I dont have or use additional recording hardware on my iPhone 5s. If you you are only recording a few minutes on each file, the app works fine. It is a little bit annoying that you need to export the recording into another format to transfer. My main issue is that the app is unable to export a 1.5 hour lecture, every time I try to access it or export the app crashes. I think the only way I can do this is to transfer in realtime via audio cable which is less than ideal. Not the type of quality you would expect from a professional audio company.