Logitech Blue Sona, analysis and opinion

the world of professional sound it’s complicated. Companies like Røde, Shure or Sennheiser have been competing with each other for decades. Now, in the middle of 2022, Logitech wants to enter fully with a microphone that is worth both radio (podcast) as for Twitter Y Youtube.

Until now, Logitech had competed in the gaming and professional sectors by launching quality peripherals. Both for professional office environments (with their renowned MX gear), and for gamers who have enjoyed their Logitech G line for decades (like the Pro X Superlight).

But what they hadn’t tried yet was launching professional audio equipment. And it’s one thing to produce good headphones and microphones for office and for gamers, and it’s quite another thing to start designing professional microphones for radio and Twitch, the place where the sound can only be excellent.

For this last step, Logitech bought Blue (company specialized in the audio sector) a few years ago. And, since then, the company has gradually merged both brands. Today we have with us the culmination of that purchase: the Logitech Blue Sona.

Once seen the technical specifications of the Logitech Blue Sona, let’s go to what really matters: the analysis. We have been with the microphone in our studio for three weeks and we will describe our impressions below.

Analysis of the Logitech Blue Sona by sections:

Careful, original and designed for both arm and tabletop

When we get the Logitech Blue Sona microphone we were surprised, first, by its design. Logitech has opted to go beyond the norm of traditional professional microphone design.

With a beautiful lunar white finish and a large black pop filter (and another spare red that looks great), the Blue Sona stands out on the desktop. If you do direct on Twitch or YouTube they will ask you for the model of the microphone, that is guaranteed and it is surely part of their mission.

In the box comes the microphone, a spare pop filter (so you choose between black and red), a nut that allows it to be attached to an arm or a table foot… and assembly instructions. In this sense, Logitech has forgotten to put an XLR cable, which would have been great.

Materials are good. Aluminum finished in moon white (it is not pure white, but grayish, very nice) throughout the microphone body and capsule -where the dynamic sensor that captures our voice is located- it is protected by shiny aluminum in the form of a mesh.

The equipment is manufactured to withstand transfers, removals and shocks. Without a doubt, one of the strengths of dynamic microphones: their durability. And then, it doesn’t require any care, as long as you don’t get them wet and don’t throw them on the ground too much, they should last us a couple of decades without a problem.

In our casethat we do not have an articulated arm for the microphone, we mount it on a table foot and it was as simple as putting on the adapter nut that comes in the box, adjusting it to the foot of the table and then to the Blue Sona. Then we plug in the XLR cable and activate the Phantom power (48 V) of our audio card.

Because, as we said before, it is a professional microphone that goes through an XLR cable. This means that the microphone is picking up an audio signal raw, and that it is another device that must convert this sound to digital so that the computer understands it. So it’s time to buy an external audio card to do that job.

In our case the tests have been carried out with a 2nd Generation Focusrite Scarlet Solo. You don’t need the best audio interface to get the most out of Blue Sona, so don’t worry, you shouldn’t spend more than 100 or 120 euros on this peripheral.

Logitech enters the fray with its best microphone yet

The headline of this section makes it clear. The Logitech Blue Sona is the highest quality microphone ever released by the company. In addition to being well finished, beautiful, and made of quality materials, the microphone sounds great.

I’ve had a Røde Procaster for years -dynamic and XLR connection- designed for podcasts and direct on Twitch. For years, this model, priced at about 200 euros (now it’s on sale), has been considered the best quality / price micro for users who needed a professional device but with an affordable price.

So when Logitech’s Blue Sona arrived, the bar was set very high. Yes, it is true that the Blue Sona is worth an official price of 359 euros, but competing with a company like Røde is not easy. The good news is that Logitech is in the running and fighting back.

The Blue Sona captures the voice in a clear, precise and full-bodied way. As usual in dynamic type microphones. It removes background noise and echo quite well to focus on the voice. Compared to the Røde, Logitech’s microphone is a small step above.

Additionally, the Blue Sona has two buttons on the back of the microphone: the first is called “Bass Cut”, which allows us to reduce the bass to control those voices with a very deep tone that saturate the signal; and the second is called “Presence”, and it gives more presence to the voice.

The good thing is that these two buttons are not digital equalizers, but they change the register of the microphone in an analogical way, so its activation is immediate and the sound quality is not affected. In our case, the sweet spot is to turn off the bass cutter and turn on the presence.

In a fairly well-prepared room, with 10 anti-echo plates, a curtain, books and an armchair, the sound it has given us has always been clean and full-bodied, just as is required on the radio. If you are a podcaster or want to put on a radio show, this microphone gives incredible performance.

As a weak point, it is a microphone that requires us to be well oriented, a foot or two from the dynamic capsule and not move too much. This is very normal in this type of microphone, but it must be emphasized. If we have come for a good sound, we must behave well in front of the microphone.

Røde and Shure have a problem and it’s called Blue Sona

The conclusions are clear and they are great news for all of us who love audio: there is a new player in the microphone sector. After years focused on gaming and the office, Logitech has a microphone that can deliver on any podcastno matter how big it is.

In a well-prepared room or studio, the Blue Sona delivers a warm, punchy, clean sound. It does not give the richness of nuances of a condenser microphone, but it does give the close-up that is so popular on the radio..

At our comparison with the Røde Procaster -with a spectrometer- the Blue Sona gives a similar result, although the option presence it helps the latter sound great in the midrange. The bad thing is that it costs almost twice as much.

In the price range in which the Logitech team moves, we have the Shure SM7Bconsidered the best dynamic microphone for podcast or streaming. We see this microphone every day on radio stations as powerful as BBC Radio 1 or Sirius XM where singers of the level of Bruce Springsteen or Adele use it.

For this, Logitech will have a hard time convincing those potential customers who want to make the leap to a professional microphone, no matter how good a job they have done with the Blue Sona. But it is also true that all those who choose Logitech’s microphone will not regret it at all.

The Litra Beam as an LED live light

To finish the analysis, it is time to quickly review the Logitech’s new LED light designed for streamers, since it acts more as a focus than anything else (although we have been able to use it as a gooseneck without any problem for reading or writing).

The lamp is called Litra Beam and they are easy to mount and install as you would expect. It comes in three pieces: LED, body and base. Once the three parts are united, we already decide if we want it mount vertically or horizontally since it integrates three 1/4″ threads (the usual ones in tripods) on two of its sides and on one of its ends. In addition, we can tilt it with a maximum range of 90º.

Litra Beam connects via USB-C from the lamp and the lamp to the computer via USB-A (so you don’t run out of Type-C ports, which are usually scarce). Then, in the same LED light, we find some buttons to customize the type of luminosity that we want.

We can increase and decrease the power of the LED, adjust the temperature of the light from 2,700 K to 6,500 K, and finally turn it off.. Also we can adjust all of this through Logitech’s G Hub software where you can create profiles for different scenesbut it’s so intuitive to use the LED buttons that you’ll forget about the program.

By 125 euros which costs the official price, is placed at the level of solutions from Elgato and other companies in the sector. Do we recommend it? If you are a streamer and you like to customize the scene well, Litra Beam is a good optionBut it depends a lot on your budget.