Feliks Audio ENVY

[Exekuhtor]

He also mentioned he thinks the "more power = better sound" talk is ridiculous, at least for his headphones Immanis and Magna.

Then tell him that he should build a headphone that is much easier to drive and does not scale with speaker amps...

From what I could hear from conversations with some people, there will probably also be a non-estat version of the Bliss sometime in the future.

Holy moly, so they are going to build a fully balanced amp for general headphones that needs three quads? Oh wow...
That will be the european Wa33 competitor.
They didn't say anything about a ribbon driver amp, did they?

 

[Ike1985]

Too many tubes for me, It's hard enough to source the truly great tubes, hunting down enough of them in good condition with spares set aside, nightmare. 2x2 is enough for me and with Immanis there's not much reason to go Electrostatic, I like the best of both worlds; speed and density/weight with authoritative bass.

 

[normie610]

there will probably also be a non-estat version of the Bliss sometime in the future

Now that would be super interesting!

 

[Doug2507]

He also mentioned he thinks the "more power = better sound" talk is ridiculous, at least for his headphones Immanis and Magna. He said Envy has more than enough power for them.

That's all I need to know.

I agree. I'm not sure if "scaling" and differences between type of sound of tube vs solid state / quality of sound within those two types are maybe getting tangled up a bit. Immanis from XA30.8 (at official rating) is "only" 7.5W class A@32ohm but could probably blow the ribbons out to the other side of the room if you wanted. I don't think it's the amount of power, it's the quality (or type, eg, tube vs SS) of delivery that makes the difference (or the "scaling")...

 

[Exekuhtor]

Oh boy, people will confuse it with the Holo Audio amp which they avoided when it was for electrostats only.
"I can't believe the Bliss isn't enough to run the OG Susvara and an OG HE-6 to its absolute maximum potential!" - "What are you talking about? It perfectly drives anything under the sun to its maximum! And to be honest, for its ridiculous pricetag it also should!"

 

[Doug2507]

Has the price been made public?

 

[CharlyBrown]

They didn't say anything about a ribbon driver amp, did they?

OMG, I forgot to ask. Shame on me! Maybe it will work with both, Ribbons and regular phones like the Vortex does? I also tried the latter today.

Has the price been made public?

No it is not even finished, yet. Probably around/below 20k (speculation).

 

[Doug2507]

OMG, I forgot to ask. Shame on me! Maybe it will work with both, Ribbons and regular phones like the Vortex does? I also tried the latter today.



No it is not even finished, yet. Probably around/below 20k (speculation).

What are the two dials that aren't input selector? One will be volume (guessing front right), what's the top middle for?

 

[CharlyBrown]

What are the two dials that aren't input selector? One will be volume (guessing front right), what's the top middle for?

I didn’t really understand that. The bottom left is the input selector, right is volume. The pod on top is for adjusting the tubes somehow, not sure what it does exactly.

 

[Doug2507]

That's interesting. Guessing must be bias? Any tubey gurus here familiar?

 

[Exekuhtor]

No it is not even finished, yet.

I honestly thought so, because the wood looks a bit raw, i also imagine they might add those grid protection option.

Probably around/below 20k (speculation).

Yup, that would also be my speculation. That's the price of a custom / AE Envy with TM's and the best drivers you want.

Any tubey gurus here familiar?

Not me, but i read something like some tubes can be calibrated by using different working points / a different bias, check out the EML XLS tubes for example:
http://www.emissionlabs.com/datasheets/EML300B-XLS.html

Sadly i have no idea what that really means (sound tuning? But if you f*ck up and turn it too high / low, just imagine your 300B quad goes KAPUTT, or drastically decreases its lifetime?!?!?), and because there are 3 different quads in the Bliss, i wonder if the knob switches the settings of more than one of them.

 

[JTbbb]

You can’t see it’s the black Ken rad:

Nice tubes, same as mine but marked up US NAVY. Maybe things have moved on since I bought mine in ‘22! Has the vendor supplied test figures?

 

[gryphonos]

I honestly thought so, because the wood looks a bit raw, i also imagine they might add those grid protection option.

Yup, that would also be my speculation. That's the price of a custom / AE Envy with TM's and the best drivers you want.

Not me, but i read something like some tubes can be calibrated by using different working points / a different bias, check out the EML XLS tubes for example:
http://www.emissionlabs.com/datasheets/EML300B-XLS.html

Sadly i have no idea what that really means (sound tuning? But if you f*ck up and turn it too high / low, just imagine your 300B quad goes KAPUTT, or drastically decreases its lifetime?!?!?), and because there are 3 different quads in the Bliss, i wonder if the knob switches the settings of more than one of them.

Regarding price speculation someone from Feliks Audio mentioned that the price will be between 17,000 and 20,000 €.

 

[genefruit]

What are the two dials that aren't input selector? One will be volume (guessing front right), what's the top middle for?

It's for selecting the bias output for the stat being used.

 

[CharlyBrown]

Regarding price speculation someone from Feliks Audio mentioned that the price will be between 17,000 and 20,000 €.

That’s what I heard It will probably be closer to 17 than to 20, but let‘s see when everything gets final and ready to ship.

I think Estat owners will love it. It sounded very very good. Probably good enough so you can skip tube rolling. And if you avoid the ELROG TMs, you could just change the 300Bs for a price that might be reasonable for some.

But buying/rolling the full sets. 12 tubes. OMG