Episode 132
Elgato Wave Mic Arm Pro Review
After a decade of producing podcasts with millions of downloads and testing countless pieces of audio gear at Bamby Media, let me cut straight to the chase: The Elgato Wave Mic Pro low profile boom arm is worth your attention.
Full disclosure: Elgato sent me this piece of kit, no strings attached. I didn’t have to review it, I didn’t have to record a video about it. The product was so just flippin’ good I felt compelled tell you all about it. My recommendations are always based on actual performance in professional production environments.
For serious audio professionals, this boom arm eliminates the common frustrations we've all experienced with lesser equipment. While the price point sits higher than plastic alternatives, the professional build quality and reliable performance make it a great investment for long-term use. I don’t see a reason why you’d ever need to buy another one. Unless your studio space is increasing and you just need more booms!
CHAPTER MARKERS
00:00 Introduction to the Elgato Low Profile Pro Boom Arm
00:41 First Impressions and Build Quality
02:03 Magnetic Cable Management
03:07 Silent Adjustments and Suspension Technology
03:54 Low Profile Design Benefits
06:33 Adapters and Compatibility
07:11 Pricing and Final Thoughts
07:59 Conclusion and Upcoming Reviews
Where to Buy:
Australia - Amazon
USA - Elgato Website
BAMBY MEDIA LINKS:
Custom Review Of Your Audio/Edit
GEAR WE USE HERE AT BAMBY MEDIA:
Aputure Amaran 200d LED Video Light
Pre-Amp/Mixers we recommend
Transcript
If you're in the market for a microphone, boom arm, you
Speaker:have come to the right place.
Speaker:Welcome to my review of the Elgato low profile pro boom arm.
Speaker:They have another version that isn't the pro, and this is the new version.
Speaker:Full disclosure, it was given to me.
Speaker:They didn't tell me I need to review it.
Speaker:They didn't tell me I needed to do anything other than see if I liked it.
Speaker:And you know what?
Speaker:I do, I do, I do, I do.
Speaker:So I'm gonna do a review of it anyway.
Speaker:It's probably a smart move from their point of view.
Speaker:Like they don't tell you you have to do things, but you feel compelled to anyway
Speaker:'cause the product is actually so good.
Speaker:we're gonna go through some things.
Speaker:I've used a lot of boom arms.
Speaker:I am the head of a podcast production company.
Speaker:I've been working in podcast production for a decade, so I've
Speaker:used a lot of products, a lot of gear, and I know when something is.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:And when something needs some work.
Speaker:So let's start from the very beginning.
Speaker:It's got a premium build quality for sure.
Speaker:It is an all metal construction.
Speaker:Can you hear it?
Speaker:It has a very sleek professional design.
Speaker:You can get it in black or white.
Speaker:I got the black version because my desk and everything is black.
Speaker:They've also got these like little interchangeable clip magnet
Speaker:things that you can take off.
Speaker:Uh, you could, you know, change the color on these 'cause you can customize
Speaker:it and you can put your own branded colors, like you can't give them a hex
Speaker:code and then they give you the colors.
Speaker:But there are some other colors to try there, to me, you know,
Speaker:that's a little bit gimmicky.
Speaker:I'm not really gonna do that because I don't want to accentuate the boom
Speaker:arm anymore, uh, than it already is.
Speaker:By having this big thing sort of near my face, I want it to be
Speaker:sleek, minimized, in the background, not drawing attention to itself.
Speaker:So I would just keep it the same color all the way through.
Speaker:But some people really like to customize, so I do love that metal construction,
Speaker:fully metal, and these little magnet customization things that you can do.
Speaker:Now while we're on magnets, when you put your XLR microphone or your USB
Speaker:microphone, like you plug it in and then you have something that you have
Speaker:to do with the actual lead, right?
Speaker:You can feed the lead into the base of the boom arm, and then there's this magented
Speaker:like casing that just pops over top of it so that the lead is kept in place.
Speaker:It's, you just don't even notice the lead anymore, and the magnet is so strong that
Speaker:it doesn't come out, which is a massive plus because previous version of this
Speaker:particular boom arm had the magnet there.
Speaker:From what I saw, it was like a looser magnet and it didn't work all that well
Speaker:in keeping the actual cords in place.
Speaker:This I can confirm, is a very strong magnet.
Speaker:It keeps a heavy big XLR cable in it with no problems, and I've used
Speaker:it on location, different areas, and I've had no problem with it.
Speaker:So that was a massive plus, and I really like that it
Speaker:keeps the cord out of the way.
Speaker:You don't even notice it, and that is just awesome.
Speaker:Nice work, Elgato for that.
Speaker:Now let's move on to the silence of it, because that's important for me is like
Speaker:if I'm gonna be adjusting my boom mom, especially for streamers and things
Speaker:out there too, like maybe you move the microphone away because you are typing
Speaker:or something and don't want like a bunch of creaky noises in your audio.
Speaker:This boom arm, I can confirm is like so silent.
Speaker:I'm just gonna move it around for you now.
Speaker:It's so quiet you guys.
