JBL Quantum Stream Studio USB Condenser Microphone Review

The JBL Quantum Stream Studio is a premium USB condenser microphone with a wide range of advanced features, great noise cancellation and good sound. Its features give it a premium look and feel, but it may be ideal for users with more specialized needs.

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JBL Quantum Stream Studio

100 dollars 150 dollars Save $50

The JBL Quantum Stream Studio is a USB condenser microphone with a wide range of premium features such as four polar patterns, excellent noise cancellation, built-in EQ and software dynamic range compression, and a capacitive mute button. However, the instant microphone sound is a bit underwhelming and requires a more extensive configuration to sound its best.

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• A wide range of premium hardware controls
• Live volume monitoring on the volume dial is nice
• Four polar patterns add options
• Solid build quality
• Excellent noise cancellation without any software/filters

Disadvantages

• Sound quality only good (no third party processing/filters)
• Average EQ and compression using software
• Completely featureless Mac software

Price and availability

The JBL Quantum Stream Studio costs $149.99 and is available from JBL, Amazon, and Verizon. It also occasionally sells for $124.99.

This microphone is phenomenally built and designed

Starting with build quality and ease of use, the JBL Quantum Stream Studio is robust and feature-rich. It uses a metal body, various hardware controls and surprisingly informative lighting. Controls range from a button to change the polar pattern of the microphone for sound capture, to a capacitive mute button and a volume control with buttons to toggle between adjusting the microphone input volume and headphone monitoring volume.

When it comes to lighting, the volume dial provides a preview of your input’s volume level, allowing for quick guesses to see if your settings are correct. It also has a light at the top to show if the microphone is muted. These lights are pretty bright and informative, but I also found them a bit distracting with the flashing volume indicator and bright ring around the capsule. This means that the lighting and other functions can be turned off or otherwise configured in the software available on the JBL website (available for Windows and Mac).

All in all, the physical design of the microphone is incredibly well thought out, with a surprisingly wide range of hardware controls, lighting indicators and quality of life considerations. Premium physical build and hardware controls aren’t everything, but I’d generally rather have them than not.

Its sound quality is good but tinny

As good as a microphone may look, its sound quality is the most important aspect. The JBL Quantum Stream Studio has solid sound quality, but without tweaks like EQ and compression, its recordings sound a bit muddy and tinny. Notably, high-end mics like the Shure SM7B also sound somewhat muddy without editing.

However, despite my minor gripes with its out-of-box sound, the microphone performs quite well. Below is a sample of the sound of the microphone at different distances.

For the $150 price and the audio that requires tweaking and filters to sound its best, I’d have to consider this a mic for more advanced users who understand how to set up filters like EQ and compression for their voice. Fortunately, the microphone has these features built into its Windows software, albeit in a limited capacity.

The built-in EQ and dynamic range compression are stunning

In the microphone software – Windows only – you can adjust lighting, polar patterns and EQ, as well as toggle dynamic range compression. As a relatively simple compressor, dynamic range compression softens your loudest sounds and boosts quiet sounds to make them louder.

Unfortunately, he seems to struggle to reach this volume level at first, as in the recording below, you’ll hear a few particularly loud moments at the beginning of phrases as he speaks. before the sound evens out. Please note that the first moment of the audio below is extra loud.

In terms of EQ, the mic only has five frequency bands to adjust, which frankly isn’t nearly enough for advanced users’ fine-tuning needs. Additionally, the equalizer presets are rather disappointing and most of them didn’t improve the sound of my voice at all, except for the voice boost preset. Below are audio samples of each EQ setting.

I deeply appreciate microphones that offer built-in filters and effects because they make it so much easier for creators to use those effects. However, JBL’s implementation was stunning and I would recommend creators use other options to add EQ and compression for this mic. I’ve run an introductory audio sample below with my own EQ, compressor and de-esser filters.

This microphone provides a good canvas from which you can modify its sound with filters, but there is a lack of filters built into the software. Additionally, the software on the Mac is incredibly disappointing as it only allows for device updates and no other features.

Noise rejection is surprisingly great

While I may not like the sound of the microphone out of the box, it does an amazing job of canceling noise without the use of any noise canceling filters or effects that I’m aware of. Below is a test of desk noise, handling noise and fans set to high to judge how well it handles.

I expected all these sounds to be more audible, but in any scenario the difference in volume between my voice and all types of noise is excellent. Many microphones are highly sensitive to processing noise, knocks and hums or background fans, and the JBL Quantum Stream Studio handles them like a champ – it really focuses on your voice or multiple voices under different polar patterns.

Four polar patterns add great flexibility

This microphone allows you to switch between four different polar patterns: cardioid (front only), omnidirectional, stereo (left/right split) and bidirectional (front/rear). JBL provides use cases for each, such as recording a conference room with omnidirectional sound, music with stereo, and conversations with two-way. Below you can hear samples of me talking to all sides of the mic with each setting.

It’s also easy to set up on the fly, as the mic has a button on the bottom to cycle through the options. However, this also means that you can randomly change the polar patterns.

This feature won’t be useful for many people, especially creators who use it at their desk, but for those who need it, it may be one of the major selling points of this mic.

Should you buy the JBL Quantum Stream Studio?

I have deeply mixed feelings about the JBL Quantum Stream Studio. On the one hand, it offers a wide range of premium features, from excellent noise cancellation, polar pattern options and software features. However, the microphone itself is somewhat underwhelming in practice with a tinny sound and weak software, requiring external configuration such as post-processing or OBS audio filters to achieve the best sound.

Unless you know you’ll need the premium but nice features of this mic, like multiple polar patterns, I’d suggest most buyers look elsewhere. It’s certainly a decent microphone, but the mic part of the product isn’t premium enough to warrant the premium features and $149 price tag. Likewise, with the lack of proper software support, I wouldn’t recommend this mic for Mac users either.

If you want a premium microphone that offers a wide range of features but needs some work to get the best sound, this could be for you! While this mic is pretty good, if you want the complexity of features and settings, you might be better off investing in an XLR setup.

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JBL Quantum Stream Studio

100 dollars 150 dollars Save $50

The JBL Quantum Stream Studio is a USB condenser microphone with a wide range of premium features such as four polar patterns, excellent noise cancellation, built-in EQ and software dynamic range compression, and a capacitive mute button. However, the instant microphone sound is a little underwhelming and requires a more extensive configuration to sound its best.