Customer Ratings & Reviews

The Wave Neo is Elgato’s entry level USB mic for everyday users who want excellent mic sound without any fuss. Elgato delivers on this promise with one exception – see comments below about the excessively bright LED. PROs • The default sound is quite good. The mic is plug and play and requires no fine tuning for decent sound. The mic will be recognized as an input source without installing any additional software. • It’s lightweight, low profile, and made of sturdy finished aluminum. The base is thin enough that I can slide my desktop computer’s keyboard over its base a couple of inches to bring the mic just a little closer to my mouth, which helps sound quality. • You can mount the the microphone directly on the base, or use the extender to raise it a bit higher and closer to your mouth. The screw that comes up from underneath the base has a D-ring so you don’t even need a screwdriver. • There’s an LED strip that’s white when the mic is on. A gentle touch of the strip mutes the mic and the strip turns red. It’s a great visual indicator, especially since the strip is a decent size. • Elgato allows you to customize the sound coming out of the mic with their free optional Wave Link software. This software allows customizations by downloading plug-ins from Elgato’s marketplace. While there are only a handful of plug-ins, Elgato has their own free ones for EQ settings, noise reduction, and even making your voice sound like a post-apocalyptic broadcast a-la Fallout. CONs • The optional Wave Link software once installed on a Mac shows up as Corsair Memory, Inc. on the Login items of System Preferences. I’ll never remember that that’s for my Wave Neo. They should really register with a more obvious name. The software is a little buggy. When first installed on my Mac, it kept crashing when I launched it. But a computer reboot stabilized it. Then, when trying to use my headphones to monitor the output, I couldn’t hear anything from my monitor headphones. Finally, I toggled the monitor output just a bit and I could hear. • Similarly, the website for the Wave Link plug-ins is just as buggy. Once I download a Mac compatible plug-in, it recommends other plug-ins that are the Windows compatible ones, even though there are Mac versions. It’s very confusing. • And lastly, Wave Link software when running with Elgato’s plug-ins uses 35% or more of my CPU! Unless you need sound effects, you may want to avoid using Wave Link. • The LED light on the mic is annoyingly bright. I suspect many people will want to dim it. But to do that, you will need the Wave Link software which has a setting for it. Otherwise you will have a permanent key light for your chin. The good news is once the LED has been dimmed, you do not need Wave Link running, or even installed to keep the light dimmed. • The mic does not fit snuggly into the extension pole. There’s a little bit of wiggle that can introduce noise when touched and just feels cheap versus the rest of the build. • There’s no option to set the mic’s input pattern. It only picks up sound from the front side, i.e., a cardioid pattern. That means you can’t use it, for example, to record a face to face interview. • Despite a fixed cardioid input, the mic picks up a faint amount of sound from the back side of the mic. My other mic does not pick up backside sound at all, albeit, it’s more expensive. You might have to be careful of volumes causing echoes. • The cable that comes in the box has a USB-C plug for the mic’s port, but the other end of the cable is USB-A. That’s a very odd choice given that USB-A is no longer the standard. You can, of course, use your own cable, but the included cable has an nice form fitting plug for the mic side. This is a very solid entry level mic that works great out of the box. If you need a simple mic for video conferencing, streaming and recording, it’s a solid value for its price. With the optional Wave Link software, you can boost its functionality. And though it’s optional to use Wave Link, I think it’s unfortunate it’s needed to turn down the LED brightness. For that and the overall experience of the Wave Link software, I deduct one star, but still recommend the mic.

