Verdict
The Fell Amp is a well - engineered all - rounder that does the thing we ’ve occur to expect from an amp at this Mary Leontyne Price and does them extremely well . It ’s well made , attractive , sound great and it ’s wanton to habituate . What more do you want ?
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Even if we leave for the fact that most hi - fi blade do not really have much in the way of household recognition , Fell Audio is still going to be one that few the great unwashed have heard of .
There are sound reasons for that though . It ’s nothing less than a marque new company that has been created to work up products for UK retailer Peter Tyson . Both the Amp and the other members of the family make function of the enormous amount of experience they have selling sound recording to design a Cartesian product that is intended to be at the top of the tree .
As such , while you might not have discover of the society , there is a nice chance that Fell Audio is run to make product that appeal to a healthy spread of people . The timing of their arrival is not inadvertent either . After being a snatch of a forgotten price segment for a few years , affordable audio recording is something that is date raw product arrive and real cause being use on it . The Fell Amp arrives in a category that suddenly has a bit going on in it .
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Do n’t think that this is a bit of by the numbers triangulation either . The Fell Amp is project to be militant in the affordable category and the specification has been created with this in idea , this does n’t forestall it doing some matter in a manner that are dissimilar to the mass of the competition . Does this combining of careful competitor psychoanalysis and out of the loge thought make for a must have merchandise ?
Availability
The Fell Amp subsist to be deal by Peter Tyson without them having to compete with other retail merchant on Leontyne Price . To this end , the Fell Amp is available solely from Peter Tyson for £ 599 .
As well as two physical memory board , Peter Tyson is one of the major on-line hifi retailers in the UK so do n’t worry if Carlisle is a bit of a stumble for you . At the import , the Fell amp is not being sold in the USA or Australia but it does look like there are some campaign to situate a distributer who might be capable to get these gross sales up and take to the woods .
There is a bargain to be done though . At the fourth dimension of authorship ( mid - January 2025 ) , if you are shopping for both a Fell Amp and the coordinated Disc CD histrion ( which I will be reviewing in short too ) , you may have them as a big bucks , saving you £ 100 over buying them separately .
Design
express the Fell Amp from its packaging ; something that is itself a pleasurable experience thanks to Fell Audio go hard to use recyclable material throughout , and you should be impressed at how it feel .
The bulk of the casework is metal and it has been bolt together with genuine attention and attention to detail . The front panel is the only section that is n’t metal on the Fell Amp but this is in society to give it a eminent gloss finish and while this was no fun at all to take word-painting of , it does appear complement the metal sections well .
Something that Fell has worked hard to do is make their Cartesian product feel logical and intuitive to utilize and the Amp is unlikely to be an alarming equipment to get your read/write head around even if it is your first foray into disjoined howdy - fi . Each input can be select from a consecrated release on the front panel that clear explains what it does . You might be irked that the phono input is pronounce ‘ vinyl group ’ but it does mean that everyone will know what it is for .
I ’m less swell on the volume control though . This uses a rotary encoder and it ’s pleasingly running in how it adds and sheds gain but it mute each prison term the amp is trade back on .
This is theoretically a useful safety feature but something that has happened , more than once , is that I ’ve started the ampere , got a source playing , not had any strait , changed the input , recall there is no volume at start - up , raised the bulk before retort to the right beginning and it being a bit on the tacky side . I never have less than two ampere running at any time though and I ideate if it is the only amp you own , I daresay you ’ll dial into it a bit faster .
I really like how the Fell Amp depend though . What I recall is very ingenious is that , if you wish me are increasingly erstwhile , there are plenty of little do it homages to products from long time ago in the styling but , if you do n’t care about any of this , the resultant look impertinent and distinctive . If you do go for the amp and the matching Stream , the result looks very handsome indeed but the Fell will also seat merrily with pile of other machine too . The chassis and goal is very good for the price as well .
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Specification
A primal area where the Fell Amp disagree from many contender is the amplifier . It is a Class D character twist and it produces 49 watts into 8 Ohms which rises to 79 Watt into 4 . Fell has partner it with a toroidal transformer world power provision rather than the more common switched mode , and there is a healthy quotient of shine cap in there too . It ’s not enormously brawny but it should be enough for most similarly price speakers .
This amplifier incision is made available to a utilitarian selection of inputs . The ‘ trad ’ side is three business line stimulus on an RCA connexion and a move attractor phono level ; the one selected by the ‘ vinyl radical ’ button on the front panel . There are rivals that have more input than this but it should be enough for most needs – admit connecting a Fell Disc , the upcoming Fell Stream streamer , a lazy Susan and still having an input spare .
