Fell Audio is a family-owned business from Cumbria backed by Peter Tyson, a specialist retailer with a 50-year legacy. The new hi-fi brand aims to 'disrupt' the market by offering affordable hi-fi separates manufactured in the UK.
The current line-up includes the Fell Amp integrated stereo amplifier and the Fell Disc CD player. More components, including a streamer and, looking at the Amp's rear panel, possibly a turntable, will be added in 2025.
At launch, the Fell Audio products are only available in the UK from Peter Tyson, Amazon UK, and directly from the brand's website. However, we're told more retailers in the UK, Europe, and beyond are on the roadmap for next year.
Fell Audio's designs feature a tinge of design cues from the 1970s 'golden era' of hi-fi in form facture and neat little touches such as the green LEDs. That said, you also get bang-up-to-date conveniences with touch-capacitative buttons for input selection alongside Bluetooth streaming.
Built with the "modern music lover" in mind, the new brand promises "authentic sound and a solid build" for affordable prices. To this end, Fell Audio's new products have been designed in-house and manufactured by a "trusted and time-proven" hi-fi manufacturer based in the UK.
Everything from product design to recycled and recyclable packaging, metalwork, injection moulding, and painting is undertaken in the UK, with many of the components sourced locally. Moreover, we're told that the purpose-made PCBs are "populated and finished in-house.
This apparently enables Fell Audio to offer a long repair window, reduce its carbon footprint, and offer a five-year product warranty.
Fell Audio has been developing these launch products over the last three years. It has also benefitted from Peter Tyson's access to a variety of brands across various budgets, resulting in Fell's engineers performing extensive benchmarking and comparative testing to create competitive products that offer "unmatched specifications for British-made budget devices".
FELL AMP
The 75 x 440 x 300mm (HxWxD) Fell Amp is an integrated design powered by Class D amplification with a quoted 89 watts per channel into 8 ohms. It offers three analogue RCA line-level inputs, two digital inputs (optical and coaxial), and preamp and subwoofer outputs.
The Amp also features a built-in moving magnet phono stage for vinylistas and Bluetooth aptX HD for streamers. Late-night listening is also accommodated via a 6.35mm headphone port.
Digital audio is delivered via an ESS ES9018 DAC chip boasting advanced 32-bit HyperStream digital architecture and jitter elimination tech, promising "ultra-low noise and high dynamic range." The cheeky company also hints at Great British humour as the volume dial goes up to 11.
FELL DISC
Meanwhile, the Fell Disc CD player features a slot-loading mechanism and is compatible with CD-R and CD-RW formats. It uses the same DAC chip as the Amp and can play up to 24-bit/96kHz digital files.
Track information is presented by the retro-tastic green dot matrix display on the fascia alongside playback buttons. Around the rear, you will find optical and coaxial digital outputs.
Both products come with dedicated remote controls.
Fell Audio's Managing Director Matthew Tyson told StereoNET:
After working in audio all my life, it became very apparent that great-sounding hi-fi at affordable prices is no longer being made here in the UK. I wanted to change that and be able to offer people something British-built that they can start their hi-fi journey with.
Both products are available in black or silver finishes and can now be bought in the UK. The Fell Amp integrated stereo amplifier costs £599, and the Fell Disc CD player is priced at £499.
Visit Fell Audio for more information
Posted in: Hi-Fi
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