Feliks Audio Euforia Headphone Amplifier

Discussion in 'Headphone Amplifiers and Combo (DAC/Amp) Units' started by Vtory, Jul 18, 2019.

  1. aalex

    aalex New

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    Great review ! Thanks a lot for all this informations.
    Some of you can compared Decaware Taboo mk4 and Euforia ? Any differences ? For listening metal music with planar which is the best pairing ?
     
  2. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    If you want tight articulate bass with hard attack with planars, which I feel is at least somewhat desirable with metal, and then again it depends on genres and personal tests, I would avoid either because these amps are OTL and very traditionally OTL. This means high output impedance (very high), which means soft sound and wasted power with lower impedance planars. Sure, some planars, like the higher Z 50-ohm ones will work with them, and sound good, but it's a matter of relatives.

    Both have Feliks and Decware have a house sound that is bloom and lush, so be aware of this too. Personally I don't think it works with metal. I prefer controlled punchier sounding, amps, even warm amps, internally warm, but overt warmpoo, because a of lot metal can be recorded like shit (thin, bright, compressed, etc.)

    If you really want tubes, transformer coupled will be better for planars.
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2020
  3. aalex

    aalex New

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    Ok, thank you !
     
  4. EagleWings

    EagleWings Friend

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  5. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    well, my first impressions of the amp are mixed. I haven't done a whole lot of listening, but my first listen I could not believe how shitty the amp sounded. It completely muffled the treble end. I thought one of my home made RCA cables was bad and I swapped out the cables.

    Then I stumbled on the "crossfeed" switch, and turn that off, the sound was much better.

    I've tried many many amps and DACs with crossfeed, and I've settled on the CanOpen Studio 3 plugin with Sound Source on my Mac. The Crossfeed on the Euforia has to be the worst implementation of crossfeed I have ever heard.

    Otherwise, my impressions are pretty much similar with others. The amp presents a warm sound, rounding off the edge I hear with the Utopia. I seem to be to achieve the similar results with the Mainline and the TDR Nova equalizer plug in using dynamic eq.

    I have more listen to do, and I will listen with no plugins or eq, but the warmth may be a bit too much for me with the Utopia. I'll try the TH900 and remove the Mr. Speakers pads I have in those headphones.
     
  6. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    more listening. The Euforia is very smooth, to me. More smooth than the Mainline, and more heft in the bass. Vocals, especially the high pitched ones, are more "rounded", but still lots of detail in the upper registers. I was able to get a similar sound using a loki on the the Mainline with a slight increase in the lower bass knob, and a slight decrease in the upper two knobs. Still, there just a pit more emotional charm with the Euforia.

    I using both the TH900 and a Utopia. DAC is the Multibit Bifrost v1.
    Bottomline, the Euforia, at least with the tubes provided with the loaner, is a significant step up from the Mainline, but a smaller step up from the Mainline/Loki combination.

    Update 2020-10-18: I'm done with my audition of this fine amp. If you like a warm, thick, meaty sound, this is a good amp. Great for headphones considered a little hot, like the Utopia or TH900. A little too warm for my taste, and if I want that little extra down low, I can bump up the bass with eq.

    A few aspects of the amp bother me.
    1. The manual recommends not running it for more than 8 hours. so you have to turn it off
    2. The on/off switch is inconveniently located in the back, right next to the cross feed switch.
    3. Since the crossfeed switch is in the back, there no way to know it's on, except...
    4. The crossfeed is pretty bad, so you know it's on.
    Probably a great amp for tube rolling, which I didn't try.
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2020
  7. E_Schaaf

    E_Schaaf MOT: E.T.A Headphones

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    Euforia is a bit bloomy with the TH900s in my experience. TH900's don't swing too much with impedance (they behave almost planar-like with many amps IME, just way more efficient), but the Euforia's output impedance is greater than twice the TH900's impedance. Definitely not the snappiest pairing. What pads do you use on your 900s?
     
    Last edited: Sep 18, 2020
  8. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    brainwavz angled hybirds and I use some MrSpeakers doggie treat pads (one in each cup).
     
