I'm not a podcaster, but these days it feels like only a matter of time. When I hop onto a Discord call with my buds and I really start to get into the latest tech nonsense I've stumbled across that week, my pals often comment (with love), 'I've been looking forward to another podcast episode from Jess.' Trust your friends to indulge your worst motor mouth impulses—at least I've found an excellent microphone deal that'll ensure I'm beaming into the chat loud and clear.
The Alias from SteelSeries not only looks great, but also offers a level of performance that would easily earn it a centre stage spot on my messy desk. Andy was similarly enthusiastic about it in his SteelSeries Alias review, though he dinged it on the grounds of its decidedly pricey MSRP of $180. Well, here's something worth shouting about: You can get this snazzy streaming microphone right now for much less, at just $107 from Amazon.
Now, to be clear, this isn't the Steelseries Alias Pro, which is not only just as snazzy but way more expensive (it's also our top pick for streaming in our best microphone for gaming guide). Yes, the Pro gives you almost studio-level sound capture, but the definitely-not-Pro SteelSeries Alias still offers decent sound capture even at a distance, plus a bit of that new-fangled AI sound cancelling that actually works well for well under half the MSRP of the Pro.
That said, you can also pick up the Pro for only $168 from Amazon right now. Unfortunately, this saving is at least a little arguable, as Andy notes in his review that you really need the Boom Arm to get the absolute most out of it. How much is the Boom Arm, you ask? 'A definitely not discounted $99 on top of everything else, please and thank you,' says the austere and wholly unsympathetic robo-voice of Amazon—if I had to guess.
As much as I am prone to podcasting and streaming-themed delusions of grandeur, even I can see the way pricier Pro is kind of overkill for me and my fast-talking about tech to an audience of maybe five on a good day. The SteelSeries Alias, on the other hand, offers a value proposition that makes much more sense at only a little over 100 bucks. For that price, you get a smart-looking microphone that you can comfortably place in frame for a video call at your day job.
The microphone's front-facing controls allow you to mute yourself at the touch of a button, or adjust headphone gain at the twiddle of a pleasantly robust-feeling knob. There's another similarly solid gain adjustment dial in the back, too, alongside the 3.5mm audio jack and the USB-C port. What I particularly enjoy, though, is that when muted, the microphone shines a big red LED 'X' through its front-facing fabric. No more awkward moments of 'Babes, I really appreciate the enthusiastic energy of your gesticulations—but you are muted.'
If you, too, are like me and often easily foiled by a single button press, you may be heartened to hear that the Steelseries Sonar audio software is actually very easy to use. Andy sung its praises in his review, highlighting the intuitive drag-and-drop interface for handling outputs and inputs.
Andy also wrote, "The software performed a quick and accurate setup on first boot that recognised all of my plugged in audio gear immediately, and quickly configured everything hardware-wise with minimal prompting. The fact that this worked as well as it did struck me as a minor miracle, as up until this point I was unaware that any audio configurators existed that didn't require at least a few minutes of messing around and some colourful language to get everything working the way you intended it to."
The awful podcast devil on my shoulder is getting more powerful by the paragraph, I swear. "Sure, you've got a face for radio," they say, "But a lateral move from podcasting isn't impossible—let's talk when you find a good deal on webcams and stream lights."
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