Fosi and Kickstarter, again?

[CharlesJones166]

So, I've got an older Fosi amp I picked up a while back. It's decent, nothing crazy. But I was poking around on Kickstarter the other night (don't ask why, late-night browsing, you know?) and saw another Fosi model – the ZA3.

It got me wondering... Why does Fosi keep popping up on Kickstarter? I thought they were already kinda established. Is this a thing for audio companies now, or just a Fosi quirk?

Just musing aloud and curious if anyone's got any thoughts. Cheers.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fosiaudio/fosi-audio-za3-hifi-stereo-mono-balanced-power-amplifier/description

 

[its phillip]

I’ve seen quite a few seemingly well established (but small) companies use kickstarter to launch new product. I don’t mind since if it’s something I’m interested in it’s a good way to get it for a little less money. I don’t have any experience with Fosi but I have read the reviews on ASR and they seem to be a solid option.

 

[M Code]

In our AV Install biz, originally we used some Fosi amplifiers mainly for Zone II or ceiling speakers. Next we had couple of field failures so now we steer away from their products.. Note that Fosi was very good about replacing the defective products, but we have had better, long-term reliability with the Audio Control amplifiers...

Just my $0.02...

 

[gurkey]

The Fosi Audio V3 received quite some substantial support on the web and has relatively many followers due to that same action. I think, that Fosi Audio tries to get some info about the upcoming products it develops, just to see, if acceptance is good among those "supporters". The destination amounts listed for "kickstarter" projects are quite low, thus they don't seem to really "need" that money, but they want some feedback through this before the product reaches the markets or if some changes are needed in the final stage. On ASR i.e. there seems to be a Fosi employee, who tries to find out about the "needs" / wishes of that community, which has received positive comments about this...

 

[PENG]

In our AV Install biz, originally we used some Fosi amplifiers mainly for Zone II or ceiling speakers. Next we had couple of field failures so now we steer away from their products.. Note that Fosi was very good about replacing the defective products, but we have had better, long-term reliability with the Audio Control amplifiers...

Just my $0.02...

Those mini amps have great potential to become highly reliable products because they are put together with proven electronic parts, around the TI chip. We all know chips, while not serviceable when failed, are generally more reliable in terms of life expectancy and performance stability, than comparable discrete products.

 

[M Code]

Those mini amps have great potential to become highly reliable products because they are put together with proven electronic parts, around the TI chip. We all know chips, while not serviceable when failed, are generally more reliable in terms of life expectancy and performance stability, than comparable discrete products.

A clarification from me..
Beside the field failures....
Another economic reason I moved away from Fosi products was..
In my custom AV install biz, our customers rank system and product reliability the highest, and when there is a failure the cost burden of sending 1 of our techs out to troubleshoot cost me more than the Fosi amplifier itself.. So over the years being in the biz, product reliability is the most important factor.

Just my $0.02...

 

[PENG]

A clarification from me..
Beside the field failures....
Another economic reason I moved away from Fosi products was..
In my custom AV install biz, our customers rank system and product reliability the highest, and when there is a failure the cost burden of sending 1 of our techs out to troubleshoot cost me more than the Fosi amplifier itself.. So over the years being in the biz, product reliability is the most important factor.

Just my $0.02...

I am referring to mini class D amps in general, not specifically to Fosi Audio amps, and I am only suggesting that they will get better eventually, say in 2-5 years, in terms of reliability but certainly now at the moment. If I were in the custom installed business I would not touch any of those mini amps either, for reasons you cited, even if they are 100% made in USA or Japan.