  9. Yoram Diamand

    Yoram Diamand New

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    Hi I listen to the Beyer T1.2 on the Euforia. The Meze Empyrean and the ZMF Verite are costly. You mention the Sennheiser HD650, but what about the HD800S? It should work well on the OTL?! Best wishes Y
     
  10. ChaChaRealSmooth

    ChaChaRealSmooth SBAF's Mr. Bean

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    Don't use the Euforia for HD800. Too many tradeoffs; other than tonality the Euforia does no favors to HD800 (maybe this could be fixed a bit by rolling tubes, but I wouldn't count on tube rolling to suddenly lead to sonic nirvana). Consider instead the DNA Starlett, which funny enough is cheaper*.

    I have always felt the Euforia was a better amp for the HD600/650 than the HD800. And Focal.

    *cheaper in the US. Probably more expensive when importing to EU
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2020
  11. Yoram Diamand

    Yoram Diamand New

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    Hi I have the Euforia, so I will not buy another amp, I may chose not to buy the HD800S. Thank you for the warning.
     
  12. ChaChaRealSmooth

    ChaChaRealSmooth SBAF's Mr. Bean

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    Feliks Euforia - Revisited

    Over a year ago, I auditioned this cute little OTL tube amp in my house and bought one not long after (original impressions here). Fast forward 16 months later, and this amp is still in my possession. Pre-COVID, it was mostly used as a preamp for my two channel rig (and it is still very good as a preamp), and I'd occasionally steal it from that rig to use it for headphones. Alas, work from home has stripped me of almost all my listening time on the two channel rig (unfortunately my sister does not like hearing the Bee Gees being played while she's trying to talk to clients), so nowadays the Euforia simply lives on my desk. However, it still survives in the face of EC Ultralinear and DNA Starlett; what possesses me to keep this amp despite the fact that I'm very hesitant on recommending people to buy it?

    The short answer is that for what it is and what it does, it does it extremely well and is better in that regard versus any other amp I've heard.

    Sonics

    I'm not going to go into too much detail about the sound, since much of what I said about the sound in my original post still stands, but I will summarize. If you want the stereotypical OTL tube sound with tons of bloom (without being excessively flabby in the bass), rich euphonic timbre, and an overall up-close, intimate presentation, this is the amp for you. In that regard though, it is most definitely an OTL; choosing the Euforia severely limits your options when it comes to transducers.

    One might wonder why it limits transducer options since on paper, it would appear that anything that's a high impedance dynamic would be a good pairing. While that might be true in terms of things like damping factor, that is very much untrue when it comes to actual synergy. An example of this is HD800; I would not pair the Euforia with the HD800 because they just don't complement each other (the things they do well is very far apart from each other and they don't take advantage of any strengths they might individually bring). This is the same case with any ZMF (although I know some people have had success with this pairing with a tube roll).

    No, the best synergy that I've found with Euforia is this: HD600/650, and Focal headphones. With those headphones in particular, the system absolutely sings. Is it an "accurate" presentation? Heck no, but it is musical and engaging. Focal in particular has some crazy synergy where it seems like the Euforia can somehow strip away many complaints about the overstated metallic timbre.

    Conclusion

    Beforehand, I stated that I could only really recommend the Euforia as either a preamp or if you primarily use HD6x0 and Focals. This still holds true and if I'm completely honest, I do not recommend the Euforia as a general rule. The main issue is the extreme bipolar nature of its synergy; it either really works and is magic, or it's absolute poo and I'd rather get a Magni 3+. That being said, do I enjoy it? Absolutely.
     
  13. loadexfa

    loadexfa MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Euforia Loaner Impressions - Part 1
    For a portion of my review time, I compared the Euforia with my Stratus (Acme 2a3, EML Rectifier, Mullard 6BQ7A) and for a couple days I listened to the Euforia only. It's easy to obsess over little things while comparing and listening only to the Euforia for a time allowed me to see what it's like to simply enjoy the amp. Of course going against a Stratus with upgraded tubes is not a fair comparison but did help me to understand each amp's specific sound including their strengths and weaknesses.

