Why is EVERYONE Buying this Mic??

[00:00] Whether it's to hang out with your paid friends on Discord

[00:02] or to fulfill your lifelong dream

[00:04] of becoming a millionaire who works 16 hours a day

[00:07] and lives in squalor for some reason,

[00:08] you have found yourself in need of a microphone.

[00:12] But in a sea of many great options,

[00:16] why the ever-******, jack eating ****

[00:18] are you guys all buying this one?

[00:21] It's not the cheapest, it's not the best quality, probably.

[00:25] And while I have encountered the brand before,

[00:28] Fifine isn't exactly a household name, and yet somehow,

[00:33] it was the Amazon bestseller way back in January,

[00:36] and now, over six months later, it remains the top dog.

[00:41] Do you all know something that I don't?

[00:43] Not for long, you won't.

[00:45] With the help of the Labs team,

[00:46] I will be fi-finding out if you made a big mistake

[00:50] or if everyone else is missing out

[00:53] on the best bang for the buck.

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[01:15] I guess the first question is why not the Fifine A6T?

[01:19] It's $47 at the time of writing,

[01:21] has overwhelmingly positive reviews,

[01:23] works on PC, Mac, and PlayStation,

[01:26] and it includes absolutely everything

[01:29] you need to get started.

[01:30] The mic itself, a boom arm, a desk clamp, a shock mount,

[01:34] and even a cute little pop filter with a smiley face on it.

[01:38] I mean, it's kind of an incredible value.

[01:42] A setup like this purchased all pieces separately

[01:44] could easily run you double or more,

[01:47] and I'm not even talking about a more advanced setup

[01:51] with a separate XLR microphone and audio interface.

[01:54] So how are they doing all of this?

[01:56] It's kind of wild, right?

[01:58] Because fundamentally, every microphone

[02:00] from the very cheapest all the way to the most premium

[02:04] is the same in that it captures the sound

[02:08] that's coming to it via vibrations in the air

[02:10] and then outputs that as a mic level signal,

[02:13] which is basically inaudible.

[02:15] You then need a preamplifier to convert it

[02:17] to a line level signal that humans can actually hear.

[02:20] And finally, you need an analog to digital converter

[02:23] to convert the waves of analog data into digital data

[02:26] that your computer can understand.

[02:28] And yes, all of that is packed

[02:31] into the devices in your setup,

[02:33] whether you can point to the discrete components or not.

[02:36] The difference is that in fully integrated solutions,

[02:39] they just might be really, really tiny

[02:42] and or well, really, really cheap,

[02:45] which raises a huge question here.

[02:47] I mean, if you can make all the necessary pieces

[02:50] so small and so affordable, why does anybody spend the extra

[02:55] on these overkill setups like this one?

[02:59] Well, the most obvious answer is, of course, quality

[03:02] compared to our studio mic,

[03:04] which is the one I'm talking on right now,

[03:06] or the one that we use for the WAN show, the A6T, mm.

[03:12] It just doesn't sound that great by comparison,

[03:15] but we're also being totally unfair.

[03:19] I mean, considering that the mic itself

[03:21] is practically thrown in for free

[03:23] alongside its generous accessory package,

[03:26] means that I think a more reasonable comparison

[03:29] would be to a pair of old wired ear pods

[03:31] that you had lying around,

[03:32] which as expected, it sounds a lot worse.

[03:36] We're gonna get into some deeper performance comparisons

[03:38] a bit later, but first, I wanna talk about

[03:41] the second advantage of a more advanced XLR setup,

[03:45] and that's upgradability.

[03:46] It can be a bigger upfront investment,

[03:49] that is unless you choose a mic that has both USB and XLR,

[03:53] but what's nice about it is that you're able to swap out

[03:56] only your microphone or only your audio interface

[03:59] if you end up needing something else.

[04:01] Of course, for some folks, the sheer simplicity

[04:04] of having a single USB-C cable

[04:07] trumps any kind of quality or future-proofing advantage.

[04:10] So let's take a closer look at the A6T.

[04:14] The mic feels quite a bit cheaper

[04:18] than it looks in the pictures, actually.

[04:19] It's shockingly light.

[04:21] It's side address, which means you talk into it like this,

[04:24] not like this, and to help you with that,

[04:28] the pop filter only attaches to it one way,

[04:30] so you're very unlikely to mess it up.

[04:33] And the boom arm does actually a pretty darn excellent job

[04:36] of keeping the mic exactly where you put it,

[04:39] but is so light that it seems like it could break

[04:42] at pretty much any time.

