Can this cheap Chinese preamp make my vinyl sound better? FOSI Box X2 review

I like my Cambridge CP-1 phono preamp. I run that output into a stereo tube preamp and then out to my QSC GX5 amplifier.

As an old retired electrical engineer, I have 2 problems with this pre amp. Both problems stem from the ceap 12 V power supply, 1 vacuum tubes were not ever designed to run on 12 V supply, this undoubtedly uses a switch mode, generating all kind of noise especially at low levels for a phono cartridge. I would like to see some measurements, not just your wistful description.

I am new to this world…. I have a Yamaha RX 497 i love the sound 😅 i was curious if i needed a preamp for connecting turntable to my amp!? I bought this Fosi but haven’t tried it yet

that's (pre)amplifier not (power)amplifier, you need a headphone to listening sounds. But you can also connect it to (power)amplifier, if you want to listening through speakers. It doesn't matter if it's cheap or not, if it doesn't have a fake vacuum tube, it will sound good. Remember you only have 2 ears so 2 vacuum tubes will be fine.🙂

I have the fosi for a long time now, I am searching for bad reviews, but they aren’t, the only thing that I can find are positive reviews for this Fosi

Definitely - swap the tubes!!!!

I own this preamp after a while of listening to it. Ended up throwing in a pair of Voskhod 6J1P-EV tubes. I was very surprised at the substantial difference it made. Everything just a bit more natural. Bass really cleaned up but still had a nice but realistic punch to it.

Why do people half-step and buy this stuff? Just buy the Schitt Mani 2 and be done with it. And yhea, I'll bet ya it's better than the one in that Marantz.

thousands of dollars in audio equipment on top of a crappy ikea shelves ha

Bonjour à tous

J'ai le Fosi Box X3 bluetooth...

Avec de nouveaux tubes essayés...
Western-Electric WE-403B (ou 403A)
Raytheon JAN-CRP (ou JRP) 5654W
Amperex 6AK5
Sylvania 5654W
Philips Miniwatt EF95
Telefunken/Siemens/Valvo EF95
RCA 5654
Tung-Sol JAN-CTL (ou JTL) 6AK5

Si Ge 5654 (son plus aléatoire)

Et le résultat est impressionnant sur la platine Vinyl... et même avec la musique envoyée en bluetooth de vos différents appareils...

Si vous le branchez à un Topping PA7 via votre préampli préféré... le résultat est comparable à des appareils 20 fois plus dispendieux ...

(Enceintes: de bonnes vieilles JMR Jean Marie Reynaud trouvées dans une brocante)

Bonne musique à tous 😊

Great vid. Thank you. Can l ask you a tech support question?😳. Tried hooking up my Denon DP 300F to an old Technics SU-V620M2. I can get it to work. I just get a saturated overdriven rumble. Any tips or help would be so much appreciated.

Keep up the great work. Love the channel

Just put in the GE 5654 and what a huge improvement. Stock tubes like I said were grainy. This little Fosi easily beats my NAD pf 2e for musicality. Glad I swapped tubes as was ready to return it. So my rig is Fosi TB10D with Fosi X2 phono pre.

With stock tubes its grainy. I ordered GE 5654 tubes if same I will return it.

What would you recommend better, this bulb pre? Or the Pyle PP999?

Seems quite a few recommend the GE tubes, I've had a great improvement with military spec Voshkod 6ZH1P-EV, (US$10!), nice fat bottom on my AT-VM95ML, takes away any trace of analytical/sterile in the Audio Technica on my Planar 3 with Tecnoarm A, (much better than the inbuilt phono on my Plinius IIc pre-amp), the tube buffer seems to give a lovely tone to everything without being obviously coloured. The only thing is it can get little overwhelmed by complex crescendos of massed instruments, but this is not too obvious. Definitely keen to try more tube gear.

i know im late to this video but i love these cheap units i got a garage build using these. also so happy im apart of this channel family can wait to see you hit that 50k. loving it man

Is Fossi same league as Project tube S2?

Ha! I am looking for a preamp for my secondary sound system and you saying that exactly that was the clincher!

I hooked this thing up and all I get is crazy distorted horribly over powered sound. Like unusable. Its simple to install, is it just not compatible with my Technics SL-BD26U turntable and Onkyo TX-NR585. Am I like doubling the pre-amp up or something? I'm pretty positive neither have a pre-amp built in for the phono circuit.

