Top 5 Best Gaming/Streaming Microphones
What's up, guys welcome back topbestgoodreview.com, and today we're continuing our top 5 peripherals series of the year, with the top 5 gaming and streaming microphones from 2021, and to make it interesting.
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➨We're going to break it up into three different categories :
- The best microphone on a gaming headset & headphones.
- Then we have the budget category
- The more expensive sort of options.
➨ Here on the list of all 5 in terms :
- Microphone quality
- sound really good quality
- And there some of the best microphone
This year that I've tested so if you want to check any of them out, but I'll listen for you in the description down below, and just disclaimer, please make sure you're wearing headphones.
So you can hear the actual you know the best audio quality that you're gonna be getting from this post and all my tests are gonna be raw and unedited unless noted otherwise for comparison's sake.
⇰Razor Serien Mini
Now starting I'm actually using one of these microphones right now for this entire intro, and the microphone I'm using only costs $50 that is going to be the Razor series Mini, so let's start with that.
So yes for just $50 this is setting the bar high as you can hear because this happens incredibly good for that price point.
And honestly, it's just downright shocking, but I'm not even being dramatic like you can hear for yourself, how good this sounds for just 50 dollars.
In terms of the actual build of the quality itself. I like how it's a tiny and symbols sort of adjusting capsule, pretty much, very tiny and compact, so it's not gonna take up much room on your desktop at all.
It does come on include flexible stand, its kind of like ball heads, you can angle it just to pick up your vocal pattern the best in terms of options as you can see above image, we have in black here but it's also available in white and pink and like the other razor peripheral color options.
Now, inside is a 14-millimeter capsule that is super-cardioid, so the pickup pattern is going to be very precise in picking up what's going on right here.
And with that super-cardioid pickup pattern and the actual condenser they use, it gives you a very flat response, so your voice is going to be just very accurate and true to your natural tone, the more we're going to do for all these tests before we head back to the pc.
And do more in-depth testing is a quick little sound test with an actual keyboard in the background of emulating that gaming and streaming sort of situation where your keyboard is by your microphone, so we'll see how well it does at picking up the keyboard sounds with this super-cardioid pickup pattern.
The keyboard I'm using is the hyper x alloy origins core tkl with their Aqua switches that are tactile, so they're not super clicky like blue switches, and they're not linear and quiet like red switches are kind of the best of both worlds.
So I was going to be talking, you're doing some typing and stuff again, you're playing some games or chatting with your friends, you're typing on your keyboard. You're gaming, you're having a good time, maybe having a bad time.
This like I said just to give you an idea of how this microphone does picking up that background noise in our head back to the PC and do a little bit more in-depth testing.
For this next portion what we're going to do is do a quick little mic test and show you that he does the background noise floor when its complete silence, she can get a general idea of pretty much just the general area of your desktop, and that includes with my PC in the background so you could hear how it does with that.
And that has I believe seven fans in my PC, so we'll be able to judge how it isn't picking up at that it was really quick.
Yes, for this entire, you know, at the PC portion I made sure in my sound settings that all sound enhancements, or turned off by default.
At the highest possible varying sample rate was turned on in the sound control settings.
This is possible of 16 bit 44.1 kilohertz to 48-kilohertz sample rate. So now, real quick, let's do that for you.
This is a mic test for the razor serine Mini 450 dollars, 123, sibilance. so just honestly judging from that quick little sound
Seeing the noise floor at the end, are very impressive and actually, this mic was hitting when I was talking between negative 12, and negative 16 decibels, which is definitely that you want, because that way it's not gonna be close to peaking you can always enhance it afterward, but sounds good and that noise floor extremely low, usually hitting between 59 and just, you know, negative infinity decibels, so it does a good job with eliminating background noise.
And again, PC right here seven fans going and you can see just pretty much picking up nothing audible at least.
So we're just $50, I am super shocked and surprised at the actual sound quality we get here.
When the Razor series Mini best microphones 2021, and I've tested other razor microphones in the past, that have been, like, quadruple the price of these microphones
And honestly, this is their best sounding microphone for just $50, super impressive here.
