BOX X4

I needed a preamp because I couldn't do what I wanted with my existing setup. I had Fluance RT-85 turntable > Onkyo TX-SV575 (25 years old) > Rockville 21-band graphic EQ via Tape 2 monitor > Wharfdale Diamond 7.2 bookshelf speakers (also 25 years old). This setup sounded great, but I also want to have the music play in other rooms in perfect synchronization. I use the Wiim streaming device for this. The issue is that with that is that the sounds lagged a noticeable few milliseconds in the other rooms. The Wiim synch feature didn't work because the source setup didn't have the signal come from the Wiim. I need to change the order of the signal chain so that the turntable signal passed through the Wiim then to the receiver. And that's why I needed a pre-amp. After a night of researching solid state and tube preamps, I decided on the Fosi Box X4. I ordered it after 3am and it arrived before 6pm that same day (nice job, Amazon!). Set up was easy. The only odd thing was that the grounding post on the X4 is spring-loaded mechanism that seems intended for bare wire or a pin rather than the spade connector that is common on turntables. So I fed one prong of th fork into the opening and that works fine. The chain is now turntable > preamp > EQ > Wiim > receiver. This works but the sound seemed a little off. especially on older records. If I spent more time adjusting the EQ, I could probably get the sound to where I want it, but I'm lazy. Then it hit me, the sound out of the preamp to the receiver should be very good, so I set the EQ to direct mode which bypasses the adjustments of the EQ. I had to up the gain on the preamp after this since the EQ was boosting the level. Voila! That did it. Everyone is right that the X4 presents a wide and immersive soundstage. All the different pieces of percussion, acoustic and electric bass, piano, guitars, and vocals are all smooth and clear. I may keep this as the regular set up bypassing the EQ, and just using the EQ on tape and CD. This is my first tube set up, so I don't think I'll be making and tube changes for now. Definitely a great product, great performance, at a great price. I recommend it.

It's a unique combination of tube phono preamp, component preamp + headphone amp and for the price it's ridiculously good value. My current amp has no headphone jack and with the X4, I now have the option to listen to vinyl with my headphones. It has plenty of power to drive my headphones to extremely loud levels. This preamp has bass and treble controls that allow me to adjust the sound heard through the headphones as well as the speakers - I never seen this feature on a phono preamp and love it. It came with 2 GE 5654W tubes. They are a very nice tubes and actually cost about $15 each, so that’s $30 of the value right there. One of the tubes had a slight bend in the pin that I had to bend straight to get it to fit in the preamp socket (typical problem with tubes…they are delicate). It has red LEDs that light up the tubes that make it look cool. The unit itself is built like a tank (solid metal casing). Attaching my record player to the preamp was simple and the sound quality is amazing! The sound using these tubes is rich and detailed and being able to adjust the bass and treble really lets me dial in the sound for different speakers. If you plug an aux cord into the unit, the phono preamp turns off and defaults to the aux input (gotta pull out aux and then the phono preamp comes back on). Overall I’m amazed at how good of a phono preamp this is for the money. The headphone and aux input preamp are just icing on the cake. Love this X4 phono preamp!!!

The phono preamp sounds surprisingly great with every cartridge I throw at it. Plenty of detail, punch, warmth but not dull at all, with a nice quiet background, too. The tone controls are legitimately useful, with logically-chosen frequencies for a change. The X4 is worth the price for the phono preamp alone, imo. But the headphone output sounds boxy. It's tinny, lacking low end AND high end. It might come in handy if you need a basic monitoring function but that's about it. One other thing I don't like; the cheesy lights that make the tubes glow unnaturally. Totally unnecessary. They could have taken the money they spent trying to make this preamp more appealing to gamers and spent it on better circuitry for the headphone out. Overall I'd give the Box X4 2.5 overall stars because of the headphone output and fake lights. However, the phono preamp itself sounds SO GOOD that I have to up it to 4 stars. This preamp easily outperforms the phono preamps in my Denon receiver, my Denon mixer, and my Pioneer 250MKII mixer. If you buy it for that and not for the headphone amp I think you'll be pleasantly surprised if not shocked!

This was just what was needed in order to bring out the bass from the at-lp120x turntable that I got for Christmas. The turntable has a line out setting but it sounded tinny, could not get any solid bass from playback(all of the other playback devices did not have this issue). The tone adjustments work great and makes the adjustments easy. Only been using a few short days and I hope to get long term use of this wonderful piece of equipment.

Just what I was looking for. I have an MM phono turntable (not amplified) and wanted to listen to vinyls with my headphones. The product has a solid feel with smooth controls. The volume, treble and bass controls really help. Good value.

Tried this to replace the built in pre-amp on my €150 denon turntable and it made the sound very flat and uninteresting, it's a waste of money.

Straight out the box, you can tell this is value for money. Nice size, with the much needed base and treble on the front included with the volume control. As others have said, getting the vaccum valves in can be a fiddle, but just take your time and give them a wiggle on a way in, you'll know when you've got them straight. Easy RCA connections on the rear, with the earth plug, which is neat as you can just put in a stripped cable and lock it off with one press, nice and easy. This is perfect for my PL112-D as it immediatly eliminates any hum. Straight off the bat, tried out some James Taylor and wow, what a difference this amp has made to my old amp. The clarity is quite something. Like other reviews have said, you can just "hear more" of the sound stage, its quite remarkable. Slight tweaks of the treble and bass bring more clarity. Really nice sound. Onto something a little heavier, some AC/DC and bam, the sound is thumping, again very clear and much, much better than my old amp which was around the same price. Just to note, I initially experienced some issues with the amp, but customer service were amazing. For transparency, the issue wasn't the amp, it was the RCA cables that needed changing over. I did this, along with a brand new set of tone arm cables and wow, it sounds even better! For the price, I honestly can say, it's perfect. It really does make the sound better, smoother and it's going through a main amp, with further settings for clear, soft, heavy and neutrel. I've just left that on clear and only used the treble and base on this pre-amp for playing tracks. Very, vey pleased with the product, would not hesitate to recommend this. My table is a 1970's Pioneer PL112-D and whilst it's only a very low end entry level table, it fits my needs and sounds brand new with this pre-amp. Many comments from friends and family on the clarity and smooth sound. Can't be any fairer than that! So, if you are in the mood for a well priced, tidy, smooth sounding amp with great customer service from the manufacturer then dive in, I don't think you will regret it.

Erg goede kleine buizenvoorversterker voor je platenspeler. Geluid is erg goed. Heb hem nu een dik jaar in gebruik en kan geen min punten benoemen. Daarnaast ziet het er ook mooi uit naast je platenspeler. Minpunt is de koptelefoon uitgang. Deze is dermate slecht dat ze die beter hadden weg kunnen laten. Staat in schril contrast tot de rest.

My vinyl LP's never sounded better. Having found my old turntable that was sitting in the attic for over 20 years, I discovered I no longer had an amplifier with a pre-amp and the RCA jacks required to play my albums. This device is plug and play, and brought everything back to life. For stereo playback, I simply crank it all the way up, and use my amplifier for volume, bass and treble control. The signal is crystal clear. I also use the headphone jack with a Bluetooth transmitter when I want to listen using headphones. There is also an input jack on the back, so a Bluetooth receiver should also be allow me to stream through the vacuum tubes for playback on my stereo.