducing classic models like the Neumann U87 or Telefunken mics from the ’60s and ’70s. The audio world has an almost reverent relationship with that era. Many engineers and producers still consider those vintage designs the holy grail, despite the enormous advances in technology and manufacturing since then.

It’s a mentality that would seem almost absurd if applied to cameras. Imagine if the most sought-after, hyped camera in 2025 was still a model from 1968 – it’s hard to picture. Yet in the microphone world, that’s essentially the reality.

So it’s genuinely refreshing to see companies like LEWITT taking a different approach: thinking beyond legacy designs, embracing modern technology, and focusing on how microphones can improve real-world workflows rather than simply recreating the past.

The sound of things to come

The switch to the LEWITT RAY has been one of those rare gear changes that quietly improves everything downstream – less time fixing audio in post, more consistent sound for our listeners, and one fewer thing to think about while recording. For a weekly show with tight turnarounds, that kind of reliability is worth more than any spec sheet. We’re excited to keep building Focus Check with this setup, and if you haven’t tuned in yet, now’s a great time to listen. The audio has never sounded better. Listen for yourself in our latest episode.

Price and availability

The LEWITT RAY is available now, with pricing set at $449. For more details and information, please have a look at their website.

EDITORIAL ADDITION:
Someone pointed out on social media that the RØDE PodMic and the LEWITT RAY microphone play in different leagues in terms of cost – with the LEWITT microphone being 5 times the price. That’s fair enough and we should have mentioned it, but we were genuinely looking for better sound and the new microphones provided that. RØDE does not seem to offer a microphone with the same or similar technology at any price level, at least we couldn’t find it online.

Have you worked with LEWITT microphones before? If so, how was your experience? Please share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.