Elgato Wave DX Review

Performance

The setup and installation of this couldn’t be much more simple. The microphone and Wave XLR interface all come with the right cables, and everything can only go in the obvious ports. XLR to XLR, USB to your computer and you’re ready to rock.

The microphone stand is pre-assembled, so just clamp it to your desk, and screw the microphone on the end, pretty simple.

The Elgato XLR cable just comes in a standard brown box, but the cable its self is every bit as premium as I could hope. It’s got a thick braiding on it too, which looks awesome.

The mount has magnetic metal spines on each part, so you can route the cables within it.

Overall, the whole thing just looks neat and tidy, and it’s super easy to get setup too.

With the microphone in place, you can easily move it around to suit. The tensioners on the joins allow you to move it more easily and lock it down when you get it just right.

Plus, the mount just sits in a socket, so you can lift it up and move it should you need to.

The XLR amp looks superb, and some LED lights make it easy to see what you’re doing. The dial has a lovely premium feel to it too, it glides around with a smooth action but does have some light tactile notches to it that make small adjustments easier.

You simply tap the dial to cycle through modes, and they’ll even turn red to indicate the microphone is muted.

The software is easy enough to work with, run the installer and let it go through any updates, and you’re ready to rock.

It’ll ask you a few simple questions, allowing you to choose all your devices.

Then once that happens, you have a mixing interface, that’s pretty much self-explanatory.

You can route audio through the mixer and amp as you see fit too, making it easy to get the right mix and balance.

Testing the microphone, I could not be more impressed. I must admit, I sound bloody awful, but I assure you, that’s just what I sound like as I’m a bit croaky this week. I read the blurb from the Elgato website with the microphone at a medium distance and mid-gain. I then repeated it at an extremely close range and low gain, and one more time at 3ft away with high gain. On each, you can hear different elements of my voice, and ambience, especially on the last one where you can hear a bit of an echo, but that’s because the mic was sitting just above my acoustic treatment. Either way, I’m very impressed by the clarity here.

I did one final test playing a few seconds of a cheap acoustic guitar with the microphone pointed at the sound hole at a distance of 1ft.

The levels are varied on this test, so please be aware if you’re using high volume or headphones. Start low, and turn up the test after the first run.

Recording