Headset Mic vs Lavalier: Which to Rent for Your Show

This is one of the two questions we ask every customer before we ship a kit. What show are you doing, and do you want headsets or lavs? The answer changes the case we pack, the windscreens we include, and sometimes the advice we give on pack placement.

If you get it right, your actors sound natural and your audience forgets there are microphones involved. If you get it wrong, you spend tech week re-taping mics that keep falling off, your levels lurch every time someone turns upstage, and your sound designer develops a twitch.

This is how to pick correctly the first time.

The short answer

For a school or community musical with choreography, you want headsets. For a straight play, a period drama, an interview-style corporate event, or a film-shoot lookalike, you want lavaliers.

That’s the rule. Everything below is the reasoning, the exceptions, and the specific elements we ship in every MicKit product.

What’s actually in the kit

Every RentMicKits base kit includes two element options per body pack, so you don’t have to decide at checkout. You get both in the case:

• Point Source Audio CO-6 — a lightweight over-ear headset mic, omni-directional, skin-toned windscreens in four colors
• Point Source Audio CO-8WL — a waterproof lavalier with a cardioid pickup and a tie-clip, rated for sweat and light moisture

You can run the same pack as a headset one night and a lav the next. Some shows mix both across the cast — the lead uses a headset for “Defying Gravity” and a supporting character uses a lav because they’re in a wig that won’t hide a boom. You’re not locked in.

For shows with real sweat concerns or outdoor water risk, we also offer the MicKit Premium Element upgrade, which replaces the CO-6 with the Point Source GO-9WD-SH — a fully waterproof IP57-rated dual-ear headset that’s become our flagship recommendation for competitive dance, high-choreography musicals, and any show where the cast will perspire through a standard element.

Headset mics: what they’re good at

A headset mic boom positions the capsule about an inch from the corner of the mouth. That placement does three things that matter:

Consistent level regardless of head position. When an actor turns upstage to deliver a line to another character, the mic turns with them. A chest-worn lav loses 6-10 dB when the actor turns their head — a headset loses nothing. Your mix engineer doesn’t have to ride faders every time the blocking changes.

Better signal-to-noise ratio. Closer mic means less room sound, less orchestra pit, less HVAC, less audience noise. For a musical with a live pit band, this is the difference between intelligible lyrics and a wash.

Surviving choreography. A well-fitted CO-6 headset stays on through cartwheels. A lav under a costume rubs, shifts, and sometimes eats itself on a sequined bodice. For high-movement shows, headsets win by a mile.

The trade-off is visibility. A skin-toned headset in the right hair color is invisible from row six and beyond. From row one, and in close-up photography, it’s visible. For most live theater audiences this is fine. For video capture that will live on the school’s YouTube channel, you’ll see the boom in close-ups.

Lavaliers: what they’re good at

A properly placed lav is genuinely invisible. Hair-hidden lavs — taped to the forehead hairline with the capsule peeking through the first row of hair — are the gold standard for professional theater. Broadway shows run lavs almost exclusively because the lav can be hidden in ways a boom never can.

Period dramas and straight plays. If your production is set in 1890 and your costumes don’t include anything modern, a visible headset boom breaks the illusion. A hair-hidden lav preserves it.

Film-style corporate and interview work. Clip a CO-8WL to a lapel, run the cable under the jacket, and you look like a TED Talk. For anything broadcast or recorded, lavs are the default.

Costumes that fight headsets. Hats, hoods, wigs, and elaborate period hair can make a headset impossible to fit. A lav goes under the wig line or on the costume chest.

The trade-offs are placement labor and consistency. A hair-hidden lav needs to be taped by someone who knows what they’re doing, and it needs to be re-taped when the actor sweats it off at intermission. The CO-8WL cardioid pattern also means head-turn drops are real. Your mix engineer will ride faders more.

CO-6 vs CO-8WL specifically

The CO-6 is Point Source Audio’s omni-directional over-ear headset. Omni means it picks up evenly in all directions at close range, which in practice means it tolerates a sloppy fit. Even if the boom isn’t perfectly aimed at the corner of the actor’s mouth, it still sounds good. For a school crew that might not get the fit exactly right on every cast member, this is forgiving in the best way.

The CO-8WL is a cardioid lavalier with an IPX7 waterproof rating on the capsule. Cardioid means it rejects sound from the back of the capsule, which is useful when the lav is mounted on a chest and you want to reject the noise from behind the actor. Waterproof means you can sweat on it, clip it on an outdoor actor, or place it in a location where a costume steamer might hit it. Most lav capsules fail from moisture before they fail from age. The CO-8WL does not.

Both elements share the same TA4F (Shure) or 3.5mm locking (Sennheiser) connectors that fit our body packs. No adapters, no soldering, no surprises.

The MicKit Premium Element upgrade

For shows where sweat is the enemy — competitive dance nationals, high-choreography musicals, outdoor summer theater, any production with stage combat or extended physicality — we recommend upgrading to the Point Source GO-9WD-SH as your headset element.

