I'm not interested in the i5, but did watch that review from Gadgetrytech and it's feels quite clear what kind of arc Fosi Audio is on right now. They seem to have gone reasonably quickly from cheap, not very well finished products to easily trading blows with Topping, SMSL, Fiio et al. And maybe even bettering them.
General Headphone Audio
- Thread starter garyfl
- Start date
That's the v1 from few years ago, nobody has done a review of the v3 from what I could spot so no idea if all that stuff is still part of the package lol.
On the X9, love this feature, ok it's past the novelty course but still cool to look at lol
Last edited:
If the project fails don't they just keep the money and you get nothing?
Caporegime
- Joined
- 20 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 77,925
- Location
- Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
That’s the risk yes.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 20 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 77,925
- Location
- Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
They set the backer goal silly low, like 5 units. I thought, and still think they made a mistake, surely it should be at least $100,000...
I think they did it so they could get payment up front to get production off the ground.
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 27 Jul 2005
- Posts
- 13,363
- Location
- The Orion Spur
I wasn't massive lover of LCD-5 myself, I found them too cold and clinical, can come across fatiguing on the wrong amp/tracks, although it is very good on the 'technical' side of things, the big boon for LCD-5 for me was the new design and materials Audeze used, it feels so much lighter than the old style LCD headphones which genuinely make your neck hurt. V3 will sound the same, Audeze are always known for doing internal revision changes but it won't change the sound much if at all.
I did remember reading somewhere once that Kickstarter was a very cheap, effective way to market to a core audience. Which is why you see way bigger companies on there, rather than just the one person in a bedroom launching their new boardgame sort of thing.
But this seems to be the the Fosi way which they have done for lots of their products; launch it on KS and then roll out a global launch a few months later.
But this seems to be the the Fosi way which they have done for lots of their products; launch it on KS and then roll out a global launch a few months later.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 20 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 77,925
- Location
- Wish i was in a Ramen Shop Counter
To be fair, it is a way for a lot of established companies too, SHARGE does it, Keychron does it, Peak Design of all people still does it. It is simply a "safer" way to launch a new product, another way of doing a pre-order without actually 100% committed to it..
Last edited:
Yep indeed. But I think what I'm trying to say albeit badly is that I don't think it financial reasons that drive them to use KS. i.e. are there going to be enough buyers, spread the risk. Fosi are releasing this product and therefore the financial risk has already been taken on. I think it's more a phased roll-out with marketing benefits, i.e. you get two launch windows. So a Nintendo is never going to launch a mass-market product like Switch that sells millions per month on KS, but for companies like Fosi it suits them, where the volumes are maybe 20,000 units sold, something.
Have another question for you all and I don't want to start-up the old debate again but is this quote from another website forum (audiokarma.org forums - link) essentially incorrect, or have caveats attached?
So for example where I need a balanced DAC (XLR or 4.4mm interlink) is there really going to be much difference between a £140 Topping D10 Balanced or a £600-800 DAC? I appreciate by source that poster could mean quality of the USB input, or lossless vs. badly encoded mp3 files etc. But there are only so many pieces before you hit the AMP.
Reason for asking is that r/ifiaudio confirmed that the 4.4mm output from my iFi Zen Signature CAN (not DAC) isn't going to be ideal for my new APOS Gremlin. So I been looking around and think a Topping D10 Balanced could be a solution. Apart from XLR cables, which are cheaper and shouldn't have any compatibility issues, it also has the party trick of converting USB > Optical - which could be very useful in my setup. That said I'm very interested in the new Fiio K13 R2R and 'if' that has XLR outputs, that could be equally strong candidate.
However this above quote gave me pause. Thoughts?
So for example where I need a balanced DAC (XLR or 4.4mm interlink) is there really going to be much difference between a £140 Topping D10 Balanced or a £600-800 DAC? I appreciate by source that poster could mean quality of the USB input, or lossless vs. badly encoded mp3 files etc. But there are only so many pieces before you hit the AMP.
Reason for asking is that r/ifiaudio confirmed that the 4.4mm output from my iFi Zen Signature CAN (not DAC) isn't going to be ideal for my new APOS Gremlin. So I been looking around and think a Topping D10 Balanced could be a solution. Apart from XLR cables, which are cheaper and shouldn't have any compatibility issues, it also has the party trick of converting USB > Optical - which could be very useful in my setup. That said I'm very interested in the new Fiio K13 R2R and 'if' that has XLR outputs, that could be equally strong candidate.
However this above quote gave me pause. Thoughts?
Last edited:
While it may just be for marketing, the lack of guarantees and no warranty put me off spending £300 on kickstarter. If anything goes wrong during production they can just choose to keep the money instead of taking the financial hit themselves, and if it goes missing or is damaged during delivery they're under no obligation to send out another.
