 Since the first time I ever made a video about a microphone, incidentally it was actually the predecessor to this one, the SL300, we've received a lot of requests to cover this category better, and at first this was confusing to me. Why, when I was a kid building a hot rod PC, the microphone was the last thing on anyone's mind, but of course, that was before services like Twitch TV existed, and for that matter, before YouTube existed, and suddenly, you know, everyone and their dog all of a sudden figures they need a broadcast-grade microphone to ramble into while playing video games, but of course, that shift has occurred now, and my recent appearance on Pimp My Setup, which you can check out here, by the way, really drove home for me how many of these just perfectly normal people have high-end microphones as part of their rigs, and why these reviews are so popular. So without further ado, here's our video of the SL600 condenser microphone from Editors Keys. Of course, there's H80i GT and H100i GTX all-in-one liquid coolers improve both the appearance and cooling of your PC. Click my face to learn more. Right out of the box, the SL600 feels more professional-grade than consumer-grade, and I actually mean that in kind of a negative sense. It includes a hard case for travel, you know, because everyone needs one of those, and a reasonably competent, if not exceptional shock mount. Okay, that one's actually pretty handy, and guys like Blue and Razer charge extra for that on similarly priced consumer-slash prosumer-oriented mics like the Yeti Pro and Siren, and they had the sense to include a nice long USB cable, but it doesn't include any kind of stand for the darn thing. This is what professional gear is always like, you know, here's the hard stuff to find, but we'll just assume you already have, like, a thing to actually put it on your freaking desk, or something more elaborate like a boom arm that clamps to it to hold the thing up, and I didn't. I mean, it's not a huge deal, and Editors Keys does have reasonably priced stand accessories if you don't have your own already, but the bad news is that could put the SL600 beyond the, you know, oh, it's only a little bit more than the Siren threshold, where folks are likely to upsell themselves a few bucks for something that is significantly better if they don't already own one. But is it significantly better? Patience, we'll get to that. First, the physical tour. The SL600 has a striking, and to me very appealing, but I'm kind of partial to this color scheme, appearance with a black metal body and orange mesh over the single large 34mm diaphragm. Yes, folks, this is not a jack-of-all-trades microphone, so if you were expecting to get XLR output and a veritable smorgasbord of pickup patterns that are pretty unlikely to be used outside of very specific situations, you'll be sorely disappointed. The SL600 is designed to be used one way, and one way only. Speak into the microphone. Below the business end is a low-cut switch to get rid of the boominess that can sometimes occur when someone other than me sits too close, a minus 10 decibel pre-attenuation switch for loud sources, a gain knob and, ooh, what's this? The big upgrade that got my attention on this model compared to the SL300, which I use just about every other day. A headphone knob to go along with the zero latency audio monitoring port just under the dial. Very nice. Just like the other microphones that I'm comparing against, it can output only your computer system sound from that port, or it can mix in the microphone's input with zero delay, making it perfect for podcasting. Or does it? Now we'll get into the actual audio quality. I'll be putting it up against the two similarly priced products that I have in my testing stable right now in my usual scenarios. Let's start with some test audio from the SL600 in my ideal scenario, where it's positioned directly in front of me between my keyboard and face with a dual layer pop filter. In this position, the SL600 performs very well. Ambient noise pickup is among the lowest I've encountered, so in spite of the four other computers in the room and the nearby server room, and even with the keyboard rocking out in the background behind it, which I'll start mashing away on now, voice quality is very, very good. I mean, if you're a game streamer, this can be the difference between an acceptable microphone and one that's totally useless. Which was my biggest complaint about the Razer Siren. From my Yeti Blackout and Pro review, the sound of my voice through the Siren was a strong point for it, but its high noise floor and inability to shut out background noise, like typing like this, hurts it in a big way when it's commanding a big league price similar to the other microphones we're looking at today. The next of which is the Blue Yeti Pro, which holds up really well against the competition. Its noise floor is similar, and its ambient