Still trying to figure out if tomorrow will work may push for next week do to the holiday Edit: going to shoot for next week! Will update with the day soon!
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Ok gang! It seems like this Friday at 7pm PST December 4th, we will have a live stream on my channel about my sound impressions of the Pendant vs. Elise
https://www.youtube.com/marcellorostagni
I will get an official post up soon! Hope to see you there, should be a cool format if you can be at your audio chain with headphones 
!!!
(Special announcement too)
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This Friday 7pm PST hope you all can make it!
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Hello guys, first post on this forum 
I would love to ask if anyone heard the Elise II with Focal Clears ? Iâm considering buying Elise because I want the OTL sound, but on my Woo WA2 the bass is boosted hard and on some tracks itâs complete distorted mess even when running EQ and EQ down basically what poor damping factor does, by 4-5db.
I canât find any info on what is the output impedance of WA2 
(to get any idea if itâs way more than the one of Elise) and I canât find any info on Elise + Clear paring either. I just donât want to order the amp, just to find out that itâs the exact same issue as the one with WA2.
@MRHifiReviews , any chance you would be so kind to try the combination ? That would be absolutely amazing.
Thank you guys for any info on this topic 
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Hey @Flisker I just shot you a reply on YouTube too!
The Elise may not be the best match for the Clear, although I personally have not tried the combo. I know many people like the Euphoria with the Utopia and that may also be a better match with the Clear do to its more neutral and resolving sound. Also it could be that the Clear are requiring more current than what is being offered by the WOO WA2 (I have not heard the pairing). This is a good article from it friends discussing https://www.headphones.com/pages/do-my-headphones-need-a-headphone-amp discussing voltage and impedance ratings.
I donât have the clear any longer they have been sent back to @ValentineLuke so I canât try the pairing at this time. I would say the best pairings in my trials have been 300ohm impedance headphones with the Elise.
Oh also welcome to the forum!!! Donât forget to navigate to the new member thread and introduce yourself, we are stoked to have you here with us!
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Thank you very much for reply @MRHifiReviews.
The thing with Euphoria is that Iâve read that output impedance on that one is 20, while Elise is 50, which is huge difference as far as I understand it, when pairing with low-impedance headphones.
WA2 does not have issue with current, itâs very powerful and Iâm even using more powerful upgraded tubes. Iâm at like 10 oâclock with volume and Iâm blasting my ears off, if I do over 12, the driver will start clipping due to protection mechanism that Clear has when there is too much movement of the driver.
The issue is, unless Iâm mistaken (very much possible also), the damping factor being very very low which results from too high impedance output on WA2, I would guess itâs like 100 or something like that, if thatâs the case then thatâs horrible, recommendation is to have impedance of headphones 8 times the output impedance of amp. And this would be 0.5 (WA2 100 / Clear 50). With Elise it is still going to be ratio of 1 ±, which might also be pretty bad. When going to Euphoria it would get me to 2.75 which is starting to look like it might be ok. And the Utopia is 80 ohm so it would be ratio of 4 on Euphoria, which would probably result in something like slight bass boost and otherwise be fine.
Oooooh thatâs sad. I just thought I might get lucky and find someone who could just try the combo, play 2-3 bass rich songs and see if itâs same failure as you experienced with the RAD-0.
Yea the high impedance headphones are incredible with OTLâs, I have the WA2 for close to 10 years probably. HD800S was perfect pairing. I use HD650 with it all the time. HD660S (150ohms) still works well, but one can already notice the bass boost as the DF is getting low with these, but itâs not causing any major problems yet.
Will probably rather wait for some nice deal on Euphoria.
I will cut it here since itâs getting kind of off-topic with regards to Elise I guess.
Thank you for warm welcome
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Itâs rated for 32-600 ohms so itâd likely be fine. Upscale Audio has a live chat open on weekdays so you can ask about synergy as well. And Lukasz Feliks is always open to questions if you email Feliks support. I like the Clears with the Echo, but they do have a bit more body. Not over bloated at all IMO, but of course the Elise is in a completely different part of the market for performance. Headfonics also wrote quite positively of the Elears on Elise. Think it was on the OG version to be fair.
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Thank you for info about the Echo. The other amps are even more confusing, the Espressivo has power output double the Elise and Echo is nearly double also.
Maybe I should just get the Echo 
Something I did not consider at all.
