Wave Link is powered by Elgato Wave microphones to perform ultra low latency audio mixing. Taking in various different inputs, up to nine total and mixing them into two output mixes. Different setup configurations have an affect on the audio output latency. 

Sending Monitor Mix to Wave Headphone Output - Recommended

Plugging headphones into the headphone output of the Wave microphone is the recommended setup for achieving the lowest audio latency. Due to how the audio mixing works, when the monitor mix is sent to the headphone output of the Wave microphone, the audio stays inside the Wave driver and as such the latency stays low. 

Wave Link monitor mix latency: ~25ms (Milliseconds) 

An added benefit of plugging headphones into the Wave headphone output is zero-latency monitoring. More details further down in this article. 

Sending Monitor Mix to Other Headphones

Wave Link can output the monitor mix to other headphones, for example USB headphones connected to a PC or the headphone output jack built into computers. This setup does incur additional latency, as the audio from the Wave Link monitor mix leaves the Wave driver to be sent to the selected output. 

Wave Link Monitor Mix Latency: ~80ms (Milliseconds) 

Zero-Latency Monitoring

The Wave microphones feature zero-latency monitoring. This means the sound coming into the microphone is sent to the headphone output in real-time. This is used to be able to monitor the sound of voice to ensure it is not too loud or too quiet. Zero-latency monitoring can only be used if headphones are plugged into the headphone port of the Wave microphone. 

How much zero-latency monitoring sound is sent to the headphones is controlled by the PC/Mic mic ratio. In Wave Link, this setting is a slider, with the middle being 50% PC audio, 50% zero-latency monitoring. This adjustment can be made on Wave:3 using the Multi Function Dial. With Wave:1 the adjustment must be made in Wave Link. 

Zero-latency monitoring latency: 0ms (milliseconds)