[Drakkard]

That's a shame. Felitsa Audio has been flagged by the community for providing very, very bad builds. Your parts were likely swapped for something under spec which is why it's failed twice. You should look and sending it to an approved Gilmore community builder to evaluate what needs to be repaired with your amp.

Oh, sad to hear. My friend is an experienced builder, and he indeed found and corrected some problems with it.
I don't want to send it overseas, it is extremely expensive. But if someone experienced in CFA can look at the part used via photo and offer some suggestions I will appreciate it. Not sure who to ask however

 

[Ethereal Sound]

That's a shame. Felitsa Audio has been flagged by the community for providing very, very bad builds. Your parts were likely swapped for something under spec which is why it's failed twice. You should look and sending it to an approved Gilmore community builder to evaluate what needs to be repaired with your amp.

Ahahaha.... Yeah. It's honestly a shame though, his aesthetic designs are usually quite on point.

 

[kevin gilmore]

the protection board protects the headphones from dc in case the amp lets loose, or you hook up a dac with significant dc output. it adds the impedance of a pair of relay contacts to the output, so something like 10 milliohms if you use a gold crosspoint relay. The grounding modifications on power supply wiring for the felista amplifier make no sense. why they keep blowing up i do not know, likely fake output transistors. buy empty chassis and have boards made from jlcpcb with the official gerber files and build yourself. then it won't blow up.

 

[Drakkard]

buy empty chassis and have boards made from jlcpcb with the official gerber files and build yourself. then it won't blow up.

Yeh, possibly the best option, but i can’t afford to order a second one. And housing is beautiful, i like it :/

 

[decur]

Bass is extremely fast, tactile and defined. I can hear the pluck of the pick or fingers against the bass strings. It is not boomy or bloated at all. It is not a romantic or overly euphonic bass sound. I personally can’t stand midbass bloat or bloom. I find it slow and out of place. The CFA3’s bass is the best I have heard from an amp. Incredibly clean and realistic. If the song slams, it slams. It has all the subtlety I like in music.

In terms of thin, I wouldn’t say that either. It has a big soundstage so the midrange feels more like you are standing in front of the SBD at the Fillmore in SF versus standing in the first 10 rows. The amp is not very colored. Pretty neutral, glare free and balanced.

“Neutral,glare free,balanced and not very colored”
i would also add musical,in which i completely aggree..
i do not want to sound like a broken record,but what i like most about this amp,is that you can really hear your dac.
this amp completely gets out of the way,and its your dac singing to you.
for people with multiple dacs,and have experimented,you will see……

 

[Ethereal Sound]

Yeh, possibly the best option, but i can’t afford to order a second one. And housing is beautiful, i like it :/

Mind sharing any pics? As stated before, not a huge fan of dealing with Felitsa but the case options are probably some of the best in the DiY space imo.

 

[geoffalter11]

“Neutral,glare free,balanced and not very colored”
i would also add musical,in which i completely aggree..
i do not want to sound like a broken record,but what i like most about this amp,is that you can really hear your dac.
this amp completely gets out of the way,and its your dac singing to you.
for people with multiple dacs,and have experimented,you will see……

I agree with you. I love my DAC and this amp makes me want to upgrade my DAC. First I will get the accompanying Iris and move to I2S, but you are absolutely right. This amp deserves the best DAC each person who owns it can afford.

 

[kevin gilmore]

drakkard sent me some pictures.

opamps and voltage references with early 1990's date codes, obviously pulls and soldered direct to the board with no socket.
golden reference power supplies missing the required tantalum capacitors, likely oscillating or other bad behavior
some resistors installed very tightly to ground possibly shorting.
some transistors installed backwards, or alternate parts used with different pinout
bad soldering job on some of the power transistors.
that340 also soldered directly to the board
really low quality electrolytics on the amp boards
and that is just what is see from the few pictures he sent.

i would stay far away from felista audio.

 

[paradoxper]

drakkard sent me some pictures.

opamps and voltage references with early 1990's date codes, obviously pulls and soldered direct to the board with no socket.
golden reference power supplies missing the required tantalum capacitors, likely oscillating or other bad behavior
some resistors installed very tightly to ground possibly shorting.
some transistors installed backwards, or alternate parts used with different pinout
bad soldering job on some of the power transistors.
that340 also soldered directly to the board
really low quality electrolytics on the amp boards
and that is just what is see from the few pictures he sent.

i would stay far away from felista audio.

This one gets close enough to the absolute mess of Felitsa's not-so-Megatron build, huh.

 

[Pashmeister]

CFA3 being sold near me. Looks okay?

 

[kevin gilmore]

vbe transistors not on the heatsink so thermal stability might be an issue. with the top on probably ok.

not even some of mikhail's early constructions can possibly compete with the felista megatron. that one is clearly in a class by itself.

 

[Slim1970]

drakkard sent me some pictures.

opamps and voltage references with early 1990's date codes, obviously pulls and soldered direct to the board with no socket.
golden reference power supplies missing the required tantalum capacitors, likely oscillating or other bad behavior
some resistors installed very tightly to ground possibly shorting.
some transistors installed backwards, or alternate parts used with different pinout
bad soldering job on some of the power transistors.
that340 also soldered directly to the board
really low quality electrolytics on the amp boards
and that is just what is see from the few pictures he sent.

i would stay far away from felista audio.

This is completely unacceptable

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

vbe transistors not on the heatsink so thermal stability might be an issue. with the top on probably ok.

not even some of mikhail's early constructions can possibly compete with the felista megatron. that one is clearly in a class by itself.

A bit off topic here but since this is Kevin Gilmore's thread and I noticed that he has two Single Power headphone amplifiers, I was wondering if either Kevin or anyone else would have an opinion regarding a Single Power PPX3 Slam headphone amplifier. There's one for sale on US Audiomart and I was considering purchasing it. Thanks in advance for your time and Happy Holidays!

 

[Drakkard]

Mind sharing any pics? As stated before, not a huge fan of dealing with Felitsa but the case options are probably some of the best in the DiY space imo.

 

[Beefy]

It really is gorgeous. Such a shame it's a literal smoking pile of crap.