[04:44] And one more thing,

[04:45] while it is nice that these cable ties are included,

[04:48] I feel like an upgrade to some better ones

[04:50] from lttstore.com is in order.

[04:53] With that said, there's no other way around it.

[04:55] I gotta give them full marks for ease of setup.

[04:57] I mean, you don't even need an app.

[04:59] You just plug it in, and the RGB lights up

[05:02] to let you know that you are officially a pro gamer.

[05:05] Forever.

[05:08] That's right, you cannot customize the RGB

[05:11] or even turn it off unless you mute the microphone

[05:15] altogether.

[05:16] Gain is adjusted with this big old knob on the bottom,

[05:19] but the indicator is inconveniently positioned

[05:22] on the bottom, and it doesn't actually correspond

[05:25] to the position of the dial,

[05:26] so maybe it would be better to just use software

[05:29] to tell you nothing.

[05:32] No, the volume slider on Windows does nothing

[05:35] with the default drivers for the Fifine.

[05:37] And the lack of an app means that there are no other drivers

[05:40] nor is there an official way to add VST plugins

[05:43] like a noise gate or a compressor and also no audio mixing

[05:47] like some other microphones allow you to do.

[05:49] However, you'll know that this isn't a huge mark against it

[05:52] if you watched our recent video highlighting

[05:54] some handy audio tools that can take care of that for you,

[05:57] none of which matters at all

[05:59] if the mic's performance is unacceptably bad.

[06:03] So we're gonna start by letting you guys judge

[06:05] some fairly challenging scenarios.

[06:07] I'm just gonna, whoop, you know what?

[06:09] I'm just gonna put it right here

[06:10] and we're gonna let the Fifine's included shock mount

[06:13] see if it can handle some desk vibrations

[06:16] and stuff like that, or, ooh, how about the pop filter?

[06:19] Pop, pop, popsicle, the plosive, or ice, ice, icicle, baby.

[06:26] Ooh, ooh, how does it handle gamer excitement?

[06:28] Pog, pog, pog, pog, gamers say pog, right?

[06:31] I'm gonna, which way is down?

[06:33] Oh, bloody hell, I don't know which way is down.

[06:35] It doesn't matter.

[06:36] In comparison, the Blue Yeti costs about twice as much

[06:41] with no accessories other than a desk stand

[06:44] and sounds about like this.

[06:46] And just so you don't have to rewind to find it,

[06:50] and just so you don't have to rewind to find it,

[06:53] here's what you'd usually hear on the WAN Show.

[06:55] And now we're back on the Fifine A6T one last time

[06:58] for your enjoyment or lack thereof.

[07:01] But for my part, I actually think it sounds

[07:03] pretty darn okay, but then again,

[07:06] we didn't hire a labs team

[07:07] so I could give you my YouTuber thoughts, TM.

[07:11] Time for some science.

[07:13] We haven't actually finalized our test suite

[07:15] or begun testing mics insignificant volumes yet.

[07:18] So what we did was choose a handful of models

[07:21] that we felt were either comparable

[07:23] due to their price and popularity,

[07:25] or because they might help provide a reference point

[07:28] for how our A6T performs compared to a bottom

[07:31] or a top tier solution.

[07:33] Our reference mic is a Dayton Audio EMM6,

[07:36] which is a calibrated omni-directional microphone.

[07:39] Compared to other USB mics,

[07:41] the A6T performs actually surprisingly similarly

[07:44] in frequency response, but the drop in this range

[07:47] suggests that it will have a slightly darker sound.

[07:50] The Elgato Wave ended up being the outlier

[07:52] the other way, sounding brighter,

[07:54] though that did come at the cost

[07:55] of picking up a little bit more sibilance,

[07:57] which is your harsh S and ss sounds.

[08:00] Overall though, the field was close enough

[08:02] that if you're considering a USB microphone,

[08:05] we just didn't really find there to be a huge difference

[08:08] in performance from the worst to the best.

[08:11] And believe it or not, we kind of see the same thing

[08:14] when we compare it even to higher end XLR microphones.

[08:18] Compared to an Electrovoice RE20,

[08:20] a mic that costs literally 10 times as much

[08:24] as this entire complete solution,

[08:26] the on paper results are shockingly close.

[08:30] And in the real world, the RE20 is better,

[08:35] but it's certainly not 10 times better.

[08:38] However, that is under somewhat ideal conditions.

[08:41] Better microphones can have advantages

[08:44] that go beyond frequency response.

[08:46] Like for example, background noise rejection.

