Which selector switch is the BEST? Fosi LC30 vs the classic Douk VU3 One Little Bear!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
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Should you buy the Fosi Audio LC30 or the Douk Audio One Little Bear VU3 amplifier speaker selector switch?
Affiliate Purchase Links:
Douk VU3: amzn.to/49rzVk0
Fosi LC30: amzn.to/3xzXhqk
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I bought the One Little Bear after watching your video, and I'm glad I did. I love the darn thing!
I love it!
lol. I returned mine after I compared listening with and without it ... 🙃 See my other comment for details, good luck!
I had considered one of these VU meter switchers but went with a plain type instead. I got a Solupeak P2 from Amazon and it works perfectly to switch between two amps to one pair of speakers. I already had a Solupeak U31 which lets me switch between up to three turntables into one amp, although I'm only using two, and it works great also. It's a shame that Fosi unit sucks because it really looks nice.
Nice job on this. I do like the watts indicator better on the fosi. But, if the meters aren’t sensitive it’s a waste of time and money.
The design of the fosi audio looks very nice....
Great review, yep I'd go with the Litte Bear
Agreed!
There is also a NEOHIPO ET30, which is a VU meter & switcher. It has been tested on ASR (Audio Science Review) and does not affect audio parameters at all, but there are very few TH-camrs who promote it.
The other thing you should consider is if it distorts the sound.. ASR found the douk little bear did and did not recommend it. They tested the neohippo vu meter switcher and recommended that one.
I have the Neohippo, partly due to the ASR review but also because you can change the display colour (shallow, I know). I also read some reviews complaining about the sensitivity of the LC30. The Neohippo is very sensitive and adjustable downwards.
@@hackedoff736 yeah, it's not bad. I own one as well. I think smaller vu meters work better because they seem more dynamic, but I am happy with it.
@@danisold A smaller VU meter does indeed have better sensitivity, and the smaller the product volume, the more sensitive the pointer jumps. Great!
I wonder if it isn't just a matter of quality control for the Fosi which I did own for two whole days before returning. I used it with my old school Scott RS250 receiver and it worked flawlessly as far as the meters were concerned. At low volume the meters were actuating just fine with the gain set to the lower side of town. At volume level 3, the Scott was registering 10-15 watts of output according to the LED power indicator on it's face and I was able to "gain" match the meters to the indicated output of my receiver. All of that worked fine as far as functionality was concerned, my only caveat about the unit was when I powered it back up after powering it down. As soon as the Fosi came back to operating and passing signal through, it made a staticky sound that I was rather uncomfortable with considering this is just a novelty item in my eyes. Overall, the build quality seems nice, the performance was on par as far as I'm concerned, so the only thing negative I can say is that it made a funny noise through my speakers while powering back up. I ordered it from Ebay due to Amazon being out of stock but the return was painless and my refund credited in less than a week.
I really like Fosi products but I agree that it seems something was off in qc when these were shipped out to consumers.
Thank you.
Thanks for watching!
The DOUK also presents a LOAD to the amp even though that particular amp is not selected. This is critical for tube amps. I don't know if the FOSI does that or not.
Yes it does.
id love one of these with the remote but i use a dumb amp switch. just a passive device with nothing to offer to the signal chain. hate having to switch it all the time but i cant imagine how all the circuitry in the devices in this video plus 5v power and RF dont affect the signal chain in some way.
To me it just demonstrates that most people have no idea how few watts or milli-watts are needed for loud.
Fosi Audio meters are "calibrated" to WATTS, and for most people, most of the time even 1 watt is going to be 85db or more - in other words LOUD. The miss for me is that the Fosi audio should have a dual scale meter, calibrated to 10w / 100W for 0db on the scale, switchable. Just like the venerable old Realistic APM-100. And yes I own the LC30 and the Neohipo equivalent.
Thanks for watching and the great ideas!
NEOHIPO ET30？
This is exactly what I noticed. The scales are different on these units. Personally, I like the look of the Fosi but if the cool needles don't move, then I have to go with Douk.
@@limulus61 Why not choose NEOHPO ET30? After all, in terms of testing, ET30 yields better results than DOUK VU3.
@@Kevin-sh1sx I’ll check it out.
I'm very disappointed in the Fosi meters, which is 95% of what I'd want from a switcher. I always thought the meters showed the signal no matter the volume, but apparenty that not true, which is another strike in my book. I'm in no hurry since I need to replace the tweeters in my 910s. I have the replacement tweeters, fresh from Mr. So's very capable hands. (Mr. So worked at aDs and has a lot of replacement drivers for their speakers, though he recently ran out of midrange drivers.)
