Fosi Combo: V3 + V3 + ZP3 + ZD3 ¿is it worth it?

[Firulais71]

Good morning everyone.

Motivated by your highly informative comments and posts, as well as the very detailed analyses by admin Amiir, I've decided to buy the following components for my secondary listening room/TV room:

- Fosi V3 mono amplifier + 48V 10A power supply.
- Fosi V3 mono amplifier + 48V 10A power supply.
- Fosi ZD3 dac.
- Fosi ZP3 preamp.
- XLR cables for connecting the dac to the preamp and amplifiers.

I'm going to cool the amplifiers with fans at the top and bottom of each monoblock.

The total price for the product bundle, including shipping to Peru, is $750.

The set will be used to power a pair of 3-way tower speakers with 8 ohms and 94 dB sensitivity, to be installed in a semi-treated listening room of 25 m². All my music is digital, from Tidal, as well as thousands of flac files, some are rips from my old cd´s, and many dsd files that I will play from a pc connected to the dac via usb cable.

That said, ¿do you consider this Fosi component bundle adequate, or would you recommend making any changes/upgrades, perhaps looking for a better dac or preamp? As I mentioned, the investment is only $750, a real bargain, so I'm willing to spend another $300 or $400 to upgrade another component if necessary.

Best regards.

 

[xanalog]

Will you be able to live w/o either USB and/or a network interface, in the future?
The selection of the ZP3 is a good one; as it has additional analog inputs, if/when you will need such a hardware upgrade in the future.
Will you be using the ZP3's sub out?

 

[Firulais71]

Hi Xanalog, thank you very much for your attention.

Regarding the sub, I won't be using that output on the Zp3.

And for now, I don't want to do without the USB connection from my PC to the DAC. In fact, that's how I plan to play my music. I want to use the PC I have in this room as the source. I recently transferred my backup of FLAC and DSD files to it, which is why I bought the Fosi DAC.

If I wanted to do without the USB connection between the PC and the DAC, I would have to use a streamer and connect it to the preamp or directly to the V3s, and have the transmitter play the files over the network by connecting to the PC or my server. But I don't think that's something I want to do in the short term, nor do I think this method offers better performance than a direct USB connection between the DAC and the PC. Unless there's a better method, I checked the specifications for the ZD3 DAC, and it allows playback of PCM files via USB up to 32-bit/768kHz and DSD 512, which is more than enough for me.

I look forward to your comments.

Regards.

 

[xanalog]

Espero sus comentarios.
Saludos.

Welcome to ASR.
It is best that we speak English here, as all of us do.. or please use a translator.

 

[Firulais71]

Will you be able to live w/o either USB and/or a network interface, in the future?
The selection of the ZP3 is a good one; as it has additional analog inputs, if/when you will need such a hardware upgrade in the future.
Will you be using the ZP3's sub out?

Hey man, I swore I posted the message in English, but I've already edited it to the forum's official language.

Thanks for the welcome, I hope to contribute as much as you all do.

Best regards.

 

[Roland68]

Good morning everyone.

Motivated by your highly informative comments and posts, as well as the very detailed analyses by admin Amiir, I've decided to buy the following components for my secondary listening room/TV room:

- Fosi V3 mono amplifier + 48V 10A power supply.
- Fosi V3 mono amplifier + 48V 10A power supply.
- Fosi ZD3 dac.
- Fosi ZP3 preamp.
- XLR cables for connecting the dac to the preamp and amplifiers.

I'm going to cool the amplifiers with fans at the top and bottom of each monoblock.

View attachment 499930

The total price for the product bundle, including shipping to Peru, is $750.

The set will be used to power a pair of 3-way tower speakers with 8 ohms and 94 dB sensitivity, to be installed in a semi-treated listening room of 25 m². All my music is digital, from Tidal, as well as thousands of flac files, some are rips from my old cd´s, and many dsd files that I will play from a pc connected to the dac via usb cable.

That said, ¿do you consider this Fosi component bundle adequate, or would you recommend making any changes/upgrades, perhaps looking for a better dac or preamp? As I mentioned, the investment is only $750, a real bargain, so I'm willing to spend another $300 or $400 to upgrade another component if necessary.

Best regards.

May I ask what you're using the Fosi ZP3 preamplifier for?
If you're only using digital sources, then it's unnecessary in this setup and only reduces the DAC's already good performance.

 

[delta76]

You will likely not need a preamp. ZD3 has digital input which you can just feed in directly
and if it were me I would just pick a stereo amp instead of 2 Mono, but well if you want to "invest"

 

[Firulais71]

May I ask what you're using the Fosi ZP3 preamplifier for?
If you're only using digital sources, then it's unnecessary in this setup and only reduces the DAC's already good performance.

Hi Roland, my reason for adding the ZP3 to the chain is basically to improve/boost the low-level signal coming from the DAC to a standard (line level), so that the amplifiers can deliver their full potential. At least, that's how I understand it. Keep in mind, I'm a complete beginner at this, so I'm open to advice.

That said, ¿considering I'll be using XLR cables, do you think the preamp is unnecessary between the Fosi DAC and the V3 amplifiers?

I'll be waiting for your comments.

Cheers.

 

[Firulais71]

You will likely not need a preamp. ZD3 has digital input which you can just feed in directly
and if it were me I would just pick a stereo amp instead of 2 Mono, but well if you want to "invest"

Hi Delta, yes of course, I know the ZD3 has digital inputs, and that's how I want to use it, connecting it via USB to the PC where my file library is located. The chain would be like this: PC > DAC > preamp > dual Fosi V3 > speakers.

