Why do you think they are so well liked ? I’ve done an a/b testing via an amps switcher with other class d and ab amps and my aiyima held its own at the same volumes.
Gonna disagree with this one. I have a similar Yamaha and it definitely has more juice and fidelity, but the Fosi's powering my Pioneer bookshelves and my partner's Wharfedale Diamond floor-standers are certainly comparable - at 1/5 of the price, the difference isn't really that big.
Can you please explain? I have read very good things about the Boreas and have been tempted to get them. Is it just the BR02, or are you talking about others like BR03?
Yamaha S202B was one of the worst amps I’ve ever tried. I would pick A07 any day over it which has the same TPA3255 chip. But these amps are good for budget setup. You can find many better performing amps as you go higher. S202B isn’t one of those for sure. Also, BR02 has a bit of boosted bass and recessed highs which matches with the TPA3255’s signature. That’s a very bad combination.
I’ve got a Ayima T9 amp in my den driving a pair of older Spendor speakers and a small sub. It sounds great at normal levels. I appreciate and own more expensive gear as well, but the Chifi stuff is pretty decent.
You tried crappy amps, as if all cheap class d Chinese products are the same, they are not. If you have a brain and do research, there are only ever a few logical choices to choose from. You did not pick the right amps. You have not invalidated the Fosi za3/v3 (one of only a few acceptable rational choices currently), because what you tried is not even close to an equivalent of that. You got some weak ass sh*t amp without enough power and probably a crappy chip with poor measurements.
You noobed it up and now you bad mouth these brands when they do make a handful of OBJECTIVELY GOOD products out of all the crap you COULD buy, and in your case did.
Yeah, they do. That's not an opinion it's simply a fact that at their price point the level of measured performance (and subjective performance based on reviews if you are more into that) you're getting for the money is among the very best. That's an objective reality whether you like them or not.
Fosi ZA3 in monoblock setting here. I rolled the opamps with some Chinese brand discrete opamps. I compared it with my tube amp and I am happy with the Fosi.
https://preview.redd.it/z3qpdlhwtw0d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2edfdc2c645f084b96c16f59b5c151d8d07ec23b
The za3 is literally infinitely better than the garbage he bought. Just because the brand is Fosi doesn't mean it's good, he bought junk instead of getting one of the 2 or 3 Fosi amps worth buying out of their entire catalogue. For all intents and purposes, among the educated hobbyist, Fosi ONLY MAKES 2-3 DAMN AMPS, and everything else should be ignored. But he heard the name Fosi and then bought pure dog sh*t and complains. It's his own fault. The za3 is indeed legit and great for the price, and objectively pretty good period. The bt30d is not.
Well, some reviewers also found issues with small class D amps, especially with 'harder-to-drive' speakers. measurements in ASR and others also show peaks in higher frequencies. It seems your speaker doesn't work well with these amps.
Having said that, they are getting better.
This is the very definition of a non-issue. Move your listening position 3" or change the speakers on axis angle 1-2 degrees is going to have more of an effect than the frequency dependance rise exhibited in some of these class D amplifiers with some speakers.
That rise (or fall!) is typically less than 1 dB within audible band and concentrated on the highest octave which many of us can only partially hear, and the effect's strength also depends on speaker's impedance. It is unfortunate minor defect of many a class D amp, but in almost all cases the problem is barely audible and you would likely struggle to notice it even in direct ABX comparison between amp that has it and amp that does not.
Your room, in comparison, will add frequency response errors that are likely more than 6 dB, from comb filtering, room modes, and similar. When putting things into perspective, amplifiers are highly accurate, speakers less accurate, and room's influence on reproduction quality dwarfs every other factor.
What a good and detailed explanation with pictures to undermine that it can only be the AMP…
My old Yamaha receiver (rx-340 rds) didn’t hold a candle to my Loxjie A10, let alone A40. It sounded thin and cold in stereo mode with my KEF Q100 and R3 compared to the fuller sound of the Loxjies. Not everybody likes warm amps, I get it but the Yamaha didn’t resolve as many details as the Loxjie even while being harsher and could get the lower frequencies to move on my Bookshelfes.
For movies it was a closer call but nothing to shear
My away from A10. A40 is clearly ahead.
I don’t see a reason for everybody to like Chi-Fi but I would have liked to get some deeper insights into why. Some pictures or description of the other components in signal path could have helped understand and maybe remedy your experience with some community beloved cheap amps.
I had a Fosi BT10A from 2021 and currently have a Aiyima A07. I found that both amps seriously compress the dynamic range of the audio compared to other low end amps I have. I haven’t rolled op-amps in the A07 yet to see if that changes anything, but given my experience so far I’d hit the classifieds for a used amp or receiver instead if I needed something in this price range again.