These meters are reading the voltage across your speakers. That is, of course, totally volume control dependent.
Apart from the cool looks of the VU meters, will it affect the sound qualities ?
Not when I had in use
I'm a sucker for bright shiny things, V.U. meters fit that category for me. Having said that, the other attraction for these switchers is "switching". Do either of these units switch seamlessly between speakers and amps, at listening levels? Is the switching instantaneous, with out interruption to the music?
My experience with the Douk: if I switch speakers at high volumes (I guess > 75 dB), there is a notable "noise glitch" during switching. At lower volumes, it works seamlessly.
@@JoergAsmussen Thank You for the reply.
Assuming Fosi cannot provide a firmware update, as every review I’ve seen mimics yours. Completely pointless for most situations, unless you are a high volume listener. Thanks for the comparisons and DB level info, really helped understand how it would be no use for me. Thanks.
Thanks for watching and glad it can be of help!
Firmware for hardware without any software?
Just change a pair of resistors inside and you're done.
thanks for sharing your experiences with these two nerdy-ass products
🤔 I returned my D.A. Little Bear the same as in the video once I found out there was a signal degradation (lost audio) using the same speaker cables than if I connected directly - AMP to speakers. 🤷♂️ Now I just do it manually each time I either listen to music or watch a movie using different amp/receiver but the same L&R speakers. Those A/B switches add additional resistance to the circuit, which inhibits pure/clean signal transmission, resulting in pore audio fidelity. At least in my system ... 🙃🤷♂️
Thanks for the heads up!
You found out... Did you experience this personally?
Yes there will be a small increase in resistance... in the order of milli-ohms that I seriously doubt would ever be audible within the power handling limit of the device.
Could you just connect to speaker B and enjoy the show?
Resistance is unlikely to be the culprit. It could be a million other things.
its possible the device is adding noise, it has cheap internal power, led's and RF, none are great for sound but resistance? not sure. the device, from that stand point should simply pass current or not. like a light switch. could be wrong though but id use an spl meter to make sure, if there is a drop in sound pressure you'll know something is going on. but honestly a slight bump on the volume wheel should take care of it. but noise is a different matter all together and you are right to worry there
Yeah, the Vu meters of the Fosi Audio LC30 seem very disappointing indeed in terms of the needles barely moving and then, only at absurdly high volumes.
I have both the Fosi Audio LC30 (which I'm contemplating returning, but I'll see) as well as the Douk Audio One Little Bear VU3 and the Vu meters played a huge part in those purchases in the first place.
I also have the Douk Audio VU22 which has a microphone, so it can detect any audio in the room and the Vu meter needles are very sensitive and responsive. Plus, I like the cool copper rings around the Vu dials which add a lot of style (almost Steampunk in a way reminiscent of Captain Nemo and '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea') and those copper ring embellishments match pretty well with the copper rings surrounding the tubes of the Fosi Audio V3 or other Fosi Audio or Douk Audio phono preamps as well as a copper and black Audio Technica turntable, the AT-LP120XUSB-BZ direct drive USB turntable, which is sold exclusively by BestBuy Canada.
In any case, the diminutive Douk Audio One Little Bear VU3 amplifier speaker selector has won this round. Kudos! :)
Thanks for sharing and watching!
There is also a NEOHIPO ET30, which is a VU meter & switcher. It has been tested on ASR (Audio Science Review) and does not affect audio parameters at all, but there are very few TH-camrs who promote it.
Did you encounter in audible distortion with either device?
Nope
Note: the noise you were fretting about and blaming the "power source" is actually the Spliter Cable as Scientific Audio had the exact same issue and proved it was the cable.
Thanks. I still recommend powering monoblocks with their own separate PS even without a bad splitter cable.
And aside ot working better than Fosi, I anyway prefer the retro look of the little bear vu meters... Thank for the video, and your others...
Thanks for watching! I love Fosi products, but I think this one just slipped through QC with some issues.
No comment on the build quality differences? Or the max Wattage for each of the units? Or sound degradation?
I know my audience pretty well these days and knew they would tune out the minute they see the lack of response from the VU meters, so mentioning everything else seemed unnecessary.