Returned the box2 for the box4 because of bass treble knobs and tube upgrage.this turned out to be a bit of a hassle because of language barrier or passive /agressive employies.daily texts for 3 weeks, before refund got text of $7 discount then next day $20 price increase.went to differant seller and got original price.unit does the job.

You like distortion. Vinyl causes distortion and tubes cause distortion. You like what you like. To be fair, speakers aren't distortion free either.

I just picked up the Pluto 2 with the intention of pairing it with my AT-LP120XUSB + Yamaha RX-V4A. However I’m also curious to do an A/B comparison with my other set up to see if an external phono amp sounds better than input in my Onkyo TX 8220 & U turn Orbit. Might have to give the Fosi a try.

Hi. congratulations on the videos. (Brazilian in the area) with modest system: at-pl120 and denon 600ne (pma + dcd), Bookshelf Klipsch R-15m. in order to improve the sound and add an equalizer. which would indicate preamp phono ? and equalizer? Thanks in advance!

I have one of these. Different tubes absolutely made a difference.

Been using one for quite a while....it's quite good for the price provided you have a good amplifier as well....don't forget a good turntable too!

Hi, Frank! I just ran across this one...
I did run a Li'l Bear preamp on a Sony A/V receiver...it did bring things up nicely, thinking it sounded warmer than the Sansui 2000x and Techie 1510...not necessarily BETTER...apples and oranges, right?
I may try the preamp thru the Sansui/Technics rig on the aux channel...
Oh, and Frank...say things however you wish...Darrell Braun's guitar channel got flack for saying re-VERB when "we" say RE-verb...>ppfftt!!<
Viva les differance...!
Talk to you later!

I have a Pro Ject Essential III that I plug into my Technics SA-GX390 receiver phono amp and then into my Dayton Audio HTA50BT. The Technics provides plenty of power and good sounds all on its own, but I like the mellowness from the DA 50. Nice combination.

I just ordered the Fosi for my 2nd turntable the Technics SL-BD35 I can't wait to see the difference it will make from my current Pyle 4444.

I actually put my CD player through mine. Very good it is too.

Schiit Mani

Question...that Fosi amp...with the headphone jack...is that all that you need to run your speakers, and so on? I'm going to be buying one and I want to know will I need another amp or pre amp...or what

I brought a Fosi Audio Box X3 2 months ago. It makes my vinyl and CD collections sound much better . It produces warmer and smoother sound to me . The bonus is , it comes with bluetooth connection feature, so I can listen to Pandora and my iTunes music collection from my iPhone directly. For this price range, it is a very nice upgrade.

Haven't tried the Fosi but a few years ago I a/b'd a bunch of under-$250 phono pres and the Radial JD33 was the clear winner

Part of my system with the Fluance RT85. Rolling the tubes help fine tune the sound. Sounds great, warm with detail. Really enhances the vinyl sound.

This corrector may not sound good, and even more so it is not worth replacing the phono corrector of the amplifier. For example, the Yamaha a-s700 uses the same njm2068 operational amplifiers in the built-in phono corrector. Yes, it is possible to replace 2068 with ora2107/muses 01/02/03 and it will be a little better. Maybe putting better quality lamps will also slightly improve the sound, but not by much.

no

My York phono stage was just marvellous with my restored Thorens 160 tube table and Grace F9 Retipped stylus.
The my York late produces no sound

When it comes to the tubes (or valves as we call them the the UK) I believe EEVblog did a teardown on a headphone version of these and found the sound IS going through them but the actual amplifier circuitry in the valves aren't actually active, mainly due to the fact that it needs a heaving big transformer to power them properly.

For example my true vale amp, the little dot MKII has a huge heavy transformer hidden in a black box behind the valves. but these things are designed to give people a "tube" sound on the cheap.

I have purchased 2 Fosi preamps very similar to yours. About the only difference is that they have volume, treble and bass controls on them. Two surround receivers I used for a work office and at a friend's lake house sounded very flat plugging the turntables straight into the phono jacks. So I bought the Fosi Box X4 Phono Preamps for them. Being able to increase the volume and bass, as well as the sound already coming from it really brought the music to life and sound really good. I did try it on my '78 Pioneer SX-750 receiver just out of curiosity, and I liked the Pioneer's internal better. But for the surround receivers, it was pure magic!