HyperX SoloCast microphones
Next up for just $60, we have the new hyperx solo cast microphone, which is pretty much like the little brother smaller version of their very popular hyper x quad cast so here, much more affordable.
Again, as you can hear sounds very good. Now there are no four different pickup patterns like we have in the Quad cast, here they're cutting it down to the basics, with just this cardioid pickup pattern.
It has a few extra things like a touch-sensitive mic mute button up the top, and the red little LED on the front, which will just be constant and when it is active.
Then when you want to mute it you press the button up top and this will blink red to let you know it is muted.
The stand here is pretty small and tiny that is just so it's more in line with my mouth. So yes, a smaller Stand one thing I do like about this is you can tilt it 90 degrees sideways and it makes this very satisfying clicky sound as you do.
But obviously, you can remove this from this included stand and use on your mic arm if you want, and flip it over on the bottom side there is a thread there is a five eight-inch thread for adapting this to whatever standard arm you have, but then like we did before with the typing test in the background.
I feel like this is probably even going to be a little bit overdramatic in a sense because when you are gaming your not constantly pressing down like you are when you are typing like this is more of like a typing test because when you are gaming only pressing what three, four, keys at once,
If you're in a heated scenario, like an FPS, you're moving all the time, so this might be a little bit louder than your average, you know situation while gaming, but again it's the judge how it does at eliminating the background.
So the same story now with the hyper x solo cast microphone. We are at the 48-kilohertz sample rate at 16 bits,, which is the highest possible sample rate this goes, and the electric condenser mic inside with the cardioid pickup pattern is going to be you know, the main capsule inside for this.
Look at the images already little mic test and background test. This is a mic test for the hyper x solo cast for $60 123, sibilance. So one thing I want to point out from that quick mic test.
This is naturally, a bit of a louder microphone had to turn the gain down around six decibels because otherwise, it was hitting around like a negative one, negative two, so it was very close to peaking and being too loud.
So I did turn it down a little bit just to make it more natural and not as loud for you guys, so keep that in mind you will probably have to adjust the gain once you get it in, that's also going to depend on where you have this situated in front of your mouth.
Also, a noise floor again because it is a bit louder. It was hovering between, I'd say minus 45 and like minus 48.
So then once I did lower it again, we were getting around minus 50 decibels. But not too bad. All things considered, just a little bit louder, so do keep that in mind.
Sennheiser PC38x microphones
Next, but number three breaking into the new genre here, we started with those two budget mics.
Now we have the gaming headset microphone. This is the drop in Sennheiser PC38x microphones, this retails for $169.
It's going to be a bit different from your normal desktop microphone because this is the best of both worlds.
This is one of my favorite headsets of 2021, and honestly, this is one of the best sounding microphones I've heard on a headset.
And the reason I'm including this is that with just a separate desktop microphone you still need to have headphones with a headset, it's both in one, and these sound phenomenal.
I'm sure you're familiar with Sennheiser, the quality here is crazy. The sound is so so good coming out of these. They're also open back, so you get a very wide soundstage. And even though 170 is pretty pricey for a headset.
This is like any game headset. If you pick this up, you're never gonna need another gaming headset in the future. That's just my honest belief, I love these. And like I said also has a great-sounding microphone.
Mic Sound Test- Sennheiser PC38x microphones
➩Note: This mic test will have noticeable plosives since the Mic is positioned closer to my mouth. I recommended positioning it slightly farther out with the flexible mic arm to avoid this.
So now you're hearing the mic for the drop at Sennheiser PC38x microphones and you might be thinking to yourself, it doesn't sound that good, but I want you to keep in mind that this is after you just heard very good sounding desktop separate microphones.
So, this word headset sounds very good, even though you know compared to those that might not sound like it for a gaming headset. This I believe is one of the best sounding mics, you can find on a headset it's just very natural and full, that is you want out of your headset, and we want it to be a microphone.
And you might not believe me, but please go back to my top 5 gaming headset up 2021 post that was maybe two weeks ago at this point. And you can hear out of all those top headsets of the year.
