Blue Yeti vs Razer Seiren Elite
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This article focuses on the Blue Yeti and Razer Seiren Elite. If you’re interested in how the Razer Seiren X or Seiren Mini perform, I have another article covering those as well.
Blue Yeti (left) and Razer Seiren Elite.
Overview
Build Quality
Performance
Verdict
Overview
Blue Yeti
The Blue Yeti is an incredibly popular condenser capsule USB microphone. It is 11.75 inches tall with the included stand. Being a condenser, it picks up impressive detail in vocals and instrumentals, but this also makes it susceptile to ambient room noises.
It has 3 capsules inside the mic allowing it to record in 4 different polar patterns: cardioid for picking up sounds in front of it, stereo for specific performances like a choir, omnidirectional to pick up sound from all directions, and bidirectional for interviews.
I bought my Blue Yeti for $130. Here is its Amazon listing. It is available in multiple colors.
Razer Seiren Elite
The Razer Seiren Elite is Razer’s most premium microphone. It is a dynamic capsule USB microphone that is 9 inches tall with the included stand.
The dynamic capsule gives it superior background noise rejection compared to the Blue Yeti, but it is overall less sensitive. It is top-address (you speak into the top) and it records in a cardioid polar pattern, picking up sound from primarily in front of it.
It includes a high-pass filter switch on the bottom to silence bumps and vibrations, and it has a limiter built into the mic that prevents peaking and distortion. The included windguard provides mild resistance against popping sounds when speaking right next to the device.
I bought my Razer Seiren Elite for $200. Here is its Amazon listing.
Build Quality
Body, stand, and wire
Both the Blue Yeti and Razer Seiren Elite have metal bodies and stands, but the Blue Yeti is bulkier and heavier. Each mic can be angled by loosening the knobs on the side of the stand. The USB cable included with the Blue Yeti is 81 inches long, while the Seiren Elite’s cable is 119 inches long and is braided.
Each device has a gain knob, mute button, headphone jack for audio monitoring, and a headphone volume knob.
Mounting Options
The Blue Yeti has 5/8th inch threading on the bottom to connect to a mic stand or boom arm, while the Seiren Elite has both 5/8th and 3/8th inch threading. Using these devices with a boom arm is ideal to properly position them towards the sound source.
Performance
Here I’ve included sample audio for both the Blue Yeti and Razer Seiren Elite in various tests. The Blue Yeti is set to cardioid mode and the Razer Seiren Elite’s high-pass filter is off unless stated. I’ll be focusing on:
Tone
Proximity effect and distance testing
Plosive rejection
Background noise rejection
Music
I’ll also demonstrate the Razer Seiren Elite’s unique features including its limiter and high-pass filter. Finally, I’ll summarize the audio both of these devices.
Tone
The Razer Seiren Elite has a distinctly more bass heavy tone than the Blue Yeti. Spoken word is very rich, but not muddy. The Blue Yeti has less bass and more pronounced highs compared to the Seiren Elite. This difference becomes more distinct when used from closer up.
If you want a “broadcaster voice”, the Seiren Elite is the best option.
Proximity effect and distance testing
When used 1-2 inches away, the Razer Seiren Elite has a very powerful proximity effect. The low frequency response at this range is very great, and it can be almost overwhelming. To make it sound more natural, if that’s not your desired sound, the high-pass filter can be enabled on the bottom of the mic to cut out the lowest frequencies.
The Blue Yeti’s proximity effect is much less than the Seiren Elite’s, and it suffers from increased sibilance up close. Sharp “s” sounds become a bit too strong. Farther than about 4 inches, the Blue Yeti’s sensitive capsule starts to pick up significant echos from your voice that you might not notice at all in person. This gives it a more narrow effective range than the Seiren Elite.
Plosive Rejection
Good plosive rejection on the Blue Yeti, though not amazing.
Without the Seiren Elite’s wind guard, the Blue Yeti has superior plosive rejection. Popping sounds from “b” and “p” sounds are much less apparent on the Blue Yeti. They’re about even when the Seiren Elite’s wind guard is on, and both perform at their best with external pop filters.
Background Noise
The Blue Yeti and Razer Seiren Elite suffer from two different issues regarding background noise.
