Blue Yeti vs Fifine K669B [Review and Comparison]
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon links in article are affiliate links.
Overview
Build Quality
Performance
Verdict
Overview
Both the Blue Yeti and Fifine K669B are plug and play USB 2.0 microphones. That means there’s no extra software needed to get them working in your program of choice such as OBS or Zoom.
Blue Yeti
Blackout color.
Click to enlarge to see polar patterns explanations.
The Blue Yeti is a condenser USB microphone that is 7.5 inches tall without the included stand and 11.75 inches with the stand. It has three capsules inside allowing it to record in 4 polar patterns including: cardioid, stereo, bidirectional, and omnidirectional.
Most users, including myself, only use cardioid mode. If you're recording music with multiple instruments around the room, omnidirectional is an option but if you're right in front of the mic, cardioid is generally all that you need.
I bought my Blue Yeti for $130, and here is an Amazon link to see its current price. It’s available in several colors.
Fifine K669B
K669B in black.
The Fifine K669B is also a condenser USB microphone that is 5 inches tall without the included stand and 8 inches with it.
It records in only in a cardioid polar pattern meaning it mostly picks up sound from the front, you don't get much sound from the sides, and it blocks out the rear.
I bought my Fifine K669B for $35. For current pricing, this is it’s Amazon page. It’s available in black and rose colors.
Build Quality
Fifine K669B individual pieces.
Blue Yeti detached from stand.
Body and design
Both the Blue Yeti and Fifine K669B have metal bodies, which is especially impressive considering the K669B’s price. The Blue Yeti is much bulkier and heavier, but it’s overall more sturdy. After using both of these mics for a while, the K669B has a bit of paint chipped off the grill, while the Blue Yeti’s only signs of wear are the holes on the side where you screw in the included stand.
The Blue Yeti’s wire is 81 inches and is detachable. The Fifine K669B’s wire is shorter at 72 inches and non-detachable which becomes an annoyance when trying to mount it to mic arms.
Headphone jack on the Blue Yeti.
The Blue Yeti has a mute button that flashes when pressed, a headphone jack for monitoring your audio, a gain knob, a headphone volume knob, and a knob for changing the polar pattern. The K669B only has a gain knob.
Stand and mounting options
The Blue Yeti's included stand is very high quality. It's the much taller and sturdier of these two mics. The Fifine's stand is really flimsy, short, and it can fall over if the legs aren't set just right. Neither of them go high enough or can be put close enough to you with the included stands alone.
Blue Yeti mounted using 5/8” threading.
K669B mounted using 5/8” threading.
K669B in a shock mount.
Both the Blue Yeti and Fifine K669B have 5/8th inch threading to screw them onto a boom arm. This lets you position them closer to your face to improve the sound quality compared to pointing them at your face on a desk.
The Fifine’s slimmer build is an advantage when factoring in shock mounts. The Blue Yeti is way too bulky to fit in most shock mounts, but the K669B fits snugly inside many common shock mounts.
Performance
In this section I’ll demonstrate a spoken word test, break down the differences and similarities between these two devices, and summarize the results at the end.
Blue Yeti (left) and Fifine K669B.
A word on condenser microphones
Back of Blue Yeti.
Both the Blue Yeti and Fifine K669B are condenser microphones. They excel at picking up lots of sound around the room and can replicate higher frequencies well. This lets them take in every detail of a singer’s voice accurately. However, they also take in unwanted sounds if your recording space is not sound-treated. The AC blowing, or a fan from a game console that might not seem that loud in person will also make its way into your recordings.
If you’re looking for microphones that reject background noise or are more resistant to distortion against very loud sounds, a dynamic capsule microphone such as the Samson Q2U might be a better choice.
Differences
The Blue Yeti has a more pronounced proximity effect, slightly louder noise floor, and it picks up more background noise than the Fifine K669B.
Noise floor is the subtle white noise or hiss in the background when you're not recording anything. This leaks into recordings, and the main way to deal with it is to add a noise suppression filter or post-processing effect in OBS, Audacity, or your program of choice.
Neither mic is designed to isolate ambient sounds, but those sounds become more apparent using the Blue Yeti. Since the Fifine picks up slightly less background noise and has a quieter noise floor, the recordings overall sound a bit cleaner in a non-studio environment without post-processing.
Similarities
Both the Blue Yeti and Fifine K669B capture quite a bit of sibiliance, but they are pretty good at resisting plosives.
Sibilance is the sharp, high frequency whenever there’s an “s” sound made. There's not really a lot you can do about that except editing in post with a de-esser. That’s just how these mics are.
Plosives are those puffs of air that distort the sound when you say Ps or Bs. I was under the impression that I'd absolutely need a pop filter to get usable sound out of these but that simply was not the case. If you still have problems with this, it can be solved with a pop filter which is designed to block some of that gust of wind but still let in the sound.
Overall sound
I’ll give it to the Blue Yeti… barely.
Both mics have a pretty even frequency response (tone). There’s not any unnatural emphasis on the high or low end sounds. This is great for accurate sound. They are both a bit empty in the bass compared to some dynamic microphones like the Samson Q2U and Razer Seiren Elite, due to their somewhat weak proximity effect.
Vocals sound a bit clearer and fuller when utilizing the proximity effect on the Blue Yeti (about 1-2 inches away) and the Blue Yeti picks up more detail overall which is excellent for studio recordings. The latter can be a double edged sword when used in a home environment for everyday tasks such as Zoom calls and Twitch streaming.
Bottom line: These mics can be difficult to tell apart in a blind test, but the Blue Yeti is slightly clearer, picks up more detail, and has a stronger proximity effect.
Verdict
So which mic is better? The Blue Yeti and Fifine K669B are actually about evenly matched. Personally, I recommend the Fifine K669B because of its much lower price, but still similar audio quality.
With the Blue Yeti, you're buying the brand name more than anything else with its price tag. It does offer better detail and slightly clearer sound than the Fifine K669B.
With both of these mics, I suggest getting a mic stand to get the most out of these devices. I bought a Luling Arts Mic stand that I’ve reviewed here on this site.
Fifine K669B: https://amzn.to/35YeXMu
Blue Yeti: https://amzn.to/2ZSCpqI
Luling Arts Mic Stand: https://amzn.to/2JZ6Vdt