    Summary
    For my taste, the Euforia works well as an all-rounder with dynamic headphones. I didn't bother with my Ether CX, OTL is not designed for them. I liked the Euforia with all of my headphones to varying degrees.

    All listening was done with a Pi2AES to L2 Pavane via I2S, outputting to a Freya S. Between the two, the Stratus is cleaner, more detailed, has better separation, and I sometimes felt music has a more accurate presence. The Euforia is richer, more boomy and sometimes a bit muddy, especially in the bass. My amp preference varied depending on the music. With either amp, the music was enjoyable. I imagine 5998 power tubes in the Euforia would have helped with the boom/mud but I no longer have these or equivalents to try.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Elex
    I spent the most time listening with the Elex both to let the Euforia shine and they are my newest toy. The Euforia pairs very well with the Elex, the added richness is quite nice. That said, I'm also very happy with the Stratus/Elex pairing and how the Elex scales with better gear.

    Tracks where I preferred the Euforia usually due to more richness and/or boom:
    • Christina Aguilera, Candyman
    • Christina Aguilera, Hurt
    • Beatles, Back in the U.S.S.R.
    • Beatles, Julia (was a close call, great with both)
    • Garbage, Supervixen
    • Joe Jackson, Real Men
    • Stan Getz, The Girl from Ipanema
    • Lady Gaga, Shallow
    • Delain, April Rain
    • System of a Down, Spiders
    Tracks where I preferred the Stratus usually due to clarity, presence, and/or balance:
    • Miles Davis, Blue in Green
    • Miles Davis, All Blues
    • Santana, Oye Como Va
    • Beatles, Blackbird
    • Beatles, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
    • Beatles, Sexy Sadie
    • Beatles, Helter Skelter
    • Crooked Still, Sometimes in this Country
    • Simon & Garfunkel, Sound of Silence (acoustic)
    • Simon & Garfunkel, Hazy Shade of Winter
    • NIN, Mr. Self Destruct
    • Joe Jackson, Cancer
    • King Crimson, 21st Century Schizoid Man
    • Mr. Bungle, Dead Goon
    Tracks with no clear winner
    • NIN, Ruiner (I think this was a mood issue, usually love this song but didn't like it at all)
    • Garbage, Metal Heart. Not sure if I prefer this song more bombastic (Euforia) or cleaner (Stratus)
    • Stevie Wonder, As. Euforia was probably a bit more engaging and I enjoyed his voice more. Stratus did a better job with layering and accurate presentation which noticeably enhanced the song
    Atticus
    I thought the Atticus sounds good with the Euforia, I was afraid I would find the combo too rich but that wasn't the case. I didn't do as much listening with this combo because I wasn't in the mood for the Atticus this week. I tried with the Stratus to confirm the issue was the Atticus rather than the Euforia. Also worth noting I use the suede Ori pads which reduces the bass, perhaps would not be a good combo with the lambskin pads.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Part 2 will be shorter and include impressions with Autuer, HD 800, and HD 6XX. I want to do some additional listening before writing them up.
     
  14. loadexfa

    loadexfa MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Euforia Loaner Impressions - Part 2
    This round was more casual with a percentage of it as background listening. BTW, more Friends can still join the loaner. I recommend giving this amp a shot, I was surprised at how much I liked it with the Auteur considering what other reviewers said.

    This round I didn't do direct comparisons with my Stratus and I didn't notice any bass mud, I could only tell with quickly switching amps. The clarity from the ACME 2a3 tubes also give the Stratus an unfair advantage. Any Stratus mentions below are from memory. It is my primary amp, my memory should be accurate.

    Auteur
    Great tone, detail retrieval, and slam, I really like this combination. I'm using the perf suede pads, I imagine lambskin could push this into "too much" territory and may explain why I disagree with other reviewers. Only complaint is sometimes music felt a little closed in, oddly the Elex is more spacious which isn't normally how I would describe them.

    Listened to Equal Rights (Peter Tosh), Parting Cuts (Beach Comber), Magical Mystery Tour (Beatles), Lost Souls (Loreena McKennitt), Yuko Mabuchi Trio (Live) (Yuko Mabuchi Trio), Blood Year (Russian Circles), and Fear Inoculum (Tool).

