In its quest to deliver high-quality gadgets made specifically for Twitch and YouTube creators, Razer may have just crafted its best microphone yet.
Following last year's Seiren X mic and Kiyo webcam, the company just unleashed the $199 Seiren Elite: a high-quality streaming microphone that, while pricey, boasts a handful of unique features that make it well worth a look from aspiring livestreamers.
I made a ton of voice recordings with the Elite both at home and in the office, and came away largely impressed by the sound quality.
The slick black Seiren Elite is impressively compact — not quite as tiny as the Seiren X, but far more travel friendly than the $129 Blue Yeti. Like most mics of its kind, it features volume, gain and mute controls up front, with a microUSB port for power and a headphone jack down below. The Elite's circular base slides off easily, should you want to mount it with your own stand.
Unique to the Elite is a High-Pass Filter toggle, which is designed to allow the microphone to filter out unwanted low-frequency noises such as the hum of an air conditioner. There's also an LED peaking indicator around the mic, which glows red to give you a heads up any time things are getting a bit blown out, as well as a built in digital/analog limiter to prevent distortion. Razer's mic even comes with a foam windscreen to prevent any "pop" noises during those plosives, which is something you usually have to buy separately for these kinds of mics.
I made a ton of voice recordings with the Elite both at home and in the office, and came away largely impressed by the sound quality. The Elite sounded comparable to my Yeti in terms of clarity, though its overall volume seemed a bit lower, forcing me to turn the gain up more than I do on other mics. I didn’t notice a big difference in background humming with the high pass filter on, though the feature did do a nice job muting the sound of me smacking my mic stand to simulate any accidental bumps that might happen during streaming.
The Blue Yeti is still the more versatile (and cheaper) microphone, with cardoid, stereo, omnidirectional and bidirectional modes designed to accommodate various types of recording setups (the Elite is cardioid-only). However, features such as the high-pass filter, LED warning light and included windshield are pretty unique in this price range, and could make the Elite a more enticing option for folks who care more about having the cleanest sound possible than they do about having multiple recording modes.
The Razer Seiren Elite is available now for $199. We look forward to seeing how it holds up during our own broadcasts, and to see if it can dethrone the Yeti as our favorite streaming mic.
Credit: Tom's Guide