I actually asked Feliks audio already about Elise paired with Empyreans and Clears and here is the answer I received from Lukasz:
These are very nice headphones but indeed need the right type of amplifier to bring best in them. The way we build our OTLâs is to support planar headphones as good as possible - Elise will be very good with Clear, and satisfactory with Empyrean. However best match for Empyrean youâd need to go with Euforia or Euforia Anniversary Edition, these amps really sing together well with Empyrean.
Reading this, it should⊠be alright. I just donât understand it, how can it be complete mess on WA2 with high-end tubes while being âvery goodâ with another OTL amp which also has very high output impedance. Plus then I hear Marcello talking about how RAD-0 is just terrible with it, which doesnât help in building my confidence either.
Maybe itâs much more complicated and I just donât get it as non-engineer.
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@Flisker A quick google search and I found this explanation:
âWith OTL amps, the connected load impedance (headphones) makes all the difference. Thatâs not because of the impedance interaction - itâs because the headphone impedance combined with the output coupling capacitors forms a textbook-classic RC circuit . Such a circuit is frequency-dependent for current flow. IOW, frequencies too low will not pass (high-pass filter). In the case of typical headphone impedances, even 470uf means bass cutoff is beginning at about 110Hz. At 20Hz, itâs down by more than 1dB. That doesnât sound like a lot, but remember that weâre used to ruler-flat responses in amplifiers from subsonic to almost 40-50KHz, or more. There are phase distortions that occur well above that 110Hz, meaning the bass is affected well into the range where 32 ohm headphones would be affected
For comparisonâs sake, many OTL amps use only 220uf electrolytic output capacitors. They get away with this because they expect people to use high-impedance headphones with it
As you can see, even not counting for any phase distortions, bass is severely affected at almost every impedance except for 300 ohm.â
I 
% can confirm the 29 ohm Rad-0 does not sound good from the Elise. We talked about the Euphoria likely being a better fit, and Feliks also recommended it for your headphones. With that said⊠from one of our membersâŠ
@andris is selling his Euphoria if you wanted to try that routeâŠ
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Paging @Jsim. I donât think Empyrean would be too great on anything but Euforia from what others say. Warm OTLs sound great to me so I lost interest hearing the Espressivo was more neutral. It wouldnât be surprising if it out performed in every way given the price difference. Just thought might as well keep saving for the Elise.
Edit: really glad I chose the Echo. A couple reviewers mention Espressivo treble being somewhat clinical occasionally getting a bit hot
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Digging through my emails I found this thinking you may get use out of it.
I would seriously go for Elise MK2 if you have the patience to save for it. Echo is mind blowing to me with itâs warm euphony, and works great with Clears (so should all Feliks amps), but is more for people upgrading from Valhalla 2 or wanting their first premium OTL.
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Oh, that is very interesting, so if I understand it right, at least on some level, then the output capacitors also play major role in this. So maybe WA2 is not playing well with Clears because they didnât expect anyone to use 50 ohm headphone with it and so they used capacitors that are only suited for high impedance headphones.
@SleepyRhythms, thank you that is certainly helpful.
Actually this afternoon I was like ⊠screw it, I will just buy it. I have offer for decent price here in EU. But turned out the seller doesnât know how to use paypal, didnât have verified account and so the transaction got refunded Hopefully we can make it happen somehow and Iâll update you guys on this topic if I get it in the end. Hopefully it just works great with Clears as Lukasz says.
Iâm very much interested in that warm tube sound, so it should be perfect fit for me.
I also have new Tung-Sol 5998âs on the way and have many other tubes that I would be able to roll, since the same power tubes are used in WA2.
Once again thank you for all the tips.
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Itâs a high pass filter circuit.
Iâd like to point out that itâs not like they can just simply pick a capacitor that will work with lower impedance headphones instead. Itâs just not that simple. The capacitor has specific values for reasons that make the circuit work.
The feeling I got from your reply was one of Woo just making a bad part selection. I donât think thatâs the case.
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Yeah, what Lukasz says about the Elise vs Euforia is exactly how I experienced both the Elise and Euforia with the Empyrean, which is my primary pair of headphones.
The Elise is good, but with the Euforia there is that synergistic âclickâ where everything sounds just right. To me, at least. I ended up putting my money where my mouth is, and owned the Euforia for 5 months so far. My opinions about it havenât changed, it still puts a smile on my face every time.
