My first venture into tube amplifiers had been with the very budget friendly Little Bear P8, not a bad amplifier for the price but certainly not perfect. The build quality, thermal management and sound left a lot to be desired however, I liked what I heard from the tubes. Doing a lot of reading on tube amplifiers made me form a general idea of what I would want in a tube amplifier in my head.
After following the thread about the Elise on Head-Fi and reading all the positive comments from early adopters I decided to take the plunge and order my very own Elise.
When the Elise arrived, even before turning it on it was obvious, this is a very different beast compared to the modest P8. The hand-crafted chassis exudes excellence. The way the internal wiring is done, some PCB and some point to point all seems very purposeful. The kind of quality and attention to detail you rarely see in mass produced equipment.
When turned on it was clear, this attention to detail transcended to the sound quality. The detail, speed and ease this amplifiers plays with is uncanny and this was with the already quite good Tung-Sol tubes supplied by Feliks Audio.
Listening to the Elise through my Beyerdynamic T1 headphones it was quite noticeable to me that the Elise has not much of a sonic signature all (This is a compliment). On the whole it is very balanced with an ever so slight elevation in bass response and euphonic character. To my ears this is very pleasant. Although the bass seems slightly elevated it is never Woolly, smeared or fuzzy. The presented bass is dry and punchy with a lot of impact. The highs have that silky smoothness that I like in a good tube amplifier.
I was going to write about my journey rolling different tubes, some options were very good indeed like the RCA 6SN7 Grey Glass and Sylvana 6AS7G. Instead I would like to take you straight to the tubes that really transformed the Elise for me. The GEC 6AS7G and Lorenz C3g.
The GEC and C3gs peaked my interest after reading the comments of thread starter Hypnos1, he was so enthusiastic about these tubes there had to be at least some merit to it.
I asked Hypnos1 to make me a set of adapters for me and he kindly replied he would be delighted to do so. He even sourced some C3gs for me. This was ideal since this way he could try them in his adapters and Elise before sending them to me.
When these arrived I quickly replaced the National Union 6SN7GT Black Glass with the C3gs... This changed the sound dramatically, there was even more detail to be heard, micro-details became more apparent, Bass became even tighter, more controlled. At first it seemed like there was less bass but that is not the case. The more tightly controlled bass just made it seem that way. The incredibly detailed highs might also seem to offset the balance in their favor. After listening and getting used to this sound signature for a while I actually might prefer this sound.
About the same time I managed to find a perfectly matched pair of NIB Round bottom GEC A1834/6AS7Gs for a very decent price. These seem to drive the T1s with even more ease, opening up the soundstage, making it wider and deeper and subtle details have even more emphasis. They really convey the details the C3Gs present very well.
If you like crystal clears sound and being able to hear all the details in a recording the Elise with GEC/C3G tubes should be a very good choice for you. My misson searching for the best sounding tubes and amplifier seems to have reached its end. This will be my main headphone- and pre-amplifier for a very long time.
If you are interested in this amplifier check out the awesome thread at:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/732875/feliks-audio-elise-previously-6sn7-6as7g-6080-prototype
After following the thread about the Elise on Head-Fi and reading all the positive comments from early adopters I decided to take the plunge and order my very own Elise.
When the Elise arrived, even before turning it on it was obvious, this is a very different beast compared to the modest P8. The hand-crafted chassis exudes excellence. The way the internal wiring is done, some PCB and some point to point all seems very purposeful. The kind of quality and attention to detail you rarely see in mass produced equipment.
When turned on it was clear, this attention to detail transcended to the sound quality. The detail, speed and ease this amplifiers plays with is uncanny and this was with the already quite good Tung-Sol tubes supplied by Feliks Audio.
Listening to the Elise through my Beyerdynamic T1 headphones it was quite noticeable to me that the Elise has not much of a sonic signature all (This is a compliment). On the whole it is very balanced with an ever so slight elevation in bass response and euphonic character. To my ears this is very pleasant. Although the bass seems slightly elevated it is never Woolly, smeared or fuzzy. The presented bass is dry and punchy with a lot of impact. The highs have that silky smoothness that I like in a good tube amplifier.
I was going to write about my journey rolling different tubes, some options were very good indeed like the RCA 6SN7 Grey Glass and Sylvana 6AS7G. Instead I would like to take you straight to the tubes that really transformed the Elise for me. The GEC 6AS7G and Lorenz C3g.
The GEC and C3gs peaked my interest after reading the comments of thread starter Hypnos1, he was so enthusiastic about these tubes there had to be at least some merit to it.
I asked Hypnos1 to make me a set of adapters for me and he kindly replied he would be delighted to do so. He even sourced some C3gs for me. This was ideal since this way he could try them in his adapters and Elise before sending them to me.
When these arrived I quickly replaced the National Union 6SN7GT Black Glass with the C3gs... This changed the sound dramatically, there was even more detail to be heard, micro-details became more apparent, Bass became even tighter, more controlled. At first it seemed like there was less bass but that is not the case. The more tightly controlled bass just made it seem that way. The incredibly detailed highs might also seem to offset the balance in their favor. After listening and getting used to this sound signature for a while I actually might prefer this sound.
About the same time I managed to find a perfectly matched pair of NIB Round bottom GEC A1834/6AS7Gs for a very decent price. These seem to drive the T1s with even more ease, opening up the soundstage, making it wider and deeper and subtle details have even more emphasis. They really convey the details the C3Gs present very well.
If you like crystal clears sound and being able to hear all the details in a recording the Elise with GEC/C3G tubes should be a very good choice for you. My misson searching for the best sounding tubes and amplifier seems to have reached its end. This will be my main headphone- and pre-amplifier for a very long time.
If you are interested in this amplifier check out the awesome thread at:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/732875/feliks-audio-elise-previously-6sn7-6as7g-6080-prototype
