Box X2 Phono Preamp for Turntable MM Record Player Preamplifier with Gain Gear Stereo Tube Pre Amp Hi-Fi Mini Vacuum Pre-amplifier for Record Player with DC 12V Power Supply

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.

I have an ok enough system, a Sony ps-lx310bt, paired with some wharfedale Denton 80th anniversary speakers and an older onkyo tx-sr307. Before now I was using a used rega fono a2d mkii. I was happy with the rega and it comes highly rated. However, when I treated myself to the dentons I wanted to see if I could get a little more out from the system. My amp is next to upgrade but this little preamp being so cheap, I thought it worth the gamble. I can absolutely tell you now that this works and it’s a better preamp than my Rega. The best way I can describe it is that I could hear separate instruments with the rega but they were almost all waiting their turn and you could only hear say, a guitar, in between any trumpet bits or vice versa. Now, with this Fosi, I hear ALL the instruments, ALL the time. It’s a huge cliche but I’m hearing things in songs that I didn’t know were there previously. My fosi has about 80 or so hours in it now so should be burnt in enough and there is a difference between hour 1 and hour 80 with the first hours being a little harsh/bright. There’s a lovely softness now to the highs and piano sounds are so much more succinct and if you closed your eyes you could almost place one in the room. Bass is, at worst; just as tight as the rega, probably a tad more so. I do use a wharfedale SW150 sub and have no need for more. The Bluetooth function works brilliantly. I only pair with my iPhone and listen to Tidal and can quite honestly say I have no desire for an external dac at the moment. The unit is dead quiet. No hum, no buzz, no interference. It’s quieter than my rega and that costs £100 and gets 5 stars on “What-Hifi”. There is snobbery in the audiophile world and I’m totally sure if this was rebranded as a Rega or Schiit that it would be getting a lot more attention. I bought some decent QED profile rca leads from Amazon and a similar quality aux input for my receiver (an Aukey receiver with Bluetooth 5) and I’m pretty set. I did upgrade my stylus to an LP Gear which outputs 2.5mV so set my gain to 42 decibels accordingly. And yes, this amp is also louder than my rega, not that this means anything to your amp but previous to this, I was at about 55 for volume and now 40 is sometimes too loud depending on the song. All this with no distortion at any volume I’ve tried. Honestly, if you’re on the fence, get down. Buy this and if you don’t get on, you’ve got Amazon’s return policy. I did also get the GE5654 tubes and have used them since day 1 so can’t comment on the ones that came with but I have them as spare if I need them. My friend has the project ds2 which cost him about £400 and I’m not saying this sounds the same but there’s definitely not a £340 difference between the two. And finally, yes the tubes are real and not used as a buffer as there is a slight delay on startup as the bulbs warm up.

The unit seems to be well made. The Valves were unbranded but seem to work well and were easy to install (I might try some upgrades at some point but don’t think it is necessarily going to make much difference). I am using it as a preamp for a Sony PS-LX310BT which I am running through some Edifier active speakers in my home office (one of the perks of working from home). The improvement to the sound was marked and the volume and tone controls work well (I am using the bass and treble controls as the primary tone controls and leaving the Edifier tone controls as neutral). I have found that the volume is best set fairly high on the Box X3 to get the full effect of the valves and the Edifier volume control used as the primary. The valves give a warm sound characteristic but not at the expense of clarity. The overall sound is very clear. Great value for money at £72. Can’t speak for its longevity as I have only had it a couple of days but would say that I am very impressed so far.

I bought this to be the phono pre-amp between my new Fluance RT82 turntable (which is great, btw) and existing Denon M41 amp/CD player. It's the first phono pre-amp I've had so I don't have anything to compare it to, but I'm very happy with the sound quality overall and the look & feel of this little X5 box on the desktop. Glad it has adjustable gain, as I did need to use that. The reason for four stars though... The power supply. It had a constant buzzing whine, even when the box wasn't running or when I'd turned the plug socket switch to off at the wall. Just being plugged in made it buzz very noticeably, so it really picks up some interference, and it was driving me crazy. Reading up on this, it does sound like a common thing that I've heard Fosi might've fixed in more recent versions of the adapter - or you can buy their 'upgraded' version if you want from their website - but since I bought this just a couple of weeks before writing this review, they obviously are still distributing/using up the ones that buzz. Or it's truly defective and I'm just unlucky. Either way, I bought a new 16V 1amp supply from another site and it's absolutely silent. Plugged into the same place. And I also have less of a hum coming through my speakers too. Just to note that they do recommend running the X5 off a different ring circuit (what your plug sockets all feed from) to what your other components are running off, but I just find that really inconvenient and don't want cables trailing everywhere. The 11 quid adapter I bought proves it's a cheap fix and that you shouldn't need to go to those lengths. Anyway, just wanted to share this in case it helps anyone. Overall, I'm happy with my choice, despite the extra faff to get it right.

I have, over the past 70 years, had the pleasure of purchasing seven standalone phono preamplifiers, ranging in cost from £78 to £285, and experienced numerous internal phono preamps included with stereo integrated amplifiers. So I know what I'm talking about when I say this Fosi is definitely the finest sounding phono preamplifier I have ever owned. It is also amongst the cheapest and biggest value for money hifi purchase I have made (even better value than the Audio Technica AT3600LE cartridge bought several years ago, yet another eye-opener). Unfortunately there isn't a six star rating...

Replaced existing cheaper pre amp, what a difference it made, brought my vinyls back to life ,well worth the cost and excellent delivery

This is a great phono state for the money. Tubes easy to install. Sound quality at least on a post with my £200 Cambridge Audio stage. Having an EQ on the front also makes it easy to make slight adjustments. Recommended!

Firstly, as a phono stage , it is excellent. Compared to a Musical Fidelity V90, I prefer the warmer sound. Now the issues. The headphone output is dreadful. The sound quality is very poor and it was the main reason I chose this model over the X2. Next, with headphones connected , the speakers aren't muted. The output is so weak that the volume needs to be cranked to very high. The volume from the Fosi is very low so the receiver volume has to be used at a high level to get a decent volume through the headphones. Obviously, this model isn't suitable for my needs so have returned it but I will order the X2 as it is great as a phono stage. The extra features are pointless if you're using it with a receiver/amp that has bass/ treble controls and a headphone socket. I think they've tried to build an all in one box but it just doesn't do everything well. Buy the X2 instead with a separate headphone amp. As a phono, I'd give it 5 stars. As a headphone amp 1 star hence my 3 star rating.