Boy, oh boy—this one is me giving my honest thoughts on Elgato’s brand-new Wave Next lineup, and no, this video is not sponsored and I’m not affiliated with Elgato. I don’t have any of the new gear in-house yet, so this isn’t a hands-on review—this is me reacting to what’s been announced and what I’ve seen from creators who did get units early. And if you’ve watched me for any amount of time, you already know I’m not an Elgato fanboy. I’ve complained about Wave Link bugs, pricing, and the “don’t say anything negative” vibe some brands want—so when I say I’m impressed, I mean it. The two big standouts for me are the Stream Deck + XL (the “big boy” version I’ve been saying they should’ve made from the start) and the new Wave XLR “Pro” style unit. The Stream Deck + XL is basically more knobs and more real estate—exactly what I wanted—though I still wish the display was taller like the Beacon Mix Create. On the audio side, the newer Wave XLR option looks like a sleeper pick: around $170 for a first real XLR mixer/interface that’s built around Wave Link and a cleaner plugin/menu workflow. And if I go for the higher-end Wave XLR version, the dual XLR, dual headphone, and even dual-PC possibilities are the kind of “buy nice once” upgrades that finally feel worth the price. Real talk: Elgato finally cooked.