The Blue Yeti, being incredibly sensitive, picks up lots of potentially unwanted sounds from inside and outside of a recording space such as computer fans, hard drives, and loud wind blowing outside. This includes echos from your own voice from the walls. It also gets overpowered by keyboard typing and any sounds near the mic.
In addition, the Blue Yeti has a relatively loud noise floor (white noise caused by the electronics of microphones) compared to similarly priced USB mics such as the HyperX Quadcast and Razer Seiren X.
Super loud noise floor.
Loud noise floor and picks up lots of ambient room noise.
In contrast to the Blue Yeti, the Razer Seiren Elite has incredibly effective ambient sound rejection. This is improved even further when the high-pass filter is turned on which makes desk rumbles from typing on a keyboard nearly silent.
Unfortunately, the benefit of this is counteracted by the Seiren Elite’s even louder noise floor. This is the loudest noise floor of any mic I’ve used thus far, and you’ll certainly have heard it in the above sample clips. It is audible without headphones, and quite distracting with them on.
Noise floor compensation
An easy to apply filter built into OBS Studio.
To compensate for the noise floor of both the Blue Yeti and Razer Seiren Elite, you can add a noise suppression or noise reduction filter in OBS, Audacity, or other audio recording software of choice. Here is a demonstration:
Music
The Blue Yeti is a much better choice for music over the Razer Seiren Elite. Instrumentals sound muffled on the Seiren Elite. The clarity is just not there.
For vocals, it’s more of a preference if you like the Elite’s warmer sound or the Yeti’s more neutral tone, but the Blue Yeti is much clearer for instruments. The additional polar patterns on it also give it more flexibility.
Razer Seiren Elite high-pass filter and limiter demonstration
Razer packed a couple extra features into the Seiren Elite to optimize it for streamers and home use: a high-pass filter and limiter.
High-pass filter
High-pass filter switch and headphone jack.
The high-pass filter switch found at the bottom of the mic has multiple uses such as:
reducing vibrations around the mic such as mic arm bumps or keyboard typing thumps.
preventing the proximity effect of the device from being too strong.
It is also supposed to quiet low rumbles and hums from devices like refridgerators or fans, but those are eliminated enough already just by nature of the Seiren Elite’s dynamic capsule. The inherent noise floor of the Seiren Elite is louder than those ambient sounds will be anyway.
Limiter
The Seiren Elite’s ring flashes red when the limiter actives. Unfortunately, it still flashes when the mic is muted!
The Seiren Elite’s built-in limiter is always enabled and cannot be configured or adjusted. It detects whenever incoming sound is too loud and immediately reduces its volume to stop audio clipping. It works very well, especially for intense gaming situations. I yell a lot on stream myself and have to apologize to listeners, so this is a great addition for streamers.
Overall sound summary
The Blue Yeti is a sensitive mic that records very textured sound, useful for singers and individuals recording in a room with sound treatment. It’s a very natural sounding device that does its best in a professional setting.
The Razer Seiren Elite has a rich and bassy sound that can be tamed if needed with its high-pass filter. It does not pick up as much detail as the Blue Yeti, but that proves to be an advantage in home recording situations. It can dull and almost completely eliminate keyboard typing, fans, and other unwanted noises from the recording. Unfortunately, to get useable audio out of the Seiren Elite, it is basically required to use a noise reduction filter.
Verdict
Neither the Blue Yeti or Razer Seiren Elite are strictly superior to each other. The Blue Yeti is a more effective choice for those in a sound treated booth who want their instruments or vocals recorded in the most detail possible.
For pretty much anyone else - podcasters, video conferencers, and streamers - I recommend the Razer Seiren Elite. Its background noise rejection, high-pass filter, and deep bass response up close give it excellent sound even in suboptimal recording environments.
There is a major caveat here. Make sure you apply some sort of noise reduction or suppression filter to remove the noise floor from your audio with the Seiren Elite. If that sounds like too much of a hassle, I would look into the Samson Q2U (my review). It’s another dynamic mic that has a tone more similar to the Blue Yeti but still eliminates lots of background noise.
Amazon Listings
Blue Yeti https://amzn.to/33gwcpD
Razer Seiren Elite: https://amzn.to/2QMFarT
