Introduction
The Fifine K037 is a budget-friendly microphone offering crisp sound quality for various uses.
Design and Build
- Small and Strong: It’s tiny, so you can carry it around, and it’s tough, so it won’t break easily.
- Looks Cool: The microphone has a modern style that fits in with any setup.
Performance
- Good Sound: Makes sounds clear, picking up voices and instruments accurately.
- Less Noise: Helps cut down on background noise for better recordings.
- Useful for Many Things: Great for podcasts, live streaming, narrating, and making music.
Ease of Use
- Plug and Play: Simple setup—plug it in, and it’s ready to go.
- User-Friendly Controls: Intuitive controls make adjustments hassle-free.
Connectivity
- Universal Compatibility: Works seamlessly with various devices, including PCs, Macs, and gaming consoles.
- Stable Connection: Provides a reliable connection without dropouts.
Pros:
- Clear sound quality
- Portable and sturdy design
- Easy setup and user-friendly controls
- Versatile for multiple uses
- Compatible with various devices
Cons:
- May lack advanced features
- Limited range for professional use
Conclusion
The Fifine K037 microphone is a good, cheap option for people who are new or just want something simple. It gives clear sound and is easy to use, even though it doesn’t have all the fancy extras.
Madi –
Bought many chords to adapt this to a cellphone, never got it working.
Matt C. –
Impressive honestly. If you are doing pro/amateur audio for video, these are a steal. Idiot proof setup, turn it on and it will connect. Sound quality is more than tolerable. At this price point, you can’t beat these!
A. Krause –
I record instructional videos, and one of the (many) weak spots has been voice quality. My camera is great when I’m staring directly at it from a few feet away. But if I’m off angle or turn my head, it loses the sound completely. It also tends to pick up too much background noise. I can’t use a tethered mic either, because my videos involve hands-on work. A decent quality wireless mic will normally cost you in the range of $150 and up, with professional setups starting around $300. There is some hit and miss at the $100 price point, at which point your’e better off spending the extra money. If you can. I can’t. Then the Fifine showed up. The reviews were stellar (to the point that I thought they might have been paid reviews), and the price was a steal. So I pulled the trigger, and I’m glad I did. This mic is a perfect intermediate quality microphone which will be more than suitable for my work. It’s still not quite studio quality, but you’re paying a fraction of the price.
Pros: Cheap. The microphone is actually very good too, though the clip does not swivel, so if you’re not wearing a tie or button-up shirt, you’ll need to figure something out. I just popped it off and zip tied it parallel to the cip. The range is very good as well, and in fact I can get much further than I will ever actually get from the camera. Finally, it’s very simple to use. Two buttons on the transmitter, 1 switch on the receiver.
Cons: Cheap. As in feel. The plastic is flimsy, and I have a feeling that the first time I roll over on this thing or drop it, there will be serious damage to the case. It is susceptible to interference. Testing at my computer had a high pitched whine, probably picked up from the processor or display. But out in my garage, it worked very well.
There are some other considerations here as well. First, the receiver is designed for professional setups, so it uses the 1/4″ mic output. You can buy 1/4″ to 1/8″ adapters, but these are typically stereo. If properly built, these will result in left-channel only audio. If kind of sloppily built, they’ll give you both channels (because the contacts are shorting out), but you’ll also get more interference and potentially a popping/clicking noise. So make sure you buy an adapter of good quality. I chose the
LEMENG 12 inch Jack Cable(BLACK)
. If you’re using this with a mixing board, there’s usually a switch to change from mono to stereo. If you’re using video production software, there’s usually a setting in there somewhere that lets you go mono.
The second issue I came across was a high noise floor and overdriven audio. There’s no way to adjust the output of the receiver, so you’ll need to make sure your equipment has a gain control. Fortunately, I’m using this with a Canon Vixia HF R700 camcorder, and I can do just that.
Finally, the audio quality is NOT studio. You’ll need to do some equalization to account for a strong midrange response. The software I use for video production includes a plugin which allows me quickly apply some processing to get clean voice narration. (To be fair, this almost always done anyway. For instance, when switching from a presenter to a narrator, the narrator’s voice has some added bass and a notch filter applied to make it sound bolder, as well as to separate the dialogue from the presenter. So using it to clean up audio from less than high quality sources isn’t something that’s at all unusual in professional settings.)
In all, I’m happy with my purchase, and will probably buy another soon.
Ronel Lupango –
Before you buy it does not work for mobile phones but it works overall. Still good!
Kamen –
July 31st, 2017
I am an experienced videographer, but since I don’t do this for a living, I can’t afford to buy expensive equipment. I’m also a very experienced engineer and I can tell good equipment from bad. Thus, when I was feeling the need for a wireless microphone, as I was covering certain events, I never thought I could afford one – most solutions cost as much as my camcorder. Until I found this Fifine K037 kit. I noticed it was becoming a popular item and getting good reviews here, on Amazon, so I thought for the low cost it took to acquire one, I’d give it a shot.
