FIFINE AmpliGame AM6 Review
Tune That Voice Out Of Your Head!
Disclaimer: FIFINE sent us a unit free of charge to review, but all thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are our own and were not discussed with the company prior to publishing.
Retail Price: $59.99
Plug and Play
The AM6 suspended on a boom arm
We’ve all played a game with somebody that just dominates airwaves with their voice. Nonstop yapping about something that has nothing to do with the game. Sometimes they fill the channel with complaints about their partner or parents. This can be quite annoying, not to mention distracting to those of us actually trying to accomplish a goal in a video game as intended. Do you ever wish there was a way to tune them out of your head directly from your own microphone without actually muting them on whatever chat system you’re using? Well, this AmpliGame AM6 microphone gives gamers that exact capability. The irony is not lost on me that the AM6 gives me the god-like power of tuning out my teammate’s voice through their own microphone from the vicinity of my own microphone.
On the surface, the AM6 is another microphone in FIFINE’s lineup of products that is vying for the attention of entry level gamers and streamers. It’s priced right around the mid-range of budget USB microphones, and I do think it looks relatively attractive for what it is. A lot of FIFINE products have streamlined into a similar aesthetic presence and that’s more of the same with the AM6. The capsule case melds into the RGB provided hive-vibe that screams gaming microphone.
Design
Since this is a plug and play mic, the USB-C port is the connecting source to the computer. It’s as easy as plugging in and off to the games you go. As with some other FIFINE products, the microphone comes with a detachable pop filter that conveniently clips onto the body of the microphone for a seamless look. It’s implemented slightly differently, but I had the same praise about the A8 microphone that I reviewed from FIFINE earlier this year. I’m a fan of these included pop filters and they not only look good, but do a good job of dampening the plosives.
As for the RGB lightning, this is more of the same from the OEM as there is a button on the bottom of the microphone that toggles through various colors and modes. It’s the standard gradient two-tone color or single color option with either static or breathing patterns. At this point there isn’t anything special about the RGB implementation that we haven’t seen before, but it still looks pretty cool mixed into an RGB-centric desk setup.
ChatMix Dial
The dial dictates what you hear in your ear more
So what makes this microphone unique in the sea of gaming microphones available now? FIFINE calls it a ChatMix dial, but this is more of a volume adjuster for what you want to hear in your ears. By plugging a headset to connect with the microphone through the 3.5mm jack on the bottom of the device, you can actively control the level of sound pushing to your ears between the game you’re playing and the people you’re talking with. Keep in mind, you can do this without the need to open up Discord or leave the vicinity of the game window you’re currently playing in. By turning the dial to lean into one side more than the other, you can essentially mute either the game’s audio or other player’s dialogue. It's a basic function, but I didn’t realize how beneficial it was until I put it to the test.
Imagine a scenario where your teammate is just going on and on about her day in chat when you’re trying to solve a mission for your team. Sure, there are ways to mute specific people in your Discord channel, but why go through that extra step when you’re trying to focus on the game?
You’re trying to listen to footsteps, the sound of fire, or any audio cue that will give you a clue on how to get the upper hand and win, yet all you hear is that one person’s voice covering up all the other audio. Now you turn that dial left towards the “Game” symbology and like magic, the nagging voice complaining about her partner magically dissipates into the calming fields of bullet fire and NPC screams. Just as the developers intended the experience to go. Of course, that is a bit of a dramatized situation as most of the time, the dial will likely lean somewhere towards the middle if not slightly more towards the “Chat” side. Of all the gaming accessory gimmicks in products I’ve reviewed over the years, this is probably one of the most useful and beneficial functions that just makes sense. I think just this single feature is enough to justify a look at this microphone.
My only little complaint about this dial is that it’s front and center and takes up the entirety of the real estate facing the user. The gain and headphone audio levels have their knobs on the side of the casing. For something so prominent, it’s essentially useless if you don’t have a headset physically plugged into the AUX port. Remember, the ChatMix dial will only function if what you’re hearing is directly plugged in and controlled through the microphone. It won’t work if you’re jacked in through the PC or external speakers. Some people don’t like being chained to a microphone. I personally didn’t mind being tethered to the AM6, but I realized this aspect while trying to record B-roll audio to showcase this function. I couldn’t. ChatMix becomes useless without the AUX port.
Audio Quality
There’s also a button that initializes a denoise mode which isolates your voice from ambient noises. My setup is relatively isolated and quiet as I also use it for filming purposes so I didn’t truly notice much of a difference with this mode on or off. My teammates on the other side of the microphone also didn’t make any comments while I was toggling it during our talks so I’d say the effects of this noise cancellation were minimal in my studio. While nothing to do with any of this, the AM6 can mute without the need of a physical button on the mic, but simply tapping the top.
Quality-wise, the AM6 performs somewhere between the budget A8 and AM8. As a unidirectional condenser mic, the AM6 does a relatively good job of keeping the focus on the speaker’s voice even without the denoise mode tinkering with it artificially. The signal-to-noise ratio is 75 dB, while it operates at a frequency response of 20 KHz. At the end of the day, the audio from the AM6 is clean and crisp enough for really most users out there. Whether that’s simple Friday night gaming sessions with the dorm mates, or streaming to viewers as a side hobby, I don’t think the AM6 will fail you in those endeavors. I did seem to find my mouth inching closer to the mic during recording to reach higher quality, even with my normal gain settings, but having this easy form factor to work with on a boom arm just makes it simple to tinker with.
final thoughts
I seem to say this quite often when reviewing FIFINE products, but I rarely find myself disappointed with any offering. They won’t blow your socks off with any killer feature or special quality behind a product, but consistency and value are their key demographic. I think the AM6 still offers fine value that a majority of consumers looking at its way will find the quality which it will provide to be sufficient to their usage. I don’t know if I’d say this is their cleanest microphone in their lineup, but it might very well be the most refined USB microphone they’ve made to date.
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