@@ForeverAnalog Isn't that assumption robbing your audience of their own decision making? I'm sorry, I'm not being difficult, just trying to understand the rationale, as I would prefer to see an unbiased comparison so I can also take my own conclusions out of the video. I understand I may be on the minority here, but I was still part of your audience and the VU meters are what I value the least in a device like this. And don't get me wrong, I think you make a great job of reviewing the VU meters, just saying I would love to see also the other parts of the device getting some attention.
@@BrunoFonsecaPT fair point, thank you!
@@BrunoFonsecaPT
I don't disagree with you ... But why would you buy something that doesn't work right?
had the Douk Lil bear for just over a year and one of the speaker channels has stopped outputting sound. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt.
Sorry to hear that!
I wonder if someone with some electronics smarts could figure out a resistor to put on the potentiometer to change the overall bandwidth. It seems they didn't consider enough range while developing the VU adjustment. They probably errored on the safe end, so someone with 500w / channel didn't catch the thing on fire! I do like the looks of the Fosi much better.
Yeah. I just think the consumer solving the problem would be like us buying a new car and then taking it home and having to install new brakes 😂
Audio power meters are kind of a nobrainer design ... a couple of diodes, a couple of resistors, maybe a capacitor. The meters themselves are very easy to drive, pass a tiny current through them and the needles move, a 1.5 volt battery would destroy them if hooked up directly... so it's obvious Fosi made mistakes in scaling them.
I agree with Aaron on this one... one should not have to fix a brand new product.
Under another bad review of the fosi unit I suggested they would have been smarter to go with a range switch instead of a pot... 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 watts.
Subwoofer low frequency registering on the meter
Fosi LC30 is a calibrated power meter. measuring actual watts out of the amp and displayed on the correct scale. Douk VU3 is uncalibrated VU meter eye candy with VU display gradient in decibels... these meters are made for line level signal measurement, not amp power. Wrong VU meters display type for the job IMHO, but if moving meters is what you want... it delivers that as demonstrated.
It's good that I asked for a refund from fosi who gave me a very hard time to ship lc 30 am lucky that I got my money back
Glad you got a refund!
I bought the Douk VU3 last year for the switching and remote control. Love it. The VU meters are just a gimmick though. I have them and the light turned off. You only need VU meters for real when you record to tape. Every other use is bollocks. I wish the Little Bear didn't have VU meters. We are not teenagers anymore.
My knees remind me everyday that I’m no longer a teenager lol.
It should be a very simple fix to change the Fosi’s sensitivity.
This is fun-fi, only without the fun (ie pretty useless). I just cant imagine who needs an amplifier-speaker switch other than reviewers and small shops. The hassle with all the extra speaker cables. With short cables it's still expensive if you care about overall sound quality.
I have the Douk Audio VU2 which is a 4x input switch. Much more useful on an amp with only 1 input. It does nothing to the sound since its only relais and a bit of wire. The VU-meters work very well. And I even made an extra output for my subwoofers (easy with a small 512R resistor to extra RCA's).
If you want to fix the VU-meter range on ths Fosi I suggest opening it up and look for the resistor that taps the speaker signal and replace it with a smaller value.
Yeah I don’t think anyone should have to repair a brand new product lol
@@ForeverAnalog
Oh, that's what I've done for 15 years already with many Chinese audio products. In the end I got great products for little money. But products are getting better and better.
@@ForeverAnalog
Exactly ... if they can't make it right, don't buy it.
I have 2 sets of bookshelf speakers, Dali Oberon 3 and Wharfedale Denton. I love switching between them, and hearing how they differentiate
When you have several sets of speakers a speaker switcher mandatory.
Cheap ass Chinese garbage is not mandatory......
The bright hotspots of the Little Bear seem annoying.
They can be dimmed, even via remote control. And turn off completely.
Since youtube keeps showing me these Fosi meter videos since I dared to comment on one of them, here goes. The meters are completely useless. That's not how power scales, and the decibel relationship is way off. The difference between 20w and 100w is not 10db. The difference between 100w and 200w is not 4db.
It might be a pretty display, but it's completely information free, there might as well not be any printing on the meter faces at all. It's just a bouncing red bar.
Sometimes the red bar barely dances lol
they look like swr meters
They sure do.
Seems like the Fosi is useless as far as the meters go which is the main reason most people would even buy it.
Well that's disappointing.
The Fosi looks nice. It was designed. The Douk wasn't. It's ugly. If the goal is to make your system look nice, the Douk is going to ruin it. There is far too much going on, the fonts are poorly chosen, and on and on and on. It's a shame.