Had this little guy for about a month now and I LOVE it. I have it going through an Alesis MultiMix 6 mixer. You do have to crank the gain but the mic is super quiet. As stated, the wind screen is tiny and WILL get lost (speaking for myself). At that point I think the pads off some old earphones could work. I think I've even seen replacement screens on Amazon. A low battery light would be nice, but no big deal at this price point plus those batteries are cheap as chips. They seem to last as well. Although I have extras on standby, the original battery hasn't been changed. Keep in mind I don't use it every day, but I do use it regularly. I think someone here said they got about a year of  use... I can believe that. Your mileage may vary.  I have a cheap Panasonic SD camcorder that is being replaced with a better HD model. Partly because of this mic. Construction seems solid. The wire is really not an issue to me. Glad they made it extra long....I mean if you're gonna give me a wire......Sound and pick up is amazing for the price. Use it to do voice overs on my videos, interviews, video chatting. A $2.00 adapter turns the mono signal to stereo to make my audio software happy. So far, the best value in my little home studio.