    Fear Inoculum and Equal Rights stood out as exceptional with this combination. The slam, balance, and tone was just right, I enjoyed both albums more than usual. I actually liked Chocolate Chip Trip which I normally just find silly, the drum hits sounded just right. Really liked vocals especially Peter Tosh and Loreena McKennitt. Plucked strings on guitars and harp also stood out to me as particularly good.

    Sun, Moon & Stars (Lorenna McKennitt) was missing something with Autuer, slam and liveliness perhaps. I switched to the Atticus and it was perfect.

    HD 800 (SDR)
    I usually prefer the HD 800 for classical and some acoustic music. I felt this was a good combination, the Euforia added more emotion to the HD 800 and tamed the excessive sound stage a bit. Piano in particular benefited from the rich tone and percussion had a nice clarity.

    Listened to Debussy's En Blanc et Noir (Katia & Marielle Labeque), People's Spring (Warsaw Village Band), The View from Halfway Down (Andy Bell), Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 3 (Noriko Ogawa), Yuko Mabuchi Trio Live.

    I was surprised the first movement of the Rachmaninov brought some tears to my eyes, hasn't happened in a long while with that song and is generally not the HD 800's forte. People's Spring and The View from Halfway Down were a bit too much but I think this was an issue of the HD 800 rather than the Euforia. I couldn't get enough of both the Rachmaninov and Yuko Mabuchi Trio, great clarity, tone, and sound stage.

    HD 6XX
    I agree with the other impressions, this is a great combo. I didn't have as big of a WOW moment but I think this is due to the Stratus already doing that for me months ago. The Euforia is definitely competitive especially in tone while the Stratus wins with detail and space/presence. I like both and mood or specific music would decide which amp I would prefer at a given time. If I had to pick, I think the Stratus does more for my taste with the HD 6XX. Still find it amazing that these are $220 headphones, holy crap they are a good deal considering how well they scale.

    While I was editing this post, Spanish Guitars and Night Plazas (Loreena McKennitt) with the HD 6XX just GRABBED me. Woah, that hasn't happened in a while. Euforia just earned some bonus points. :)
     
  15. Jh4db536

    Jh4db536 Friend

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    TLDR
    I don't recommend this with the loaner included psvane CV181 drivers if you have a choice; they have No "tube magic" and they don't do this amp any service or show any of its potential. The russian output tubes seem to be competent as long as the drivers are good.

    If you spend a small fraction of the price of this amp to find good drivers, you could punch a lot higher in performance.

    Magic midrange *with caveats* is the primary reason to buy this amp

    Associated gears
    Yggdrasil A1GS + PI2AES
    HD600

    The Review
    As with any tube amp, the tubes are VERY important and my subjective impressions may vary from others due to this. I haven't heard an OTL for a long time, in fact it was an OTL that first wowed me when i was new in the hobby...a EC Zana Deux Super gave me hope that tube amps had any potential other than looking cool. I have no prior experience with any of the tubes used in the Feliks.

    @famish99 was very nice to lend me his NOS drivers for the Feliks. I reviewed this amp with those first before even trying the included CV181 drivers. I will only write review this amp in context of the better drivers because i don't have much to say about the amp otherwise. These NOS drivers have the "tube magic" that draws people to tube amps.

    I really like the size of the Feliks. One thing that bugs me about most tube amps is theyre huge, heavy, and not portable. This feels solidly built in Eastern EU and its all in one relatively small chassis. It's solid when you push a tube amp into the chassis mounted sockets; a PCB underneath flexing isnt a good feeling when inserting tubes.

    Euphoria has good blackground no issues there, no hums, very clear like should be expected in a high end tube amp. The amp is average 'Speed', but not OTL syrup. The PS CV181 drivers are gray and fuzzy just to be clear.

    Euphoria imposes a large sense of space and some depth kinda how i remember the ZDS did..okay not that big. It's forward but can get aggressive when music calls upon, which is a good thing. Decent dynamics. The PS CV181 make it sound like a "regular tube amp".

