A little back story here. About 7 years ago I threw together a very basic turntable setup for my daughter as an introduction to vinyl. Just a cheap Sony TT and a Vizio soundbar in a black walnut stand I built for her (it stands on 6" hairpin legs). It was an inexpensive way to introduce her to it. Fast forward to this year, and the bottom of the stand is full of records. So my daughter asked if I could build a matching one for more space.
I figured at this point it a safe bet she'd going to keep up with the hobby. So I spent the past few months looking at upgrades. I settled on speakers first; 2x Polk Audio TSi100s and a Polk Audio PSW10 subwoofer. Still a pretty modest and inexpensive setup, but running through my trusty old Pioneer receiver it sounds pretty good for a 21 year old
. I feel down a rabbit hole of options to drive the speakers. Everything from a restored vintage receiver, to a more modern integrated amp, and (maybe just a bit for myself), power amps. The main issue I came back to was portability and sound quality. My daughter has ambitions on being fairly mobile after college. So a 76lbs amplifier was out. I started finding that a lot of the vintge hifi guys I was watching on YouTube all spoke very highly of Fosi...and that opened up a new avenue to research.
In the process of upgrading my daughters system I happened upon a pair of vintage MTX AAL 124 4-way speakers. These aren't anything special. They were sold in the early 80's at the local American TV and appliance for about $300. And oftentimes were even "Thrown in" with certain package deals. Point is, everyone seemed to have a pair of these in my area growing up. To me, and the kind of music I like listening to these old 200watt 4ohm speakers are divine. Or at least after some minor tweaking.
The old Pioneer is my workshop receiver. It's survived 10 years in a woodshop with only marginal maintenance (yearly blast of air). Still, the old thing keeps kicking wand will drive just about anything I throw at it. For testing if things work it's been find, but it belongs in my shop.
All the drivers were in imaculate shape, and sounded good even at high volume. Thin is when MTX made these just across the Wisconsin/Illinois boarder in Winslow, Ill...they didn't add any speaker batting. Some may disagree, but I find any older speaker like this sounds better with dacron. I made sure to keed the woofer and port clear, and doubled it up behind the mid and tweaters just a bit. It was a cheap upgrade and improve the soudn considerbaly. But more improvement was coming.
I decided that rather than continue down the vintage reciver path I'd give Fosi a shot. If it worked out for my own stuf, there were options available for my daughter's setup as well. SO I picked up the following:
Fosi Audio ZP3 Preamplifier
Fosi Audio LC30 VU Meter Amplifier
Fosi Audio V3 Mini Stereo Amplifier (48v 5amp adapter)
All the gear arrived yesterday. And of course I had to quickly set it up and try it.
SHOCKED. Even my daughter and grilfriend (who've been listening to me test speakers the past few weeks) asked "What did you do? Those sound amazing!". The new Fosi amps driving the now batted AAL speakers sound fantatsic. So the plan at this point is for my daughter to get the V3 along with a P4. She'll eventually get a turntable upgrade, but for now the speakers and amps should be a massive improvement. And after hearing it last night and seeing the designs for her speaker stands (walnut and hair pin legs) she's super pumped about the upgrade.
For myself I've ordered a ZA3 and X5. I'm still planning to add a vintage turntable (Kenwood or Technics) soon. Once all the componenets are here I'm going to start designing a custom radck. So far I'm super impressed with the Fosi Audio hardware. The quality is outstanding, and the sound is amazing.
I figured at this point it a safe bet she'd going to keep up with the hobby. So I spent the past few months looking at upgrades. I settled on speakers first; 2x Polk Audio TSi100s and a Polk Audio PSW10 subwoofer. Still a pretty modest and inexpensive setup, but running through my trusty old Pioneer receiver it sounds pretty good for a 21 year old
. I feel down a rabbit hole of options to drive the speakers. Everything from a restored vintage receiver, to a more modern integrated amp, and (maybe just a bit for myself), power amps. The main issue I came back to was portability and sound quality. My daughter has ambitions on being fairly mobile after college. So a 76lbs amplifier was out. I started finding that a lot of the vintge hifi guys I was watching on YouTube all spoke very highly of Fosi...and that opened up a new avenue to research.In the process of upgrading my daughters system I happened upon a pair of vintage MTX AAL 124 4-way speakers. These aren't anything special. They were sold in the early 80's at the local American TV and appliance for about $300. And oftentimes were even "Thrown in" with certain package deals. Point is, everyone seemed to have a pair of these in my area growing up. To me, and the kind of music I like listening to these old 200watt 4ohm speakers are divine. Or at least after some minor tweaking.
The old Pioneer is my workshop receiver. It's survived 10 years in a woodshop with only marginal maintenance (yearly blast of air). Still, the old thing keeps kicking wand will drive just about anything I throw at it. For testing if things work it's been find, but it belongs in my shop.
All the drivers were in imaculate shape, and sounded good even at high volume. Thin is when MTX made these just across the Wisconsin/Illinois boarder in Winslow, Ill...they didn't add any speaker batting. Some may disagree, but I find any older speaker like this sounds better with dacron. I made sure to keed the woofer and port clear, and doubled it up behind the mid and tweaters just a bit. It was a cheap upgrade and improve the soudn considerbaly. But more improvement was coming.
I decided that rather than continue down the vintage reciver path I'd give Fosi a shot. If it worked out for my own stuf, there were options available for my daughter's setup as well. SO I picked up the following:
Fosi Audio ZP3 Preamplifier
Fosi Audio LC30 VU Meter Amplifier
Fosi Audio V3 Mini Stereo Amplifier (48v 5amp adapter)
All the gear arrived yesterday. And of course I had to quickly set it up and try it.
SHOCKED. Even my daughter and grilfriend (who've been listening to me test speakers the past few weeks) asked "What did you do? Those sound amazing!". The new Fosi amps driving the now batted AAL speakers sound fantatsic. So the plan at this point is for my daughter to get the V3 along with a P4. She'll eventually get a turntable upgrade, but for now the speakers and amps should be a massive improvement. And after hearing it last night and seeing the designs for her speaker stands (walnut and hair pin legs) she's super pumped about the upgrade.
For myself I've ordered a ZA3 and X5. I'm still planning to add a vintage turntable (Kenwood or Technics) soon. Once all the componenets are here I'm going to start designing a custom radck. So far I'm super impressed with the Fosi Audio hardware. The quality is outstanding, and the sound is amazing.