¿Why don't I buy a stereo amplifier + a DAC, or a good stereo amplifier with a built-in DAC?

The answer is simple: cost. The combo of two V3s plus a DAC and preamp costs me less than $800. In Peru, for that price, it's almost impossible to find a good stereo amplifier, let alone a competent all-in-one amplifier with a DAC. At one point, I even considered buying a vintage Class A/B amplifier and adding a Topping DAC or something similar, but here they sell them at exorbitant prices. Vintage Sansui amplifiers, for example, start at $1500, and some models go for $3000 or more. The same goes for used Yamaha, Marantz, Denon, Luxman, etc., old-school equipment. And if I wanted a modern but new option, something like a Leak Stereo 230, here they sell it for over $2300. So those alternatives are out of the question.

Honestly, Fosi's proposal is unbeatable. That cost/benefit ratio is hard to match in my country. It might be possible in Europe or the US, which are large markets where the supply of vintage and contemporary used equipment is abundant, but that's not my reality.

Best regards.

 

[TurtlePaul]

I would consider if having 2x 48V 10A power supplies is worth it. Each v3 mono had a single TPA3255 chip which will limit total power. The 48V 5A power bricks seem to be conservatively rated and do about 7A in real world tests. The v3 mono is rated for 240W each (x2 for stereo monoblocks) at 1% THD and 200W at low THD.

Archimago tested with the 48V10A brick and it just got 207W at low THD instead of 200W. I wouldn’t pay a premium for the 3% /0.25 dB power increase.

 

[Roland68]

Hi Roland, my reason for adding the ZP3 to the chain is basically to improve/boost the low-level signal coming from the DAC to a standard (line level), so that the amplifiers can deliver their full potential. At least, that's how I understand it. Keep in mind, I'm a complete beginner at this, so I'm open to advice.

That said, ¿considering I'll be using XLR cables, do you think the preamp is unnecessary between the Fosi DAC and the V3 amplifiers?

I'll be waiting for your comments.

Cheers.

The ZP3 is completely unnecessary, as the ZD3 DAC already outputs the ideal level for the V3 Mono. Every additional device in the signal path degrades the signal and adds noise. And since the ZP3 has worse measured values than the ZD3, it would be detrimental.

You spend more money and get a worse result.

 

[obsessive9119]

As others have said, I’d drop the ZP3. Also consider a ZA3 rather than the two V3s if you want to save money - it doesn’t perform as well on paper but in real life I’m not sure you’d notice the difference (especially with sensitive speakers).

Just as a curve ball, I’d consider. WiiM Pro Plus instead of the ZD3 - you get streaming, room correction/EQ and a very good DAC for the same ballpark price.

 

[Roland68]

Hi Delta, yes of course, I know the ZD3 has digital inputs, and that's how I want to use it, connecting it via USB to the PC where my file library is located. The chain would be like this: PC > DAC > preamp > dual Fosi V3 > speakers.

¿Why don't I buy a stereo amplifier + a DAC, or a good stereo amplifier with a built-in DAC?

The answer is simple: cost. The combo of two V3s plus a DAC and preamp costs me less than $800. In Peru, for that price, it's almost impossible to find a good stereo amplifier, let alone a competent all-in-one amplifier with a DAC. At one point, I even considered buying a vintage Class A/B amplifier and adding a Topping DAC or something similar, but here they sell them at exorbitant prices. Vintage Sansui amplifiers, for example, start at $1500, and some models go for $3000 or more. The same goes for used Yamaha, Marantz, Denon, Luxman, etc., old-school equipment. And if I wanted a modern but new option, something like a Leak Stereo 230, here they sell it for over $2300. So those alternatives are out of the question.

Honestly, Fosi's proposal is unbeatable. That cost/benefit ratio is hard to match in my country. It might be possible in Europe or the US, which are large markets where the supply of vintage and contemporary used equipment is abundant, but that's not my reality.

Best regards.

It might be even more sensible to get a WiiM Amp Ultra and forgo everything else.

Same measurements, two TPA3255s, one per channel, just like the V3 Mono, slightly less power, but with a powerful DSP and a subwoofer output with high- and low-pass filtering. If you want to connect a subwoofer later, the latter will become a problem.

As soon as you connect a subwoofer, the power demand for the speakers will be many times higher than needed.

 

[Firulais71]

The ZP3 is completely unnecessary, as the ZD3 DAC already outputs the ideal level for the V3 Mono. Every additional device in the signal path degrades the signal and adds noise. And since the ZP3 has worse measured values than the ZD3, it would be detrimental.

You spend more money and get a worse result.

Hey man, I'm about to abandon the Zp3 purchase, so if I insist on the Fosi chain, I'd only buy the two V3 units and the Zd3. By the way, I'm also considering whether to buy that DAC or get a better one.

Actually, as I continue reading reviews and messages with information on other equipment, I've started looking at other options, like the Wiim Amp Ultra you recommended. From what I've seen and read, it's a more than capable all-in-one (apparently, I'll keep looking for information on that unit), which could very well serve my purposes. That model had completely escaped my notice, but with its price of only $560 including shipping to Peru, the high-quality DAC it has, and the 100 watts per channel at 8 ohms, plus its other features, it's an alternative that's well worth considering.

Greetings from Peru.