The Elise combined with the HD800S and I’m hearing a lot of small quiet details in songs that I haven’t heard before. Fingers on strings, breathing of the singer, and some quiet background noise from the recording.
5 Likes
Question for all elise owners here. Has anyone noticed what sounds like a faint 60hz mains hum coming from your elise? I’ve tried everything to get rid of it in my mk2. I’m in a new house build that doesn’t have ground issues. I even went as far as trying it on its own isolated circuit far away from any other electronics plugged into a power conditioner and humx ground loop eliminator, and even with nothing plugged into the input and output i can hear a faint hum. It does get a little louder if i raise the volume past 9 o-clock and if i place the volume at max i can definitely hear a different type of buzzing. I tried swapping out tubes to a different pair of svetlana power tubes and the same driver tubes used in the euforia to no effect. I’ve sent it back to upscale and the person that tested it says there’s nothing wrong with it, but i want to them to check again and make sure they are using closed-backs. I can hear the hum with pretty much all my cans, ZMF verite open and closed and hd600. I’m sure upscale will take care of me, just curious if anyone else here has had issues with the elise. I know of two others that had similar issues and i suspect the transformer is the root cause here.
1 Like
Edit: Hum that gets louder as you crank the volume usually indicates some kind of noise being injected in the connection cables, or the DAC that’s connected to it. Not always though. If the power supply inside the amp is injecting the noise into the signal path before the potentiometer, that will do it too.
3 Likes
No such issue on my Elise 2.
1 Like
I agree, however, it still does this with nothing plugged into the inputs or outputs. Upscale audio is telling me there is nothing wrong with the unit after i sent it back. I wonder if i have some dc offset issues in my power.
1 Like
Got mine as a Christmas gift and are very happy with it since. Looking forward to do some tube rolling down the line. But first I want to get a new DAC to pair it with. Was looking at a Bifrost 2. has anyone other recommendations that are worth considering?
In the beginning I also had a humming sound which is now gone. Think I am over the recommended burn in time for the tubes.
Looking forward to discuss tube options here.
1 Like
From my experience, Ares II stomps all over Bifrost 2, but note, that comes from someone who really doesn’t like sharp sound.
1 Like
Thanks for the Rec. Have also read about the AresII. I also don’t like analytical, too bright and harsh highes. Although it should be detailed enough.
From what I have read so far. The AresII is the most relaxed and smooth sounding, where the Topping A90 is the most sort of clinical. Where the Bifrost is kind of in the middle but leaning more towards the Topping.
Will look into the Ares a bit more.
Yea you pretty much nailed it.
Topping A90 is a … uff … not much else to say there. Bifrost is great overall but quite sharp, while Ares 2 is just perfect. To my ears, it’s incredible, if I upgrade from that someday, then I just get the Terminator and I’m done. It’s really spectacular for the price. Denafrips is killing it.
Oh and, they are also happy to screw around with customs, which is awesome. Got the package value marked @ 90$ instead of 700$ or so.
3 Likes
Thanks for the info. That will safe some $$
1 Like
I’d say your impressions of the Bifrost 2 must be influenced by a synergy thing. I wouldn’t label it as sharp.
Just my opinion though. Everybody’s ears are different
2 Likes
It did not sound as sharp as many other D/S DACs, but still was too much for my ear. I want to listen at decent volume and not be scared when some sharper note is coming.
I was big fan of old Bifrost 1 Multibit, had it as my main basically since it came out (that’s a lot of time 
), that one is really smooth, but the new Bifrost 2 is not at all smooth as the old one.
Spent quite a lot of time trying to like it, I really wanted to keep it, love the company, but just couldn’t in the end.
As for rest of the chain, I was mostly using Elise 2, Woo WA2 and SP200 w/ HD650 and Focal Clear Pros.
Then… the Ares 2 arrived and 2-3 songs in… I was like ok, forget trying to love Bifrost 2, just sell all the other DACs, this hunt is over.
2 Likes
That’s great that you found what you were looking for. I’ve moved on from the Bifrost 2 as well, but I just wouldn’t describe it the same way you did. But I’ve never heard it through an Elise either, so they might just not mesh well.
I agree it’s frustrating at times, you want to love a piece of gear, either because you are fan of another piece of gear from the same company, or someone who’s opinion you respect recommends it. I’ve built up anticipation for something, and as soon as it shows up, I hook it up and disappointment hits hard and fast. You can’t get over that initial impression. Better to just move on sometimes.
3 Likes
I felt like the unit I got was broken or something, because indeed not many people described it as sharp. And the guy I sold it to, was very happy with it also.
My guess is that I really really hate any kind of peaky/edgy/sharper presentation of music, and so going from the old BF to this one was kind of shock, and it was very obvious, I could easily tell it apart when A/Bing, wasn’t like I’m not sure or I feel like maybe it is or it is not hot in treble region. But aside from this “issue” it was way superior to old Bifrost in all other regards.
2 Likes
Happy Weekend!!! New review
11 Likes
Hey guys,
Just wanted to share my experience with new driver tubes.
I kept having issues with one of the original driver tubes, prolly got damaged during shipping or something, it was cracking loudly from time to time, which was super annoying.
So I finally decided to buy new pair, found PSVane 6-Star recommended dealer to make sure I’m not getting some fake tube (there is even PSVane statement that there are indeed fake ones being sold).
And since I was getting new pair I took a dive I got the Psvane CV181-T-MII/2. Not really expecting much from them since I thought that the original ones were already great.
Turns out that this makes very big difference, I’m kind of stunned. It is expensive pair for sure, but damn, I feel like it’s even a wrong move to offer the amp without these and only offer them as upgrade.
I’m very impressed, it expands soundstage quite a lot, makes the experience more natural and holographic. Would be curious if anyone also tried these in Elise ? It makes bigger difference than the power tube. These gold guys with stock power tubes still produce incredible sound. Switching to TS5998’s for power tubes changes the tone a little but it’s not that dramatic difference as switching the “lower-end” driver PSVane for this gold one.
Source I got em from : Psvane CV181-T-MII/2 / 6SN7GT gemachtes Paar
Hope someone gives them try also and enjoys them as much as I do 
9 Likes
I received my Psvane tubes from the same shop last week; I am very pleased with them and the service I got. I will look there first, next time I am out tube shopping.
2 Likes
I use those psvane tubes with my elise too. Your description sounds like how I would say the changes are going from the stock psvane tubes to the cv181 tubes. It’s subtle, but present for me.
3 Likes
Hey guys, It’s been a while since my last post here 
I pre-ordered this last week and I’m looking to roll the power tubes but I have no prior experience when it comes to power tubes nor I know what to expect in terms of sonic change. I’m hoping you guys can suggest something as a starter.
Psvane cv181 mk.II premium will be the input tubes. I see a lot of people running this with their Elise. I think it’s a pretty safe choice considering I love how this tube sounds with my LYR3.
The rest of the chain are BF2, ZMF VO, Beyer T5, Ananda, Meze Classic, and Elegia.
Thanks!
2 Likes