Sounds Great!

For the last two weeks or so, I’ve been trying out the Fifine K688 Dynamic USB-C/XLR microphone. A microphone that is perfectly suitable for professionals as well as your average person, like me.

Fifine is still a relatively new brand to me, but after owning two of their microphones, I know that they mean business. Around five months ago, I reviewed the Fifine Ampligame A8, an RGB gaming microphone which I used until the K688 replaced it. You can check out my review here. But to cut a long story short, the A8 offers brilliant recording quality and a great design.

With the Fifine A8 being priced at £49.99 and Fifine K688 being priced at £88.99 at the time of writing this article, both microphones are priced pretty well, especially for beginners and people looking to get into podcasting, streaming and any other tasks where you may need a microphone.

However, with a price difference of £39, you really are getting better sound quality from the Fifine K688 and rightly so! I may do a comparison video on my YouTube channel comparing the two mics and how they sound.

Before we dig any deeper into the article, I just wanted to mention that I’m not a very technical user when it comes to microphones, so this review will be from the point of view of an average user, please don’t be disappointed as you won’t find any technical information here.

✅ What I Like About It

• You have a choice of a USB or XLR connection
• It’s compatible with my smartphone as it uses USB-C (You need a USB-C to USB-C cable for this which is not included)
• Great build quality
• Recordings sound great!
• Comes with an adapter for mounts
• Affordable Price

❌ What I Don’t Like About It

• The mute button can be easily triggered when moving the microphone
• It doesn’t come with a stand

The Design

The Fifine K688 is a well-built microphone featuring a design that not only looks premium but feels it. I particularly like the shock mount which takes care of any shocks or sudden movements incredibly well.

Other than the light on the mute button, the microphone doesn’t have any lights or RGB lights. Instead, it offers a clean and minimal interface, perfect for the professional environment.

Underneath the Fifine K688, we find two audio-output connections, two knobs as well as a headphone jack. One of the output connections happens to be an XLR, which is great for professional users who want to get more quality out of their recordings and the other is a USB-C perfect for general users and professionals.

As the microphone has a USB-C connection, you can actually connect a compatible phone to it, something I tried with my Google Pixel 7 Pro on my YouTube review. However, the cable that comes included with the mic is a USB-A to USB-C cable, meaning I had to use my own cable for the test.

The two knobs, on the other hand, control the headphone volume and microphone gain and yes, you can connect your headphones to it for monitoring.

The one thing I’m not so sure about when it comes to the design is the mute button. During the recording of the video review, I managed to accidentally trigger the mute while adjusting the mic’s position meaning that I had to start again. That’s because the mute button isn’t actually a button, it’s a touch sensor. But in all fairness, it does have a light which turns red when mute is enabled.

Let’s Talk About The Quality Of The Recordings

More importantly, let’s talk about the quality of recordings, after all, you are buying the microphone for your recordings to sound better right?

The truth of the matter is that I can say that the Fifine K688 sounds great considering the price, but I think it’s better if you find out for yourself. That’s why I made a YouTube video showing it off and yes, I used the Fifine K688 throughout most of the video. You can watch my video below:

To summarise the video, I’ve been using the microphone in a wide range of scenarios. It proved to be great for making voiceovers for videos, it made them sound fuller and just generally better, even with my strange and mixed accent.

It’s also great for online meetings, I used it with Google Meet and Microsoft Teams and people on the other end said that I sound better than usual, which is a huge plus!

But in all seriousness, it is you as the viewer who will be benefiting from the better sound quality, so if you’ve watched the video, let us know what you think!

My Final Verdict

I think it’s fair to say that I’m actually quite impressed with the Fifine K688, not only is the build quality great, the recordings sound great and you get a choice of either an XLR connection or USB-C, making it perfect for people who are just starting out, but may want to improve later.

My only real complaint is that it doesn’t come with any form of a stand, which would be great if you use a laptop and if you travel a lot. I’ve attached my mic to a simple arm by Neewer and I happen to have a tripod mount, but if you don’t it’s also something that Neewer provide.

But overall, the Fifine K688 is a very impressive microphone considering the price and I would highly recommend buying it if you’re in the market on a budget or if you’re just starting out.

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