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And Thanks to @Jsim for the review of the Euforia as it pushed me to also pull the trigger. I splurged for the AE and I have to say itâs amazing with the Empyrean as you promised it would be!
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Thatâs great to hear man, congrats! 
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Feliks Elise, finally arrived.
tldr: Holy Schiit, this is some incredible polish engineering witchcraft.
First I will start with stating that my expectations were low / mediocre, I did not expect too much, honestly I bought it because I love the WA2 and Clears and it just doesnât pair well naturally, due to impedance issues and I had to go thru all kind of loops to get it working somehow. And there was so much hype about this amp so I wouldnât be able to sleep if I did not try it out.
I started my testing as I usually do, with the legendary HD650âs, paired with some Tung Sol 7236 power tubes, that came with the amp from previous owner. Didnât really bother with stock tubes since those are kind of low-end as far as I know.
I just wanted to know if the amp works first and let it warm up properly, there were some weird cracks in one of the driver tubes which scared quite a bit, but seemed to go away after some time.
When I started my âcriticalâ listening session I kind of⊠could not focus, it sounded so good that I just listened in amazement, mesmerized. Itâs like talking to some incredibly attractive girl while struggling to pay proper attention to actual content of conversation. Just staring at her ⊠
Instead of going thru 5-6 test tracks, I spend about hour just enjoying the music. Till I remembered that the new Tung Sol 5998âs arrived yesterday and were amazing in WA2, so I swapped the tubes and those are just one of the best so, it got even better, better bass and now perfectly smooth treble. That led to another hour 2 hours of listening, lost track of time⊠completely forgetting that I got this for the Clear Proâs not for 650âs.
Iâm waking up from this Elise trip, plugging in Clears with curiosity ⊠btw this is what I was using to EQ down the completely busted damping factor on WA2 with Clears, and it was still loose and boomy on some tracks, but allowed me to listen to them and enjoy them on many other tracks.
So, Clears are in, exclusive mode, no EQ and ⊠wow, the bass is actually tight, well textured with strong attack, this is crazy. And in terms of power, thinking this might not have enough power⊠Iâm at 9 oâclock and Taylor Swift - Wildest Dreams are clipping the driver if I go higher I feel like I plugged in some sensitive IEMâs, not full size headphones. This thing has ton of power with 5998âs. 10 oâclock or higher would blow my head off. And itâs similar story with HD650, 9-10 is very loud and thatâs coming from someone who listens very loud in general, I would say.
I donât know what to say about this, itâs insane, itâs super smooth, bass is tight, midrange is all that you would expect from high-end OTL, this is well worth the price tag they put on it. And I would recommend it to everyone who is looking for that smooth enjoyable experience.
I just canât believe what is coming out of this black box. Every single track I run, itâs amazing from Slipknot to Vivaldi.
Lukas from Feliks certainly wasnât lying when he said that it will work âwellâ with Clears.
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This is the most wonderful thing to experience in this hobby. The Elise is definitely one of those amps that has the ability to take you there. 
Thanks for sharing your impressions, and happy listening!
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âSo, Clears are in, exclusive mode, no EQ and ⊠wow, the bass is actually tight, well textured with strong attack, this is crazy. And in terms of power, thinking this might not have enough power⊠Iâm at 9 oâclock and Taylor Swift - Wildest Dreams are clipping the driver if I go higher I feel like I plugged in some sensitive IEMâs, not full size headphones. This thing has ton of power with 5998âs. 10 oâclock or higher would blow my head off. And itâs similar story with HD650, 9-10 is very loud and thatâs coming from someone who listens very loud in general, I would say.â
First congrats! I just went through the same experience you did as new Euforia owner and Iâm still just giddy about having it! I also have the 5998âs and the power they put out is something to be respected. I have Empyreanâs which are pretty easy to drive and I listened for a few days at 9 or 10 oclock and actually developed a bit of Tinnitus as a result so I now have to really watch the nob to protect my ears.
Enjoy the Amp as it really is something special!
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Yea, this is a paradise, but one has to be mindful about going too far, for too long.
Iâm again just listening to HD650 today, itâs so good that Iâm lazy to take out Clears.
I will probably just sell the WA2, I had for nearly decade and loved so much, this amp is something Iâve been looking for, for a long time. And itâs great that there is also the Euforia, so when I go crazy in future wanting to upgrade, there will be an option
Thank you, it indeed is, very special.
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