Verdict
The Fell Disc is a genuinely piquant listening experience ; a twist that remind you that CD still has a huge amount to offer . It wraps this in attractive , well - made casework and it will work well both in an all Fell organization and as a partner for many other amps as well . This is a fantastic choice at the price item
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
set up a whole newfangled hi - fi company is no small-scale undertaking but Fell Audio has made a solid offset .
Their opening trio of products are designed to be cost effective options at the £ 500 - 600 price point that balance performance and features in such a way as to be the correct choice for a few different use cases .
TheFell Amphas also been reviewed and it embodies this thought rather well . It has the inputs you ask combined to a respectable amount of power , all wrapped up in solid and handsome casework . If that is a passably ceremonious start to proceedings , the Fell Disc might be seen as a little more unusual .
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At a point where streaming services overtop most people ’s access to content and the vinyl revolution hoovers up an ever larger proportion of physical sales , the Disc is a no nonsense , full size CD player .
There is a method to this special perceived madness though . CD is a format whose honest eld are realistically behind it but when those ‘ best age ’ let in almost full mastery of show music sales , there is a farseeing way of life to shine . What ’s more , plenty of companies have renounce the mart so the share uncommitted for companies still make players could potentially be a rather decent one . Of course , to do this , the Disc has to be good so let ’s see how it get on .
Availability
The Fell Disc exists to be sell by Peter Tyson without them sustain to contend with other retailer on damage . To this close , the Fell Amp is available exclusively from Peter Tyson for £ 499 .
As well as two physical storage , Peter Tyson is one of the major online hi - fi retail merchant in the UK so do n’t worry if Carlisle is a chip of a trip for you . At the bit , the Fell range is not being sold in The USA or Australia but it does look like there are some efforts to locate a distributor who might be able-bodied to get these sale up and running .
There is a deal to be done though . At the time of writing ( mid - January 2025 ) , if you are snitch for both a Fell Disc and the matching Amp player ( which I;ve reviewed as well ) , you’re able to have them as a bundle , saving you £ 100 over buying them severally .
Design
Extract the Fell from its well designed and for the most part fictile devoid packaging – including a rather lovely branded tote bag travelling bag and it makes a good first opinion . The Disc come in casework that matches the Amp which is both fairly unsurprising and good news .
What Fell has done very smartly with these components is distort them with nods to the past in a few area but without make the whole gimmick experience honest-to-goodness fashioned . This mean that people like me can be reminded of all sorts of past products when we appear at the Disc but the great unwashed with a more 21stcentury mentality can appreciate that they appear unlittered and forward-looking . This is help by the touch sensor buttons . I ’m not always a vast fan of these but on the Disc they are responsive and work well .
As a modern CD player , the Disc makes use of an slot phonograph recording mechanism . This is part because the turn of tray type mechs usable in any quantity is very circumscribed in 2025 and , even when they are , they tend to be more expensive than one-armed bandit saucer models . estimate by the criterion of one-armed bandit disc type twist , the one used on the Disc is middling in effect . It ’s not altogether mum when loading the compact disk but it does this dainty and quickly and fall down after that . Once escape , the Disc is silent from a few centimetre off .
As well as the touch detector button , the Disc has a decently sized green on black display that can be dimmed or trade off that will show you a becoming amount of selective information about the CD itself . There is a remote French telephone and this is need to get at features like shuffle so it is deserving not losing down the side of the sofa .
Specification
The Fell Disc is- when you get down to basics – entirely straightforward . It plays CD , CD - roentgen and standard candle - RW discs ( and some literal oddity like a soundtrack encode as WAV on a PS1 game disc – remember those ? ) via the slot loading mech and apply an ESS 9018K2 M DAC to decipher the information on the disc .
This is the same DAC that the Fell Amp employ for its digital board and it ’s open of more than enough performance . Fell Audio has made the decision to use another toroidal transformer to power the Disc and while this is n’t the most densely populated machine drop dead when you take the palpebra off , the components that are in there are of a high quality .
