Being that I sometimes have the inclination to speak my thoughts out, freely, in public,
I like to have audio monitoring going on, with a microphone and earphone | earbuds.
Being that I have upgraded my tech to newer devices, the wired headset | earbuds paradigm is being deprecated, for the sake of adoption of wireless and bluetooth protocols for device audio outputs, rather than 3.5 mm (1/8 inch) TRRS (Tip Ring Ring Sleeve) - "headphone | mic" combos, such that we'd come to know and expect of our audio inputs and outputs for our mobile devices. In lieu of the deprecation of 3.5 mm audio jacks in devices, USB-C ports have taken the place of the former audio jack / port, and now, data, audio, and video information can be sent out, or received, in devices and in peripherals all through one high-speed port. There are many makes and models of USB-C [Thunderbolt] hubs available on internet retail sites, such as Amazon and Walmart.
One of the critical issues that had come up, in the context of Apple's device upgrades, over the past couple of years, or so, in this scope of audio jacks and inputs and outputs is that there's no official Apple USB-C earbuds headset available, and my personal favorite, the Apple in-ear headphones had been removed from the Apple main site (although I'd since discovered that other retailers, mostly academic institutions and universities, are now selling the in-ear headphones that Apple used to carry).
I liked the in-ear headphones, by Apple, because they feature a dual-element speaker device, and the sound is noticably richer and bassinet in these headphones.
The other significant issue, being that there was no official follow-up to suit the deprecation of the 3.5 mm audio jack, was that bluetooth audio monitoring, which came easy for wired headsets, yet comes at a cost, when it comes to wireless | bluetooth headsets, within the scope of real-time audio monitoring, when audio apps are being used; not such like one would expect of a phone call, in real-time audio monitoring - I'm referring to "any time" real time audio monitoring, such as would be implemented when listening in on the microphone input in an app such as AUM, Audiobus, or Garageband, for example. My particular use case for listening in on the microphone input is a similar notion to a phone call, where the speaker can hear themselves, as well as that the phone call itself, due to that the speaker elements are microphones, relays the background noise (on both the ends of either line, in a phone conversation).
There are some legacy issues and caveats, in general, in launching the latest enclaves of device ports, featuring multi-protocol high speed, in consideration of offering real-time bluetooth audio monitoring: running (and streaming) bluetooth audio apparently impacts other signal capabilities, such as WiFi and perhaps the cellular signal, as well. When there's a phone call going on, obviously the device's priority is set to focus resources on the phone call quality. Using other technologies, such as bluetooth, within the context of a phone call, is a "maybe" thing - perhaps the user does not use a bluetooth headset, whatsoever, for example.
Regardless, though, these bluetooth "profiles," that they are, (alternately, bluetooth serves file transfers, internet tethering, and dial-up PPP links, from supporting paired devices), are all quite old, at this point, of that they are still being implemented, even at this point in time, several device legacies beyond the original implementation and standardization of the Bluetooth profiles.
Audio becomes laggy, with latency amounting to echoing feedback in bluetooth audio monitoring, in formerly beloved audio monitoring app setup scenarios, such that AUM, Audiobus, and GarageBand had offered, given wired headset devices. With most bluetooth devices I had tried out, as audio monitoring devices within this similar setup of apps and headsets, I experienced the latency, feedback echoes, etc., and it makes the pleasure of hearing the voice play back, in situ, a hopeless wreck, on account of these audio latency flubs in execution of what was once a Golden Age of listening to one's own voice.
The SabineTek SmartMike+, and related SabineTek devices, such as the AudioWow, are recent releases of bluetooth audio monitoring lavalier microphones that are wireless, and as that they are lavalier microphones, they are supposed to be worn on the lapel (neck | shoulder) of the speaker. The SabineTek SmartMike+ does, in fact, allow for real-time bluetooth audio monitoring. There is one contingent caveat, however; it appears that the real-time audio monitoring feature can only be used along with the companion SmartMike+ | AudioWow apps, which is a let-down, as far as I would have hoped for, of that I would have liked to have used the Bluetooth SmartMike+ device as an input for an Inter-App-Audio (IAA) or Audio Unit (AUv3) software plugin chain, with real-time headphone audio monitoring of the input. As far as Android devices go, they are historically incapable, of any notion to speak of, in providing real-time audio monitoring, whatsoever, yet with the SmartMike+ and companion app, on the Play Store, real-time audio monitoring is achieved.
The box comes with the SmartMike+, USB-A to USB-micro cable, single-line short-cable headphone, a dead cat wind shield, for the mic, and a sponge windshield. The SmartMike+ features a 5 hour, 110 mAh lithium ion battery, which is plenty enough, for an outing | speaking session, and it takes about an hour to charge the device fully.
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