This microphone, I believe, is the best out of all of them, so you can hear how they sound stacked up to each other back to the back of other headsets.
Even though here in this list, it might not stack up that well to the dedicated desktop microphone, so they want to point that out. Now, the actual mic they're using here is directional.
It is an electric condenser mic, but it does have noise-canceling built-in. So it is going to be picking up pretty much what's going on right here and right here behind it.
But what they're noise-canceling built-in, pretty much, trying to eliminate that. So, since we didn't get to do it at the actual desktop behind me, I have the same keyboard here, we'll just do a quick little typing test and stuff.
Again, just so you can judge how it does at picking up that background noise, and my voice at the same time.
Now like I said just remember, keep in mind, this is not being fairly compared in this test, but for a dedicated headset. This is one of the best out there. This is a mic test for the drop in Sennheiser PC38x microphones headset for $169.
Judging that dead noise floor as you could hear with the background noise elimination has in this mic. There is practically zero, nothing is going on that you can hear in the background, nothing that's audible, at least so that's very impressive.
And again, just for the price, this overall headset as a two-in-one microphone and gaming headset pretty much absolute top of the line.
Elgato Wave 3 microphones
So for this next number four is the Elgato wave 3 gaming microphones. This comes in usually MSRP from $155, I've seen it the last week for around like $140, even so, the price on this is fluctuating, and this is the, you know, more premium version of their wave one microphone.
So it has a few extra features, so first off, up top it's a touch-sensitive mute button on the bottom here there is a dial.
Elgato wave 3 microphones three different things you can do with this:
➤ One is for controlling the gain of your actual microphone.
➤ The second is for controlling the monitor mix if you want to plug in like headphones to monitor your audio, you can adjust the gain for your headphones as well.
➤ Third is sort of mix of that, so you can balance out your voice, and the actual, what you're hearing from your headphones, so if I'm plugged in, you know, playing some games and I have the actual PC audio coming to the mic, I can then monitor the and balance the sort of levels of that.
So you have some good features with this built-in, and I like the fact that you just have that you know dial right here.
Showing you the three different pretty much options you can control, and this is what wave one does not have, so with wave three, you're getting that upgrade, with the actual real-time controls here right on the front, and it will note that the actual shock mount and pop filter is additional, believe they're 40 bucks each, something like that.
So these do not come with the actual mic. So the main thing about this is, let's see the main selling point to the wave and the wave, three is the wavelength software, the wavelength software is cool and it's a great tool for gamers, streamers pretty much anybody does anything with this mic.
So I'll be showing you the wavelength software in more detail in just a second but first, about the actual capsule to using inside this microphone.
It is a 17-millimeter electric condenser mic, and as a cardioid pickup pattern that's the main thing, you're going to see with a lot of these microphones. And it's possible of doing 24-bit 96,000-hertz recording sampling.
So that means you're pretty much getting double the traditional 48 kilohertz which is pretty crazy.
How are you going to be using that, For streaming Azar probably not 48 is the standard 40 it's gonna be just fine. But you do have that capability of 96 kilohertz for podcasting or maybe even going in further and editing your microphone and your quality from that you have more room and more quality.
With that higher sample rate but odds are, you'll be using this at just 48 kilohertz so back to wavelength this is special.
Here in the software, wave three is talking you into, you can see an image it there real time. But underneath you have two separate icons and this is the monitor mix which is what I would be hearing out of my headphones.
Then this is the stream mix which is what you can output into your stream, and that's where it gets interesting when you start to tie it to OBS and any sort of streaming software is you have up to nine different sorts of channels and inputs that you can add into the wavelength software.
This makes it you can do different sub-mixes for different channels, for example, right now, you're hearing me if I wanted to add, you know, just say a game back into that you go into there, you add a game, and then in your sound settings, you tied to that real quick I just deleted the music input to show you real-time.
So you would go to the audio input, we can just say again music if you want some background music going on.
Then you go to the sound panel button which will bring up your sound settings, go down to Spotify, for example, and then for the output, you tie this than to wavelength, you got to find that just wavelength music going in the background.