The device looks good and sounds good too..a little different with the original tubes on your Marantz...it's possible it would sound the same or even a little bit better with other tubes.

I have a secondary cheaper music system in the basement I listen to when the wife takes over the family room where my main system is. The basement system is a Cambridge Audio Topaz entry level amp and CD player with a Fluance TT. I used the onboard phono input with the amp for a couple of years and then decided to look around for an external phono amp. I found the FOSI Box on sale on Amazon and I gave it a try. For the price it does an amazing job and really does outperform the built in amp in the Cambridge. I may at some point down the road purchase a more expensive external phono amp but this one is just fine.

Excellent review and a fair assessment of the unit. My Onkyo TX-NR787 built-in phone preamp is not good at all. The sound is very flat lacking any definition. So, I ordered two DJPre-II preamps and send both of them back. They both had a buzz and crackling sound I could not get rid of. The audio quality was pretty good though. I then ordered the Fosi Box X2. The unit is buzz and crackle free but the sound is not as good as the DJPre-II. I think the top end is lacking. Mids and lowes are just ok.

Did anyone else experience the same flat high end too? It lacks definition and sounds flat. Am I expecting too much, or do I have a faulty unit?

''Welcome to Camp Crystal Lake'' HAHAHA. Those tubes are pretty good but vintage tubes such as Sylvania, GE, Mullards etc, will improve the sound considerably and I think could better your Marantz phono input.

I just purchased a Fosi Audio Box X4 Phono Preamp (updated version of the X2 has bass & treble controls) with JAN 5654W Vacuum Tubes for MM Turntable Phonograph Record Player with Volume Bass Treble Control hooked it up to a vintage Pioneer pl 510s TT with an audio-technica AT316EP cartridge feeding my Onkyo HT-R520 surround receiver and love it. Headphone out is not so hot but not what I wanted it for.

No Phono pre per se, but I am using one of the inputs in my Focusrite Clarett audio interface with a custom made RIAA EQ curve and it sounds fantastic.

I had an NAD PP-1 for years, then upgraded to a Schiit Mani and now have a Lounge Audio LCR mkIII Silver phono preamp connected to Mofi Studiodeck w/ Mofi Ultratracker cartridge. I've been using a tube preamp for over 20 years currently it's a Schiit Freya+ with Electro Harmonix Gold Pin 6SN7 tubes.

Guitar player here. Tubes/valves are cool but they are not magical on their own. Swapping good tubes will yield slightly audible results. I would say better is subjective, swapped Chinese Ruby tubes for Slovakian JJ tubes in a small Ibanez guitar amp... there was a slight change but just slight. Not better or worse, the JJs are warmer by a hair.

Swapping old tubes for new tubes will yield a huge change tonally. Tubes on their own depends on how well the system is specified. Most of Solid State vs Tube can really be reduced to well speced, well made gear vs cheap gear. A cheap tube system will not sound night and day better than a cheap Solid State unit. Now a well made Solid State unit will sound way better than a cheap Tube unit. Most A/B Solid State vs Tube comparisons were mainly expensive Tube systems vs cheap and poorly speced Solid State sytems, hence the perception. In the end, more often than not, you get what you pay for.

Oh, the secret to perceived preference to Tubes over Solid State really hinges on human ears prefer a dirty tone. Tubes tend to dirty up in a more pleasing way to the human ear than Solid State. Especially when you push equipment like guitar amps. Also in every amp/system, there is a Goldilocks "Sweet Spot" where that system will sound it's best. Usually you have to turn up the amp/system to hit this. So objectively, most systems typically do not hit this sweet spot as they would really be too loud.

So with a cheaply specified Chinese made Tube amplifier, you should hear a difference but it will not be game changing in the least. You are better off buying an older, better specified pre amp that would be about the same price, provided it works fine.😉👍✨

Great value for the money - change the tubes. I run the Fosi directly into a Aiyama A-07 amp (with volume control) with excellent results. (or 6v6 5 watt tube amp)

New subscriber here, enjoy all your conversations. I really enjoy the vinyl dens you preview from around the world, it certainly gives great ideas for making or creating changes in your own place! Thanks.