You also get a digital plank . that offers up an optical and coaxial input with sustenance from aBluetooth modulebased on thev5.0 platform . Decoding is via an ESS 9018K2 M DAC fit with its own exponent provision arranging for best performance . In a thoroughgoing world , there would be the option of USB or evenHDMI ARC(both of which can be found on challenger at or below the cost point ) but it is a useful selection of extra input that ensures you may get a TV talking to your Fell Amp and have it lecture to your phone .
These input signal are made available to a single set of speaker unit outputs on a reasonably sturdy circle of utterer terminus and a 6.35 mm phone socket . This completes the idea of sufficiency that Fell Audio seems to have work on with the integral design . Would a second set of output or a Bluetooth transmitter for wireless headphones be dainty ? Sure it would but what you have here is more than sufficient to get you up and go .
Performance
Sit down and listen to the Fell Amp ; it does n’t count which source , just so long as you ’re listening and there ’s nothing that identifies it as Class D or indeed Class AB for that matter .
The days of a Class ergocalciferol amp having a defined sound has long go . or else , a tonally ‘ disconsolate ’ amplifier in a tradition of a number of British stain . Listening to W.H Lung ’s Every Inch of Earth Pulsates it is controlled and refined but has a potentiality and vim to the performance that encourage to you to compensate care and get involve in the performance . This tonal correspondence also help to give the bass a little more emphasis than some contender even if there is n’t actually more bass on offer .
The tonic naive realism and refining on offer is extremely good too . I listen to the magnificent Dark Side of the Mule by Gov’t Mule via the Fell Amp and the appeal of Pink Floyd covers , being execute by a dance orchestra that still actually enjoy perform and the Fell does a fantastical job of bringing some sprightliness and vitality to the voices and instruments .
There are rivals at the price that can recover a little more detail and space around the performance but the Fell does a brilliant task of make believe a resilient performance finger live . Some tests with the earphone socket , show its good enough to achieve the same variety of results via crapper as well .
This power is extremely consistent across the analogue and digital inputs as well . I made use of aBluesound Node Nanoas a comparatively price cyclosis source and connected it via both analogue and coaxal out . The presentment of the Fell was extremely reproducible across both the connections .
The digital board is both usefully transparent and dial into how the rest of the A sound to deliver a public presentation that is every bit as pleasurable as the analog inputs . Slightly awkwardly for Fell , it does mean that something very cost effective like a WiiM Mini connect to the optical stimulation would be all the streamer they might ever demand .
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Not every part of the digital board is quite so talented though . The Bluetooth connection is mechanically perfectly estimable ; it connects easily and maintains a connexion at a very respectable stove and reconnects quickly and uncomplainingly but sonically it ’s a little lacking .
When examine with my Oppo Find X5 Pro , I bump that Spotify sound perfectly OK but some of the superfluous bitrate and stream quality that should have been present withQobuzwasn’t there . As a convenience feature , the Bluetooth connection is fine but there are adenylic acid at the price that can accomplish more .
The phono stage on the other hand is excellent . I mainly used it with a Rega Planar 3 universal gas constant turntable and found result was fantabulous . All the staple are handle well . Noise levels are down and most owners should have plenty of profit . Without unsettling the pleasing balance of the Amp as a whole , the phono input is pleasingly energetic and able to enchant the character of the turntable that is associate to it .
Listening to Kessoncoda ’s Outerstate ( perhaps my favourite record album of last year ) the Fell is n’t ‘ good for the phono phase on a £ 600 amp , it ’s just plain ripe . While there is likely to be a extra input for an external phono phase , the one you get is more than good enough for most owners .
Should you buy it?
The Fell Amp does a utilitarian spread of things and mostly does all of them with a flair and power that mean you will want to use all of them . It ’s enjoyable via its many dissimilar connections and very easy to practice while you do so . A lot of care and attending has go into the the Fell and it really shows .
As the Fell is something of a ‘ best feast ’ of features submit by look at a category as a whole , it does signify that some rivals manage to offer features it does not . If you want USB in , HDMI ARC , cleverer Bluetooth and other nuance there are adenylic acid at this cost that do offer them … but they usually have to forgo something that the Fell Amp has instead .
Final Thoughts
set up a hi - fi company from scratch is hard but the Fell Amp shows that it can be done and done very consistently . This is a clever and well - engineered product that feel cautiously engineered and thought out but that also feels like it was engineered with a degree of passion at the same time . More of this please .
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How we test
We test every amplifier we review good over an prolonged time period of time . We utilise industry standard mental test to equate features properly . We ’ll always tell you what we find . We never , ever , accept money to review a product .
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FAQs
A distant command is indeed provided with the Fell Audio Amp .
Full Specs
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