Elgato Wave 3 vs Blue Yeti [USB Microphone] | Direct Comparison

welcome back everybody to another episode of direct comparison in today's episode we're going to take a look at the recently released elgato wave 3 usb microphone and see how it compares both in terms of audio quality and available features to what many consider to be the gold standard of usb microphones the blue yeti now before we begin i want to disclose that i received the wave 3 microphone for free from elgato to create this video however because i use my blue yeti microphone all the time for my content i am genuinely interested in the results of this comparison myself and i'd love to hear your opinions as to which microphone you feel sounds better and which i should continue to use moving forward so let's kick this comparison off by first looking at the general build quality and design of each device with the base stand attached the blue yeti microphone stands tallest at roughly 11.5 inches though most of that is attributed to the stand as the microphone alone is only about 7.5 inches the wave 3 is much shorter standing at a mere 8.5 inches and only 6.3 inches without the stand both mics have a nice weight and feel to them and sitting on their included bases you'll probably never have a problem with them tipping over or anything like that however the blue yeti does feel a little bit more sturdy thanks to its heavy alloy used for its main housing the downside to this is that the yeti is much heavier and kind of a pain to position initially if you're using a cheaper boom arm by itself the blue yeti microphone is about 1.2 pounds and throwing the included base in on top of that adds an additional 2 pounds not necessarily the most ideal mic to lug around if you travel a lot the wave 3 on the other hand is much smaller and lighter opting for a solid plastic design for the body and a heavier metal for the base because of this the wave 3 weighs only 1.2 pounds with the base attached and half of that with the base removed this makes transporting it around much easier and finding the perfect position with a boom arm less of a hassle on the blue yeti there's four controls under the blue logo there's a mute button that will blink red when muted and hold a solid red when unmuted under that is a volume knob that can adjust the output monitor level on the back of the microphone are two more knobs the top one is for adjusting gain which will control how much sound the microphone will pick up and under that is the polar pattern selector where you can choose between four different options depending on what you plan on recording while all these options are great and give the blue yeti a ton of additional functionality for multi-purpose users i generally don't make use of any of the patterns outside of the cardioid option but the wave 3 has a much more conservative button layout on the front panel there's only a single dial that can be pushed inwards to toggle between three different settings the first setting is your gain the second is volume of your output monitor and the third is an option to balance your computer's audio with your output monitor assuming you're using the 3.5 millimeter jack on the mic itself and because elgato's hardware is targeting more of my demographic mainly content creators and streamers it is built specifically around the cardioid pattern so you won't get any of those special audio pattern options like stereo or on the directional that the yeti offers since these are both usb microphones they're both incredibly simple to set up the blue yeti utilizes a usb mini connection and the wave 3 uses a usb-c connection both units are simple plug-and-play and windows 10 should recognize and add them to the device list however unlike the blue yeti the wave 3 also is compatible with elgato's new wavelength software which i'll talk about more in a bit now an interesting thing about this wave 3 microphone is that you don't actually need an external pop filter for it because it features an internal pop filter already you can always attach an external pop filter to it including one specifically designed for the wave microphones to help minimize those poses even further but either way you're going to get far less of that popping sound with the wave 3 than you would get with the blue yeti now overall i think i preferred the design of the wave 3's button layout one of my biggest problems with the yeti is that the gain knob is sitting on the back of the microphone while the monitor volume is on the front the wave 3 however has the knob front and center and it's much more convenient to just press in on the button to toggle between both settings another thing i love about the wave 3 is its touch sensitive mute button now i've been using the blue yeti for years now and this is more of a result of regular wear and tear but for some reason the mute button doesn't seem to register when i click on it directly anymore and only mutes properly when i push the button in at an angle but the wave 3's mute is nice and responsive and just softly tapping the top of the unit instantly mutes my output and changes the led around the lower knob to red i think from a design perspective the wave 3 is a clear winner and has a really nice compact look to it that fits in nicer with my setup but of course the biggest factor when determining which microphone to buy should always be the actual audio quality more specifically how clear your voice will sound and how well it filters out unwanted background sound and for this section i'm going to talk about each unit while recording from that particular device but i'll be sure to include a more control test with identical audio later on so here we have the blue yeti this is the microphone that i have been using for the past several years now and it's been a pretty reliable device with some nice clear audio according