Elgato Wave 3 Microphone Review

Up Close

All Elgato (elgato?) products come in very sleek packaging with a soft blue background and clear product imagery. It’s a strong style that will be familiar to anyone who has adopted their Stream Deck into their world. If you haven’t, you should. It’s really handy even if you don’t stream. Anyway, back to the Wave 3.

  

Opening any new product is always an event. Some, mice and keyboards, can be a little sterile because they’re a box for a product and you’ll never use them again. Audio always has more theatre to it and the Wave 3 is no exception with a nice box and plenty of carefully moulded innards to hold it all. You feel like you’re getting your monies worth before you’ve got to the main event.

  

With any microphone you want a long cable for best positioning, adn the USB Type-C to Type-A supplied with the Wave 3 is long enough for all but the most ‘distant from their system’ user.

  

A lot of microphones look very similar, because they do a very similar job. The Elgato Wave 3 resembles a Rode NT-USB more than a Telefunken U47, which can be handy if you don’t want any misconceptions. 10 internet points to the first person to get that reference.

  

The dial on the front is multifunction, with an LED to indicate which mode you’re in. Press once for Mic Gain, twice for monitoring volume and thrice for the mix between the headphone and the microphone. What on headsets is called Side Mix. It helps to stop you shouting because you can still hear your voice. The row of LEDs below indicate where you are on the latter two functions, and how near to clipping you are on the gain stage.

  

The stand is stable and very adjustable. Naturally with a cardioid pattern you won’t want it anywhere but facing your mouth, but we guess someone will find a use for this level of maneuverability. Maybe you live blog whilst having inversion therapy, or maybe you’re Batman.

  

Lastly the connectivity on the Wave 3 is a USB out and a headphone jack for monitoring purposes.