Logitech Blue Sona review: An excellent studio microphone for podcasters

The Logitech Blue Sona is a dynamic studio microphone aimed at podcasters and other spoken-word broadcasters. It’s quite expensive for a dynamic mic: you can get a decent handheld alternative for well under £50.

However, the Sona has several advantages over cheaper options, in terms of both practical design and audio quality. It’s an attractive choice for anyone seeking an easy way to make professional-sounding vocal recordings.

Logitech Blue Sona review: What do you get for the money?

At £281 the Blue Sona is quite the investment, but it does pack in a range of interesting features for the money. The squared-off shape is unusual, too: Logitech describes it as “camera-ready” and it could indeed look quite funky on a video stream. It comes in a choice of black and white finishes, and whichever colour you choose you get both black and red pop-shields in the box. 

The design isn’t just eye-catching: it’s engineered to capture the cleanest possible recordings. Inside, the diaphragm is set back from the front of the microphone, to minimise plosive and proximity effects, while an internal shockmount counteracts any accidental bumps and jiggles – a real boon if you want to desk-mount the mic. A balanced XLR output ensures an interference-free path out to your audio interface or mixer.

Logitech Blue Sona review: What does it sound like?

The sound quality of the Blue Sona is hard to fault. As you would expect from a dynamic microphone, the tone is warm with restrained highs but it isn’t unbalanced: there’s plenty of subtlety and detail across the whole frequency spectrum. Simply put, it sounds like a professional broadcast microphone.

It helps that the Blue Sona has a hypercardioid polar pattern that’s focused tightly forwards. This means that even if you don’t have the luxury of a perfectly soundproofed recording space, your voice is picked up clearly while ambient noise and echoes are cut out. 

The signal-to-noise ratio is exemplary, too, thanks to an integrated preamp. This doesn’t colour the sound in any conspicuous way but it enables the Sona to put out a much louder signal than other dynamic amps. Thanks to humbucking internal wiring there’s zero audible hiss or hum – although note that this feature requires +24V or +48V phantom power, and the mic won’t work without it.

If the sound isn’t quite right for your setting, you can pop off a magnetic cover at the rear of the mic to reveal a pair of switches. One engages a high-pass filter at around 250Hz, cutting out any low rumble that may be afflicting your recordings. The other is a “presence” control, which applies an EQ boost in the upper mid-range for a crisper tone.

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Logitech Blue Sona review: What could the Logitech Blue Sona do better?

The Sona is designed for a specific role, and it doesn’t make a great general-purpose mic. For example, some mid-range condensers have an omnidirectional mode for whole-room recordings, but that isn’t an option here. There’s no way to disable the preamp either, which could be an irritation if you have a preferred outboard preamp. 

The Sona isn’t suitable for on-the-go “to-camera” pieces either, simply because there’s no convenient way to hold it.

Logitech Blue Sona review: Should you buy it?

The Logitech Blue Sona isn’t for everyone. Sound designers will find its highly directional pickup pattern limiting, while singers and musicians may prefer a condenser microphone with a more sizzling, transparent top-end.

Even for its intended market, the Blue Sona isn’t necessarily a smart buy. Podcast producers don’t tend to have unlimited budgets and with a little EQ, compression and gating you can get a similar sound from a much cheaper microphone.

If you’re willing to splash out, though, the Logitech Blue Sona is a great choice for fuss-free, broadcast-quality recordings. Capturing clean audio is a breeze thanks to the integrated shockmount and preamp, and the Sona’s rich, balanced output means you can get away with little or no post-processing.