Speaker:It's, it's really, really quite good.
Speaker:I'm impressed with that.
Speaker:So it's got this suspension technology in it that means that
Speaker:it's able to have silent adjustments.
Speaker:So I love that.
Speaker:Perfect for live recordings, perfect for streamers.
Speaker:No squawking, no squeaking, no unwanted noises.
Speaker:I. Now the low profile design is something that I was intrigued by because I've
Speaker:always used the Rode boom arms, which are, you know, great boom moms and
Speaker:I'll do a a versus challenge between these two boom arms in another video.
Speaker:Uh, but the low profile thing always kind of weirded me out because I was like, I
Speaker:have a keyboard and I have a mouse and I have like other things on my desk.
Speaker:Isn't the fact that it's low profile kind of gonna mean that it's in my way?
Speaker:And I can confirm that it is definitely not the case.
Speaker:Because it's got such a long sort of arm to it.
Speaker:And you can customize that too, and I'll go into that in a minute.
Speaker:Uh, it's so far away that like the part that you would have your mouse and your
Speaker:keyboard, that part is like unencumbered.
Speaker:There's no things getting in your way.
Speaker:Like the low profile really works there.
Speaker:The part that extends it out even further is lower.
Speaker:It's much closer to the actual desk, but again, that's so far away from
Speaker:like where I'm actually moving and doing things that it doesn't matter
Speaker:that it's, it's super low profile.
Speaker:But you can also actually adjust the boom arm so that it doesn't have this
Speaker:huge long sort of arm bit as well.
Speaker:You can make it a lot smaller by taking some of the parts away from the boom arm
Speaker:and just using one section of it, which again, I really liked because I took
Speaker:this on location recently and it wasn't really working in the long profile,
Speaker:but I just decreased the size of the boom arm, which I could do, and then
Speaker:it was sitting exactly where I wanted to and was not taking up a bunch of
Speaker:space in the actual video field as well.
Speaker:So this is an awesome factor for this particular boom arm.
Speaker:Love that as well.
Speaker:Side note though, that the one thing I will say is it is quite heavy.
Speaker:So when you are kind of pulling sections out and putting them back in, just
Speaker:make sure you've got a, a real good hold of everything because it's heavy,
Speaker:because of its all metal construction.
Speaker:The other thing I'll say about the low profile aspect it's, great in
Speaker:my video with other boom arms, which I'm, I won't talk about right now,
Speaker:but you know, they're, they're in the frame or they're taking up more of the
Speaker:actual space, whereas with this, this boom arms is coming in from below.
Speaker:You can't even really see it in my frame here, which is awesome.
Speaker:You can only see this.
Speaker:Big old SEDCM8 microphone that's sitting here.
Speaker:So that is a huge plus because now I've got like access either side of my
Speaker:video, uh, where I can put text and I can do things without the actual boom
Speaker:arm being a problem being in the way.
Speaker:So I love, love, love, love that as well.
Speaker:It's just opened that up.
Speaker:It also includes adapters for various mic mounts, which again, I really like because
Speaker:sometimes you have a microphone and you're like so excited to put it on your boom
Speaker:arm, and then you don't have the thread that's needed to attach the boom arm to
Speaker:the microphone, and it's really annoying.
Speaker:This one comes with them, so you can actually attach pretty much any
Speaker:microphone to the boom arm itself.
Speaker:These are the little things that I really appreciate as someone
Speaker:who works in audio production.
Speaker:As someone who gets a lot of questions about what threat adapter do I actually
Speaker:need, or random questions like that, the effect that it includes, those is actually
Speaker:a bigger deal than you think it will be.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:At time of recording, you can get this boom mom on Amazon for 299.
Speaker:That's Australian dollars, so convert that into American dollars.
Speaker:It's around 180 or so US dollars.
Speaker:So for that price point.
Speaker:I don't really see why you would need any other boom arm, to be honest.
Speaker:I mean, I will review it with the road PSA one plus.
Speaker:I will review that.
Speaker:Stay tuned for that.
Speaker:But this particular one I think is very good value.
Speaker:It is a very high quality.
Speaker:It doesn't come with a bunch of plastic crap.
Speaker:It is something that I've already used on location at different shoots.
Speaker:I use it now in my office every day as well.
Speaker:Just well done Elgato.
Speaker:I have to say, well done DElgato for providing something that I really think
Speaker:is a fantastic choice for podcasters.
Speaker:So if it's something you're looking for, you can click on the link.
Speaker:There will be an Amazon affiliate link there.
Speaker:I get like a tiny percent.
Speaker:So if you wanna click on it.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:That's lovely.
Speaker:It was a great thing to review.
Speaker:I've got another one coming up for a stand boom arm as well, like on the actual desk.
Speaker:It's a desk stand from Elgato as well that they also sent me.
Speaker:So stay tuned for that, if that is something that you might be
Speaker:looking at instead as another option that is coming up too.
Speaker:Thanks for being here.
Speaker:I hope you liked this review, and if you want to comment, I would
Speaker:appreciate those comments as well.
Speaker:Okay, bye.
