Elgato Wave Neo microphone review

Our VerdictThe cheapest of Elgato’s great mics, the Wave Neo delivers warm, clear speech recordings with low hassle at a decent price. Unfortunately, it also possesses a poor mute sensor, out to make me look dumb online, and is noticeably a step down from its older siblings in recording quality.

Our Verdict

The cheapest of Elgato’s great mics, the Wave Neo delivers warm, clear speech recordings with low hassle at a decent price. Unfortunately, it also possesses a poor mute sensor, out to make me look dumb online, and is noticeably a step down from its older siblings in recording quality.

ForWarm clear vocal recordings easilyPlug and playWorks with lots of devicesAgainstHuge mute sensor can be blindingly bright and easy to tripLacks a bit of crispness

ForWarm clear vocal recordings easilyPlug and playWorks with lots of devices

AgainstHuge mute sensor can be blindingly bright and easy to tripLacks a bit of crispness

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The Elgato Wave Neo is the newest mic out of the streaming kit company, following a legacy of very good microphones like the much beloved Wave 3 and Wave DX. While the Wave brand has a strong rep of quality mics, the Neo lineup is aiming to deliver more affordable and simple solutions.

In that vein, the Wave Neo costs $90 USD, making it the cheapest Wave mic to date, but it does make some sacrifices to get to that point.

It really is everything you need to get started and have solid spoken audio recording right out of the box.

Wave Neo specs(Image credit: Future)Condensers:1Directional patterns:Cardioid Polar PatternFrequency range:20 - 20,000 HzRecording sample rate:24 bitControls:MutePrice:$90 USD | £90 | $149 AUD

Wave Neo specs

(Image credit: Future)Condensers:1Directional patterns:Cardioid Polar PatternFrequency range:20 - 20,000 HzRecording sample rate:24 bitControls:MutePrice:$90 USD | £90 | $149 AUD

(Image credit: Future)

Elgato Wave Neo microphone set-up on a desk, with cables.

Condensers:1Directional patterns:Cardioid Polar PatternFrequency range:20 - 20,000 HzRecording sample rate:24 bitControls:MutePrice:$90 USD | £90 | $149 AUD

The included stand is quite good, but admittedly a little weird. It has a solid circular base with an 8 cm diameter and standard ¼ screw connector accessible underneath. The first half of the pole screws in simply, and has a cable grip at the back to keep things inline. The second half is attached to the mic via another smaller screw connector, offset to the side. It slides straight into the first pole using a solid inner metal piece for strength and a tabbed connector. If it sounds confusing, it can actually only go together one way, so it’s not so bad.

The stand brings it to a height that’s perfect for talking into, but it doesn’t lock in a way that stops it from being lifted out. You may learn this the hard way if, like me, you pick up your mic and have that solid base fall right on your foot. At least there are a tonne of ways to mount this mic, whether or not you use the included kit.

The Wave Neo mic can be pivoted backwards and forwards on various angles and will hold that position nicely. On the back you have an aux port for monitoring your audio and the recessed USB Type-C port which the braided cable is designed to fit into. You could use any Type-C cable if you prefer, though. The front is where the condenser mic is designed to be spoken into and it sports one of the largest and brightest capacitive touch mute LED I have ever seen—but we’ll get to that in a bit.

(Image credit: Future)

Elgato Wave Neo microphone set-up on a desk, with cables.

Generally, and especially for the price, voice recording is quite good. If your environment is quiet enough you should be able to plug this mic in and straight away have really decent voice recording capabilities. The sound isn’t quite as crisp and punchy as something like the Wave 3 but it’s warm and clear, which is what many will likely be after for streams, gaming sessions, or meetings.

It even works straight away plugged in to other devices like my phone, which is a nice surprise. With no controls other than mute on the mic itself, if you need anything dialled in or want to make changes you’re out of luck without introducing some software, however.

