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Jun 06, 2023

Elgato Wave DX review

Wave DX is aimed squarely at streamers and podcasters and certainly isn’t a jack of all trades, but it delivers well on its remit. Quality robust construction. Crisp speech-ready response. Excellent

Wave DX is aimed squarely at streamers and podcasters and certainly isn’t a jack of all trades, but it delivers well on its remit.

Quality robust construction.

Crisp speech-ready response.

Excellent handling of plosives.

Decent output level.

Mounting arm hard to tighten.

Tailored frequency response limits alternative uses.

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Aimed at streamers, podcasters and computer-based professionals, the Wave DX is a cardioid dynamic mic from Stream Deck designers Elgato. According to Elgato it is speech optimised, has a wide acceptance angle, utilises an internal pop filter and delivers good room noise rejection.

We understand the capsule was designed in cooperation with respected mic company Lewitt Audio, and the end address design is in keeping with other similar dynamic mics (Shure SM7B, Sontronics Podcast Pro and Rode PodMic).

Visually the mic is slick and understated. The mic chassis is hardened steel, and the black satin paint finish looks great. So far so good. The mic has a side-attached mounting arm with thumb tightener, and this incorporates a nifty two-part thread insert (3/8” and 5/8”), so it’s already equipped for all manner of mic stands and holders.

The mounting arm is also removable and can be mounted on either side, which is a nice touch, as is the branded blanking cap for filling the unused screw hole. We like the side-mounted arm as it means the mic cable is reasonably free. Even so, it does need to be coupled with a flexible stand so you can adjust the mic orientation properly (Elgato’s Wave Mic Arm LP for example).

Wave DX has an XLR connector for connection to a regular preamp or interface, but has no further on body options such as low cut filter. That said, Elgato also envisages its use with Wave XLR (£160), its compact single mic USB interface, and if you pair it with this system you’ll benefit from Wave XLR’s low cut filters and clip limiter. We tested it with a regular mic preamp and like most dynamics it needs a reasonable amount of gain. However, at 2.5mV/Pa, the output ranks well against its peers.

Sonically, Wave DX has a crisp upfront sound. There’s a moderate low frequency boost when you get in really close and although we couldn’t find a frequency plot there’s clearly a reasonable low cut in play coupled with a mid to high frequency boost to help articulate speech. It’s quite a tailored sound and therefore not best suited to general miking duties.

That said, for speech the integrated plosive control is excellent, and although you can get some distortion with extreme plosives, the effect is not particularly bad. Importantly, you’re probably not going to need a pop shield.

Podcast mics often opt for a supercardioid or hypercardioid design, and this can improve isolation in a multi-participant studio setting. However, from a presenter perspective, staying on-axis becomes harder. The Wave DX opts for a wider pattern, which we prefer, and in use we found we could work around the capsule end without any obvious difference to the tone.

So, do we have any gripes? A very simple one, and that is that the mounting arm is hard to tighten sufficiently. It’s a minor issue and one you could probably resolve with an extra rubber washer.

Nevertheless, there’s still a lot to like about this mic and we think for anyone producing podcasts, the crisp broadcast-ready sound, robust dynamic design, good handling of plosives and reasonably broad pickup pattern are all good features.

MusicRadar verdict: Wave DX is aimed squarely at streamers and podcasters and certainly isn’t a jack of all trades, but it delivers well on its remit.

"The Wave DX is a great microphone with some excellent clarity and full bodied audio that should really take your stream and content creation game to the next level."PC Gamer

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