As founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Cosmic Circus, I sometimes find myself busy in the background, trying to keep the machine running so-to-speak, and not as much time for taking part in podcasts, interviews, and writing as I would sometimes like. When the opportunity presented itself to review a new microphone from Fifine, I said sure, why not? I already have a very basic Fifine mic I bought from Amazon in 2021, but who could say no to an upgrade, right? Plus, I’ve been wanting to participate more in interviews and podcasts here, so it felt like good timing for it. Read on for my review of the Fifine Tank 3 USB/XLR mic, and see if it might be worth picking up for yourself!
[Note: while I am reviewing this item independently and honestly, it should be noted that I received the Fifine Tank3 mic for free from Fifine for the purpose of this review.]
Design of the Fifine Tank3 USB/XLR Microphone
The microphone itself, pictured below, is a simple bullet shape with several buttons on the sides for easy access to muting/unmuting, microphone and earphone adjustment. It plugs into your computer via USB, and also allows for earphones to be plugged in on the end, with its own volume control on the side of the mic for that as well.
I was pleased when I saw that I could set it up on either side of my setup with a Fifine arm I purchased for this upgrade, and still have easy access to these buttons with some minor adjustments. The microphone arm I purchased from Amazon was this Fifine Suspension Boom Scissor Arm Mic Stand, with a heavy-duty clamp and 3/8″ to 5/8″ adapter.
I found the arm to be extremely flexible and easy to twist and swing in different directions depending on how I wanted to place my new microphone, and the clamp seems solid as it is hooked to the bookcase over my desktop computer. The new mic was easily attached by the handle, which also provides a lot of leeway to adjust the mic’s positioning. When not in use I just push the arm back up and together so it’s out of my way until I need it again.
The mic arm/stand I purchased also came bundled with a pop filter that clamps onto it, but I haven’t seen the need to use that with this microphone so far.
I think my only nitpick about the design of this mic so far, is that while it has a very handy mute/unmute button which glows red or green depending on if it’s muted or not, there isn’t a button to simply shut the mic down completely. I don’t use a mic a lot, I’m not a gamer, and so having this mic ready to go live at any moment isn’t necessary. Having it on all the time may not be the best idea for security reasons either, to be perfectly honest.
A button to know the whole thing is shut down, and to not have a glowing red or green light on all the time, would make a very positive difference in the design. I have instead opted to unplug the USB cable from the bottom of the microphone when not in use, and simply plug it back in as I need it.
Functionality of the Fifine Tank3 mic
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been wanting to try to do more interviews and podcasts for The Cosmic Circus, so it made sense to try the upgrade. I have been happy enough with the very simple plug and play USB microphone I previously bought from Amazon in 2021 after seeing others recommend it. In fact, I used this basic Fifine mic for my first interview, available to listen to here, with two of the voice actors from anime film Spy x Family: Code White.
As for the recording quality of this new Fifine Tank3 mic, unfortunately I wasn’t able to get to the Doctor Who podcast we recorded last week, but I hope to participate soon. Instead, for the purpose of this review, I did a quick recording embedded below as a sample of the audio quality recorded by this microphone, with very little adjustments to settings by me.
Sample audio from recording with the Fifine Tank3 mic
I think the proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes, so you be the judge, but I’m pretty pleased with it! Keep in mind, I did not use the pop filter that came with my Fifine arm from Amazon and this recording is with the microphone a few inches from my mouth. A family member had a television playing in the next room over, which I can hear but didn’t seem to be picked up by the microphone, so that was an added bonus.
The headphones were easy to plug in to the end of the mic, and adjust the sound as I tried playing back my audio. The mute/unmute button is where the green/red light shines and is very easy to tap on and off as well, as needed. I can already see this will make things a lot easier when I do more interviews or actually make it to another podcast finally!
Overall positive thoughts on this USB microphone from Fifine
I’m sure there are other more technical features I’m missing on reporting on here, but as an occasional novice user of microphones, I found the Fifine Tank3 mic very easy to use and was pleased with the overall quality of the recordings I got from it so far.
If you’re interested in purchasing this microphone for yourself, you can find it on Amazon here or on the Fifine website here where you can find out more about the product.
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