Fosi Audio ZA3 Review & Sound Test #utilitariantv

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[scottbennett]

You're an honest reviewer, and that’s why Fosi isn't sending! You have a great sense of humor! I look forward to watching your videos!

[jmjm]

Love your videos, thank you, hello from Australia. I am glad you have a realistic approach to av, I struggle with advice from professionals or sales people.

[michaelwright]

I have the Fosi V3, and hooked it up via XLR to RCA adapters to my PS Audio DAC/Preamp, it sounds pretty darn good, very A/B sounding, and gave my little Cayin EL84 10w tube amp a run for its money with my Zu DW6 Supreme speakers. I am really impressed with this little V3 amp. My buddy turned me on to the V3, he is pairing it with a GD Audio R28 DAC/Preamp and a PS Audio Gaincell DAC/Preamp, powering a pair of $9000 Fritz Carbon speakers. He has a ZA3 coming next week... And just received a new $1500 Deer Creek Class D Hypex amplifier... He is on the fence... We both came to the conclusion that speaker sensitivity makes or breaks these amplifiers. My 95dB Zu's, and his I think 88dB Fritz Carbons... For the money, the Fosi are incredibly hard to beat. I did a little amp shootout here in the house, with two women with very good hearing, they tore apart the sound. The Fosi and Cayin both did good things. The Fosi beat the Cayin here and there, it was a tough call, Class A and Class D, tough call, but I would give the win to the Cayin 10w Class A EL84 tube amp. And it was only by a hair.

[tjeerdkruidhof]

To be fair you don’t need 2 and you can combine this with a great second hand dac or a su1 from smsl and be done under 200. Also would like your comparison with the A07 max.

[aeon]

I closed my eyes and was able to guess when you switched from Amazon to WBC three different times, Wasn’t expecting that, Thanks!

[jeffjefferson]

Mildly preferred the Rotel based on the piano, but the ZA3 definitely seems decent. Wonder how it compares to the V3, Aiyima A07, etc.

[geraldoram]

IMO I’d always go for the integrated amp. Built in dac, phono stage. Choice of tone or direct modes. Matches the looks of the cd player. As for sound I couldn’t detect a difference.

[SnapperX]

I'd like to see Fosi/Aiyima/Douk slow down their product cycle a bit, putting more thought into the products they are putting out. Granted, they have proved to be innovative but for the consumer, it is a bit overwhelming. I recently purchased the Loxjie A40 to compare to my Denon PMA-1600NE. I think the Denon beats it sound-wise, but not by much. The Loxjie is a fully functional integrated amp at $255. For somebody starting out in audio, I think that is hard to beat.

For me the ZA3 sounds slightly cleaner with piano. However, I would prefer more genres of music (and voices) to get a better feel of the differences, but I get the practical issues of such. I can see people buying a ZA3 and a WiiM Pro plus (with trigger function), streaming, and advanced PEQ function vs bass/trebble.

[RanTausi]

It is a shame the Fosi P3 preamp doesn't include 12v trigger out in order to connect it to the ZA3 power amp.

[halrichard]

Thank you for your honest review. As you said I only saw all the schilling for this amp when it came out. Thats all there was.

[kowosky]

Maybe worth it Just for the power output if you have hard to drive speakers. Wonder if these could drive Magnepans LRS+?

[LOTPOR]

Give me a full sized intergrated amp any day, especially if buying used .Fare enough if you just use one of them as a desktop setup .Getting to fussy and complicated using 2 like that, as well as expensive .Two power supplies etc. A modern intergrated amp with built in bluetooth is ideal .Still using a 15 year old NAD C315 bee

[LoftyVisions]

Did you try the ZA3s without the P3 in the chain? I have the same setup but with Sparkos opamps fitted and I found the P3 closed up the soundstage a fair bit. The ZA3s sound much wider with more top end air when used on their own, if that makes any sense 😄

[michaeljordan]

Great video, I can’t tell much of a difference.
Nice music too.

[Jason]

The Rotel looks nice and it would probably last longer but on paper you get twice the power with the two amps and a tube preamp if you choose to buy it

[borislavilijevski]

Did you test using just one ZA3 in stereo mode instead of two in mono mode? Might there be enough power to drive both speakers with one ZA3? I see quite an interest for example combining wiim pro plus + ZA3 as a quite nice system for cca 400 eur ...

[mediaconnect]

how it will perform if I am using fosi za3 as power amplifier with AVR for Atmos height speaker. Thank you

[cobberdig]

I'd agree with that assessment. If you grow up with stereo receivers and integrated amps you expect to see a line of inputs and a phono. I did buy recently 2 those of aiyima 07 max to try mono blocks but yeah it's adding up that and some preamp thats like 3 power points and still very limited io. I'll wait until it all turns up before I poo poo it. I'm with you I couldn't tell the difference between the Rotel and fosi in terms of sound.

[alanharris]

Totally agree, integrated amp all the way. Personally couldn’t hear any difference in the sound, not sure about comparing to the rotel as I think you got a bit of a bargain with that purchase but comparison with the Marantz is fair given similar price points and the Marantz gives far more in terms of features while also providing an excellent sound (I have the PM7000N rather than the one you mentioned though)