So then if I want to turn it up and just be blasting it on my end, this is playing music in the background.
But I don't want to hear that because then I turn headphones down, so I don't hear what's going on with this background track, you can do this for pretty much anything, but the stream hears it.
For example, if I wanted to keep this same thing going. But not have the audience hear, for example, there's something with like copyright music, or I want to be playing some tracks, but I don't want the background, or I don't want the audience to hear that.
So I don't get a copyright strike whenever I can have it, so I listen to it 100%, and the stream is listening to it at 0%. And then you can go in and balance you know what you hear, whether it's the monitor mixer or the stream mix, and then tie each of those mixes two different channels for your outputs for streaming, or whatever.
That was a pretty rough you know quick example of the software itself, but that is the main selling point to wavelength is the fact that you have all these different subs mixes that you can go in and balance and sort of mix up what you hear, versus what the audience is hearing all real-time, you just have a ton of flexibility. We'll do that in a sound test again as I said before, with the actual that noise.
This is the mic test for the Elgato wave 3 microphones for around $150.
We will do the typing and gaming test for you to secure the actual background noise now of the keyboard versus my voice when I'm talking, all that kind of stuff. By this, we will judge that background noise floor test in just one second.
For that test, overall, not too bad. It does seem to be hovering around like negative 53 and negative 56, and we're between there for that background noise. But again, you have that flexibility than to on the fly.
Just change up and maybe lower your game or adjust because you had those built-in controls here. So, for $150, you're getting a pretty good sounding microphone.
Capable of being, you know, processed more and more with a 96,000-hertz sampling rate. But the big thing is linked software and the actual do the fly control, so that's gonna be the main selling point here.
That's going to be what people want this because a wavelength gonna make your life a lot easier, and honestly, 150 isn't too bad for the overall package you get with this.
Shure MV7 Microphones
Then last but not least we have the Shure MV7. This retails for $250.
So the more expensive option on this list shure MV7 microphones but for the total package.
This is my favorite microphone of the year for a lot of reasons. Now sure is a very popular company.
And this microphone is pretty unique. So first off, not only am I, over USB recording onto my PC, but via XLR I'm also feeding this into my camera, so I can record two different channels at once.
Is everybody gonna need to do this? No, but in this exact situation where I'm testing this and giving you different examples of how they sound versus the simple outputs.
It works great.
It works perfectly so for this portion I'll bounce back and forth and show you visually, what you're listening to, but yes you have both XLR and you have the USB audio connection to plug to your PC, which can also use their motive software so before we get into that stuff right now.
Let's just go over real quick the feature, so first off this does come on this yoke pretty much, but it does not come with a stand or an arm.
This isn't an arm that I already have, I'll drop it down below so you could check it out. But yes, it does not come with one you've just got the microphone and this little stand or the yoke right here.
You also have which is pretty interesting. Some built-in controls upfront, you can't see at this angle probably but you do have a touch-sensitive, pretty much a gain dial so you could swipe it up and down, you could mute the mic on the fly, so I like having those touch-sensitive controls, just right here in front of you.
That way when you're gaming and streaming if you don't have you know mic levels already pulled up on your PC.
If you are peeking just turn it down real quick and a little swipe of a finger movement, you know I'm saying okay. One of the things I like about this is the motor software gives you a lot of different flexibility when it comes to changing up how the mic sounds.
Because you do have some different EQs and different options with the motor software. For example, real quick. These are just the auto levels when you plug it in, you don't download anything.
This is just the auto level of this stock sound signature, the Sure MV 7 microphones.
The set, the NIR, and the natural setting, and of course you can also go in and mute it here if you want and adjust the monitor mix.
But what I like is the different tones they provide. For example, now I am on the dark tone for the near mic position setting.
And for my voice, I think this complements my voice. Probably better because I do have a naturally deeper voice so when you add the dark tone to it.
It gives you that real cinematic sort of sound that I prefer again back to natural. This is going to be kind of just a more natural sound, and it's a good in-between spot between the dark tone. Now the bright tone, so this bright tone right here.