noise pickup, both the hum of the computer systems and... typing away behind the mic, is noticeably better than the SL600, but both Brandon and I, in side-by-side listening tests, pegged the SL600 as the more natural sounding of the two, and therefore probably my pick for vocal recording with the Yeti Pro, having a more radio-like sound quality at this distance. Something that many broadcasters will prefer. Which got me thinking, how would the SL600 perform in a more up-close and personal recording environment? The answer is, well, you're listening to it. You get a much warmer sound with more bass, but without it becoming overwhelming. That same experiment on the Yeti Pro didn't give me nearly as dramatic a difference in the recording, though, so for skilled broadcasters who want to leverage the different ways that they'll sound as they move closer or further from the microphone, the SL600 is a clear winner for me. Which leads us to our next test scenario, starting with the SL600. Putting the mic off to the side next to the monitor where it's forced to operate from a distance of about half a meter from the sound source. This is definitely not the SL600's wheelhouse. It sounds noticeably more distant than the Blue Yeti Pro, which I'll switch to now for easy side-by-side comparison. Although, as usual, I have standardized test recordings which you can find in my Soundcloud linked below the video. But I'd still take it over the Razer Siren, which I'm switching to now, due to the Siren's noise floor and background noise pickup, which continue to be the bane of its existence. Is this thing on? Alright, so let's talk final thoughts then. Once you get to a certain point, it looks like, uh, for USB desktop microphones, that's about $200, it becomes more about trade-offs than one product being clearly significantly better than another. The SL600 would be my choice for pure vocals or broadcasting thanks to its voice recording prowess, and the lifetime warranty is a definite plus. But the Yeti Pro's XLR output, hardware mute button, that's a big one, and ambient noise reduction make it a clear choice for game streamers at the same price, once you factor in that you're gonna need a stand for this bad boy. Speaking of streaming and game streamers, XSplit Broadcaster powers countless live streams and recordings around the world, including the WAN show that you see here, online as Tech Tips every Friday. Their new V2 version of the software has powerful new tools, it's built to meet the needs of today's content creators, and all these bullet points that I'm supposed to say, but the basic point of all of this is that XSplit is affordable and just plain works. It's stable, their game detection is outstanding, so it can actually pick up on games. Luke's had it running with games that aren't even released yet, and it's just like, boop! Yep, we know about this, we'll let you go ahead and cast that, which helps the games not be as demanding on your system when you're streaming them, as well as just generally being easier to use. You can set up a variety of scenes, you got fade effects as you switch between them, and it's got all kinds of stuff that really just generally makes the life of me personally, and I'm assuming anyone else who tries it, a little bit easier. The best part is that if you're willing to give up on a couple of the more premium features, like lots of extra scenes, it is completely free. There's also some stuff I should mention about XSplit GameCaster, so that's for gamers to easily stream and record their great gaming moments at the click of a button. It's got an easy to use overlay, so you can go ahead and bring that up and start, you know, streaming or recording your gameplay without actually alt-tabbing completely out of the game, and I think those are pretty redundant. I've got another point that says, it's great for creating live streams and recordings. Yeah, yeah, it would be. I mean, anything Split Media makes pretty much is for that. So visit xsplit.com slash Linus to start streaming and recording in HD today. Guys, thanks for watching. Like this video if you liked it, dislike it if you thought it sucked, leave a comment if your feelings are more complicated than either of those. If you actually want to leave a comment, we've got a link in the video description to where you can do that on the Linus Tech Tips forum. You can log in with Facebook, Steam, I believe Twitter login is allowed, so you don't even have to go through a whole content or a profile creation process. Also linked in the video description, you can support us with a monthly contribution, buy a cool t-shirt like this one, or just change your Amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code so we get a small kickback whenever you buy microphones or whatever else it is you shop for on Amazon. That kind of stuff helps us out a lot. Thanks again for watching and as always, don't forget to subscribe.