[08:49] If you're alone in a room hanging out

[08:51] with your friends on Discord,

[08:52] you do not need a $450 mic, this is great.

[08:56] With that said, there are cases where frequency response

[08:59] does tell a big part of the story.

[09:02] Our third gen AirPods, for example,

[09:04] really struggled at the high end,

[09:06] possibly because of their Bluetooth connectivity

[09:08] or noise cancellation.

[09:10] But in practice, they sound overall not bad.

[09:12] But then our wired EarPods have a hole

[09:16] right in the vocal range

[09:17] that really does make them sound kind of muffled.

[09:21] And you can improve this situation

[09:23] by clipping the mic a little closer to your mouth.

[09:26] But at the end of the day, the mic is still omnidirectional.

[09:29] So regardless of its frequency response

[09:31] or its proximity to the source,

[09:33] it's gonna pick up any noise around you,

[09:35] including your keyboard, your mouse,

[09:37] or your mom yelling at you to get off the darn computer.

[09:40] Now, unfortunately, we're not set up yet

[09:42] to test every aspect of a microphone's performance.

[09:45] Once the lab's website is fully up and running

[09:47] and we've got our sound chamber,

[09:48] you're gonna see all kinds of really great stuff.

[09:51] But not yet.

[09:53] But we're also not done yet for today.

[09:55] Let's talk about polar patterns.

[09:57] Have you ever noticed these small symbols

[09:59] on some microphones?

[10:01] That is how well the microphone captures

[10:04] or reject sounds that are coming from different directions.

[10:08] The Amazon page for the Fifine A6T claims

[10:11] that it is a cardioid pickup pattern microphone.

[10:13] Is that true?

[10:15] Well, let's check, shall we?

[10:17] This green line is sounds coming directly

[10:20] to the front of the A6T.

[10:22] And this drop shows that it's rejecting some sounds

[10:25] that are coming in at 90 degrees

[10:27] and a little bit more at 180 degrees.

[10:29] So it is, in fact, a cardioid microphone.

[10:33] However, for reference,

[10:34] this is the polar pattern graph of the Electrovoice RE20,

[10:37] which has better rejection,

[10:40] particularly at higher frequencies.

[10:43] So from our evaluation,

[10:45] the Fifine isn't the best thing around,

[10:48] but especially for the price,

[10:49] it's a pretty Fi-fine.

[10:53] Or at least our unit is, out of the box.

[10:57] While Amazon reviews tend to get gunked up with spam,

[11:00] they can also be a way to glean useful,

[11:02] longer-term information about a product.

[11:05] So let's see what you guys liked

[11:07] and what you didn't like about the A6T.

[11:11] The five-star reviews, for the most part,

[11:13] rave about the sound quality,

[11:14] with some claiming that this mic

[11:16] has exceeded their expectations

[11:18] and others calling it the best budget mic they've ever used.

[11:21] For the price, I actually think

[11:24] this is reasonably fair praise.

[11:26] The four-star reviews mostly complain about things

[11:28] that are not related to the sound quality directly,

[11:31] the clamp feeling cheap, the gain knob being finicky,

[11:34] or worst of all, the lack of RGB customization.

[11:38] Again, though, no complaints about audio quality,

[11:41] so it seems like it's not just ours.

[11:43] This thing sounds pretty darn good.

[11:45] Of course, things take a turn for the worse

[11:48] when we look at the three, two, and one-star reviews,

[11:51] with many people reporting

[11:52] the better-than-expected quality turned into zero quality

[11:56] due to their unit lasting a few weeks

[11:58] or a few months at best.

[12:00] There aren't too many of them,

[12:02] but this is a significant red flag,

[12:05] and so is the almost complete lack of discussion

[12:08] about customer service.

[12:10] Two reviews said it was great,

[12:11] and one claimed that they did not receive a response

[12:14] after a week.

[12:15] It's not a lot of money, considering the package,

[12:18] but it is your money,

[12:20] so the choice is yours.

[12:22] Do you go with a reputable brand

[12:24] for a significant upcharge,

[12:25] or do you buy something that costs half as much

[12:28] knowing that, well,

[12:30] you might need to get another one shipped to you,

[12:32] just like I reshipped this segue to,

[12:36] and then we're gonna reuse the chunk where I say,

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[13:32] If you enjoyed this video,

[13:33] why not check out one of the other ones from the series?

[13:35] Like, why is everybody buying this monitor?

[13:38] Spoiler alert, because it's a great value.

[13:40] But there's more to it than that.