Microphone Performance

Underneath the steel grille of the Elgato Wave:1 is a 17-millimeter electret condenser capsule protected by a multi-layered internal pop filter. From what I can tell after a lot of A-B testing, it is the very same capsule Elgato is using with the more expensive Wave:3 microphone.

If you're at all familiar with condenser microphones, you already know what to expect: good ones sound great and offer excellent dynamics, but are very sensitive, so they're not an ideal choice for noisy environments, or for instances where you're not the only person talking as they can and will pick up anyone in your room. If that's your situation, you need a dynamic microphone—no condenser microphone will fulfill your needs.

Elgato tried to fight the inherent characteristics of a condenser microphone by giving the Wave:1 a tight cardioid polar pattern, which means it should in theory pick up sounds directly in front of the capsule, while ignoring everything coming in from the sides or behind the capsule. In practice, your audience will still hear a certain amount of noise from your surroundings, such as whacking of your mechanical keyboard, loud case/GPU fans, and street traffic. Regardless of how you use the Wave:1, don't expect it to fully mute your environment. Despite that, the Wave:1 isn't an ideal choice for recording multi-instrumental music or interviews as it doesn't offer any other, more suitable polar patterns. This really is a single-user streaming microphone, and that's exactly how it should be used.


The built-in ADC (analogue to digital converter) offers 24-bit/48 kHz recording resolution, which is a step-down from the 24-bit/96 kHz offered by the Wave:3 microphone, although it should be noted that you won't ever stream in 24-bit/96 kHz anyway, so you're not really missing out on anything worth mentioning. The ADC also uses a hardware low cut filter ("Enhanced Lowcut Filter" in the Wave Link app). This filter cuts frequencies under 80 Hz out from the microphone signal in order to reduce audible boominess. This filter can be toggled on and off. If it removes a noticeable amount of depth from your voice, you'll definitely want to turn it off.

The ADC is equipped with a technology Elgato calls "Clipguard," which aims to remove any traces of clipping (distortion caused by shouting). According to the manufacturer, a second audio channel runs inside the microphone at a reduced volume. If peaking occurs—you get overly excited and start shouting, for example—the microphone instantly switches to that second channel, where the recorded sound is quieter, and delivers that to your audience. As you'll see in the following microphone samples, the Clipguard technology works great and proves really useful in everyday usage. Fear not if you want your audience to experience the full range of your emotions, though; Clipguard can be toggled off in the Wave Link app.

As for ideal positioning, Elgato suggests we place the microphone at around two fists (~20 centimeters) from our mouth and start with its gain set to 40%. The general idea is to keep the gain as low as possible and the microphone as close to the mouth as possible. That's the optimal way to reduce background noise to a minimum with the best possible sound quality. Of course, if you think you're too quiet with the gain set to 40%, by all means, do increase it to a more acceptable level. Just be aware that increasing the gain (sensitivity) of a condenser microphone capsule makes your surroundings louder. When the Wave:1 is set to maximum gain, you'll hear every creak of your chair, every smack of your lips, whirring of your quietest case fan, and just about everything else happening around you. During my testing, I wasn't comfortable setting the gain above 60%, nor did I feel the need to do so, not even when I had the microphone sitting on the table, about 40 centimeters from my mouth.

Let's listen to some microphone samples. I've recorded the first sample by putting the microphone on the table in front of me (between myself and the keyboard), around 40 centimeters away from my mouth, as that's how anyone without a boom arm will use it. The second sample was recorded after installing the microphone on a boom arm (Rode PSA1) and putting it close to my mouth. I've used the gain settings I felt most comfortable with—60% for the first sample and 50% for the second one.




Two things are immediately apparent: The Elgato Wave:1 microphone sounds really good and massively benefits from being close to the mouth. When I'm talking into it from the suggested 20 centimeters, my voice sounds very natural, with a pleasant depth and timbre. It should also be noted that the integrated pop filter seems to be doing a great job of handling plosive speech sounds (T, K, P, D, G and B) as there's no audible boominess even in the most delicate parts of what I'm saying. The quality remains very decent when the microphone is placed on a table stand and the distance from my mouth is doubled, but if your goal is to make your stream sound as good as possible, the Wave:1 definitely needs to go on a boom arm. Unless you're very short, you won't be able to get close to it while it's sitting on your table. One other option is to get yourself a pair of Wave Extension Rods. This $10 accessory will allow you to easily increase the height of the microphone, bringing it much closer to your mouth, which makes it sound significantly better. Or you can put it on a stack of books, an empty box, or anything else you might have at hand, as clumsy as that may be.

Let's introduce some background noise. The following two samples are recorded in the same way as the first two, only this time, I'm typing on my mechanical keyboard positioned behind the microphone. My keyboard (Corsair K70 RGB) uses Cherry MX Red mechanical switches.




These samples fortify my stance: You really have to bring the Wave:1 close to your mouth, either by using a boom arm or the aforementioned Wave Extension Rods. The mashing of my mechanical keyboard is much more audible with the microphone sitting on the table, 40 centimeters from my mouth, than when on a boom arm, close to my face (20 centimeters). The closer it gets, the less gain you need to use to make it sound good. As a result, the capsule becomes less sensitive and prone to picking up background noise.

In this sample, I'm alternating between my normal talking voice, whispering, and shouting to test overall capsule dynamics and the Clipguard technology, which was left on at all times. After that I recorded a sample to further demonstrate the Clipguard technology by turning it off, shouting into the microphone, and then turning it on and repeating the process. Headphone users beware, this is going to be loud!




These two samples demonstrate the excellent dynamics of the Elgato Wave:1 microphone, but also show off one of its best features, the aforementioned Clipguard technology. This isn't just a slapped-on, half-baked feature; it actually works, and works really well. With the gain set to a normal, usable level, it's next to impossible to distort the microphone by shouting. While this might not be as important to someone who's constantly calm and doesn't tend to get emotional in the heat of battle, most users will love the safety Clipguard provides. You can pretty much forget about clipping and focus on other aspects of your stream, and that is a nice peace of mind to have.

Finally, here's a direct comparison of the Elgato Wave:1 and Wave:3 microphones, just so you don't have to go back and forth between their reviews.