Pretty new to the world of hi-fi and I have a question regarding cheap amps like the Fosi V3, and this question might be a bit short sighted or obvious to some of you who know more than me.
Essentially, what would be the benefit or how does an amp from a company like Cambridge Audio or Pro-Ject or even Schiit compete with amps from Fosi with lower power output, even when tested by resources like ASR?
To add to this, I understand that power is not everything, but even when it comes to signal to noise ratio and other measurements, it seems that some of these cheap chinese amps are still outperforming claimed measurements by other brands. And so with that being said, what reason would someone have for going for an AXA25 over the Fosi V3 or similar amp.
(I wish I could phrase this question better, but it’s hard to put this into words as a noob).
Specmanship. In the US, by FTC rule, power is supposed to be rated RMS (really average power, there no such things as Root-mean-square [RMS] power) into a declared load and at a declared total harmonic distortion and frequency range. Not required but even better if it is a multichannel amplifier, to be rated with all channels driven.
The chinese products rate gross (and I mean gross, as in unlistenable) power. They’re typically class D amplifiers and can’t sustain that power level across multiple channels or into differing loads (typically a Class A or AB amp’s power will nearly double in a load of 4 ohms, compare to 8 ohms ClassD amps can’t do that. So take the rating on a Fosi or equivalent ClassD amplifier and quarter it or less. That’s the listenable equivalent power into a typical loudspeaker.
Agree with your comment, just a note though that there are indeed decent high quality class d amps available. My amplifier does 200w into 8 ohms and 400 into 4.