Interview with Feliks Audio

This is an interview we’ve had with Lukasz – one of the three sons of Henryk Feliks. Enjoy.

Feliks has gained a really good reputation in the audiophile community but many people don’t know where Feliks is from can you tell us a bit the place where you from? Tell us a bit about your team, how many people are working for Feliks?

We are a family company, now in 2nd generation. My father, Henryk Feliks, electronics engineer and audio passionate, have been designing amplifiers for over 40 years. He  commercialised his hobby about 20 years ago and started selling the amplifiers in Poland. In 2014 the young generation, 3 sons: Lukasz, Piotr and Michal came on board and moved the business to next level. We are now selling our products through official distribution channels in more than 20 countries and specialise in headphone tube amplifiers. Feliks Audio is based in Lubliniec (Oberschlesien, Polen), we are a team of 10 people. Feliks Senior is in charge of R&D, my brother Piotr oversees the production, Michal marketing and product designs and I take care of business development and sales. Our technicians are both skilled and passionate of what they do and we continue to increase the team as the business grows.

We like that Feliks is so consequent doing only tube amplifiers and nothing else, is that because you think your amps are the best? 

We have many years experience of amps designing and making, with using either tubes and solid state technologies. As anecdote, during the communism times, in 70’s and 80’s it was very hard to obtain many electronic parts like transistors, but there was abundance of Soviet made high quality tubes, so my father focused on designs from what was available. Personally we love the neutral, warm tube sound and combined with today’s technology developments in other components and cabling, we are able to design tube amplifiers that are dynamic, fresh and highly resolved while keeping the pleasant neutrality and tonal warmth associate with vacuum tubes.

One of the best-known Feliks products is the euphoria but there is also an anniversary edition what is different about the one compared to the regular one?

The 20th Anniversary Edition Euforia was made as a very special product that would combine years of knowledge in OTL amplifiers design with carefully selected new technology upgrades. Its qualities are far beyond the the sum of its parts – for example just changing the internal wiring from silver to single crystal copper and leaving the rest untouched would result in unbalanced signature lacking the kick the silver provided in “regular” Euforia for example. So yes, the new Anniversary has a number of technological upgrades, like the mentioned single crystal copper (UP-OCC) wiring, ClarityCap capacitors or redesigned current sources but it’s the right combination of these changes that makes the impact. That’s why the signature is quite different, more mature to regular Euforia – the slight analytical edge has been neutralized yet the dynamics are even better, with broader stage and more muscular bass. Customers love it, even with some challenging planar headphones.

Having said that will the anniversary stay in your collection?

Yes, it looks like the Anniversary Euforia found its place in the portfolio.  Originally we planned it to keep it as a short serie for 2020 but the reception and feedback from customers were so good that we decided to keep, at least for the time being. 

You are currently working on a new version of the Echo and Elise what’s different now?

Indeed. The new Echo was just released few weeks ago and we call it now Echo Mk2. It has taken many features from the higher up model Espressivo like the 3 selectable audio sources or the transformer. All in all this new Echo Mk2 will replace both the original Echo and the Espressivo, simplifying our product line up.  For Elise, we will soon announce the revised model for 2021, here the changes will focus on better interference isolation and thermal efficiency. Our environment is unfortunately getting more and more busy with external interference from wifi, cellullar and AC main noise, so that’s important to keep protecting the amps from it. This face lifted Elise will be just called Elise (simple!). 

Are there any other project you like to share with the community?

My father never stops building prototypes and trying new designs, so the future pipeline is always very long! 🙂 More seriously, this year we are focused on a new powerful (300B based) fully balanced headphone amplifier. This one will have a transformer on output, so not an OTL that we usually make, but this will enable it serve virtually 100% of available headphones even with very low impedance and/or sensitivity. The launch is planned after summer so please watch this space! 

Thanks for sharing the Feliks Audio team playlist with us. Are there any tracks that really stand out in your opinion and is a must have for any audiophile customer?

There are many fantastic tracks, but I’d like to bring something local and close to our hearts. There was a famous Polish rock blues band called Dzem (The Jam) and their leader, Rysiek Riedel, was actually from our area, Upper Silesia (Oberschlesien). Tracks like Mala Aleja Roz (Small Alley of Roses), Sen o Victorii (Dreaming of Victoria) or Skazany na Bluesa (Sentenced to Blues) can be heard at Feliks Audio promises very often.