New Fosi AI powered DAC

[Laotie666!]

I checked out this prototype device at CanJam SoCal. A few things to note:
1. There's a knob in the middle. I think you can use it to adjust the volume, etc., but it's not a button. You can't press it.
2. It has a screen, but it's not a touchscreen.
3. There are two buttons (Light and Menu), but there is very little click feedback. It feels similar to the clicks on the Pro X2 Superstrike.

It looks nice and makes for a good desk gadget. I already shared all my concerns with the team, and they said they might improve it. But I don't know—let's see how the final product turns out.

 

[stuartkohl]

The specs look ok so it’s probably a decent DAC with funky looks that’ll appeal to some based on looks alone.

Nothing wrong with having AI assisted EQ. Fosi says it links to an EQ database (AutoEq ?) so it might produce good results.

Of course AI has its issues. But I think pejorative terms like AI Slop are used too much and too dismissively. In my day to day work as a C++ programmer, AI is very useful when used carefully.

Too often it's not used carefully. :-(

I feel that there _is_ a lot of AI slop. But that's the fault of the people producing it, and not the fault of the AI technology itself. Lazy people have been around for a long time and they've been producing garbage for a long time (way before AI tools existed).

It's a bit like the Virus Creation Lab software that people like John Buchanan used to churn out tons of similar, buggy, and mostly non-viable computer viruses. Then he'd send them over to John McAfee who would have signatures created for them for use in his anti-virus software. McAfee would then claim that gazillions of new viruses had been found and only his software could protect against them. McAfee also helped Buchanan
gain notoriety. They basically were at either end of a teeter-totter that was a giant hype machine. It didn't matter that none of these viruses were an actual threat or were even out in the wild. Everyone was getting fame and money.

 

[jhwalker]

I find the bland milquetoast “don’t be mean to AI” and “don’t say AI slop” and “AI has enormous advantages” and “this is fine” and “conversing with a powered-by-AI agent about simplifying your DAC’s mind-bogglingly complex PEQ settings seems like perfectly benign appropriate technology and product innovation to me here at Audio Science Review” responses to this small symptom of the times, to be utterly maddening, because they seem willfully blind and oblivious or just callously indifferent to all of the dire economic, political, environmental, and moral externalities of consumer AI.

At a site that’s passionate about reality-based eyes-wide-open objective rigor, this seems like self-complacent subjective madness with blinders on.

It isn't going away.

Like it or not (and it's clear you're in the "not" camp), it will be part of our society going forward.

We'll either learn to use / leverage it responsibly or it will kill us all, but it's not going away.

 

[HalSF]

It isn't going away.

Like it or not (and it's clear you're in the "not" camp), it will be part of our society going forward.

We'll either learn to use / leverage it responsibly or it will kill us all, but it's not going away.

If “it” is the productive, responsible, ethical use of AI in science, mathematics, data processing and analysis, medicine, economics, and engineering, etc, I like it.

If “it” is consumer agentic AI armed with pillaged sources and force-fed to us as a substitute for reliable search and properly cited information and human expertise, or Silicon Valley morons or fascists unleashing unconstrained and out-or-control AI swarm behavior with apocalyptic potential now being demonstrated in real time, I hate it with murderous intensity.

One of the things trivializing and poisoning this struggle IMO is the faux-savvy fatalism and passivity that loves to repeat that this is all happening no matter what, so get on board the unstoppable progress express. With a 10% or greater chance of taking us over the cliff into unimaginable horror.

 

[jhwalker]

If “it” is the productive, responsible, ethical use of AI in science, mathematics, data processing and analysis, medicine, economics, and engineering, etc, I like it.

If “it” is consumer agentic AI armed with pillaged sources and force-fed to us as a substitute for reliable search and properly cited information and human expertise, or Silicon Valley morons or fascists unleashing unconstrained and out-or-control AI swarm behavior with apocalyptic potential now being demonstrated in real time, I hate it with murderous intensity.

One of the things trivializing and poisoning this struggle IMO is the faux-savvy fatalism and passivity that loves to repeat that this is all happening no matter what, so get on board the unstoppable progress express. With a 10% or greater chance of taking us over the cliff into unimaginable horror.

Hate it with murderous intensity all you like, it's not going anywhere. The genie is out of the bottle.

 

[Redacted]

I bought a chicken salad sandwich. It claimed to be AI powered too. But was it the chicken or the salad? Will it report back to base about my drink choice?