to blue's website the yeti records 16-bit audio at a sample rate of 48 kilohertz it provides some great professional quality audio for a reasonable price and it should be perfect for anyone interested in doing podcasts live streaming voice-overs or even regular activities like using discord or video chat conference apps the wave 3 on the other hand has arguably a more full sound it can record 24 bit audio at an impressive 98 kilohertz though it's important to note that windows for whatever reason sets the default audio quality down to 48 and it needs to be manually cranked back up through the windows sound settings i think the biggest benefit i'm noticing while recording from these two microphones right now is that i can sit much further back from the wave 3 to record despite both devices being in the same place and having their game set about half way and while it does seem to be picking up a little bit more background audio we can always tweak it further using the wave 3's proprietary wavelength software now the blue yeti doesn't have any sort of program that accompanies it you simply plug it in windows should recognize it and you're good to go the same is true with the wave 3 mic but if you're looking for a little bit more control you can always download a program off of elgato's website called wavelink that unlocks a lot more functionality this program is a godsend for content creators especially for those of you interested in creating live stream content as it not only offers full compatibility with elgato's other products like the stream deck but it also allows you to properly mix your audio input to balance out your microphone along with your other audio signals on top of that you'll notice two unique options on this menu the low cut filter and the clip guard now the low cut filter is intended to cut out all that background sound like your computer or air conditioning however i found that this setting kind of hurts the audio quality and it just isn't worth using as long as you carefully monitor your gain levels and make some tweaks in post clip guard is designed to help avoid that distortion that happens when your audio level peaks in the red essentially what it does is when the software detects that your volume is going over the threshold it will reroute your voice into a new signal path at a lower volume again these types of artificial live adjustments are usually detrimental to users who are carefully monitoring their audio levels manually but it does a pretty decent job and if you like to yell a lot when you get excited in a game or if you're like me and have a parent that likes to scream for you then it could save your audience from having to listen to that crackling audio finally let's wrap up with the sound comparison now to do this properly i'm going to try and record identical samples of audio from different circumstances with both microphones attached to their base stands in roughly the same position and i want you to be the judge which microphone do you think produces the better sound quality welcome back everybody to another episode of direct comparison welcome back everybody to another episode of direct comparison and that wraps up this episode of direct comparison overall i think it's safe to say that the wave 3 is a nice improvement over the blue yeti it's lighter is capable of recording higher quality audio and it comes with some great proprietary software that will greatly benefit streamers however the blue yeti still even after over a decade offers some stiff competition and at a much lower price sure it's big and heavy and kind of an eyesore but it still produces some great audio that i've been using for years and if you already own a blue yeti you're not going to notice a huge boost in your audio quality by upgrading i think it all boils down to what exactly you intend on using the microphone for if you're looking for just a quality microphone with a lot of functionality then i'd recommend the yeti but if you're an aspiring youtube facebook or twitch streamer and are looking to improve the quality of your content with more professional audio then the wave 3 might be worth spending the extra money on now the big downside here is that both the blue yeti and the wave 3 are in crazy high demand lately back when i bought the yeti it was only 130 but if you look now on amazon third parties are selling it for upwards of 200 new the wave 3 is also sitting up higher than usual at 313 dollars rather than its typical 160 dollar price point meanwhile the wave 1 microphone which is similar but doesn't have the same 96 kilohertz or slick button inputs is typically priced at 129.99 making it a direct competitor to the yeti only it comes with the wavelength functionality again forcing you to choose between the yeti's pattern selector functionality or the ability to mix your audio for streams but what do you guys think do you think the elgato wave 3 microphone has finally dethroned the long-running usb microphone champion or do you still prefer the blue yeti let me know in the comment section if you like this hardware comparison and have any suggestions on how to improve it further please feel free to let me know i'm planning on introducing a few more of these hardware breakdowns in the future including the next gen consoles so be sure to stay tuned and as always don't forget to like and subscribe for more videos posted every week [Music] you

Channel: Nick930

Views: 145,591

Keywords: Elgato, Wave 3, Blue Yeti, Mic, Microphone, Review, Demo, Game, Stream, OBS, Livestream, Twitch, YouTube, Content Creator, Influencer, Gaming, Quality, Features, Sample Rate, Professional, Side-by-side, Sound Comparison, Sound, Audio, Release, Reviewer, Call of Duty, WarZone, Modern Warfare, Cold War

Id: 3f9vMfKle30

Length: 11min 13sec (673 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 31 2020