Feliks-Audio Elise Tube Amp Review (NOT)

@jexby You SOB, robbing me of his dislike virginity.

 

Someone remind me why we're still discussing OTL purgatory? Are people still listening to this shit non-ironically?

 

Elise is SBAF approved by Marv.

 

You do realize Marv is f'ing with you guys right? He finishes reviewing this OTL (which is basically the play-nar of the tube amp world) crap and then goes back to listening to his 45 DHT primo-xfmr coupled amps immediately. After which he has a hearty laugh when he reads threads with all of these OTL zombies posting about their random tube rolling expeditions.

 

Is this the ban record?

 

.. in the event we need to 'break the glass' and issue a code [RED] (Anax-level) directive:

 

I don't get it.

 

Is the Felikes Elise an amp, or some crazy cult? I thought I was a bit defensive over some of my purchases..... geeze.

 

Read his post in the Introductions thread.

 

Before we all pounce on @Suuup, I just want to say that I've chatted with him a fair bit on Discord and I have known him to be a generally non-troll-y individual who seems very inquisitive about toobz. Under different circumstances I might have even recommended him for Friend status.

We've talked a lot about tube circuits and tube rolling, where, as you can see from his pictures, he's attempted to do all sorts of crazy stuff with his amps. I've generally recommended against trying to stick 6C33C's in 6080 circuits and going to these other extreme lengths to roll random tubes into amps that may or may not accept them properly. I've told him a few times that with the money, time and effort he's spent on this OTL project would be so much better allocated by building his own amp, preferably OTC or at least an OTL that is optimized for his favorite toob of choice. He already seems to have most of the parts he would need and I think he's actually learned a lot about tube design from what I have gleaned.

So I think these crazy tube rolling fetishes are ultimately based in the inherent audiophile OCD tendencies. People want to experiment with different "sounds", people want to snatch up cool looking tubes on eBay, but people don't want through the paces of building their own amp. Either because they don't have the knowledge or they think the result they can get by just rolling those tubes is the same. Knowledge has to come first of course. And I really think once you gain that knowledge, this whole OTL BS gets BTFO.

The other thing is some of these amp designers have radically different philosophies than others. Some honestly believe that tubes exist to overtly color/distort the sound in a "pleasing" way. If you take that position, this retarded tube rolling fetish starts to make more sense. I know that Marv, myself and some others around SBAF don't buy that argument for a second, because we've heard how well-executed OTC tube gear gets out of the way and lets you get engaged in the music like nothing else. For some of us, that is much more "pleasing" than any mixed-and-matched OTL purgatory can do. I think if that is your audio philosophy, you might be better off running guitar pedals into an O2 solid-state abomination amp. It's cheaper and easier than doing this sort of weird breakout cables and adapters.

 

I already read it but I still don't understand it though

 

I'm not going to read anymore of this crazy crap. But I'm starting to wonder if its the "audiophiles" that are encouraging this crazy practice, or in this case Feliks Audio? Though I can't imagine that would be a very productive business plan. Sell higher end amps, with less tubes purchased by the end user instead?

http://www.head-fi.org/t/732875/feliks-audio-elise-previously-6sn7-6as7g-6080-prototype