Funny thing is, the first shipment I got was not working well. It couldn’t be as bad as I had it, so I decided to contact the seller/manufacturer and they immediately sent me another one, without any pressure. After receiving the new one, I determined that it was some freak problem: it would only manifest in certain circumstances as I could swap the wired portion and it would work with the new one, but not with the old one (strong noise). It seems like the microphone itself is the weakest link in this product. And in many situations, even the old one would work fine. Here are the technical details.
The kit contains a regular, probably condenser microphone, with a mini-XLR connector. It is designed to be used with the proprietary wireless transmitter, which is paired over RF with a receiver. The latter is of importance as this is what you would use to extract the audio signal. Without doing any formal measurements, I cannot say what the exact signal specifications are (suggestion to manufacturer: publish those, for people who know how to interpret them: sensitivity V p-p, impedance, etc.), but it seems like the levels are higher than your typical microphone input, but lower than a standard line-level, meaning that you should only try to connect this to an input that is designed to accept microphone inputs, and not line-level inputs, like the “Line-in” at the back of your soundcard, or the “rec” jacks of a recorder or mixing console.
In my tests I tried various scenarios. One was a desktop computer with a 3.5mm microphone jack, for which I had to use a ¼” TRS to 3.5mm stereo adapter, like the one that shows up under the “Frequently bought together” section below. The font-panel microphone input, which I normally use to connect the mic plug of my headset, was a good match; although, there was some excessive noise – a powerful, loaded desktop PC would produce very strong EMI, so that was no surprise; read on for a solution to this, if that is your intended use.
I also tried it with my laptop, equipped with a similar microphone jack. The result here was better – certainly good enough for recordings of amateur quality, with the little noise that was present easily removed with audio post-processing applications, such as the free Audacity.
The next test was not for recording – I tried the K037 on a Karaoke machine, with a ¼” microphone jack. It worked even better than on a computer, and no wonder – there is very little EMI inside those, so not much to interfere. The feedback suppression was pretty good as I could get within a foot of the speakers without experiencing any positive audio feedback.
The ultimate test was done with my camcorder, which has a stereo-microphone input. All previous scenarios involved a single channel – the microphone inputs of computers and audio-amplification equipment are all mono, so a single microphone was used. In the case of the camcorder, I could get both channels recorded (as another reviewer pointed out) and now that I had two microphones, I could test that setup. The cable needed to be a splitter – from a 3.5mm stereo plug to two ¼” jacks. There is one here on Amazon that I found: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000068O5E (ASIN B000068O5E). It isn’t a great cable but the price is right. The shielding must be very weak since I could plug it alone into my computer’s microphone jack and it would generate a very strong noise. But for the scenarios described here, it worked quite well. I paired both K037 and plugged each receiver into the two jacks of the splitter, then plugged the 3.5MM plug into the camcorder’s microphone input (it’s a Panasonic HDC-TM900), and did a test recording. While I haven’t had the time to test it in different environments and analyze the sound recording thoroughly, it seems to be working quite well, with one audio signal coming into the left stereo channel (black) and the other – in the right (red).
Finally, I was able to obtain a Fifine K034 kit (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B073JLFYX8 , ASIN B073JLFYX8), with a USB receiver (not analog) and did some more testing. Most importantly, this receiver is compatible with the transmitter of the K037, so I was able to test the quality of the sound of the Lavaliere microphone in a scenario where the analog RF EMI was eliminated. The device is essentially a USB audio card, with the RF receiver for the Fifine transmitters, and uses the default Microsoft Windows audio device drivers, so it is perfectly compatible (no OEM drivers needed). I must say the signal-to-noise ratio was outstanding and I recommend using this USB receiver, if you intend to use the microphone to record with a computer. Such a combination product is not available yet, but there might soon be a Fifine offering available here on Amazon.
Overall, this product is well engineered, with multiple, complex factors taken into account. It requires some knowledge to successfully use it, but nothing that cannot be figured out with some asking around. There are some minor design flaws and bugs to be figured out, but it seems like the manufacturer is very knowledgeable, open and responsive, and they are continuously working on improving the product. I believe this item provides a tremendous value and would recommend it to anyone who needs a wireless microphone for a multitude of purposes and is on a tight budget.
Jerry Tall –
The lavel had to be right by the mouth to sound loud and clear. It seemed quiet when clipped on the shirt, even on the collar. I wanted it to work, but I will need to go with a headset of some type instead most likely.
Diego A. –
The sound quality was way better than what I was expecting, this mic just simply works, for the price I couldn’t ask for more, I’m a student who can’t really afford fancy equipment so this does just fine