streamers haven

Amazon Prime Day for streamers – [Sale Over]

Amazon Prime Day 2019 is officially over. We’ll be back next year for you when Amazon Prime Day 2020 happens, packed with streamer gear deals.

All of the gear on here are still fantastic choices if you are looking for great streaming equipment. If you are in need of a new Webcam, Capture card, Light for your webcam, Microphone, Audio Interface, & more, see our recommended choices below.

As you may know, Streamer’s Haven partakes in the Amazon Associates program for our links to Amazon. What this means is that each link we provide to our streaming related products on Amazon generates a 24-hour cookie on your PC or phone. Then, any purchase you make on Amazon with that cookie on your PC will generate an “Advertiser’s fee” for us. The money we earn from this helps support the site’s continued operation.

The Best streamer gear on Amazon Prime Day

The top components for streamers

Getting into the hobby of streaming can get overwhelming and complicated fast, as there are so many products designed to accomplish the same task. We’ve sifted through the chaos and managed to pick out a few gems you might like!

Capture the Moment

Face Cameras are one of the things on the Amazon Prime Day Sale.Me sitting in my chair with my xlr condenser mic in frame giving a thumbs up. I'm wearing a Pizza Planet T shirt from Toy Story. In the background, a Canvas picture of a lakeside dock. To the left of that, A Paneled oak door. Further left is a walnut dresser with a carved wooded Chinese dragon statue, a Painted porcelain wizard, and the edge of my diploma.

If you stream without a face camera, that is completely okay! However, having a face camera to show your reactions to events taking place will connect your viewers to you on a more personal level.

There are several advantages of having a Face Camera on stream, as well as disadvantages.

The first big advantage is that it opens you up to reaction clips. Now, this can be used against you, especially if you are sensitive to people’s perception of you. For all you know, you could very well be the source of the next viral MEME. However, when something goes viral, it means great exposure for you, as many people will try to find the origin of the meme out of curiosity.

The disadvantages are numerous, from reducing the privacy of your hobby to the cost(and hidden cost) of a face camera setup.

I started streaming using an old Logitech C525 webcam I got at a yard sale for $10 and used it from 2016 to 2017, where I bought a new Logitech C920 on Amazon Prime day for cheap! It’s on sale again this year, so If you’re looking to upgrade your webcam, now’s the time!

Lighting your way

If you use a webcam(or high-end DSLR), you must also use at least a key light for it to have a good quality image. A really cheap light that does this job well is an LED Ring light.

My recommended ring light comes with a Smartphone mount, which is extremely useful for IRL streamers.

Some Advantages of our choice:

  • It comes with the Smartphone mount, built into the tripod it comes with.
  • The Tripod can extend the height of the light from 17.5″ to 51″
  • Basic color temperature control with three settings (For the most part, you want the least red-shifted setting.)
  • Adaptability: Powered VIA 5V USB. Can plug directly into your PC for power, or a USB wall adapter.
  • Small footprint for a light, and can be easily stored away.
  • Comes with a Bluetooth remote for capturing moments quickly on your Android or iPhone. (Mostly useless for streamers.)
  • Cheap!!

Disadvantages of this light:

  • The CRI isn’t fantastic, meaning the color of your light will be washed out to some extent. You can read our key light article for more info on this subject.
  • Color temperature is fixed at three different settings, with no fine control to match the temperature of other lights in your setup.
  • The quantity(lumens) of light is low, meaning you may need to increase exposure and gain to get a usable image. This reduces the quality of the video feed.

Get it on Sale for Prime Day 2019 and improve the quality of your Face Cam!

Some lights are better than others in different situations

For its price, there really aren’t any better choices starting out. Ring lights are fantastic as single light setups, as they emit light that wraps around your face well. For Two-Point lighting or more, Light panels, like the Dazzne Bi-color LED panel kits will do the job well. Lighting tends to get expensive quickly, as High lumen, High CRI LED technology is fairly specialized for film.

There are a number of Panel Light deals for Amazon Prime Day 2019. Just be sure to read the reviews for mentions of “Flicker” on them.

We have a fairly in-depth article on the key light, I recommend giving it a read if you are interested in improving your face cam quality!

We hear you loud and clear!

XLR Condenser mic in a Studio.Many of these mics are available on Amazon Prime Day for a very low price.

Next up, your microphone. Many home studios and other streaming tutorials recommend using a Cardioid Condenser Microphone. Now, this is a great choice…if your room is properly treated.

Condenser microphones have the potential to be the highest overall quality audio microphones for vocals. However, Most streamers have not treated their rooms with proper room acoustic treatment materials. The result is an echo chamber.

As sound travels in waves, and waves spread out and bounce. That bounce introduces delayed echos(Or reverb) that get picked up by your hyper-sensitive condenser microphones. This is usually undesirable as a streamer. I can’t tell you how many posts on r/twitch and r/mixer complain about echo and questions on how to eliminate it.

