AMPLIFIER- FOSI AUDIO V3 Mono...180 watt/$150.00 USD pedal board amp ??? could be.

FOSI AUDIO V3 Mono

This is a consumer HiFi Type D Amp product with excellent specs and considered #1 by all the reviews 

I could find. 

It has won a couple of BEST OF awards for product under $500. To get the same spec you have to spend 

a thousand or more.

The price of this is dirt cheap. $150.00 USD.

It has line level RCA & balanced XLR/1/4 TRS as well 😇

Speaker out is good ol' Pro binding posts that 

double as banana Plug outputs. Size  ...142mm 105 mm 35 mm    ...5.6in  4.2in  1.4in.  Yes you can easily hold it in your hand. It is about the size of a the larger standard Hammond  enclosures. The one used for deluxe model OD pedals with 2 foot switches. Usually an on/off and a second for a boost. 

 

BASICS ?  

This is NOT an integrated amp. The kind where the Pre Amp & the Power amp are in the 

same enclosure. It needs an external Pre. It can be a pedal like my Friedman IR-X, or a  

studio Pre, usually in a rack, or a board, but some kind of Pre must be always on. You 

could have several and use a pedal switcher to go from one to another. You can indeed 

go straight from a modeler as they all have a pre amp. Last but not least you can buy 

a second V3 to go stereo and without any phasing issues since most HiFi guys by these in pairs. 

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POWER ? 

The output is 

....240 watts into a __4 ohm load 

....180 watts into an _8 ohm load 

Guitar amp speakers are mostly 8 ohm. A few are 16 ohm like some Marshall cabs. I have never seen 

an average combo with anything but 8 ohm. 

In a few real world tests using both high tech metering and doing a shoot out with pricy Class A/B amps, the amp gave out 120 absolutely bullsh@t free watts. The amp has an unusually good low end. Class D amps are notorious for having what could best be described as gutless lows. Cheap ones also have a bit of stridency. This in contrast has a sweet warm sound with definitely serviceable lows for a guitar's primarily all mids sound. It should keep up with a tube amp with 30 to 50 watts. The bottom line as I easily got it hitting 95 dB on my decibel meter. ___ In short it is gigable.  

SAFEY FIRST ? 

Remember it is a consumer product. It gets around safely in a simple cardboard packing box but not nailed to your board. 

You could measure out the units box and get a plastic shallow style tool box or utility box with a lid, 

that the packing foam for the unit and it's accessories with its cut out inserts will fit. There are 

plenty on TEMU all less than $20.

NEED A VOLUME CONTROL ? 

       N-AUDIO PASSIVE AUDIO CONTROLLER 

N-Audio make this and re-brand it for several other brands including Vault and Monicon. You have a choice of black, white or a dark brown stain for it's solid wood panel sides. It is a stereo/mono pad with balanced XLR with a volume control. 

The Friedman IR-X Tube Pre has volumes on the 2 channels but they are part of the sound creating dead clean to mild Crunch on  ch.1 and Crunch to high Gain on ch.2. In short the FOSI does not have a volume on the amp so I need a Master volume for the pedal. All the N-Audio pads are about $50.00 USD. I order one without a brand name on Ali-Express and saved $10.    

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The $400 Seymour Duncan PowerStage 170 has been the go to for years. It only puts out 85 watts. It is about as loud as a window air conditioner ...in other words 85dB. __A drum kit is 95dB or more. Even with the N-audio pad/vol. control added to the FOSI  you get 120 watts that can do that 95dB ...for half the price ...$200.