About Elgato
Elgato was founded in Germany in 1999 and built its name on gear for streamers and content creators, including the Stream Deck control panel, Key Light studio lighting, and HD60 capture cards. In 2018, Corsair Gaming acquired the brand and its team; Elgato now operates out of Germany and California and continues to design its own hardware and companion software rather than rebadging existing designs.
The Wave:3 MK.2 USB condenser microphone carries that same in-house approach into audio: a Wave FX Processor runs Clipguard 2.0 and onboard DSP directly on the mic, and the free Wave Link software mixes and routes that processing alongside third-party VST plugins. Outlets including TechRadar and Gaming Trend have reviewed the Wave:3 line favorably for build quality and sound, and on Amazon the current model holds a 4.7 rating across more than 10,000 reviews.
Brand website: elgato.com
What Elgato makes
Elgato's catalog runs wider than the gear we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Wave:3 MK.2 USB Condenser Microphone
Onboard Clipguard and Auto Gain DSP with Wave Link mixing software — featured on House of Octave
Wave Mic Arm MK.2 / LP
Desktop boom arms built to pair with the Wave microphone line
Stream Deck
Customizable control panel for streaming and production software
Key Light
Studio-grade panel lighting for video and streaming setups
Facecam
Webcam built for streaming with a Sony sensor and fixed-focus lens
HD60 series capture cards
External capture hardware for recording and streaming console/PC video
Why we recognized Elgato
The House of Octave Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose gear consistently stands out in our player-tested category guides. Elgato earned it on the strength of the products below, judged the same way every product on this site is: assessed on build, tone, and playability, weighed against what players actually report over years of use, and ranked on merit.
Elgato gear we rated highly
Elgato Wave:3 MK.2 USB Condenser Microphone
Clipguard reroutes the signal internally the moment a take gets too loud, turning the most common beginner mistake -- a clipped, distorted recording -- into a non-event, and Auto Gain sets input levels automatically before conversion rather than squashing the result afterward. Wave Link software puts that onboard processing and your own VST plugins into a single signal path with independent monitor mixes, a level of control that is unusual at this price. In our testing it stood out as the hardest mic on the page to clip.
Read the 11 Best Podcast Microphones of 2026 (USB, XLR, Budget, Wireless & Beginner) guide →What earned Elgato the recognition
- Clipguard 2.0 catches distortion at the hardware level before it reaches the recording, addressing the single most common mistake in USB microphone setups.
- Auto Gain sets input levels automatically and does so before conversion rather than compressing the signal afterward, per Elgato's own Wave FX documentation.
- Wave Link, free for Windows and macOS, routes onboard DSP effects and third-party VST plugins into independent monitor mixes -- software depth that is uncommon at this price tier.
- The current Wave:3 MK.2 holds a 4.7 rating across more than 10,000 Amazon reviews, reflecting broad, sustained buyer satisfaction rather than a small early sample.
- Independent outlets including TechRadar and Gaming Trend have reviewed the Wave:3 line favorably for build quality and sound performance.