On the bottom of the microphone has the necessary buttons. As mentioned, the microphone has multiple membranes and that ensures that you can switch between two different directional characteristics. You do this with the button in the center of the bottom of the Talk Go: if you press it for a long time, you switch between an omnidirectional and cardioid characteristic. Press it briefly to mute the signal.
In practice
Next the multi-function mute button, there is also a volume wheel and a headphone output on the bottom of the microphone. Direct monitoring is available via this headphone output. The manual and online tutorial videos tell you that the volume wheel can adjust the volume level of the direct monitoring. In practice this does not appear to be the case; the volume wheel only controls the overall output level.
That means there is no way to lower your own voice. Aside from the odd fact that the manual and how-to videos state otherwise, it’s pretty impractical. Once you’ve plugged in the Jlab and plugged in your headphones, you can’t listen to music without hearing amplified ambient noise through it all the time. Unless you completely disable direct monitoring by selecting a different source for your input and output, of course, but that is not the best solution in every situation. It is quite a damper on the user-friendliness.As far as the user experience is concerned, there is nothing directly wrong with the Talk Go, but it is noticeable that nothing comes naturally. Not only do you have to change settings manually to disable the direct monitoring, even if you connect the microphone, it is not automatically recognized as an input or output device.
The sound
The sound of the microphone is at the level you can expect for this price. In cardioid mode, the Talk Go is incredibly sensitive to low-frequency information. Unsurprisingly, the plastic grille dampens virtually nothing in air pressure differences. The internal windscreen also seems to do nothing for p and b sounds. This ensures that voices not only sound somewhat nasal, but that you also get a big bang in your ears with consonants.
Do you want less ambient noise? your voice recording and if you therefore move a little closer to the microphone, you will notice that distortion occurs quickly. Even if you digitally turn the gain almost all the way down, you occasionally have to be careful not to include a distortion effect. In omnidirectional mode, the Jlab Talk Go seems a lot less sensitive to this, but then again it lacks the necessary definition in the sound.