Elgato Wave Mic Pro Boom Arm Review

Apr 11

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.

The Quick Take

At around 180 USD (299 AUD), this all-metal boom arm delivers professional-grade quality with its standout low-profile design and superior cable management. After extensive testing, it's proven itself as a worthwhile investment for serious content creators and beginners alike. There is a lot to love about this boom arm, and I didn’t think I would get so excited about reviewing what is essentially just a stand for my microphone.

Am I gear nerd? Yes. It’s safe to say that I am.

What Actually Matters:

Build Quality & Design

The full metal construction sets this arm apart from cheaper alternatives, offering professional-grade durability that you can feel from the first touch. While it comes in both black and white options, I opted for the black version to maintain our studio's dark aesthetic. The included magnetic color clips add a customizable touch, though they're not essential to the arm's core functionality. Be prepared for its substantial weight – this is a serious piece of equipment.

Cable Management That Actually Works

The magnetic channel system genuinely solves the eternal cable management struggle, accommodating both XLR and USB cables with ease. If you could see under my desk right now you would be flabbergasted with my lack of cable management. It’s a real problem and I need help. I was so happy that Wave Mic Pro made it so easy to deal with my microphone cable. Unlike cheaper alternatives that often fail under the weight of professional cables, these magnets maintain their grip consistently. The result is a clean, professional setup that looks great on camera.

Silent Operation

For professional recording, silent operation isn't just a nice-to-have – it's essential. The Elgato delivers here with zero creaks during adjustments and completely silent repositioning during live recordings. The suspension technology works exactly as promised, maintaining silence even during dynamic recording sessions.

Space Management

The low profile design proves its worth in real-world studio settings, working seamlessly around complex desk setups without compromise. Its extensive reach provides flexibility without dominating your workspace, and the ability to compact it for transport adds valuable versatility, despite its substantial weight. I shoved this in my “on location” bag and had no issues.

Professional Integration

The inclusion of essential mic mount adapters demonstrates Elgato's understanding of professional needs. The standard threading compatibility means you won't need to purchase additional accessories for setup – everything you need comes in the box. I find it so frustrating when I get a new stand and the microphone thread that I need isn’t included, and I’ve had many people in my YouTube community reach out asking what thread they need for their particular microphone. It’s a problem that Elgato has solved with this boom arm.

Real-World Application

I've put this arm through its paces across studio recording sessions, on-location shoots, and live streaming setups. In each scenario, it's performed consistently and reliably, proving its worth as a professional tool rather than just another accessory.

The Bottom Line

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!

Stay tuned for a head-to-head comparison with the Rode PSA1 Plus and a look at desk stand alternatives. Questions about integrating this into your setup? Drop them below.

Transcript:

[00:00:00] If you're in the market for a microphone, boom arm, you have come to the right place. Welcome to my review of the Elgato low profile pro boom arm. They have another version that isn't the pro, and this is the new version. Full disclosure, it was given to me. They didn't tell me I need to review it. They didn't tell me I needed to do anything other than see if I liked it.
And you know what? I do, I do, I do, I do. So I'm gonna do a review of it anyway. It's probably a smart move from their point of view. Like they don't tell you you have to do things, but you feel compelled to anyway 'cause the product is actually so good. we're gonna go through some things. I've used a lot of boom arms.
I am the head of a podcast production company. I've been working in podcast production for a decade, so I've used a lot of products, a lot of gear, and I know when something is. Great. And when something needs some work. So let's start from the very [00:01:00] beginning. It's got a premium build quality for sure. It is an all metal construction.
Can you hear it? It has a very sleek professional design. You can get it in black or white. I got the black version because my desk and everything is black. They've also got these like little interchangeable clip magnet things that you can take off. Uh, you could, you know, change the color on these 'cause you can customize it and you can put your own branded colors, like you can't give them a hex code and then they give you the colors.
But there are some other colors to try there, to me, you know, that's a little bit gimmicky. I'm not really gonna do that because I don't want to accentuate the boom arm anymore, uh, than it already is. By having this big thing sort of near my face, I want it to be sleek, minimized, in the background, not drawing attention to itself.
So I would just keep it the same color all the way through. But some people really like to customize, so I do love that metal construction, fully [00:02:00] metal, and these little magnet customization things that you can do. Now while we're on magnets, when you put your XLR microphone or your USB microphone, like you plug it in and then you have something that you have to do with the actual lead, right?
You can feed the lead into the base of the boom arm, and then there's this magented like casing that just pops over top of it so that the lead is kept in place. It's, you just don't even notice the lead anymore, and the magnet is so strong that it doesn't come out, which is a massive plus because previous version of this particular boom arm had the magnet there.
From what I saw, it was like a looser magnet and it didn't work all that well in keeping the actual cords in place. This I can confirm, is a very strong magnet. It keeps a heavy big XLR cable in it with no problems, and I've used it on location, different areas, and I've had no problem with it. So that was a massive plus, and I really [00:03:00] like that it keeps the cord out of the way.
You don't even notice it, and that is just awesome. Nice work, Elgato for that. Now let's move on to the silence of it, because that's important for me is like if I'm gonna be adjusting my boom mom, especially for streamers and things out there too, like maybe you move the microphone away because you are typing or something and don't want like a bunch of creaky noises in your audio.
This boom arm, I can confirm is like so silent. I'm just gonna move it around for you now.
It's so quiet you guys. It's, it's really, really quite good. I'm impressed with that. So it's got this suspension technology in it that means that it's able to have silent adjustments. So I love that. Perfect for live recordings, perfect for streamers. No squawking, no squeaking, no unwanted noises. I. Now the low profile design is something that I was intrigued by because I've always [00:04:00] used the Rode boom arms, which are, you know, great boom moms and I'll do a a versus challenge between these two boom arms in another video.
Uh, but the low profile thing always kind of weirded me out because I was like, I have a keyboard and I have a mouse and I have like other things on my desk. Isn't the fact that it's low profile kind of gonna mean that it's in my way? And I can confirm that it is definitely not the case. Because it's got such a long sort of arm to it.
And you can customize that too, and I'll go into that in a minute. Uh, it's so far away that like the part that you would have your mouse and your keyboard, that part is like unencumbered. There's no things getting in your way. Like the low profile really works there. The part that extends it out even further is lower.
It's much closer to the actual desk, but again, that's so far away from like where I'm actually moving and doing things that it doesn't matter that it's, it's super low profile. But [00:05:00] you can also actually adjust the boom arm so that it doesn't have this huge long sort of arm bit as well. You can make it a lot smaller by taking some of the parts away from the boom arm and just using one section of it, which again, I really liked because I took this on location recently and it wasn't really working in the long profile,
but I just decreased the size of the boom arm, which I could do, and then it was sitting exactly where I wanted to and was not taking up a bunch of space in the actual video field as well. So this is an awesome factor for this particular boom arm. Love that as well. Side note though, that the one thing I will say is it is quite heavy.
So when you are kind of pulling sections out and putting them back in, just make sure you've got a, a real good hold of everything because it's heavy, because of its all metal construction. The other thing I'll say about the low profile aspect it's, great in my video with other boom arms, which I'm, I won't talk about right now, but you know, they're, they're [00:06:00] in the frame or they're taking up more of the actual space, whereas with this, this boom arms is coming in from below.
You can't even really see it in my frame here, which is awesome. You can only see this. Big old SEDCM8 microphone that's sitting here. So that is a huge plus because now I've got like access either side of my video, uh, where I can put text and I can do things without the actual boom arm being a problem being in the way.
So I love, love, love, love that as well. It's just opened that up.
It also includes adapters for various mic mounts, which again, I really like because sometimes you have a microphone and you're like so excited to put it on your boom arm, and then you don't have the thread that's needed to attach the boom arm to the microphone, and it's really annoying.
This one comes with them, so you can actually attach pretty much any microphone to the boom arm itself. These are the little things that I really appreciate as someone who works in [00:07:00] audio production. As someone who gets a lot of questions about what threat adapter do I actually need, or random questions like that, the effect that it includes, those is actually a bigger deal than you think it will be.
I.
At time of recording, you can get this boom mom on Amazon for 299. That's Australian dollars, so convert that into American dollars. It's around 180 or so US dollars. So for that price point. I don't really see why you would need any other boom arm, to be honest. I mean, I will review it with the road PSA one plus.
I will review that. Stay tuned for that. But this particular one I think is very good value. It is a very high quality. It doesn't come with a bunch of plastic crap. It is something that I've already used on location at different shoots.
I use it now in my office every day as well. Just well done Elgato. I have to say, well done DElgato for providing something that I really think is a fantastic choice for podcasters. So if it's something you're [00:08:00] looking for, you can click on the link. There will be an Amazon affiliate link there. I get like a tiny percent.
So if you wanna click on it. Thank you. That's lovely. It was a great thing to review. I've got another one coming up for a stand boom arm as well, like on the actual desk.
It's a desk stand from Elgato as well that they also sent me. So stay tuned for that, if that is something that you might be looking at instead as another option that is coming up too. Thanks for being here. I hope you liked this review, and if you want to comment, I would appreciate those comments as well.
Okay, bye.