This is a review and detailed measurements of the Fosi Audio Box X5 stereo Phono stage. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $109.99.
Company manages to bring a touch of class in a category that is universally utilitarian with those rounded corners and orange power button. Flexibility is provided by supporting both Moving Magnet (MM) and Moving Coil cartridges with different gain settings:
The gain setting is sandwiched tightly between the input and output RCA jacks. But company has wisely put in a tall knob to allow for relatively easy adjustment.
I forgot to take a picture of the AC transformer that is rated at indicated 16 volts.
Fosi Audio Box X5 Phono Measurements
It was quite a pleasant shock to see complete lack of distortion in our dashboard resulting in superb level of performance:
If the mains noise was not there, it would likely do even better. As is, it essentially ties with the best phono stage tested:
Moving coil at much higher gain naturally has more noise but still respectable:
Also impressive and very important, RIAA equalization is superbly done:
What's more there is good bit of headroom into treble region (my standard is > 100 mv @ 1 kHz):
Measuring distortion alone, we see that it is vanishingly low, at the level of good DACs and much better than many phono stages:
Conclusions
There are a lot of value oriented phono stages. Fosi innovates by bringing best in class performance while packaging the unit in an attractive enclosure while keeping the cost very reasonable. There is nothing more to ask!
I am happy to recommend Fosi Box X5 phono stage.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Company manages to bring a touch of class in a category that is universally utilitarian with those rounded corners and orange power button. Flexibility is provided by supporting both Moving Magnet (MM) and Moving Coil cartridges with different gain settings:
The gain setting is sandwiched tightly between the input and output RCA jacks. But company has wisely put in a tall knob to allow for relatively easy adjustment.
I forgot to take a picture of the AC transformer that is rated at indicated 16 volts.
Fosi Audio Box X5 Phono Measurements
It was quite a pleasant shock to see complete lack of distortion in our dashboard resulting in superb level of performance:
If the mains noise was not there, it would likely do even better. As is, it essentially ties with the best phono stage tested:
Moving coil at much higher gain naturally has more noise but still respectable:
Also impressive and very important, RIAA equalization is superbly done:
What's more there is good bit of headroom into treble region (my standard is > 100 mv @ 1 kHz):
Measuring distortion alone, we see that it is vanishingly low, at the level of good DACs and much better than many phono stages:
Conclusions
There are a lot of value oriented phono stages. Fosi innovates by bringing best in class performance while packaging the unit in an attractive enclosure while keeping the cost very reasonable. There is nothing more to ask!
I am happy to recommend Fosi Box X5 phono stage.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
We hope everyone will enjoy the Box X5.
