Logitech G Yeti Orb: Level Up Your Audio Recording Game

The name Logitech is synonymous with all matters of business and personal peripheral technologies, and as a company, they’ve been in the game for 42 years, starting with the very first commercially available computer mouse back in 1981.

In recent years,  they’ve made inroads in the personal audio space, acquiring Ultimate Ears and Blue Microphones. Today, I’m reviewing one of their latest products, the G Yeti Orb, a cardioid condenser microphone. If you’re new to the world of microphones, condenser microphones are reknown for their ability to capture sound accurately across a wide frequency. This means you get a good voice reproduction when playing back your recording. Being a cardioid-type mic means it’s unidirectional; it only picks up sound from one direction and rejects it from all others.
It’s Logitech’s cheapest entry into the gaming mic space, but does that mean it should lose points?

Let’s find out.

 

Packaging

The G Yeti Orb comes packaged in an FSC-certified box (meaning the cardboard is from a responsibly sourced forest) with everything you’ll need to get started, which isn’t a lot. You get some cushioned packaging, a warranty product card, a USB A to C cable, and a complimentary Streamlabs voucher (Logitech’s streaming product), which will allow you to dip your toe into video/audio recording and streaming if you haven’t dabbled in it before.

 

Design and Appearance

The G Yeti Orb is presented in a muted matt black and is made from eco-conscious 74% recycled plastic. It’s great to see more recycled plastic in products like this.

Its overall appearance reminds me of Blue’s Snowball, which has a similar orb/tripod vibe and makes sense, given Blue and Logitech’s merging. The Logitech variant, however, does appear more solid and understated, with rubber pads on its feet for added grip. It also has a lovely fabric layer covering the microphone, which matches Logitech’s design aesthetic in other products.

You can change the angle it’s mounted on the tripod base or remove the base entirely and screw it onto a boom stand, for example- make sure the boom stand is compatible with your Yeti!.

 

 

Setup & Recording Quality

Plug it into your PC and away you go. The USB cable carries power to the Yeti Orb and the RGB “G” light comes to life and Windows installs a driver to get you up and going.

You could start recording with the microphone immediately, using a native recording application like “Voice Recorder” in Windows 10. Where things get pretty cool, though, is when you install Logitech’s G HUB application and launch the Yeti Orb Blue VO!CE audio manager.

This app lets you manage the mic’s firmware and customise your recording experience. You can tweak your input gain, equaliser, suppress background noise and counter other unpleasant listening experiences, like audible “hissing” and “popping”. You can even use presets based on what the Yeti Orb is screwed onto, such as the aforementioned boom stand. It’s also worth mentioning that you can tailor the RGB light on the ORB to your preferences and have different settings for standby and live, which is a bit of a novelty for me but cool, nevertheless.

I found the recording quality to be slightly warm but clear and crisp. It nails the brief and will not disappoint if you’re looking for a decent streaming/podcast mic.

Conclusions

This mic would be at the top of my shopping list for someone looking to get into podcasting or streaming, especially for the RRP of $99. What adds that extra dimension to the experience is Logitech’s G HUB Application and the Blue VO!CE technology they’ve packaged in will level up amateur streamers and entertain audio nerds alike. The G Yeti Orb offers excellent bang for the buck and is an entry-level mic that Logitech should be proud of.

The DRN team wishes to thank Logitech, who sent the unit for us to review.