believe that the cover of the January issue of "High Fidelity" (January 2016, No. 141), turned out very nice. That was mainly attributed to the beautiful sculpture of the Silver Luna integrated amplifier, a photo that we placed there. Bearing a large logo of the Fezz Audio brand, it sounded just great, it was very nicely crafted, and for a low – as for this type of device - cost. It utilized classic vacuum tubes operated in push-pull, AB class, the EL34 pentodes, driven by equally classical low power triodes, the ECC83. Both types of tubes were originally designed for application in audio systems.
The amplifier looked particularly good, due to its red housing. The company offers four basic colors of the chassis paintwork. Attention was also drawn by the low profil cans, covering the power and output speaker transformers. This is where the secret of Fezz Audio is nested: toroidal transformers. This type of transformers is rarely used in tube amplifiers, mainly because of their excessive cost. A yet other important reason is simply plain habit - historically it were the E-I based sheet iron core transformers that were first to the market, and so it stayed.
But Fezz Audio proposes a vastly different solution, mainly because it is a brand owned by a manufacturer of toroidal transformers: Toroidy Transformers Lachowski. Therefore, they can produce exactly the transformers they need, and whats more important – at the best possible price – the price of own production costs. Other producers have to buy them from external suppliers, relying on their reputation. This is the reason that Fezz Audio amplifiers are relatively small - especially the covering cans, which are enclosures for the transformers, can really be low in profile.
TITANIA
The Silver Luna – the model which opened the initial offering of this manufacturer, has quickly found supporters among both reviewers, shops, and among the most important of groups, ie. Music Lovers. But along with the popularity, also came the challenges, however. It turned out that in some systems, this amplifier has a too high power, and in others, its power was too low. For the former, the company has now designed an amplifier called Mira Ceti, which is based on 300B tubes and works in Single-Ended mode. An amplifier, the premiere of which is planned for the November exhibition, the Audio Video Show 2016. This indeed shall be a unique device - it too will be based upon toroidal transformers at its output. Whats more, the manufacturer represents that such will be the world's first tube amplifier with this type of transformer output! As for latter systems, in need of higher power, a different model was created, with the meaningfull name Titania.
At first glance, Silver Luna and Titania look very similar. But suffice to give them a second glance, to recognize that we are dealing with a different project. This amplifier is larger than its predecessor - broader and much deeper - but its height is almost identical, and that is why it still seems so light, at least optically. Its bigger depth was enforced by much larger transformers, which needed be used here. In place of the EL34 pentodes, the output stage now uses the KT88 streaming tetrodes. They require stronger transformers: both for power supply and output. On "paper", the power increased only but slightly, from 35W to 45W, but there is a trick here – The power of the Silver Luna is specified at 1% distortion, whereas for the Titania, at only 0.2%. So, if we were to apply similar criteria as typically adopted for tube amplifier specifications, i.e. power measurements at THD = 3%, then the difference in power would be much greater.
The power transformer has been sealed in a round shielding/damping cover, just as in the Silver Luna, but the output transformers have now received stylish triangular covers. The finishings are very good, and only the transformer covers could have been better (specifically at the joints). The large transformers have enforced placing all the tubes in a line. Two of the push-pull KT88, working in class AB, with the single ECC83 placed between them; This small double triode operates both as a preamplifier section, but also serves as a driver for the output tubes.
The amplifier has three line inputs, unbalanced (RCA), the choice between which is made with the aluminum knob on the front panel. The second knob changes the volume. The amplifier does not have a remote control. In its construction, high-quality, low-voltage Nichicon Gold capacitors are used, high-voltage Vishay capacitors, and polypropylene WIMA as coupling capacitors. The output transformers have a wide bandwidth, so the frequency response of the entire amplifier is as high as 103 Hz (at -3 dB). The Total Distortion of the unit at full output power of 45 W is a small 0.2%. The Titania looks very nice and neat. For the test, we prepared it together with the RCA FAC01 interconnects, also produced by Fezz Audio.
MACIEJ LACHOWSKI
Constructor
The Titania is, thus far, the most powerful amplifier within the Fezz Audio offering. We decided to create such a construct, because feedback has reached us with indications that in combination with the Silver Luna, issues were occasionally experienced when driving low efficiency loudspeakers. But still, it was our aim so that the purchase of a Fezz amplifier does not ruin the budget of a potential customer. For this reason, we used inexpensive KT88 tubes, the Russian production by Electro-Harmonix. They are characterized by a very good quality to price ratio.
As in the case of Silver Luna, the Titania is based on toroidal output and mains transformers as produced by Toroidy.pl. With the experience gained whilst designing transformers for our previous amplifier, we can now boast about even better parameters. The bandwidth - below 20 Hz at the lower end of the frequency range, and above 100 kHz at the top, with a very low THD of
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