The Neo works with the Wave link software, which is excellent. Because my room has a lot of low computer fan noise and these are reasonably sensitive mics, it can be a huge problem. Instead, I was able to go in here and just turn the gain down enough so it wouldn’t pick that up. Of course you’ve also got plugins like Elgato’s own noise removal, if you need more help there, and as a plus it will let you keep the gain up for louder recordings. This all works well with Elgato’s Stream Deck too, which can help mitigate some of the lack of controls on the Neo itself.

So back to that blinding LED mute sensor. It’s so big and bright that when Elgato’s Wave Link Software gave me the option to turn down the brightness I was relieved. Yetthis ended up biting me in the aux.

When dim, the button is a bit less noticeable, so I didn’t realise I had been accidentally muting myself while recording until I thought I was done. I still didn’t know how I was muting myself, so I did some tests on the sensor. Turns out, it’s a fair bit larger than the LED panel so it’s easy to touch and unknowingly set off even when you think you shouldn’t be near it.

(Image credit: Future)

Elgato Wave Neo microphone set-up on a desk, with cables.

Buy if…✅ You’re after a good plug and play mic for meetings and calls:The Wave Neo comes with everything you need in the box to record casual speech with basically no effort on your part, and is plug and play with most devices.✅ You’re going for all Neo kit:Elgato offers bundles for its Neo gear, which drops the overall price of the gear combined.

Buy if…

✅ You’re after a good plug and play mic for meetings and calls:The Wave Neo comes with everything you need in the box to record casual speech with basically no effort on your part, and is plug and play with most devices.✅ You’re going for all Neo kit:Elgato offers bundles for its Neo gear, which drops the overall price of the gear combined.

✅ You’re going for all Neo kit:Elgato offers bundles for its Neo gear, which drops the overall price of the gear combined.

Don’t buy if…

❌ You can afford to upgrade to the Elgato Wave 3 instead:While lovely and warm, this mic lacks the clarity and punchiness of the Wave 3 and other mics in this price range. Not to mention the on-device controls. For streamers or content creators I definitely think the extra money spent on the Wave 3 is worth it. .

In a later recording I kept my hands away from the mic and still got muted out of nowhere and I just couldn’t figure out what I was doing. After a bit more testing I realised that braided cables with power running can set it off if they rub over it, including its own. Even after doing my best to remove hazards, I have had this device mute when I’m not really even sure of the cause. The sheer size of the mute sensor feels like an oversight but that it’s so easy to set off is a bit devastating on this device.

Elgato’s Wave Neo is a really solid sounding mic for the price that will bring a touch of warmth to your content, but in terms of recording quality it’s not kicking out our top budget or even top mid range mic choices any time soon. If the convenience of the Neo has you sold, I’d just make sure to leave that mute LED nice and blinding.

Elgato Elgato Wave Neo: Price Comparison

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The Verdict67Read our review policyElgato Wave NeoThe cheapest of Elgato’s great mics, the Wave Neo delivers warm, clear speech recordings with low hassle at a decent price. Unfortunately, it also possesses a poor mute sensor, out to make me look dumb online, and is noticeably a step down from its older siblings in recording quality.

The Verdict

67Read our review policyElgato Wave NeoThe cheapest of Elgato’s great mics, the Wave Neo delivers warm, clear speech recordings with low hassle at a decent price. Unfortunately, it also possesses a poor mute sensor, out to make me look dumb online, and is noticeably a step down from its older siblings in recording quality.

67Read our review policy

Elgato Wave NeoThe cheapest of Elgato’s great mics, the Wave Neo delivers warm, clear speech recordings with low hassle at a decent price. Unfortunately, it also possesses a poor mute sensor, out to make me look dumb online, and is noticeably a step down from its older siblings in recording quality.

Elgato Wave Neo

LatestToday’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11The Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in AprilWorld of Warcraft’s most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enoughSee more latest►

Latest

Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11The Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in AprilWorld of Warcraft’s most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enough

Wordle answers

Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11

the last of us season 2 trailer

The Last of Us season 2 trailer is a brief look at a story you should probably just play yourself in April

Image for World of Warcraft’s most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enough

World of Warcraft’s most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enough

See more latest►

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Our Verdict#

Our Verdict