Yes, I've used a mic that looked and sounded like it came out of a Christmas cracker. You get what you pay for.

Seriously, there are a lot of cheap Chinese mics that are incredibly good value for money, but they are very variable and the Chinese still haven't got all of the manufacturing secrets of the likes of Neumann, Schoeps, Sennheiser, Beyer and Audio-Technica.

First thing: what are you plugging the mic into? Does it have phantom power? If it does, get a condenser.
The Audio Technica AT2020 is a fairly foolproof jack-of-all trades mic that doesn't cost a fortune.

You can also get a long way with a pair of Shure SM57's and a decent low noise preamp. It what you do with them that counts, just like musical instruments.

Anahata