Anyone run a Fifine mic for a year or more? How did it actually hold up? Microphones

Owned three cheap mics over the years and kept one. The two I got rid of were both condensers that heard the whole room; the survivor is a dynamic that I bought for about the money you are talking about and it has been on the arm for three years. At this price the model matters less than the pattern, so buy whichever cheap dynamic is available near you rather than the specific one a video told you about.

For a hobby stream that makes no money the honest answer is that nobody watching can tell the difference between an eighty-dollar mic and a three-hundred-dollar one once you are close to it and the room is not terrible. Where people notice is inconsistency between sessions, so pick something and stop moving it.

Two years on one in a spare room and the summary is that the capsule is fine and the hardware around it is where the cost was saved. The sound has not changed; the mute button on mine developed a click you can hear on the recording, and the socket is the part I would watch, because on cheap units it is soldered straight to the board with no strain relief and a boom arm puts constant sideways load on it. Route the cable so the connector is not taking the weight and it will probably outlast your interest in the hobby.

Check the cable is detachable and standard before buying. The one thing that has killed cheap mics for me is a captive cable failing at the strain point, which turns an eighty-dollar mic into a bin item over a two-dollar fault.

One year in on a similar unit as a first mic. It works, the software that came with it was useless and I deleted it, and the only real annoyance is that the gain knob is on the front where my sleeve catches it. That is the level of complaint you should expect at this price and none of it is about the sound.