NZXT Capsule Streaming Mic Review (vs Elgato Wave:3)
This is the NZXT Capsule, a plug and play, softwareless, USB C microphone for streamers that, for me, leaves a lot to be desired. In this video I want to show you around it, show you how it sounds, how it compares to what I think is one of its closest competitors, the Elgato Wave:3 and give you my thoughts on it. So let’s get started.
The capsule is a reasonably large microphone, both in its main body and with its included desk stand, especially when you put the Wave:3 next to it. One of the main features NZXT is keen to point out here is the “quick release” that lets you detach the mic from its stand. You push the button on the back and pull and that’s it free. You then slide the included cover over the back to fill in the gap, although that’s a friction fit so if you do install the cover you need to claw it back out to put the mic back on it’s stand.
Looking at the bottom face you’ll find the USB C port needed to use the mic, a ¼” thread for mounting the mic to a boom arm – even the one NZXT is planning on selling soon after this launch – and a 3.5mm headphone jack for monitoring audio. The front holds two smooth endless scrolling dials, the top controls the mic’s gain and pressing it mutes the mic with a tactile click, and the bottom controls the headphone output volume. You do also get an LED ring at the bottom which shines white when the mic is connected, or red when you mute it.
While you can’t see much inside, according to NZXT the 25mm cardioid pattern capsule is internally shock mounted and features a “broadcast and stream-ready internal pop-filter” – and the audio from that is processed by a 24 bit, 96 kHz analogue to digital converter. All of that is well and good, but how does it actually sound?
Well, I’m now using the Capsule at my streaming setup so you can hear how it sounds. I’m also recording simultaneously with the Elgato Wave:3 meaning I can chop and change between them in editing – although I’ll leave a note on screen to tell you which mic you are listening to. On the whole, the audio quality from the Capsule is good. It’s pretty crisp with a decent range, it can be a little too good at picking up the hissing ‘s’ sounds, but on the whole it’s pretty good.
It does also pick up background noise fairly well – have a listen – that’s my PC you can hear humming away and I’m not gaming or streaming so this is pretty quiet. With that said, I think the Wave:3 picks up pretty much the same – again have a listen – so it’s not too bad.
If I’m being honest, listening to clips back to back I’ve had some trouble picking up any significant quality differences between the Capsule and the Wave:3. On paper the Wave has a smaller 17mm capsule versus the NZXT’s 25mm, but in practice there really doesn’t seem to be much of a difference in profile or quality at least to me. Factor in that these mics are meant to be used for streaming with music or gameplay audio on top of this and I’d be happy to say they are equals.
One thing that’s not equal is the feature set. NZXT is priding themselves in this being a simple, software free, plug and play option, but the cost of that design is a pretty stark lack of features. Even if you forget the Elgato Wave Link software which lets you do full virtual mixing including handling your game and music audio levels and mute copyrighted content without muting your entire stream, they also offer Clipguard. The mic is recording two audio levels at all times and can switch over automatically the instant you get too loud. That means your audio never clips, something that can and would happen on the Capsule.
On top of that, since this is a hardware, tactile mute button when you press it you not only hear my hand rustling on the mic’s body to hold it so I can press the button, but you hear the click, then a sharp cutoff in the audio like this (mute). Then when you (unmute) press it again you hear the button unclick, and again it’s a really sharp transition.
Compare that to the Wave:3’s capacitive mute where you don’t hear me touching the button at all, and it has a nice soft transition as you press it (mute). Then (unmute) pressing it again has a soft, silent return to normal. It’s so much nicer, and something that I actually use on the Wave:3, whereas on the Capsule I’d rather mute it in OBS since at least that way you wouldn’t hear the rustling and loud clicks.
One other nitpick is with volume control. On the Wave:3 it has 8 LED dots to show you what level the mic, the headphone output and crossfade are at. On the Capsule? You don’t even get steps or any tactile feedback, just a smooth, endlessly scrolling, and if i’m honest poorly mounted, wheel and no visual indicators. They could have dimmed the LED brightness or changed its colour as you turn it up or down, but instead you have to either plug in headphones or carefully set it in software. It’s not the end of the world, but having some way of seeing where it’s at is definitely useful.
A lot about this mic confuses me. They are so proud of their “quick release mechanism” – so much so that on their comparison chart it’s the only unique feature they quote – and yet, for their own boom arm they are launching you can’t use it. In fact, you have to use a long and thin thread adapter which not only extends the already long mic another inch and a quarter, but offers little in the way of support for lateral forces on the mic. I can imagine this thing snapping at the neck of the thread.
Oh and a quick note on that comparison chart, they say the HyperX QuadCast GAMING microphone isn’t “game/streaming focused” – what? I’d also call it disingenuous to compare to the Razer Seiren X Emote, a special edition version with an RGB LED matrix inside. The standard Seiren X has an MSRP of $99.99, and it’s even more disingenuous to list either Serien as a 44.1kHz mic, as that’s the MINIMUM spec, both options support 48kHz.
Another point of confusion is their insistence on simplicity while forgetting about actual usability. If you want to lock the mic in place on the included stand, you have to use these incredibly small plastic wheels that are literally painful to tighten. Even when you do, it still flops around with a light touch. It will hold itself in place, but even a gentle tug on the cables will move it.
Oh that’s the other thing, having the cables on the bottom with this style of swinging stand is just asking for snapped cables. If you swing it out, the cable head wants to snap off. You want to pull the mic closer to you? It wants to snap. Elgato manage that by having the connectors on the back and I much prefer that.
From reading their reviewer’s guide it feels like a product designed by a board room meeting, where they said they wanted to sell a microphone for streamers and it needed to sound good and be unique. They picked “simple” as the USP and ran with it. The guide is filled with painful ‘inside the box’ marketing terms like “pilot error”, “plug and play” and “That was our ‘true north’ in the development of this microphone” all in the same bullet point.
I can’t for the life of me figure out why you’d buy this at $129.99, when Razer’s Seiren X is currently just $79.99 and offers an even more focused hyper-cardioid pattern, internal shock mounting and pop filter, and is also plug and play. If you want a more feature-rich experience, Elgato’s Wave:3 is $20 more than this but offers the capacitive mute, better I/O mounting and volume control, and Clipguard and the Wave Link software.
While the Capsule offers perfectly good audio quality, the strange insistence on “simplicity” ironically complicates things and means it offers literally no additional useful features. Even the build quality, which on the face of it seems like a good feature over the Wave thanks to this having a full metal body and stand, isn’t right with the loose gain dial and finger destroying lock rings to hold the fairly loose pivot. It feels like the Apple school of product design, offer the bare minimum and pretend that’s a feature.
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TechteamGB Score