    The Euphoria has surprising slam sometimes abeit uncontrolled for an OTL. Can easily hear it with slammy tracks on the Essential Michael Jackson album. The PS CV181 drivers are soft stuffy warm and bloomy and flat sounding.

    I think there's a FR peak that lines up with HD600's because it got me a few times or maybe it's a treble stridency noted by other reviewers. I think the amp has slightly v shaped FR. Extension is pretty good both ways, but nothing spectacular. Bass is still a bit bloomy (as in the bass decays very slow and permeates everything), but its not as bad i was expecting. I could live with it given the midrange qualities and given that no feedback OTC doesnt get much better either until you spend big bucks (looks like the retail cost of the Euphoria IS big bucks).

    It has Euphoric, Lush and Magical midrange (a little bit recessed) and lives up to its name with Solo female vocals like Yao Si Ting. This is non existent on the PS CV181. I thought i was listening to my other transformer coupled amp for a minute. It was that good...at least on HD600. You will be realizing HD600's potential with this.

    This amp gets easily congested in complex passages, separation and micro dynamics suffer. It cannot maintain its Euphoric, Lush and Magical midrange qualities when there's a lot of layers of stuff going on in the music; it just chokes up and starts blurring everything together (other amps may have no separation at all...blob of sound, or they are lost far in the background and muted). Without separation how can you have micro dynamics? That was the most bothersome thing for me. Do you always have to choose between beautiful sound and technicality?

    Pricewise, i cant say too much. I'm a DIYer hehe.

    Edit:
    For fun, i tried this with the Abbas NOS DAC 0.1SE since i have that loaner here too. Haha overload with 2 components with mid range and rich extremes. Too much of a good thing

    NOS 6SN7GTB Single bottom D Getters, black T plates, spirally wound filaments, made in uhmurica Drivers that i borrowed. Based on some quick research these don't appear to be the crazy rare variants, which means you shouldn't have to pay an arm leg and kidney for good sound.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2021
  16. roshambo123

    roshambo123 Friend

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    The Euforia loaner arrived a few days ago and my goal was to compare it to my DarkVoice 336SE, another OTL, and also evaluate how good of a value I found it for $2600. I added my impressions to a partial chart from my Jotunheim 2 review.


    [​IMG]

    Headphones: HD6XX, HD800SDR.
    Euforia Tubes: PsVane CV-181 Driver, 6N13S power (stock)
    Darkvoice tubes: PSVane 6SN7UK, GE 5998
    DAC: Gungnir Multibit A1, Lynx AES16, (Euforia SE, Darkvoice SE, Jot 2 BAL)

    General Comments
    I found my Gungnir MB A1 is a non-synergystic pairing with Euforia. The warm DAC with the warm Euforia makes warmpoo. I think my iPhone is a better pairing for Euforia with its cooler, drier and less smooth tone. But ignoring my lack of an appropriate DAC, it is still clear Euforia is a dramatically more refined OTL than the DarkVoice. The Feliks is pleasant, even, and mellow. With that demeanor though is some diminishment of macrodynamics and slam, so it's not the ultimate machine for reliving the late 90's rave scene in your living room. That's not entirely a bad thing, while I didn't find myself bobbing my head, I had no fatigue and could easily sink into any genre. The X-Feed button works as designed and expands the headstage noticeably without sounding unnatural, I couldn't find a circumstance where I preferred it off. This is a musical amp that's not the last word on detail retrieval but with a proper DAC I'm sure it could be really enjoyable, and possibly rolling tubes could improve on the weak areas I saw.

    Summary
    If the Feliks Euforia was $1300 or less I'd be having nervosa right now trying to decide if I'd buy one. Thankfully at $2600 Feliks has cured all my anxiety. You'd do better to spend $2000 on a DNA Starlett and have enough leftover for a bottle of Macallan 21 to drink while enjoying one of the finest sounding headamps in existence. The amp I've heard that comes closest in general sonic performance to the Euforia is a Quad PA-One+, which I thought was almost a good value at $1200, and then when the price went to $1700 I promptly discarded it as an option. Asking $2600 for similar performance is pure comedy.

    [​IMG]
     
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    Last edited: Mar 11, 2021

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