There's a new hi-fi brand in town. Fell Audio is a Cumbria-based, family-owned business backed by the 50-year-old specialist retailer, Peter Tyson, and aims to 'disrupt' the market by offering affordable hi-fi separates that are manufactured in the UK.
The current line-up includes the Fell Amp integrated stereo amplifier costing £599 and the Fell Disc CD player at £499, with more components coming later in 2025. At launch, the Fell Audio products are available in the UK only, from Peter Tyson, Amazon UK and direct from the brand's website, but we're told more retailers and Europe (and beyond) availability will appear in 2025.
Fell Audio's designs are inspired by the 'golden era' of hi-fi from the 1970s (note the green LEDs) but combined with modern touches such as touch-capacitative buttons and Bluetooth streaming.
The brand's aim is to reach the "modern music lover" and promises "authentic sound and a solid build" for affordable prices. These new products have been designed in-house and are manufactured by a "trusted and time-proven" hi-fi manufacturer based in the UK. Everything from the product and packaging design, the metalwork, injection-moulding and painting to the PCBs and assembly are all undertaken in the UK, while many of the components are also sourced locally. This allows the brand to offer a long repair window and reduce its carbon footprint, says Fell, along with a five-year warranty for the products.
The brand has been developing these products over a period of three years, and thanks to Peter Tyson's access to various brands and products across various budgets, Fell Audio's engineers have undertaken extensive benchmarking and comparative testing to create competitive products that offer "unmatched specifications for British-made budget devices".
On to the products themselves, the Fell Amp integrated is powered by Class D amplification with a quoted 89 watts per channel into 8 ohms. It has three analogue RCA line-level inputs and two digital inputs (optical and coaxial), along with preamp and subwoofer outputs. The amp features a built-in moving magnet phono stage, so you can plug your turntable into the phono inputs directly. There is also Bluetooth aptX HD streaming on board, a 6.35mm headphone port and touch-capacitative buttons on the front panel for selecting inputs.
The amp uses an ESS ES9018 DAC chip, along with an advanced 32-bit HyperStream digital architecture and jitter elimination tech to deliver "ultra-low noise and high dynamic range". And, as a nod to even more Britishness, the volume dial goes up to 11.
The Fell Disc features a slot-loading CD player and can play CD-R and CD-RW formats. It uses the same DAC chip as the Amp, and can play digital files up to 24-bit/96kHz. The green dot matrix display dominates the screen alongside playback buttons, and there are optical and coaxial digital outputs at the back. Both products come with dedicated remote controls.
Both products are available in black or silver finishes and can be bought in the UK now. The products can also be demoed in store at Peter Tyson's three locations in the north of England (Newcastle, Workington and Carlisle).
Fell Audio’s Managing Director Matthew Tyson says: “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.”
Fell Audio is coming in at price points that could certainly do with being more populated in the hi-fi world, but it has strong rivals to contend with. At £599, the Fell Amp sees competiton from the likes of the five-star Rega io, Rotel A8 and Arcam A5, while the Fell Disc (£499) sits in between the budget Marantz CD6007 and step-up Arcam CD5, both Award-winning players.
Fell Audio, then, may have cannily positioned itself in the entry-to-mid level price range and could offer a viable alternative to the established brands. It's brave and encouraging to see a new hi-fi brand emerge in today's landscape, so here's hoping Fell Audio delivers on its promise and makes a big impact. We look forward to reviewing the new products in due course.
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