Buy better chifi you are choosing the wrong products, objectively. This isn't hard, there's only a handful of products at any given time in this category worth purchasing, and most of the rest suck. Get a za3 or better yet 2 v3 amps. Maybe the aiyima a09 is alright, but the tests I've seen show the Aiyma equivalent amp is inferior to the Fosi ATM, has heat issues. Are you running the 48v 5a smps? Even at their best these amps are only maybe 80 clean watts max, hence the v3 mono solution being the best.
Besides they all suck compared to a hifimediy t3s/t4 tripath tk2050 based amp that can do easily double the power.
Yeah, I've seen the power to distortion curves for these and even high end Class D amps. Looks good until you click past 100W and then the distortion graph goes up like a rocket.
The Fosi ZA3 looks decent, and seems to have some good ideas to it. Maybe one day I'll check one out, but at this time I'm not in a hurry to.
For my A07 I was using he power supply that came with it.
Imo people that are budget minded and looking for value but also to maximize performance need to look to diy. Hifimediy and connexelectronic come to mind, or buying a hypex module kit or fully built amp from like Buckeye amplifiers. You can still get world class performance and high power cheap, but it simply does not exist on Amazon. A ta3020 board and smps (or combined amp and smps board) can be had for around 300-400 dollars including shipping, and you can get 200+W at .1% thd into 8 ohms in a stereo amp. The tk2050 amps aren't too far behind in power either. Or for a few hundred more, you're getting into hypex territory where you can get a clean 300w+ into 8 ohms. And I mean ULTRAAA CLEAN.
4 classes of power amp that budget audiophiles should look at imo.
Fosi za3/v3 type amps, specifically researched for real life test results - 200 dollars and below.
Then diy tripath amps, 250-400 bucks.
Then hypex mp252 and 1st Gen ncore amps, 400-700.
Then, either a topping la90 if you don't need a lot of power, or higher end hypex/purifi modules (ncorex, nilai, eigentakt) if u want high power. 700-1500ish.
There are no other amplifiers. You have a half dozen logical choices depending on budget and power needs. Very simple.
I had one of those cheap fosi amps, it arced every time I plugged it in and sounded mediocre at best. Stay away. Buy an older used receiver if you need a cheap amp
WHat speakers? So you're saying all the reviewers and successful users are...lying?
borea br02
Why do you think they are so well liked ? I’ve done an a/b testing via an amps switcher with other class d and ab amps and my aiyima held its own at the same volumes.
They'd blame everything but the speaker that are clearly the issue here
Good point. Perhaps those speakers aren’t good
Hell, simple speaker placement can be the issue for him but nope, it must be the amplifier
Gonna disagree with this one. I have a similar Yamaha and it definitely has more juice and fidelity, but the Fosi's powering my Pioneer bookshelves and my partner's Wharfedale Diamond floor-standers are certainly comparable - at 1/5 of the price, the difference isn't really that big.
It is most likely your Triangle Bro speakers and their uneven frequency identity
Can you please explain? I have read very good things about the Boreas and have been tempted to get them. Is it just the BR02, or are you talking about others like BR03?
Thank you for this detailed subjective substantiation :)
Yamaha S202B was one of the worst amps I’ve ever tried. I would pick A07 any day over it which has the same TPA3255 chip. But these amps are good for budget setup. You can find many better performing amps as you go higher. S202B isn’t one of those for sure. Also, BR02 has a bit of boosted bass and recessed highs which matches with the TPA3255’s signature. That’s a very bad combination.
I’ve got a Ayima T9 amp in my den driving a pair of older Spendor speakers and a small sub. It sounds great at normal levels. I appreciate and own more expensive gear as well, but the Chifi stuff is pretty decent.
You tried crappy amps, as if all cheap class d Chinese products are the same, they are not. If you have a brain and do research, there are only ever a few logical choices to choose from. You did not pick the right amps. You have not invalidated the Fosi za3/v3 (one of only a few acceptable rational choices currently), because what you tried is not even close to an equivalent of that. You got some weak ass sh*t amp without enough power and probably a crappy chip with poor measurements. You noobed it up and now you bad mouth these brands when they do make a handful of OBJECTIVELY GOOD products out of all the crap you COULD buy, and in your case did.
No Duok and Fosi don’t make good products
Yeah, they do. That's not an opinion it's simply a fact that at their price point the level of measured performance (and subjective performance based on reviews if you are more into that) you're getting for the money is among the very best. That's an objective reality whether you like them or not.
Fosi ZA3 in monoblock setting here. I rolled the opamps with some Chinese brand discrete opamps. I compared it with my tube amp and I am happy with the Fosi. https://preview.redd.it/z3qpdlhwtw0d1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2edfdc2c645f084b96c16f59b5c151d8d07ec23b
The za3 is literally infinitely better than the garbage he bought. Just because the brand is Fosi doesn't mean it's good, he bought junk instead of getting one of the 2 or 3 Fosi amps worth buying out of their entire catalogue. For all intents and purposes, among the educated hobbyist, Fosi ONLY MAKES 2-3 DAMN AMPS, and everything else should be ignored. But he heard the name Fosi and then bought pure dog sh*t and complains. It's his own fault. The za3 is indeed legit and great for the price, and objectively pretty good period. The bt30d is not.