What this does is it kind of just sounds stupid, but it brightens it up.
It gives you some sort of more clarity and sort of more detail in your voice. So between those, I like the dark. We can also go far. So for example, I don't want the microphone right in my face, gaming or streaming, and I want to just sort of add some separation between myself and the actual mic, you have the far.
The far setting to do that. And we're currently in dark. I think in this situation at the far setting, natural is what sounds the best by far because it does a good job of again mixing the different tones and adjusting and compensating for the distance away from your mouth.
So again, natural and far it real quick over to bright, which still sounds pretty good. I would have picked natural or bright over dark at the far setting.
But natural sounds best at far, and then bringing it back to us for near and dark sounds good. This is all just on the auto level. If I want to go to the manual settings up here.
We have a few more options, there are different options for adjusting the monitor mix, your mic gain, you have some built-in EQ.
So right now we're in the flat. There's also a high pass filter, a presence boosts, and both the high pass and presence boost, just to show you that real quick for the actual just manual adjustments.
But this right now is the high pass and presence boost. If you want you can throw on the eliminator and also you have compressor options from light, medium to heavy, so I'll just throw on light real quick so you can start to get a difference.
If we were here going over every piece of this software and doing a mic test for each dedicated you know manual setting we'd be here for hours, so we're gonna show you real quick what you can do with the manual versus the auto levels, near and dark, so you have a lot of flexibility.
But like I said I think right here is where it sounds the best, and you saw that option to either plugin via USB or again right then right over the actual an XLR, if you have like an audio interface or like this to a camera, you have so much flexibility with this microphone and for 250. Now then real quick I'll be doing some testing and typing and stuff.
For example, real quick when I said type. I saw this peak a little bit, which is an added benefit of that a little screen on the front. I have some pretty aggressive plosives with my mouth, so it was useful to be able to see that peeking in real-time.
So if I want that I can go in and adjust the game. Yes. Okay, now we're gonna do a dead noise background test. This is the mic test for the shirt Sure MV 7 microphones which retail for $250.
Is it plugged in via XLR into my audio interface from the audience and more soft and natural sound? Now for an additional comparison with still the Sure MV 7 microphones. This is now the USB connection instead of the XLR to our audio interface.
So that before was the more SOC natural sound. This over USB lets' uses their motive software. This is the stock natural and near sound settings, you can hear how this sounds. Again, just compare the tonal differences between them. And also, we'll do the mic floor test as well.
Honestly just judging from that real quick. As you could see in real-time, when I was doing that, this pretty much wasn't moving at all.
Conclusion
Probably the PC38x microphones did the best I eliminated the background noise because it has an active noise cancellation in it. But for the actual dead noise just again, no distortion in the background, no nothing.
It was hovering anywhere from between -58 to just minus infinity. So, a great job at still eliminating any background noise and having a very silent noise.
This the Shure MV7 again more expensive but you just have so much flexibility and the software here, not complex very simple, and user-friendly. It was for the price I think it's very hard to beat.
Alright, guys so for a quick little recap for you, wrap this up with our top 5 gaming and Streaming microphones.
➤ Three different genres starting with the two budget microphones with the range of :
- Razer Serien Mini microphone, and
- The hyperX solo cast microphone.
➤Then we had this sort of two, is one exception, with the headset:
- Drop+Sennheiser PC38x microphones, and
- Then the higher end options for gaming should be a microphone Elgato Wave 3 microphones.
Honestly, for the sort of budget, you're looking at, and what you want to spend on a microphone, we've got you covered from $50 to $250, and in their class in their genre that came out in 2021.
I think these five are hands down some of the best you can buy, whether you want to stand a microphone quality or the option to use software and enhance it and EQ it, you have the options here.
So I hope this post helped you out. And I hope it makes, you know, make a better purchase decision.
Next time you want to pick up either a new headset or new gaming it should be a microphone. As you venture into 2021, maybe looking to stream full time.
So you support and feel free to follow me on Twitter. And share on your social media platform. If you ask anything regarding this post, feel free to comment down below. I hope you all enjoy it.