Razer has been trying its hand at microphones for a while now. They released their first standalone microphone, the Seiren, in December 2014, and they have been improving on it ever since. The Seiren V3 Pro is their most ambitious microphone yet. It’s a brand-new dynamic mic built for streamers and creators, and it costs $249.99.
At that price, they’re going up against Shure and Rode, the brands that professionals trust for studio sound. What’s impressive is that Razer actually competes.
No Longer A Toy
The first thing I noticed when unboxing the Razer Seiren V3 Pro was the weight of the microphone. The body is a matte black zinc unibody, and it feels expensive. There is no creaking, no hollow plastic, and no corners being cut here. It’s an end-address mic, which means that you talk into the top instead of the side, and it has a chassis that will shrug off vibration. What is also great is that it has a shock absorber built in, too, which, in testing, worked really well to keep the desk from bumping out of my recordings.
The Razer Seiren V3 Pro is impressively understated. After years of Razer having edgy gamer aesthetics and RGB everywhere, they’ve finally found a perfect aesthetic. I could say this across their entire lineup nowadays, but the Seiren V3 Pro is the culmination of that. It is a premium, understated microphone that keeps Razer’s design language intact.
Razer didn’t get rid of the RGB lighting, either. There is a Chroma ring that wraps around the body in 12 zones, and it is incredibly tasteful. In USB-C mode, it shows me my mute status, my gain, and when I’m peaking, all at a glance. This means that streamers don’t have to tab out or ask their chat to find that information out. Not only does it look cool, but it serves a purpose.
The Seiren V3 Pro also comes with a removable foam pop filter and an adjustable arm mount, which is appreciated at this price point. Plenty of microphones that you’ll cross-shop in this price range will make you go buy your own. What’s great is that the mount is sturdy and easy to position. The pop filter does a good job at preventing plosives from sneaking through, too.
Where the V3 Pro Earns Its Name
At the heart of the Razer Seiren V3 Pro is a 30mm dynamic capsule, almost double the size of the last one, with a cardioid pattern and a 50 Hz to 16 kHz range. The microphone that I mainly use is the Shure SM7B, and that is the bar that I measured this against. Yeah, it’s not a fair fight, I know. Out of the box over USB-C, my voice sounded warm and full. There is some sibilance on my harder consonants, which I dislike, and the Seiren runs quiet, the same as my SM7B does, so you’ll have to feed it gain regardless. The difference is everything around the microphone. To get my SM7B to be usable, I run it through a Cloudlifter and then through my Elgato Wave XLR interface. The Seiren doesn’t require any of that. Plug in the USB-C, crank the dial on the body, and you’re all set. No need to open the app for that.
The dual USB-C and XLR connectivity is genius, and Razer isn’t the first to implement this feature. Plug in the Seiren V3 Pro over USB-C, and you’re running in seconds, and Synapse walks you through a fairly impressive voice-and-room calibration. Want to grow into a proper setup later? Connect the microphone to the XLR through an interface. I remember back before we had this level of versatility in professional microphones, how frustrating the upgrade path was for an end consumer. Now, many different brands are implementing dual connectivity. One quick thing to note: the RGB ring and the tap-to-mute function run off of USB power, and not the XLR line. If you’re going with XLR for your audio and still want the lighting, you can leave the USB-C cable plugged in alongside it. Of course, the tap-to-mute only works with USB, so if you’re using XLR, you’ll need to use your interface. What’s great, though, is that the microphone works with both connections simultaneously, so you aren’t forced to give up one or the other.
Then there’s the onboard DSP, and this is the coolest part. AI noise removal, a compressor, limiter, and an expander, all of it is processed on the Seiren V3 Pro itself instead of your PC. That noise removal function is the standout. It got rid of my keyboard clicking and the hum of my room while leaving my voice intact, an incredibly important feature for those without a padded studio like myself. There’s a headphone jack if you want to monitor your audio with zero latency, and the capacitive tap-to-mute button is exceptional.
One big thing that Razer keeps shouting about is the 32-bit float support, and it’s great. A wider dynamic range so that you don’t clip when you’re louder than you need to be, but there is a caveat. It only works through Synapse on Windows. Mac users cannot use this feature, as Synapse on Mac does not support Seiren microphones. Again, another feature locked behind Synapse software, but this is to be expected. I think Razer knows their consumer base is majority Windows users, and that Mac users are probably going in a different direction. I can’t fully blame Razer for this.
Should You Buy It?
Going into this review, I expected that I would just redirect you toward a Shure or Rode microphone, but it didn’t turn out that way. Here’s why.
First, the price. The Seiren V3 Pro comes in at a very reasonable $249.99. The Shure MV7+, which is the microphone that most people land on at this tier, costs a bit more than that. Razer undercuts the Shure MV7+ and matches it. The Rode PodMic USB is cheaper, but I’d rather spend the extra cash and get more features, like the built-in DSP, RGB, and included mount.
So, who is this microphone for? If you’re already within Razer’s ecosystem and want to start your streaming career without assembling a full-blown setup, buy the Seiren V3 Pro. If you’re someone who already owns a microphone that you love, that question becomes more difficult to answer. That’s me. As I mentioned before, I run an SM7B, and I wouldn’t retire it for this. But I would absolutely cross-shop the Seiren against an MV7+, and that’s the competition that Razer aims to beat. Razer’s second-ever XLR microphone is an impressive one, and they proved that they belong in this space.
Disclaimer: Razer provided a Seiren V3 Pro unit for review purposes.