This is made available to a circle of RCA output and the digital stream is available via visual and coaxial out . The bearing of the latter is utile because , if one of the potential upgrades you could see in your future is an upgrade DAC , the Fell will continue to work gayly as a atomic number 48 transport connect to that . It also means that , if you have choose a Fell Amp to go with your Disc , you have the option to see whether connecting via analogue or digital whole kit and boodle respectable for you .
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What you do n’t get is … well anything else really . CD instrumentalist went through a phase of having some interesting extra feature like bulk controls , digital inputs and the ability to fiddle things that were almost like CD like SACDs .
The Disc can not do any of those things and in a reality wherecompanies like WiiMseem content to drum everything short of the kitchen sinkhole into their products , the Fell can find a lilliputian special . This does think of that it focuses on doing one thing and one thing alone which imply that it should- hopefully – do it rather well . When see as a partner with the Fell Amp , there is no feature film overlap you have curve up paying for twice either which is smart practise .
Performance
It does n’t take much mind to discover that the Fell Disc is very clearly the work of the same the great unwashed who developed the Fell Amp and the two full complement each other well .
There is something of the same tonic ‘ darkness ’ to the Disc that entail that something that Outsider by Marina and the Diamonds utterly magnate along , prove a existent ballistic edge to it . It ’s surefooted , dynamic and lock at an emotional rather than a cerebral level . This balance also shift your care to the bass extension phone which means that listening to the Disc never feels lightweight or insubstantial .
There are some other rather useful attributes too . I was able to play Infra Red by Placebo on the Disc and actually bask what is one of my favourite Placebo birdcall but blighted with an absolutely dreadful master . The Fell ca n’t do anything but point this out but it does it in such a gentle way , you’re able to still appreciate the black euphory of the racetrack as a whole .
you’re able to then pivot to Ray LaMontagne ’s Till the Sun turns Black which is a truly outstanding CD master and the Fell is able to show it off to brilliant effect . There is a champagne flute solo at the goal of the track you could Bring Me Flowers and it ’s startlingly and compellingly real .
In fact , the Disc has done a enormous job of reminding me quite how undecomposed CD can really be . There have been points where I ’ve listened to the Fell playing the CD before mind to the same record album in 24 morsel on a cyclosis service and the optical disc gain ground out . Sure , there might be more information in the high res transcription but at time there ’s still audibly less concretion on the CD which means that there is often a bully deal more intelligible distance around the recording itself . The Fell is skillful enough to prompt you that 16bit audio can be tremendously expert when handle with a chip of care and attention .
This last thought lead to another which sits both in the profound tone and pride of possession coterie . At the consequence , CD is sufficiently out of fashion to risk being … cool ? It ’s 2025 and turntables are omnipresent and expensive re - pressings of disk that utterly did n’t want to be re - pressed stretch as far as the eye can see .
CD is actually the subversive choice at this point ; a forcible format that is firmly out of erotic love and where factual , truly interesting thing can be find in charity shops . As a typesetter’s case in point , I pottered around the various CD section in the modest market town where I live with a budget of £ 10 and picked up the three album mentioned in this recapitulation andstillhad money go away for a packet of Rolos . build a really interesting forcible collection of CDs need n’t cost the Earth and the Disc will be there to deliver it in fine style .
Should you buy it?
The Fell Disc is well engineered and a pleasure to exist with . A great deal of guardianship and tending has gone into its intention and construction and it ’s a delight to listen to and live with .
In a world where connection audio instrumentalist are festooned with feature of speech , the Fell can experience a piddling bit special . If your amp does n’t have any digital inputs , there is utterly no way of using the DAC in the Disc for any other intention which might make it more limited than other digital front ends useable at the £ 500 point .
Final Thoughts
The Fell Disc is naturally a comely partner for theFell Ampbut its rather more than that . Thanks to its reasonable dimensions and cautiously judged styling , it ’s going to meander up partnering a all-inclusive selection of other amps for owners that still require optic disc documentation . What ’s more , it ’ll sound excellent while it does it .
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How we test
We test every CD player we reexamine exhaustively over an extended period of time . We utilize industry standard tests to equate features decently . We ’ll always distinguish you what we chance . We never , ever , accept money to brush up a product .
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FAQs
analog interconnect cable are included with the packaging .
Full Specs
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