Gramophone Dreams #81: Feliks Envy headphone amplifier

I all the time say I am unable to discover what I’m not in search of, which does not imply I all the time know what I’m in search of. And not figuring out what I need is unsettling. Recently, I used to be reminded of the ideas of French polymath-philosopher René Girard (19232015), who prompt that persons are not truly motivated by particular issues like lust or capital or energy, as main philosophers have declared, however by delicate, disconcerting forces of existential want for one thing outdoors ourselves, by no means truly figuring out what that one thing is (footnote 1).

Girard explains how this not figuring out drives historical past and invention. His important premise is that we really feel want however, not figuring out what we want, mimic the needs of others. These "others" we mimic represent a 3rd factor, interrupting the strains of pressure between an individual and the objects desired. This, based on Girard, makes want, and by extension human evolution, a nebulous however highly effective anthropological pressure engaged in forming human cultures.

In different phrases, you would possibly like huge audio system and fats speaker cables, however perhaps solely as a result of folks round you seem to love them. Same with automobiles and garments and lovers.

Girard’s concepts helped me perceive why it took me a long time to establish the audio-system sound I’ve lengthy desired however could not describe. Finally, in my dotage, I’ve acknowledged this sound and determined to provide it a reputation: electrostatic midrange.

I first seen the electrostatic-midrange phenomenon throughout my torrid affair with the Koss ESP/950 electrostatic headphones. The toaster-like glow of the 950’s hyperdetailed, reverie-inspiring midrange jogged my memory of seeing the Milky Way when the sky is arctic-region clear, the celebs showing to the touch one another. This was my first desire-forming expertise.

My second expertise forming my want for electrostatic midrange got here with my first set of Quad ESL-57s, which I purchased mimicking the style of associates Michael Trei and David Chesky. On the recommendation of audio chieftain Harvey Rosenberg, I powered my 57s with a Futterman H3 OTL amplifier. This system showcased reality of tone and hypervivid dimensionalityhowever solely after I sat within the candy spot. I offered this mix after just a few months as a result of the Quad’s restrained dynamic and one-person candy spot didn’t swimsuit my way of life. Nevertheless, that ESL-OTL combo turned my prime reference for the way a system’s midrange ought to sound.

I do not prefer it when electrostatic transducers sound brittle and staticky, which lots of them do, however when the static is gone and the natural tones and spider-web element stay, electrostatics’ stark vividness turns into spellbinding.

I’m recognizing this now as a result of currently I’ve been utilizing classic Stax SR-207 and SR-700 Omega electrostatic earspeakers as my daily-driver transducers, and since, for the umpteenth time, a listening room customer mentioned, "Herb, your system feels like headphones." I took that as a praise and puzzled if I’d been unconsciously striving for exactly that.

I’m not saying that solely electrostatics could make a psychedelic midrange. Indeed, that kind of sound is a continuing with the elements I applaud on this column. For instance, the unbelievable, true-to-life midrange of RAAL’s full-range SR1a ribbons may win all contests for superior verity. JPS Labs’ Abyss AB-1266 planar magnetics educe a midrange of preternatural readability. And then there’s HiFiMan’s HE-R10P closed-back wood-cupped planar magnetics, which could be the kissin’ cousin of HiFiMan’s maximum-resolution Susvara. The Meze Elite make the smoothest, most cinemagraphic midrange ever. And ZMF’s closed-back, dynamic-driver Verité headphone sounds extra Koss 950/Quad 57ish than any of the aforementioned planar magnetics.

Each of those headphones delivers a midrange to impress even essentially the most seasoned and demanding listeners. Each has made me really feel like Alice tripping in Wonderland or Dorothy exploring Oz.

My time period "electrostatic midrange" describes a kind of sound. I’ll use a unique phrase to explain the kind of listening expertise I aspire to: Call it the "Alice & Dorothy impact."

This is the kind of sound and listening expertise I encountered at CanJam NYC 2023 as I auditioned Feliks Audio’s eye-catching Envy headphone amplifier. If a single-ended triode amp paired with the fitting transducers cannot manufacture a toaster-glowing, Milky Waydetailed midrange, what can?

Feliks Envy
We are blessed to reside in a time when audio-product variety is at an all-time excessive. There’s a bewildering tsunami of headphone amplifiers in any respect value and efficiency ranges. Singling out the most effective ones to assessment is like selecting the most effective doughnuts on the Supermoon Bakehouse on Rivington Street (footnote 2): intense enjoyable however disturbing and not possible. All I can do is decide amps that look tasty, which is what I used to be doing after I requested to assessment the Feliks Envy on the final CanJam NYC. Those Supermoon pastries should not free, however who cares? Every chunk varieties a definite, pleasurable reminiscenceas each observe I performed did with the Envy powering the HiFiMan Susvara.

Introduced in 2022, the Feliks Envy (footnote 3) is a moderate-sized, single-ended headphone amp sporting TJ Full Music 300Bs and Psvane CV-181 (6SN7) twin-triode voltage-amplifier driver tubes. Output energy is specified at 8W. It is a zero-feedback design with strong state rectification and "automated bias" on the output tubes. The uniquely styled Envy is made in Poland and measures 13.7" × 13" × 7.3" and weighs, notably, 33 1/3 lb. The outdoors of the Envy’s chassis seems to be sheathed in strong ¾"-thick wooden. It has three analog inputs, one balanced (XLR) and two unbalanced (RCA), and two preamp-level outputs, one RCA and one XLR. The entrance panel options two headphone jacks, one in every of them balanced, an input-selector change, a three-levelsselectable achieve change, and an enormous, attractive Volume management knob.

