HEED ELIXIR INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

There are some very stable points in our world, music being one of them. Music reproduction by Heed is another one. For more than a quarter century, we walk our own way, to show everyone that the world is far from flat.

The Elixir is the essence of how we think about music reproduction. This integrated amplifier puts down four important cornerstones that show provide a playground for the listener. A preamplifier with its dedicated output, a power amplifier with plenty of juice to drive anything reasonable, a phono preamplifier to re-discover those black discs, and a headphone amplifier with way too much talents for a secondary function only. But we have built them into one box because these are the basic functions everyone should experience in “My First Hi-Fi System”.

As it happens, it is well enough for the second and the third as well…

The Elixir has a neat place amongst our Transcap technology amplifiers. It is the purest music performer of all, without any technical compromise and presents the music effortlessly. Besides the power amplifier, the headphone stage also benefits from the basic idea of the Transcap technology. Class-A, darlington-driven, capacitor-coupled outputs feed your headphones like nothing else you have experienced before.

The MM phono stage is based on the Questar’s circuit. As the standalone amp, this integrated incarnation is thick and warm and provides a great overall amplification for nearly all kind of MM cartridges. It’s a very easy way to find your way back into the analogue domain, and be a lifetime captive of the black vinyl.

SPECIFICATIONS

Inputs: 4x line analogue / 1x MM phono
Outputs: 1x stereo speaker / 1x preamplifier out / 1x 6.35mm headphones out
Freq. response (speakers): 10 Hz – 110 kHz
Freq. response (preamp): 3.5 Hz – 300 kHz
Freq. response (headphones): 3.5 Hz – 320 kHz
Input impedance (line): 10 kΩ
Input impedance (MM): 47 kΩ / 100 pF
Input sensitivity: 135 mV
Power (8Ω): 50 W / channel (55 W peak / ch)
Power (4Ω): 65 W / channel (90 W peak / ch)
Max. consumption: 150 W
Idle consumption: 20 W
Weight: 6 kg
Dimensions (WxHxD): 22 x 8.5 x 36 cm

Conclusion from a review from Stereophile:
"Some reviews write themselves: Some audio products, created by designers who understand and implement the key elements required to make music sing, are tuned finely enough to be able to let the music speak. The Heed Elixir is such a product: a versatile integrated amplifier whose strengths include musical momentum, a touchable and delicious midrange, first-row re-creation of voices, and a very large soundstage. The Elixir produced good microdynamics, and its big'n'bouncy macrodynamics presented me with endless surprises from my favorite reference recordings. That so much amplifier is available for .... should have music lovers dancing, unclothed and unhinged, across fields and meadows, melodies on their lips, as creatures great and small join them in song. Incautiously, happily recommended."
Full review here.