Indeed. And waiting for the general retail release will be safer in that regards. I did something similar with the Fosi K7 - wanted to wait for it. That said I do sense Fosi could be trusted, i.e. if you have a faulty example arrive I think they will support you. And I am sure places like Head-Fi will have more input on that, but that's my guess.
I take "source" to be the music file itself whether a local file mp3/flac or a streaming track on Spotify/Tidal etc.
Having spent a lot of time in recent months bouncing from Spotify to Tidal to Spotify again as well as my everlasting local FLAC collection and now using a high end DAC and headphones amp, the source file mastering matters more than anything else and this much was clear before anyway, though now with hands on time under the belt, it's set in stone.
You could buy a £3000 DAC, £1400 power amp and equally priced headphones and speakers and still suffer the pitfalls or a poorly mastered album in FLAC or Tidal simply because the mastering of that source was crap quality, meanwhile you have countless Spotify albums that sound so good I'm confident that anyone doing a blind test won't be able to tell if it's lossless of compressed. My HiFi playlist on Spotify contains tracks of that nature (example). A better DAC with a more refined architecture will make a difference, but if you feed it a crap file, you're only going to be polishing crap.
Some also count using exclusive mode in as "source" too, but having also tested this back and forth a lot, it doesn't matter, Windows 11 is doing everything in32-bit float and there's no audible distortion not using exclusive ASIO/WASAPI. Much of what you read about is a continuation of old issues that haven't been an issue for many years now as software and hardware have reached a peak level where even the cheapest stuff is so good that they highlight the crapness in poor mastered files, even if they are lossless or personal rips from CD.
For ref I am using XLR output into the power amp to power the speakers, the same power amp has RCA input which I was using before the Luxsin DAC arrived. There's no audible difference in which sounds cleaner/better than the other, both have zero noise or hiss at any volume when nothing is playing, it's a black hole of emptiness that music plays from, even from a cheaper DAC like the K11 R2R which only has RCA out. It's a matter of preference and convenience really. I now prefer XLR cables as they are more secure and look cool, plus it's peace of mind knowing my chain is fully balanced at both ends as opposed to one end being single ended.
For a £6 balanced cable pair going from DAC to amp it's a no brainer really and for headphones it's £20 or less for an Openheart 4.4mm/XLR from Aliexpress. The other benefit of going balanced is that you can make use of the higher power output a fully balanced DAC gives you vs unbalanced connections, means less need to crank the volume several dB higher.
Last edited:
Ah OK - of course! Thank you, that makes sense.
I definitely hear the difference between our local FLAC lossless files vs. 'high' on Spotify & Amazon Music. And similarly I've only tried WASAPI on Foobar once, but can't remember enough difference although more and more I'm moving towards Linux so I'm not too worried about changing settings there.
Re: XLR observation vs 4.4mm - seems to me there are tons of XLR to XLR cables for any kind of budget and I've not really read any complaints around them not working. Where as 4.4mm to 4.4mm there are some cables that don't work with the Gremlin (may say more about the Gremlin) and they are limited, or quite expensive. So it feels like a Topping D10 Balanced would be fairly safe bet with XLR outputs, rather than trying to pick up something with 4.4mm output. And means I can convert to optical, which is useful.
Last edited:
High is audibly compressed yeah, I only use very high on Spotify for this reason as it's basically impossible hard to tell the difference between it and any flac of the same mastered release.Just make sure the exact same masterred album or track is used when comparing between these settings as not all platforms have the same version. There is a tool posted on Reddit ages ago that shows what master versions are on each platform, might be a website for it now though.
You can use TRS balanced connectors as well by the way if an amp or dac has them. Still the same balanced signal, my XLR rear is an XLR to TRS 6.35mm cable as the power amp has balanced TRS input.
You can use TRS balanced connectors as well by the way if an amp or dac has them. Still the same balanced signal, my XLR rear is an XLR to TRS 6.35mm cable as the power amp has balanced TRS input.
Last edited:
Sorry my bad - I meant the 'highest' setting rather than 'high' - couldn't remember the terminology. And yes the difference is negligible on the same track.
At the moment only my iFi Zen Signature DAC/CAN stack has 4.4mm output. However I'm already using that between both with the iFi 4.4 interconnect cable (the way overpriced one). So don't currently have anything with XLR outputs. So I either hang on for the K13 R2R to see if that has XLR outputs, or just buy a Topping D10 Balanced which includes TRS Balanced to XLR adaptors. Or potentially get both anyway. In the interim I'll just unplug my Zen CAN and use the iFi DAC with the 4.4mm iFi cable that should work with the Gremlin.
There are other options like the Topping D50, or SMSL DO100 (good price at the moment) that all have TRS output, but it feels a bit silly to be spending too much for one new 'budget' amp.
Yes, that would be the sensible thing to do. I have seen one, or two bargains on the bay so might be the thing that makes me jump sooner.