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Post by jackorion on Jun 16, 2021 11:51:18 GMT
Hi everyone,
The review of the new Felix 2 from Grace Design has just gone live on Acoustic Review:
as some of you know I have been using the original Felix for a few years, so I was keen to try the v2 out - there's quite a few small differences (effects loops etc) but the big difference for me was the variable phase control, which really helped dial in my K&K/DPA combo - hopefully you'll agree that the plugged in tone from this and the Felix 2 sounds really good!
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Jun 17, 2021 9:31:52 GMT
Excellent review, as always, Ben. Looks to be quite an amazingly versatile piece of kit, but at an eye-watering price! Keith
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Post by jackorion on Jun 17, 2021 10:23:34 GMT
Excellent review, as always, Ben. Looks to be quite an amazingly versatile piece of kit, but at an eye-watering price! Keith yeah it's not cheap that's for sure! But I can't think of much else out there with the combination of features and build quality...
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leoroberts
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Post by leoroberts on Jun 17, 2021 21:16:43 GMT
I won't pretend to understand 80% of what you said, Ben, but it's quite clear that you're smitten
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Post by andyhowell on Jun 18, 2021 6:55:21 GMT
Impressive but at over £1K ir peobably isn't an option formost of us!
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Post by jackorion on Jun 18, 2021 7:50:55 GMT
I won't pretend to understand 80% of what you said, Ben, but it's quite clear that you're smitten The gobbledegook is just there to convince you I know what I'm talking about
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Post by jackorion on Jun 18, 2021 7:56:23 GMT
Impressive but at over £1K ir peobably isn't an option formost of us! Yeah and I think I address that in the review - I paid for my Felix 1 by selling off a lot of unused electric gear, plus my previous plugged in rig - an Orchid DI (£200 new), an Empress ParaEQ (which was about £200 new), a BlueSky Reverb (£275 new now!), plus the pedal board and powersupply (£200 together) - so those bits of kit had cost me close to the price of the Felix in the first place, and the Felix sounded better so it made sense to me! but I get that, for a lot of people, it's not the right bit of kit...
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Post by andyhowell on Jun 18, 2021 9:09:43 GMT
Impressive but at over £1K ir peobably isn't an option formost of us! Yeah and I think I address that in the review - I paid for my Felix 1 by selling off a lot of unused electric gear, plus my previous plugged in rig - an Orchid DI (£200 new), an Empress ParaEQ (which was about £200 new), a BlueSky Reverb (£275 new now!), plus the pedal board and powersupply (£200 together) - so those bits of kit had cost me close to the price of the Felix in the first place, and the Felix sounded better so it made sense to me! but I get that, for a lot of people, it's not the right bit of kit... I'd be interested in a review of the new Headway EDM2 — pretty sure they would send you a review copy.
Their products do sound good and the new EDM2 HE has full tone shaping on both channels which is tee first time they've done this. In practice this didn't really bother me as the eq really shapes the pickup but this new unit might give a more cost effective alternative for those wanting something of the useabilty of the Grace.
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Post by jackorion on Jun 18, 2021 9:36:52 GMT
Yeah and I think I address that in the review - I paid for my Felix 1 by selling off a lot of unused electric gear, plus my previous plugged in rig - an Orchid DI (£200 new), an Empress ParaEQ (which was about £200 new), a BlueSky Reverb (£275 new now!), plus the pedal board and powersupply (£200 together) - so those bits of kit had cost me close to the price of the Felix in the first place, and the Felix sounded better so it made sense to me! but I get that, for a lot of people, it's not the right bit of kit... I'd be interested in a review of the new Headway EDM2 — pretty sure they would send you a review copy.
Their products do sound good and the new EDM2 HE has full tone shaping on both channels which is tee first time they've done this. In practice this didn't really bother me as the eq really shapes the pickup but this new unit might give a more cost effective alternative for those wanting something of the useabilty of the Grace.
I'd also be interested in reviewing the EDM2 - I'll send them an email... I have to say their manual is the most confusing manual I've ever read! I was trying to find out if I could use my stereo system with the EDM2 (it requires power on the ring of a stereo cable) and I think I've worked out that it won't work - looks like input 2 is stereo in, but you can only apply the 11v to the ring of channel 1 (which isn't a stereo input)...
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Post by andyhowell on Jun 19, 2021 8:38:45 GMT
Certainly on the previous 2 channel Headway’s you can use a stereo cable out so I would imagine you can here.
The guys at Headway generally don’t like internal mics as they feel you get a better sound with an external mic. This is where they fell down as people with internal mics wanted Eq on both channels - which they now seem to have delivered.
It would be good to here your take on it.
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Post by andyhowell on Jun 19, 2021 8:43:13 GMT
Yep - the stereo channel in socket is still there so you can use ring and tip in and the unit will automatically split into 2 channels.
I’ve always thought Headway were a company who understand acoustic sound. Years ago they sent me two preamps to review - I bought one and they left the other one with me so I guess they will be happy to help.
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Post by jackorion on Jun 19, 2021 10:17:25 GMT
Yep - the stereo channel in socket is still there so you can use ring and tip in and the unit will automatically split into 2 channels. I’ve always thought Headway were a company who understand acoustic sound. Years ago they sent me two preamps to review - I bought one and they left the other one with me so I guess they will be happy to help. I emailed Headway yesterday and I think they are going to send me some preamps for review - it also looks like, on further investigation, that input 1 on the EDB2 is stereo but it combines the two signals to mono and routs them to the ch1 EQ section, whereas input 2 splits the stereo signal into two separate paths. The issue with this is that the 11v power (which is needed to power my internal DPA mic) is only applicable to ch1... So, I 'think' if I had a Y cable/adaptor, I could plug the tip signal (my K&K) into channel 2, and the ring signal (my DPA) into Ch1, and then set the 11v to the 'tip' of Ch1 (which is actually the ring signal from my jack socket, if that makes sense?) which would power the DPA and allow me to EQ the two signals separately... we shall see...
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Post by andyhowell on Jun 20, 2021 8:24:34 GMT
Some times it’s great to be a gear nurd :-)
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Post by jackorion on Jun 20, 2021 10:08:44 GMT
Some times it’s great to be a gear nurd :-) although sometimes I wish I was the sort of person who plugged in the generic fishman pickup that was included in their guitar and goes 'wow it sounds great!'
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Post by andyhowell on Jun 21, 2021 8:21:29 GMT
Some times it’s great to be a gear nurd :-) although sometimes I wish I was the sort of person who plugged in the generic fishman pickup that was included in their guitar and goes 'wow it sounds great!' A few years ago I had to play with an old Martin guitar that had long been retired. It has a Fishman. I took along a Headway preamp. The venue — a rather large community hall — was having problems with its electricity supply and I couldn't plug into the mains where `i needed to. I simply went direct into the PA. But the sound guy really knew what he was doing and I was astonished by the sound that came back.
However, relying on your own gear is probably a better thing that hoping that sound guy will turn up everywhere ;-)
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