The GO-9WD-SH is a dual-ear (both ears, not just one) IP57-rated headset. IP57 means dust-tight and immersion-resistant up to one meter. It’s the element we ship when a company is touring outdoors in July, or when a school’s lead keeps sweating through the standard CO-6 during “Good Morning Baltimore.”

The dual-ear fit is also more secure for aggressive movement. Actors doing lifts, flips, and physical theater stay mic’d through the entire number. For straight plays and low-choreography shows, it’s overkill. For the shows where it matters, it’s the difference between a working rig and a constantly-failing one.

Which to pick for which show

School musicals: Headsets (CO-6). Upgrade to GO-9WD-SH for heavy dance shows. Junior musicals: Headsets (CO-6). The forgiving fit helps younger casts. Straight plays and period dramas: Lavs (CO-8WL), hair-hidden. Shakespeare in the park: Depends on whether the cast is miked for reinforcement or broadcast. Headsets for reinforcement, lavs for broadcast capture. Corporate events and panels: Lavs, chest-mounted with tie clips. Wedding officiants: Lavs, clipped to a lapel or robe. Church services: Headsets for pastors who move, lavs for those who stand behind a pulpit. Dance showcases and competitions: GO-9WD-SH headsets, waterproof. Film and TV shoots: Lavs, hidden under wardrobe by a production sound mixer.

A note on wigs and hats

If your show uses wigs or hats on multiple characters, headsets get complicated. A wig goes over the actor’s own hair, and a headset boom wants to sit on top of the ear — which means the wig has to accommodate the boom, or the boom has to sit outside the wig line, which almost always looks worse than a lav would.

The cleanest solution for wigged productions is hair-hidden lavs placed at the wig’s forehead line, which means the capsule is hidden in the wig itself rather than the actor’s natural hair. Your wig master can help tape them in during pre-show. For shows with heavy wig work (period dramas, Shakespeare, certain drag-forward productions), budget for this extra prep time.

Hats are similar. A hat with a brim that comes down over the ear will fight a CO-6 boom. A hat that sits high on the forehead (crowns, tiaras, fascinators) is fine. Check your costume plot before you lock in your mic choice.

What about straight plays with long runs?

Community theater and regional productions running eight-week engagements of straight plays often default to lavs for aesthetic reasons — the audience comes to see the play, not the technology. For these, hair-hidden lavs are the right call almost every time, and the running tech crew will develop a re-taping routine that becomes second nature by the end of week two.

For a straight play with a shorter run at a school (say, a fall production of “Our Town” or “The Crucible”), lavs are still preferred for look but headsets are acceptable for level consistency if the cast is inexperienced. Err toward whatever your crew can execute reliably. A headset that always works beats a hair-hidden lav that falls off in scene three.

The hair color question

Point Source ships the CO-6 windscreen in four colors: beige, brown, black, and cocoa. You pick the closest match to each actor’s skin tone or hair color and swap them before the show. This is free, fast, and makes the visible difference between “barely there” and “obvious boom.”

We include a full set of windscreen colors in every kit. You do not need to order them separately. If your cast spans a range of skin tones (which most casts do), you’ll use more than one color — plan for it in your pre-show prep and you’ll be glad.

What about handhelds?

If your show has a concert-style number or a featured soloist who wants to perform to the audience with a mic in hand, we can include a wireless handheld in the same kit. This is common for revues, cabarets, variety shows, and pop/rock-style concerts. Talk to us when you book if you want a handheld included — we can substitute one of the body packs for a handheld transmitter and it costs the same.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are headset mics more fragile than lavs? No, the opposite. The CO-6 boom is built to survive choreography and repeated fitting. Lav capsules are small and tend to fail first from moisture, cable stress, or tape adhesive. With care, both last years. Without care, lavs fail faster.

Can I hair-hide a CO-6 like a lav? No. The CO-6 is an over-ear design with a rigid boom. It’s meant to be worn on the head, not taped into hair. If you want a hair-hidden look, you want the CO-8WL lavalier or a similar lav element.

Will a headset show up on Zoom or livestream? Yes, more than on a live audience. Close-up camera shots will show the boom. If you’re streaming your show to a wide audience, consider lavs for your leads or accept that the mics will be visible.

Do I need different elements for adults and kids? No, both the CO-6 and CO-8WL fit adult and teen users. Younger elementary-age kids may need the boom re-shaped slightly to fit smaller heads, and we include the adjustment instructions in the kit. Adult-fit is the default.

What if my show is half headsets, half lavs? That’s fine. Every pack ships with both elements in the case. Swap them per actor as needed. Many productions run this way — headsets for the chorus and dance leads, lavs for the character roles in period costumes.

Still deciding?

Tell us the show. We’ll tell you which element to run on each role. We spec this daily and we’re happy to talk through a cast list with you before you book. Email hello@rentmickits.com with your show title, cast size, and whether you’re streaming or recording, and we’ll send back a recommendation.

Or if you know what you want, browse the kits and we’ll pack both elements in whichever one you pick.