T10 (unboxing and impressions)

[Jerome]

This is a brief overview of the T10 which IMO is the first in a ‘next generation’ of amplifiers, especially at the price point that Fosi Audio are selling it at.

So for years we have had small class D amplifiers which had added Bluetooth and RCA inputs, but we now live in a world where ‘internet streaming audio’ is the defacto standard way to play your music collection (whether it be Spotify, Tidal, Quboz etc), some high end and very expensive amplifiers already have integrated streaming solutions e.g. Bluesound with their bluenode integrated amplifiers, but now for the first time in an affordable amplifier we have built in streaming capability with an incredible number of streaming options.

The T10 is incredible compact and looks very similar to other Fosi Audio amplifiers with a handy USB on the front of the device. It comes with a remote, power and the 2 aerials one for bluetooth and one for wifi. Very simple to put together and its starts up very fast.

On powering it up, you then use the Wiim App from the App Store (and play store) to add it to your wifi network. This is mostly a very simple process but I did run into a little bit of trouble with wifi setup, in the end I discovered that if you are already running the Wim App – I already have a Wiim Mini for comparison – it would not pop up and ask me to select an existing wifi network to join. But simple ‘killing’ the Wim App and restarting it was enough to get the Wiim App to add the T10 to my network.

Note: The T10 also includes a wired ethernet connection which is great for those with not great wifi. The T10 comes with a simple to use IR remote control and this is normally how you might change the volume, select a different source (like Bluetooth) and even modify the Tone controls (i.e. Bass and Treble). Overall the T10 is an incredible deal for the price.

The sound is good and very similar to other TPA3116 amplifiers sold by Fosi Audio and others. With the speakers I tried it can get incredible loud and one thing I would wish is the default volume of the T10 would be lowered, though they warn you in the manual to lower the volume before playing anything.
I hope (and I imagine) that Fosi Audio will start to include network streaming in other Amplifiers in their range as I would love to try a T10 ‘pro’ maybe using the TPA3225 like the ‘BT30D PRO’ e.g. maybe a T30D Pro as that would possible provide an even more premium sound especially playing FLAC and other high bitrate audio. The included USB input is another very interesting feature as I can load up a USB with various formats (include MP3, MP4 and FLAC files) – including high bitrate audio files and these appear within the Wiim App so you can select and play these. Overall a very handy feature.

The T10 includes all the typical capabilities you would expect from Fosi Audio amplifiers, e.g. Bluetooth and RCA includes and these can be switched too easily from the remote or
using the Wiim App. The bluetooth is basic SBC only but I got a good 300 kbps steam from my phone so it sounded fine, but again I imagine a future iterations with some other bluetooth codecs added.

The star of the show with the T10 though is the network streaming capabilities and given its shares the same app as the Wim Mini, it shares most of the capabilities. The only streaming service that I had some trouble with was Amazon music but services like Spotify, Tune in Radio etc all played fine and the ‘Music Servers’ option where you can browse your own music collection via DLNA workedvery well. Some things within the Wiim App do not make sense for the T10 but I imagine Fosi Audio will work with the Wiim / LinkPlay team to iron out this inconsistencies, for example, the Audio settings include SPDIF and there is an option to touch controls and neither are relevant for the T10.

So here are what I think are the best features:

1. Uses LinkPlay (same platform as the Wiim Mini) so uses ‘most’ of the capabilities of the Wiim Mini App

2. Ethernet as well as Wifi support

3. Includes bluetooth 5 and supports an external USB (including support for FLAC files on external USB)

4. Includes Remote control

5. Has Tone controls via Remote

6. Includes RCA input

7. Has option for subwoofer output

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