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Fosi Audio Box X5 Phono Preamp Review
- Thread starter amirm
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StevenSGT98
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My X5 arrived the other day. I ordered from Fosi Audio Official Store on EBay. It arrived in great shape direct from China to the US. It is currently $90.19.
What I hear when idle is a very slight hiss. I’ve determined is that is the cartridge. Once the needle is riding the dead wax, the hiss is gone. All that’s left is the ink, so only inductance from the coils themselves when the arm is on the stand. This is with my ear about a foot from the tweeter and average listening spl about 85db. I’m running an AT 440ml/b. It’s all there. Not sibilant. Not overly bright. Not dull. Precise. Lots of detail. Record imperfections seem to be handled fairly well.
This preamp just seems to get out of the way and let you listen to the music.
What I hear when idle is a very slight hiss. I’ve determined is that is the cartridge. Once the needle is riding the dead wax, the hiss is gone. All that’s left is the ink, so only inductance from the coils themselves when the arm is on the stand. This is with my ear about a foot from the tweeter and average listening spl about 85db. I’m running an AT 440ml/b. It’s all there. Not sibilant. Not overly bright. Not dull. Precise. Lots of detail. Record imperfections seem to be handled fairly well.
This preamp just seems to get out of the way and let you listen to the music.
Someone (My wife most likely, as she is currently in China & it came in an odd box) sent me one of these.
It's causing me to reconfigure my mother's stereo system with a different receiver and possibly some other things.
It's a great piece of gear. The only ? is longevity.
At the price (free for me [and I have other {not Fosi or any other Chinese brand}]), but not a worry.
It's causing me to reconfigure my mother's stereo system with a different receiver and possibly some other things.
It's a great piece of gear. The only ? is longevity.
At the price (free for me [and I have other {not Fosi or any other Chinese brand}]), but not a worry.
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It's always nice to have a preamp you can't really give any attributes. Perhaps makes for a bit dull review but that's the way it's supposed to be.
I see a lot of sellers suddenly "on vacation" on eBay. Probably waiting for the dust to settle on this tariff nonsense.
Now they don't have to honor their 'immediate shipping' obligations.
Then today I see USPS was refusing some (all?) China shipments. I think it's resolved.
The Fosi I ordered is probably held up by all this.
Now they don't have to honor their 'immediate shipping' obligations.
Then today I see USPS was refusing some (all?) China shipments. I think it's resolved.
The Fosi I ordered is probably held up by all this.
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Thanks, It would have been interesting to hear about any improvement on a entry level turntable. Sorry for a obvious walkthrough. (You are talking to the guy that switched EVERY speaker in a 7,1,4 system when he added external amps, yup, every speaker that should have been wired left was wired right and right was left and I did not notice once till A LOUD car panned across the TV and the pan was backward obviously reversed)
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Ordered a second for my upstairs system a week ago took 5 days. Unless something has changed these are in the US, The ban is only on shipments directly from China or HK.
Fingers crossed they are still shipped from the US.
The Fosi I bought from them off eBay in December was shipped from China. (Came to California in a week.)
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Yikes, Now with the ban that's going to be a issue as of yesterday. I don't know if the can avoid the USPS by shipping straight to UPS or Fed EX. Both mine were fed ex but we're shipping from a US address. I see all ebay adds come from China.
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Neither rate near as well, especially the tube boxs if I remember right
Roland68
Major Contributor
And you don't think that this is because of Chinese New Year, when almost everything in China is closed like every year?
I don't know why eBay shops should be an exception this year of all times.
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Yea, My wife is Chinnese, That will add a week but Chinnese NY in the mainland is not like the Chinnese INY in other countries. The mainland is very much get back to work. No decent pay or reasonable hours. My real worry is the USPS ban, who knows when that will end. The mainland wii need to figure out a way to avoid the USPS on US delivers.
PS:TO ALL, this is not a political comment, just a factual statement. Please don't make distribution observations political commentary.
All I know is I've never been affected for eBay purchases.
I'm pretty sure this USPS shipping glitch lasted less than a day.
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Sorry, Did not know it lasted a day, you are Correct. I thought only the Canadian and Mexico ones were withdraw for 30 days.
Amazon has inventory of some Fosi gear, including the X5, but I don’t know how many they have before they run out. Since it ships from Amazon, it means that those products are already in the U.S.
Not quite. They went from saying nothing to everything to saying we will accept, but even though they don't say anything, there will be delays.
From the standpoint of actual logistics like eBay, there are two things:
1) 10% extra tariff
2) No more $800 duty free cut off
There will be time and customs fees (MPF: merchandise processing fee), any existing tariff’s based upon the HTS number (7.5% for electronics), the “extra 10%” starting this week, and fees for the broker handling the paperwork.
Before, if you shipped <$800 you wouldn’t pay the 7.5% (don’t ask me if that was just duty free or just not enforced). Before, if you shipped pallets of electronics you would have paid for it.
The merchandise processing fee has minimums and maximums and is the cost for inspection. You can imagine inspected a single DAC versus a shipment of 200 DACs takes similar effort, so it wouldn’t be 200x as expensive. Minimum is $32. Maximum is $634.
International inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong Posts - Newsroom - About.usps.com
Suspension of Inbound Parcels from China and Hong Kong
about.usps.com
Not quite. They went from saying nothing to everything to saying we will accept, but even though they don't say anything, there will be delays.
From the standpoint of actual logistics like eBay, there are two things:
1) 10% extra tariff
2) No more $800 duty free cut off
There will be time and customs fees (MPF: merchandise processing fee), any existing tariff’s based upon the HTS number (7.5% for electronics), the “extra 10%” starting this week, and fees for the broker handling the paperwork.
Before, if you shipped <$800 you wouldn’t pay the 7.5% (don’t ask me if that was just duty free or just not enforced). Before, if you shipped pallets of electronics you would have paid for it.
The merchandise processing fee has minimums and maximums and is the cost for inspection. You can imagine inspected a single DAC versus a shipment of 200 DACs takes similar effort, so it wouldn’t be 200x as expensive. Minimum is $32. Maximum is $634.
The tariffs/import fees will be on you if they really do happen…. See my post of importing gear using an eBay example from the UK to US.
Amazon is $109 with 10% coupon. Delivers Tuesday. There’s a 30 day refund window.
It's not like it'll show up at my door, money due.
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