The Fact of the matter is that you need proper room acoustic treatment. Only after you have proper treatment, should a condenser microphone be considered.

So what are your options then?

Dynamic Microphones!

A Dynamic microphone is the type of microphone used in live concerts to reject a lot of the crowd’s explosion cheers and screams. For Example, the Shure SM58 is the most popular budget class vocal Dynamic microphone out there and has been for over a decade.

However, my recommendation is something a bit cheaper, and better for people starting out for its outstanding feature for a new streamer; USB AND XLR input.

Enter the Samson Q2U! While not being an Amazon Prime Day sale item, this is my recommended mic when starting out.

For those who don’t have an Audio Interface yet, The Samson Q2U is the most versatile mic out there for the price. There are very few mics that have this sort of versatility, and the ability to go from USB to XLR is a big step for low budget streamers just starting out.

Audio interfaces are essentially external sound cards with professional XLR Studio connections and can provide something known as Phantom power(48V) to microphones that need it.

For ANY microphone choice past this, extensive research will need to be done by you to find a mic that best matches the sound you want from a voice that is similar to yours!

Read my in-depth microphone article for more information on this subject.

It goes to 11??!!

A picture of my Behringer UMC204HD. This item is not available as an Amazon Prime Day sale item, but I still recommend buying it or one of its larger or smaller variants.

Jokes aside, Next on the list is an Audio Interface. This is a mostly optional addition to your streaming setup, and should really only be considered if audio is extremely important to you. A USB microphone or USB/XLR Hybrid like the Samson Q2U mentioned above will do just fine for hobbyists.

Even that is overkill for some people; a simple Headset mic will do the job!

However, If you are serious about your hobby, or want to improve the quality, the XLR mic & audio interface is the way to go.

For anyone on a tight budget, the Behringer UMC22 or Behringer UMC202HD is the best in the price bracket by far. This is thanks to the Midas Pre-amps in them. Then there is the 204HD(What I am using myself) that has even more input/output options. Plan on using MIDI? You’ll need the 204HD to interface it with your PC to stream or record it.

You might need a 1/4″ to 3.5mm adapter for the headphone monitoring port. Most gaming headsets are 3.5mm, and having these around are helpful in many ways. That is why we recommend getting a 3 pack.

Now, There are no Prime Day Deals for any of my recommended Audio Interfaces or similar alternatives, but this is an important tool to get If you plan on using an XLR Microphone.

Remember this quote, if nothing else:

“$100 of Room acoustics treatment is worth more than $1000 of Professional Audio Equipment.”

– Mr. GoodHand of Streamer’s Haven

Elgato deals have concluded for the US, Still available in UK, Canada, and others. See Reddit post at the bottom.

Elgato has made somewhat of a name for itself in recent years as being the de-facto streaming gear company, with hit releases like the Stream Deck, and Elgato Cam Link for use in capturing High-End DSLR cameras as an option for ultra-high-end face cam video quality. (If you choose to do this, the Sony A6000 is my recommendation)

They are no strangers to Amazon Prime Day, with a number of its products going on sale. Now a quick mention, If you plan to purchase a capture card, You’ll need to make sure your motherboard supports it.

An HD60 is a PCI-E 3.0 x1 interface, and a 4k60 Pro is a PCI-E 3.0 X4 interface. Check your motherboard’s manual to make sure it has those before making your purchase. If it does not, your only options are cards that use a USB interface, like the Elgato HD60 S. Be sure to read my article on dedicated streaming PC’s if you are interested in buying one of these.

While not all products are available on an Amazon Prime Day sale at this time, many of their products that aren’t have a price drop that makes them worth picking up if you were thinking about it. There is a Reddit post telling of limited-time sales by Elgato. Check it out! Just be sure to use one of links on this page before you buy anything if you want the credit for the sale to go to us!

The beating heart of a streamer

My streaming setup. Two monitors and an overhead TV, A Keyboard, XLR mic and interface(partially visible), and mouse. In the background, my light stand. Many of these items or equivilant are on sale for Amazon Prime day.
Not glamorous, but that is what I am working with. Mismatched monitors, the desk is beaten up from multiple moves. Just behind the TV, I have the light that I use for recordings. 3 100w equivalent 13-watt Philips bulbs are in, for a grand total of 300 watts output.

At the heart of every streamer lies a machine. Sometimes it is a laptop. Other times, a console. However, a Desktop PC is by far the best choice, as it offers the greatest encoding capabilities of all the machines at a reasonable price.

Especially with Ryzen 3000 having been launched on July 7th, many features available on the X570 chipset are very beneficial for streamers & YouTubers.

My article on the best streaming pc has my list of recommended pc parts for a streaming pc. It explains wherein the pc components you can cut corners, and where you need to spend a little extra.

Check out this video by EposVox. According to him, CPU presets for the X264 encoder should be kept above slow.

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