£25 per week! You lucky B**rd. We had to live in a hole 'int street and eat coal!..found "member upgrades" . only paid $25 but thats a weeks wage in the UK.
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Fosi ZH3 Balanced Headphone Amp & DAC Review
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
Luxury
OP
- Thread Starter
- #43
No, that aspect works very well. The issue is only in the menu selections.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #44
Yeh, he got tired of waiting on me and left on his own vacation.... Saw a picture of him in Africa with other panthers surrounding him likely wondering why he is pink.....
OP
- Thread Starter
- #45
It says $199 now (did not have a price when I wrote the review). Maybe the saw my review and wanted to make sure what I listed was correct.
TuneUporDown
New Member
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- Sep 19, 2025
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Nice review.
Are the tone controls available in all modes including pre-amp mode? Or is that just in headphone amp mode? Is this DAC better than the ZD3 regarding audio quality?
I know it doesn’t have a high pass filter, but I’d consider replacing my ZD3 and ZP3 with this if it has the audio quality and features. Thanks
Are the tone controls available in all modes including pre-amp mode? Or is that just in headphone amp mode? Is this DAC better than the ZD3 regarding audio quality?
I know it doesn’t have a high pass filter, but I’d consider replacing my ZD3 and ZP3 with this if it has the audio quality and features. Thanks
OP
- Thread Starter
- #47
I don't know for sure but usually in this class of device, the rear pre-amp connectors are a copy of the front panel with a series resistor. As such, tone controls would act on them just as well.
Nango
Major Contributor
One colour the display characters, one source, non-serifs, finally ...... Great!!This is a review, detailed measurements and listening test of Fosi ZH3 balanced stereo DAC and headphone amplifier/preamp. It was sent to me by the company. I can't find the price ($200?).
View attachment 476977
The ZH3 is attractive and follows the design language of the newer Fosi products. I found the menu navigation with the front panel knob difficult. It would sometimes jump forward/back with little motion, other times it would take a few clicks. It was very frustrating. Fortunately the remote control doesn't have this issue. Back panel shows attractive set of features:
View attachment 476978
Like the inclusion of trigger and RCA inputs. Alas, I forgot to test that.
In the interest of time, I skipped over a few tests and focused on front panel headphone outputs only.
FOSI ZH3 Measurements
I started with medium gain and balanced headphone out:
View attachment 476979
Distortion is well below threshold of hearing. So SINAD is determined by noise alone. 113 dB nicely lands the ZH3 in our very competent bucket:
View attachment 476980
View attachment 476981
Here is the dynamic range:
View attachment 476982
At 4 volt, performance is more than you could ask for in this class. At 50 mv, initial measurements using balanced out was somewhat disappointing. Switching to unbalanced, remedied good bit of that:
View attachment 476983
Still, highly sensitive IEMs may experience a bit of noise.
IMD test shows the difference between balanced and unbalanced:
View attachment 476984
View attachment 476985
Default filter performance is typical and good:
View attachment 476986
There is almost no frequency dependency which is good:
View attachment 476987
Now we get to the impressive part which is available power and lack of any distortion/clipping:
View attachment 476988
View attachment 476989
It is especially impressive to see no clipping all the way up to 2.5 watts! I don't think I have seen this before. This is very useful for testing limits of headphone distortion. If you hear any distortion, it is the headphone and not the amplifier!
Fosi ZH3 Listening Tests
I chose to test the Dan Clark Audio E3 headphone with the ZH3. I used the high gain and with it, there was incredible fidelity and lots of headroom. I think I had the volume at 75 even at very high loudness. Detail in the music was amazing as was the bass impact. The combination melted my heart in how clean and dynamic the performance was!
Conclusions
If the price is as I expect, the ZH3 is an incredible offering with ultra low distortion yet a ton of power. It is attractive in design and capability. Listening performance was a delight even with my less sensitive headphone, proving the capability of the output stage. Yes, the noise figures could be a bit better but that will impact very few users with ultra sensitive IEMs.
The inclusion of analog input is a major hit for people like me who also need to integrate an analog source. Few DACs sport such a feature.
It is my pleasure to recommend the FOSI ZH3. Company sure has its eye on the ball as far as feature list and performance.
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This needs an HDMI ARC input like the ZD3 for a great desktop setup.
IanRoberts
Member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2023
- Messages
- 28
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- 59
It could be useful if you had a record player and some v3 monos. If this could act as a preamp between the record player and power amps it could be a really useful solution. being able to switch between your digital sources and an analog one and control the volume with the same remote would be really nice.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #51
The request was that it NOT change the volume. If all it is doing is passing it through, then use a splitter.
MusicLover2112
Member
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- Dec 18, 2021
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Does this price include the new tariffs? Someone may receive an unpleasant surprise from FedEx.
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Thank Amir for the great review!
ZH3's retail price is US $199. The preorder is open now
fosiaudio.com
ZH3's retail price is US $199. The preorder is open now
Fosi Audio ZH3 DAC Headphone Amp
An all-in-one desktop HiFi DAC/headphone amp/preamp: With premium chipsets and self-developed fully balanced circuitry, low noise and low distortion. Perfect for HiFi headphones or active speakers, it's the ultimate desktop audio solution. Exceptional Sound Quality: Premium chipset with...
fosiaudio.com
Im getting this one, when it will be avaible on Amazon us?Thank Amir for the great review!
ZH3's retail price is US $199. The preorder is open now
Fosi Audio ZH3 DAC Headphone Amp
An all-in-one desktop HiFi DAC/headphone amp/preamp: With premium chipsets and self-developed fully balanced circuitry, low noise and low distortion. Perfect for HiFi headphones or active speakers, it's the ultimate desktop audio solution. Exceptional Sound Quality: Premium chipset with...
Thank you for the review...
I'd vote that you put down your pitch-fork and don't delay your summer-vacation until winter!
I'm very interested in this device, but I'm also worried about poor everyday usability of the user interface. @Fosi Audio: Can you confirm that this problem is limited to only Amir's sample (as supposed in this post) and, if the whole batch is affected, you will deliver an update?
I have had no problems accessing the menu's on the device - here is a little video of navigating around the menu structure:
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