Audio
September 9, 2025
Our sound and lighting courses can be found here!
In this week's episode we take a look at the Warm Audio WA 87jr SE microphone and test it against the classic Neumann U87 as well as the RODE NT-1 5th Generation. How will they measure up to each other? Can this $200 USD microphone hold a flame to the beloved $2,000 Neumann? Which one turns out to be Curtis' new favorite?! Let's find out!
If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. Our latest courses cover Sound for Live Streaming with the ATEM Mini and an Intro to Izotope RX. See https://school.learnlightandsound.com for more info!
Support my work creating videos by donating at Ko-Fi.com.
Gear used or mentioned in this episode (the links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases):
- Warm Audio WA-87jr Studio Essential microphone
- Warm Audio WA-87jr microphone
- Warm Audio WA-87 r2 microphone
- Neumann U87Ai large diaphragm condenser mic
The outro music for this episode is from Musicbed - “Dynamo” by Virgil Arles. Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.
Copyright 2025, Curtis Judd
Full disclosure, Warm Audio sent me the WA-87jr Studio Essential microphone free of charge for this comparison against my own Neumann U87Ai and a Rode NT-1 5th Generation (also sent for review), all recorded into a Sound Devices MixPre-3 II. This is from a voiceover perspective, not music/vocals.
The WA-87jr Studio Essential uses a gold-sputtered large-diaphragm single-backplate K87-style capsule, designed to emulate the vintage original Neumann U87 sound rather than the modern U87Ai. It has a fully discrete signal path (no integrated chips), 9 dB(A) self-noise (very good, matching my own measurements), 100-ohm output impedance (works with any modern preamp), and -37 dBV sensitivity, needing modest gain (43 dB on my MixPre for my relatively quiet voice). It shares its capsule with Warm Audio's $700 WA-87 R2. Unlike the step-up WA-87jr (which has switchable polar patterns, a -10dB pad, and a high-pass filter), this Studio Essential version is cardioid-only with no switches — fine for voiceover. It's a FET design (no transformer, unlike the R2), which likely contributes to its lower self-noise, and ships with a hard mount rather than a shock mount.
Testing: strong proximity effect available when wanted, plosives surprisingly well controlled given the open grille, no RF interference detected with a phone moved around the mic, some stand-bump transfer through the hard mount (worse than tapping the mic itself), and reasonably controlled off-axis coloration typical of any cardioid. A practical self-noise test (normalized to -23 LUFS, 80Hz/24dB-per-octave high-pass applied) measured a noise floor of -70 dB — excellent; room noise will be your limiting factor, not this mic. Build is solid all-metal with a 5-year warranty, hand-tested in Austin, Texas (likely assembled elsewhere), priced at $199 USD.
My take: surprisingly open, warm, and pleasant without being woolly, with detailed but not overly sibilant highs — impressive at this price. I'm swapping it in as my primary voiceover mic ahead of both my Rode NT-1 and JZ Microphones V11 (the V11's dark tonal character gets a bit lost once music is added behind dialogue, whereas the brighter NT-1 and this WA-87jr SE cut through better). The only real con is the lack of an included shock mount — available separately for $89, though at that point you might as well spend $10 more for the full WA-87jr, which adds the shock mount, pad, high-pass filter, and multiple polar patterns. Strong recommendation for an affordable voiceover mic. Get out there and make some great sound, and we'll talk to you again soon.
