When I first started gaming and was on the lookout for a good mic with a cheap price point that didn’t look rubbish. There didn’t seem to be many options. Then up steps the GamerWave.
If you’re looking for a microphone that doesn’t break the bank, looks good, offers decent-quality sound, and is super simple to get up and running with. The Maono GamerWave from Maono could be a great option for you if you’re looking to level up your setup.
Product: GamerWave
Brand: Maono
Price: £28.63 (Amazon)
Colours: Available in Black, White & Pink
This product was received for free
Maono GamerWave Review
Looks
Straight out of the box, I like the look of this mic. It’s compact and has a really nice design. The mic itself looks clean, and the touch-activated buttons on top are nicely built into the casing. The gain control on the bottom glides smoothly. Additionally, the built-in pop-filter with the Maono M printed on looks good too.
There is a stand attached to the mic which is solid enough. Furthermore, you can unscrew the shock mount to either reposition the angle of the mic or fully detach it so you can connect it to a boom arm.
Then you have the setup. With either USB or USB-C available, you just plug it in and you’re ready to go. That’s pretty much it. There really is no fuss with the GamerWave. It’s extremely easy to set up and start using.
The whole microphone is made from plastic apart from the metal casing over the light-up parts. Whilst it feels like a decent build. Some parts feel a little delicate – specifically the pop shield.
Functionality
The GamerWave has a few different functionalities both for a different aesthetic and for different sounds. Firstly, you have the RGB lighting options. With a tap of the light button on top of the mic, you can quickly change the colour of the light emitted from the mic. There are nine preset colour patterns – some of which cycle through some lighting ‘animations’, to choose from which I think all look pretty nice.
However, I know RGB lighting isn’t for everyone so if you don’t want any lights just press the button for a couple of seconds and the lights go out.
Additionally, you have the noise cancelling function which, once again, is easily switched on or off by pressing the other button on the top for a couple of seconds. The light on the front of the mic will change to blue to indicate that the noise cancelling has been activated. If you quickly want to mute yourself, you can do that too by tapping the noise cancelling button. Again the light on the front changes colour – this time to red, to show it muted.
Changing the gain is a simple matter of twisting the dial on the bottom of the mic. With the headphone jack on the front, you can easily monitor your own voice should you want to.
Sound
With a cardioid audio pattern, the sound quality for the GamerWave is good if a little ‘roomy’. I did multiple tests both with the noise cancelling on and off. I ran the microphone through recording programmes with no additional effects to see how the audio sounded raw. In both cases, I was impressed with the unedited sound.
The noise-cancelling option sounds a little better. However, it doesn’t fully cut out background noise. That being said, I wasn’t expecting it to. If you have a loud keyboard – like myself, that will be picked up in the background of raw audio. Or if you bang the mic or knock on your desk it does get picked up. The noise cancelling did reduce the sound, but only to some extent.
I also ran the microphone through Nvidia broadcast to test how well it worked with that. Once again the results were good. However, in this instance, Nvidia Broadcast obviously does most of the heavy lifting of noise cancelling. However, when compared to my Rode Podmic, I was still happy with the quality being produced.
The GamerWave produces a very clean sound, but it does lack depth and feels echoey at times. Having said that, most people only want a microphone that sounds clear and this one absolutely delivers a clear sound.
Bang for your buck
To be honest, I’m really impressed with both the sound quality and features of the GamerWave. Most microphones of this price offer the bare minimum for features. The fact that we have these options and that they’re easily accessible to change on the fly makes it feel like some real effort has gone into designing the mic.
As for the sound it produces, for most people it will be fine and exactly what they want. If you’re trying to produce higher quality stuff then you may find it a little lacking. That being said, for under £30 I can’t see why you would end up dissatisfied with the Maono GamerWave. This microphone looks really nice, feels like a good level of build quality and produces some good sound. Great value for money!
-Will
amazing mic for the price