Razer Seiren II

A solid condenser mic with its eyes on the pro streaming market.

Designed to be used in tandem with the Razer Kiyo streaming webcam, the Seiren X is a sleek and, as far as gaming peripherals go, inconspicuous condenser microphone. Like the Kiyo, it’s designed as a plug-andplay device, so no fancy third-party software is needed and it played nice with the widely used (and free) OBS streaming software we used to test it. It’s a streamlined affair, with a simple volume knob controlling the 3.5mm headphone output, and a mute button which illuminates green or red.

Razer boast of its supercardioid pickup pattern, which it claims “records [input] at a tighter angle” than most condenser mics. And this bore out in our testing: we streamed to a small audience who didn’t notice a child yelling in the next room, and getting the right output was as simple as using OBS’s inbuilt controllers.

You can pick one of these units up for as little as $150, and while that’s still quite pricey for a condenser mic, this one really lends itself to game streaming given its focus on precision recording. It’s also designed to be portable, so if your future life as a professional game streamer involves attending LANs or tournaments, this weighs only a bit more than your average smartphone.

We would have liked a retractable pole connected to the mic’s base, in order to raise and lower the mic according to usage, but few desktop arrangements will demand this requirement anyway, so it’s hardly a caveat.