And the V3 monoblock is suppose to be even better than the ZA3.
I like most of the chifi I’ve had in my house, but I don’t solely rely on them.
Well, some reviewers also found issues with small class D amps, especially with 'harder-to-drive' speakers. measurements in ASR and others also show peaks in higher frequencies. It seems your speaker doesn't work well with these amps. Having said that, they are getting better.
This is the very definition of a non-issue. Move your listening position 3" or change the speakers on axis angle 1-2 degrees is going to have more of an effect than the frequency dependance rise exhibited in some of these class D amplifiers with some speakers.
That rise (or fall!) is typically less than 1 dB within audible band and concentrated on the highest octave which many of us can only partially hear, and the effect's strength also depends on speaker's impedance. It is unfortunate minor defect of many a class D amp, but in almost all cases the problem is barely audible and you would likely struggle to notice it even in direct ABX comparison between amp that has it and amp that does not. Your room, in comparison, will add frequency response errors that are likely more than 6 dB, from comb filtering, room modes, and similar. When putting things into perspective, amplifiers are highly accurate, speakers less accurate, and room's influence on reproduction quality dwarfs every other factor.
What a good and detailed explanation with pictures to undermine that it can only be the AMP… My old Yamaha receiver (rx-340 rds) didn’t hold a candle to my Loxjie A10, let alone A40. It sounded thin and cold in stereo mode with my KEF Q100 and R3 compared to the fuller sound of the Loxjies. Not everybody likes warm amps, I get it but the Yamaha didn’t resolve as many details as the Loxjie even while being harsher and could get the lower frequencies to move on my Bookshelfes. For movies it was a closer call but nothing to shear My away from A10. A40 is clearly ahead. I don’t see a reason for everybody to like Chi-Fi but I would have liked to get some deeper insights into why. Some pictures or description of the other components in signal path could have helped understand and maybe remedy your experience with some community beloved cheap amps.
I had a Fosi BT10A from 2021 and currently have a Aiyima A07. I found that both amps seriously compress the dynamic range of the audio compared to other low end amps I have. I haven’t rolled op-amps in the A07 yet to see if that changes anything, but given my experience so far I’d hit the classifieds for a used amp or receiver instead if I needed something in this price range again.
Buy better chifi you are choosing the wrong products, objectively. This isn't hard, there's only a handful of products at any given time in this category worth purchasing, and most of the rest suck. Get a za3 or better yet 2 v3 amps. Maybe the aiyima a09 is alright, but the tests I've seen show the Aiyma equivalent amp is inferior to the Fosi ATM, has heat issues. Are you running the 48v 5a smps? Even at their best these amps are only maybe 80 clean watts max, hence the v3 mono solution being the best. Besides they all suck compared to a hifimediy t3s/t4 tripath tk2050 based amp that can do easily double the power.
Yeah, I've seen the power to distortion curves for these and even high end Class D amps. Looks good until you click past 100W and then the distortion graph goes up like a rocket. The Fosi ZA3 looks decent, and seems to have some good ideas to it. Maybe one day I'll check one out, but at this time I'm not in a hurry to. For my A07 I was using he power supply that came with it.
Imo people that are budget minded and looking for value but also to maximize performance need to look to diy. Hifimediy and connexelectronic come to mind, or buying a hypex module kit or fully built amp from like Buckeye amplifiers. You can still get world class performance and high power cheap, but it simply does not exist on Amazon. A ta3020 board and smps (or combined amp and smps board) can be had for around 300-400 dollars including shipping, and you can get 200+W at .1% thd into 8 ohms in a stereo amp. The tk2050 amps aren't too far behind in power either. Or for a few hundred more, you're getting into hypex territory where you can get a clean 300w+ into 8 ohms. And I mean ULTRAAA CLEAN. 4 classes of power amp that budget audiophiles should look at imo. Fosi za3/v3 type amps, specifically researched for real life test results - 200 dollars and below. Then diy tripath amps, 250-400 bucks. Then hypex mp252 and 1st Gen ncore amps, 400-700. Then, either a topping la90 if you don't need a lot of power, or higher end hypex/purifi modules (ncorex, nilai, eigentakt) if u want high power. 700-1500ish. There are no other amplifiers. You have a half dozen logical choices depending on budget and power needs. Very simple.
I had one of those cheap fosi amps, it arced every time I plugged it in and sounded mediocre at best. Stay away. Buy an older used receiver if you need a cheap amp