Hey all
A few of you might have seen my posts about class D amps... So after trying a few class D amps I decided to go for the Fosi Audio BT20A PRO which I bought from Amazon @7999.
It was delivered yesterday and I devoted like 5 hours to test it...
(the demo and testing is still going on and I ll update this review from time to time based on my observations)
Here goes....
Build :
Pretty solid, everything is upto the mark, the aluminium used is of high grade anodised type.
The knobs are sturdy but somehow the one I got has a kinna wobbly volume knob, dunno if it's just me or this is the way it is but all in all the knobs are solid and feel very good especially the copper color of the bigger volume knob gives a great and premium look to this otherwise gray beast (there is a blue color as well but it seems it's not available here in India at this time)
The back connectors and sockets are placed pretty close to each other, with some small maneuvering everything can be pushed, tied and fixed though.
Please mind that it takes I guess smaller pinned banana connectors.. I didn't know and purchased the full sized (longish type, 8 in total) ones which upon connecting would remain nearly 50% outside of the socket, hence had to connect bare wires with speaker out ports.. TBH I found this method of connecting wires kind of easy, no non sense type and they are connected pretty tight with the ports.
Accessories
The bluetooth antenna is no nonsense standard & decent one which you have to screw yourself.
POWER SUPPLY : I was expecting a 48V power supply but seems fosi doesn't ship that anymore, the supplied 32V is sufficient for my needs..
The wire lengths with the power supply adapter are adequate, the block and wires, all look decent and feel study enough . Checked its voltage with multimeter & it does produce what is claimed 32.4V to 32.5V.
Functionality..
Bluetooth connects in a jiffy and the coverage is good.
Kinna tricky sometimes to get the connection changed but by and large it's easy to switch from BT to RCA.
The knobs give good feel while using and operating them... The volume knob can be pushed in & within 5 seconds it erases bluetooth memory so you can pair another source...
There is also a socket of pre out at the back which can be used to supply signals to an active subwoofer which is awesome in my view... But I dont think I ll ever need that as the amp gives enough thump already with my 2.0 passive speakers. This same socket can be used to connect this amplifier as a preamp to another amplifier if you want..
Audio quality
Please note I use my SONY BOOKSHELF SPEAKERS ( I call them bookshelf as they perform really well and partly coz I don't have the machine) with this.. The ones which came with Sony MHC-Az2d music system. (edit attaching pics of them)
Via Bluetooth it sounded pretty decent (please note I use Spotify with highest streaming audio quality on an iPhone)
Via RCA I stream via my Google chromecast audio and the sound is even better.
Over all its pretty loud, the tone knobs do a good job and the best part is there is a neutral point for both bass and Treble exactly in the center so you get a good reference point..
The low freq response is awesome which is genuinely deep, the high freq are pretty good too but may be a bit more wanting like 10% lesser than the bass response... But that's just me... Over all it has played everything nicely that I have thrown at it... Mids are pretty good ( as you have to manage them via your preamp etc, you can further enhance them as well but they are pretty good already )
For info - I tested by turning the EQ in Spotify off and setting the bass and Treble levels on the amp at 0, sound was ordinary but as soon as you gradually crank up both around 3 o clock the bass is sufficient and at around 4 to 5o clock the highs are enough..
Be it the jazz, or Bollywood music, or ghazals by Mehdi Hassan and Live Indian Classical renditions in both vocal ( by Kishori Amonkar, Lakshmi Shankar Abhijeet Pohankar and many many others) and instrumental( sitar, sarod, santoor, tabla, flute etc) it played everything nicely (of course you have to adjust the knobs according to the type of music as well as the source quality)
But one thing is for sure, via Google chromecast audio (which technically means that there is a proper DAC before the RCA input ( as the GCA has a dedicated DAC in it) this thing just sounds so great..
Please note : Type of drivers (speakers) plays another huge role so please use atleast half decent ones with these...
I will hook up another pair and edit my review in a few days and add more details about how it peforms with them...
All in all I am pretty happy, would have loved a fully functional remote and a knob to manage the mids too (I know that's tricky)
Would have loved to have couple of more connectivity options like optical etc but that's just for academic reasons only, BT and RCA for me are more than enough..
All in all pretty good small package
Would recommend it as tpa3255 chip performs extremely well and this little beast is loud really loud but the audio doesn't distort at higher levels ( haven't fully checked tbh)
For a budget freak like me who after a certain age looks at the price first and value later this thing is just so so so good... The other class D amps thatI I used in last few months also performed very very well... (size, budget, firm factor and options, based on them Class D would be extremely popular among music enthusiasts snd audiophiles in future if not already)
This TPA3255 based Fosi bt20a pro amp has a wider stage of sound, audio is fuller, the thump is nice and pleasent ( for me ) audio notes are decently distinct and boy it is loud...
A decent input signal and half decent output drivers will let you distinguish it from your existing system....
Thanks
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