TL;DR - The Elgato Neo Wired Cardioid Condenser USB Microphone is a great option if you want easy-to-use equipment for not just podcasting and game streaming, but also for recording vocals and acoustic instruments. The noise floor of the mic is low enough to give it great dynamic range, and the audio quality is excellent for being an all-in-one unit. An added bonus is the included headphone output for use as either an audio monitor output or as your audio output. The white finish also stands out among a sea of nothing but black equipment that you normally choose from. The only problem is I'd like the touch-sensitive power/mute indicator to either be dimmable or something that can be disabled, but at least software isn't required to use the indicator. Unboxing at setup: Elgato boxes this mic well, even if the packaging is plain. You'll find most everything you need in the package - the mic itself, a white base and stand for the mic, a sleeved USB-A to C cable, and all the mounting hardware. I would have liked to see either a USB-C to C cable and A-to-C adapter, or both the standard A-to-C cable and a C-to-C cable since laptops, tablets, and phones are going that way these days. No tools are required for assembly. Everything is well-protected. Assembly is easy, with a single thumbscrew to attach the base to the stand and a second thumbscrew that allows for the upper part of the stand to be easily removeable from the bottom part. The bottom part of the stand has a soft-touch wire guide in a slot that works well. Usage: You can use this mic without any of the Elgato Wave Link software. Windows will recognize it as a standard USB audio device. You'll just want to make sure that audio is routed out of your main speakers and not the mic's audio output. With the Elgato Wave Link software, you'll be able to mix the input of this and other microphones, audio sources such as web browsers, music editing software, and games, and even control the balance of those inputs with ease. The software is also surprisingly lightweight for what it is. Honestly, I find Wave Link to be a huge part of why I scored this microphone 5 out of 5 stars, especially with VST plugin support. With other operating systems, the Wave Neo mic shows up as a USB audio device as long as the operating system supports USB audio class devices. I was able to use this mic with older versions of Windows, macOS, and on phones with USB-C connections (iPhone, Samsung S23, and Moto Razr). It worked as expected using other platforms. It was even recognized with an older Android TV, which allowed for "Hey Google" functionality. The noise floor really impressed me. While leaving my computer as close to 0DB as possible (intake, exhaust, and GPU fans off, CPU fans set to their lowest operating speed, AIO pump at 80%, and behind something to block PSU sounds), I would have to amplify the recorded input in Audacity by around 150% before you could see noise on the waveform; My basement's noise floor on a calm wind day is somewhere around 39 db A-weighted. The only real shortcoming was that the mic mute indicator lacked any sort of customization. I would have loved to have dimmed the white light, as it was at least as bright as any of the RGB on my most recent computer build. In conclusion, the Elgato Wave Neo Wired Cardioid Condenser USB Mic is a solid choice for those looking at podcasting, game streaming, or recording live instruments. I wouldn't consider it a pro-class mic, but the sound quality is there and it's much easier to use than pro-level equipment will be at the cost of giving up some customization.

This is a great sounding overall Microphone for streaming/gaming with friends, even *gasp* video conferences for work. ****SETUP**** It comes in a simple box with a fixed stand, and a USB C cable. The only downside is they made their cable a custom shape to fit in the back, so if you damage your cable and use just a normal USB-c the back of the microphone won't have clean lines, but it's in the back. However, on Windows 10, I plugged the cable in, and it was detected instantly and ready to, though only downside since it has a 3.5 mm jack for headphones it took over my headphones and I had to go into settings and switch back to my headphones, so be aware when you plug in for the first time you'll have to switch your sound output back to where you want it. ***Usage*** Without any other software though I was able to add it to my current setup and OBS without issues. However I recommend downloading the Wave software from Elgato as it gives you functionality and tuning of the microphone as well adding VST plugins to change and tune your sound. Also it has a nice LED on the front that is white when the microphone is recording and red without, using the wave software you change the intensity, and its large enough that you can't miss your mic being muted or open, so less of a chance of chat yelling at you that your muted. The only major downside is the Mic stand itself is fixed height and I would have liked the ability to raise or lower based on my setup. But its a minor bug for good voice sound. Overall I'm happy with this mic, and the wave software from elgato and easy intregration with my Stream Deck from them is a great plus and am very happy with this Mic.

The El Gato Wave Neo wired USB Microphone is a pretty little neat device. It picks up the voice very well and it filters out other noises, thus providing a clear voice reproduction. The set up is basically plug and play, nothing complicated. It looks nice it is a very solid build. The stand it comes with is very sturdy and compact to fit most set ups. The stand does come with its own small cable channel to help with wire management. But what i am most impressed with is the audio quality it records at. Like stated above outside noises at cancelled out unless they are very loud, and it only captures the speaker's voice. It is perfect for those voice overs when the original audio comes out distorted or even to have meeting with. The sound quality is very professional, clean and crisp as it should be expected. I would highly recommend this microphone if you are looking for a standalone microphone for your meetings video production. Th microphone head itself does have an led light that makes it look stylish and the solid white stand makes for a clean set up.