Inside, the Envy is point-to-point wired utilizing single-crystal copper with a Teflon dielectric; the coupling capacitors are Jantzen Superior Z-Cap. The Envy’s balanced enter transformers are made by Lundahl in Sweden, whereas its output transformers are made by Edis Ogonowski in Poland. This is heirloom-quality development.

The Standard Edition (in strong Oak) prices $7995 and contains Russia-manufactured Electro-Harmonix Gold 300B tubes (footnote 4), Psvane VA tubes, and "premium copper wiring." The Performance Edition prices $8795 and contains China-manufactured "Full Music 300Bs with nickel anodes, and UPOCC (single crystal copper) wiring." In Walnut, each variations price $200 extra.

The Susvara is legend
With its 83dB/mW sensitivity, HiFiMan’s Susvara headphone wants loads of voltage to provide enough quantitytherefore, excessive achieve. And as a result of its impedance is on the low facet, at 62 ohms, it wants enough energy to help that voltage.

Despite frequent utilization, the phrases "achieve" and "quantity" should not equal. Volume refers to an exterior phenomenon: sound stress degree. Gain is an inside, electrical phenomenon relating an amplifier’s output voltage to its enter voltage. The achievable quantity relies upon not simply on achieve however on headphone sensitivity. To help the achieve crucial to attain enough quantity into the headphone’s load impedance, the amplifier wants enough energy.

To accommodate troublesome hundreds just like the Susvara’s, the Envy’s energy is rated at 8W, and a front-panel management knob permits achieve choice in three steps: Lo, Med, Hi (footnote 5). When the Susvara was pushed on the Envy’s lowest achieve setting (additionally a low-impedance setting), music sounded clipped, uninteresting, darkish, and distorted. Even with the amount knob set at 5 o’clock, the music was insufficiently loud. At the medium achieve setting, the amount degree was snug with the management at about 12 o’clock; the sound brightened up and obtained good. At the Envy’s highest achieve setting, on the identical quantity, it is like somebody threw a knife-switch and the stage lights went on. It made the famously hard-to-drive Susvara gentle up and sing, with nice purity and feeling.

With most amps, the Susvara’s character leans in the direction of darkish and critical, however the Envy on the highest achieve setting erased that melancholia, substituting clear skies, sunshine, and flowers.

ZMF Verité
Among the a number of merchandise I’ve been relating to as unassailable, the sleeper of the bunch is ZMF’s $2499, 300 ohm, 99dB, Verité closed-back planar magnetic headphones. Imagine the purest, truest tones with F1 drive and Mississippi Freddegree rhythm maintaining. With the Envy powering the Verité, magnificence and boogie mixed forces to make centered listening simple. Recordings I’ve thought weren’t fairly proper turned out to be extraordinarily proper after I listened with the Verité powered by the Envy’s Full Music 300Bs.

I’ve worshipped on the altar of David Lindley, singer-songwriter and grasp of all stringed devices. His 1981 debut album together with his band El Rayo-X (Asylum LP 5E-524) is spectacular on black disc, however the digital streaming model (16/44.1 FLAC Electra Asylum/Qobuz) has by no means grabbed me; I by no means listened during till I listened with the ZMF VeritéFeliks Envy combo. With that, "Mercury Blues" got here all the way in which alive, and my toes weren’t tapping the ground; they had been pounding it. My head was bouncing, and I used to be cruising on down the street. Plus! I am unable to point out this album of full-tilt rhythms with no shout-out declaring Ian Wallace, as soon as a member of King Crimson, the alpha canine of funky drummers. On "Mercury Blues," Wallace was so good and having a lot enjoyable, he made me snicker out loud in the midst of a tune.

After parking my new Mercury, I entered a seaside tango bar, and there she was: the gorgeous Argentinian chanteuse Susana Natividad Rinaldi, sounding like Edith Piaf and searching like a singer in a David Lynch movie. The seductive tones of Rinaldi’s voice pressured me to adore her. The dense reverb that framed her voice and made the band’s devices vibrant didn’t fog the recording’s transparency or soften its focus. The album that equipped that imaginative and prescient is known as A Homero Manzi (16/44.1 FLAC RP Music/Qobuz), and I swear that each instrument and participant in her small orchestra was delineated clearly sufficient to look at and observe what they had been doing on the stage.

I drove ZMF’s 300 ohm, 99dB-sensitive closed-backs from the Envy’s center achieve setting with its quantity management set at 12 o’clock; there was some audible hum, nevertheless it was effectively again in area and low sufficient in degree to not intervene with regular music listening.

Footnote 1: See bit.ly/3unfDcz.

Footnote 2: See supermoonbakehouse.com/menu.

Footnote 3: Feliks Audio, ul. Klonowa 12, 42-700 Lubliniec, Poland. Web: feliksaudio.pl. US distributor: Upscale Audio, 1712 Corrigan Ct., La Verne, CA 91750. Tel: (909) 931-9686. Web: upscaleaudio.com.

Footnote 4: We’re conscious of and sympathetic to considerations about shopping for Russian-made items throughout wartime. We really feel, nonetheless, that audiophile customers ought to know the details and make their very own well-informed buying choices. The details are these: Electro-Harmonix tubes are made in a US-owned manufacturing unit in Russia. Fortunately, for 300Bs (in distinction to another tube sorts), there are glorious options to Russian-made tubes, together with the Chinese "Full Music" tubes and the US-made Western Electrics.Jim Austin

Footnote 5: Until very lately, this knob was labeled "Impedance," and the Feliks web site listed impedance specsnot achieve. Feliks lately determined to alter the label to "Gain" with out altering any of the circuitry.Jim Austin

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January 30, 2024 at 03:06PM