JLab Talk Pro USB Microphone, USB-C Output, Cardioid, Omnidirectional, Stereo, Bidirectional, 192k Sample Rate, 20Hz-20kHz Frequency Response, Volume, Gain Control, Quick Mute, Plug & Play

I bought this for my son to replace a dying microphone. He loves it for the recording capabilities and weight. His old microphone was too heavy to use with a microphone arm. This one was fairly light. It goes with a short stand to use on a tabletop or desk. The stand is easily removable so you can use other types of stands. Unfortunately his computer did not recognize this plug n play mic. There's nothing to download to make it work. I decided to replace his usb wire that came in the box with another one and "wallah", it worked! It's an older computer, so perhaps that played into it not working out of the box. It worked on newer laptops and computers in my home. There are rgb lights that might be nice for gamers. My son felt distracted by it. We eventually taped up all lights with black wiring tape because it's constantly on for mute and direction types. The mute button is an important feature. No need to unplug the mic or hassle with the computer to do it. All controls are on the mic itself. My son uses his mic for gaming and zooming for school. He has used it to do recordings for school projects and finds that it does it's job superbly. He's picky so that says a lot. And he takes a long time researching his electronics. We've had this mic for awhile already and it's still going. He uses it for about 12 to 16 hours a day, everyday.

I replaced my (borrowed) high end Schure mic and Auphonix screen/mic guard with the JLab Talk Pro. I'm very pleased and my podcast partner/producer agrees that the fidelity is not diminished in any way. A full, rich, studio quality sound blows my Jabra top tier headset out of the water. Easy to use, unobtrusive. Multi-vocal direction options - single user (very directed sound input), two user, group, room. And...you don't have to be one inch from the mic to get the full tonal rich sound thus it's unobtrusive, visually for folks on the other side of a video call.

So full disclosure: in my first attempts to set up this microphone, it did not work. It would not connect to any of my devices and I found out that if I used a different USB-C cable, something other than the cable provided, the Microphone would work; however, it sounded terrible, it would peak regardless of my gain or volume settings, it would have this metallic quality to the sound and it was so very muffled and no changing the settings would fix it. I assumed that was how the microphone was supposed to sound and that the cable was broken. I ended up submitting a return request but a few days later the PC I had been using, a rather old one at that, died. Over the memorial day weekend, while the ups office was closed, I built and assembled a new PC, and since the Microphone was still here, I set it up again, giving it the benefit of the doubt. It was the right call. The microphone sounds lovely, the gain works perfectly find and now instead of that metallic sound with the high pitch whine, I get this full warm tone to everything and it's just lovely, a great microphone and one that I can recommend alongside Microphones like the Yeti from Blue Microphone or the Quadcast from HyperX. However, buy this microphone at your own risk, I had a terrible first experience, and giving the microphone a second try was not an easy decision. When the Microphone works, it works great but when your computer isn't compatible with it, you would think it was some cheap 20 dollar microphone.

I am really happy about this purchase. I am on zoom approx 6-8 hours a day. I have always used headsets, but the problem I was running into was that after 6+ hours on the phone I was losing my voice. I figured our that while wearing headphone with passive noise canceling I was speaking at a higher volume to compensate for not hearing my voice. This microphone has changed that completely. I am speaking at a normal tone or even lower than usual, and when I go back and listen to my zoom meeting it is crystal clear. Do not hesitate if you are on the fence about buying the PRO or one mode lower. This will be fantastic for work. I cannot speak to musical production.

I did a lot of research for a microphone to use for teaching, online gaming and recording. I finally setting on the Jalb TalkPro. The microphone arrived on time and looked great. Well organized package and simple set up instructions. When I followed the steps the the computer did not recognize the device. The mic also would not unmute. When I pushed the button nothing happened and it stayed red. I tired trouble shooting and finally reached out for help. I emailed Jlab asked for help. I got. a message it might take a while to get back to me due to Covid. (no problem, I get it). I then reached out to Amazon for a return when it lead me to work with one of their techs. Long story short that process took over an hour and I left very frustrated (not Jlab's falut). I returned the first mic and orders a second. That one came on time as well. looking to be in great shape. This one would unmute I could tell the mic was picking up sounds but again my computer (a MacBookpro) was not recognizing the mic. like the first time I tired on a second computer with the same problems. During this time of trouble shooting the mic stoped picking up sounds and put itself on mute and would not unmute. That day Jlab got back to me I explained the problem and without any trouble shooting just said I got a faulty unit and should ask for a replacement. I emailed back saying I was already on my second mic and think this project is not a good one. They said they do not believe their projects are bad and will pass on my story to another department. I returned the mic and then went to a different brand and when that came it worked. No problems. Jlab sent me two bad mics in a row and was professional with costumer service but did not try to keep me as a costumer. There are many great reviews for this product. S0 I would say order with caution.

Had a JLab mike that I got used from a friend. It was all beat up but still worked great for a couple years. Finally got a new one with more controls on it. Volume is great, gain control nob is fantastic and the multiple pickup profiles keep out all the background noise. It also has an attachment point for a mic arm though I still use the stand it came with.

UPDATE: Second unit had same issue; I inquired about sending a generic non-JLab USB-C cable which would resolve the issue but they couldn't/wouldn't. That's a bad look; downgrading from 4-stars to 3-stars. After testing several condenser mics, this is the one I’m keeping. The tripod is very sturdy metal with rubber tips; really nice. Mic has both 5/8” and 1/4” threads for attaching to mic stands and booms; lots of options. Headphone jack on bottom, and a headphone volume knob on back. The onboard headphone volume control is separate from the system volume settings, a real plus. The Gain knob does what you expect, and is a big reason I like this mic. Many mics don’t include their own gain control, relying solely on the OS system setting for Mic Input. My experience with JLab: the unit I bought did not function unless I used my own USB cable. JLab was very responsive however, did an immediate RMA, and is sending a whole new unit to me which I expect to resolve the issue. So bad news/good news, but in the end I’m satisfied. Nitpick: the Quick Start Guide does not show how to change the directional pattern recording modes, and it doesn’t explain what the LED light on the bottom is for (decoration only, no functionality, not an indicator). FYI, the current Amazon description says a lithium battery is required—NOT TRUE—there is no battery needed.

tl;dr: 2 stars -- sorta good but a huge headache to get there. Not sure if I'm going to keep it. I broadly like everything about this mic but run Windows 10 on the machine I wanted to use it with. The build quality is solid, the stand is a moderate footprint but stable, and the sound quality is good. Well. The sound quality is mostly good. Starting with Windows 8 MS introduced a bug in their USB mic drivers that makes them *extremely* quiet. This doesn't impact mics that have dedicated/custom drivers from the manufacture (some other USB mics, most/all webcams/etc). As far as I can tell the JLab Pro does not have anything like this so in order to get reasonable audio volume out I have to install a collection of audio utilities and fiddle with them. I know that *technically* that makes this a Microsoft problem but (evidently) everybody knows about this and there are ways to work around it as a manufacturer so I'm docking points from JLab here. And a random note: the USB cable that came with it felt like good build quality but didn't work at all or my Mac. Basically if I used it the Mac didn't detect the hardware. Switching to a different cable and it was fine. Overall it isn't ideal and I can't decide if I'm going to return or not. Like I said, I like it when I can make it work and it sounds fine and at a deep discount it may be a reasonable purchase if you have specific circumstances where you can deal with a fickle mic. NOTE: I *am* using the correct mic pattern and the gain on the mic itself is turned all the way up as is the in-windows audio input levels. I call this out since those are the first things to check and this doesn't seem to be an issue that I can configure my way out of with the standard set of tooling available.