[Xecuter]

Anyone chasing avvt 2a3 nos nib. I'm thinking of selling a few pairs off. Pm me.

Xec

 

[bigfatpaulie]

Anyone chasing avvt 2a3 nos nib. I'm thinking of selling a few pairs off. Pm me.

Xec

Jeepers... Wow.

 

[AudioDoctor]

am I not seeing it, or are the prices not listed on the page for this amp?

 

[Donald North]

Email me for current pricing

 

[AudioDoctor]

Email me for current pricing

I will do that, thanks.

 

[ductrung3993]

Stellaris #13 in the house!


Doing some initial listening with the stock tubes before trying some tube rolling
Pictures dont do this amp justice, it looks absolutely gorgeous . The build quality and finish is incredible , and i think this is the first time ive ever complemented the build quality of any amp.
Time for some sleepless nights

#15 checking in. Just using stock tubes now to see how it sounds. For those interested in the amp, Donald received my deposit on Jul 16th. I got the amp Oct 1st. Looks like he was building others (#14?) but that was only a 2.5 month turnaround. To be fair his original assessment was ~4-5 months. Great job.

Hi folks, any comparison note on Stellaris vs Studio?

 

[808cityill]

Anyone interested in a gold grade Pearl 6N1P please contact me via PM.

 

[AudioDoctor]

High end cables are a matter of preference and most important synergy with the rest of the system. At some point all cables plateau and you choose them based on preferences, it's kind of pointless to ask others for references. I'm running a full wywires platinum complement for transport, IC and HP cable. I find them exceedingly neutral and work well to enhance the Stellaris qualities.

Having owned both the Stratus and Stellaris for a while I compared them in detail on the same tubes both fed from Pavane, Stellaris balanced and Stratus single ended both with wywires platinum and wywires silver power cables for as much apples to apples as possible.

The first thing that strikes me is how clean the Stellaris sounds. It resolves perfectly every last bit of information in songs where the Stratus can get confused on fast passed stuff with lots and lots of detail.
Bass extends lower and is flat from subbass to upped bass. The Stratus is has less sub bass and more mid bass with less control. I never had an instance where the Stellaris didn't have anything but the right amount of bass. Stratus is hit and miss on some songs where the increased mid bass can be good or bad.
Tone is bang on the same.
Soundstage is wider and deeper with better placement and pin point accuracy. Because of this I've heard subtle instruments on familiar tracks not present in the Stratus. A super faint voice somewhere in the background that I couldn't hear before for example.
Same amount of mid/highs balance.
Increased blackness and the quietest amp I've owned
Stellaris is faster and never looses composure.
The best treble extension I've heard from any amp. You'll never hear more delicate, detailed or lifelike cymbals.

For tube rolling, AVVT is king
Fivre/RCA single plates and to a lesser extent KR are second. You loose that glorious soundstage and a bit of extension at the top but in most other regards it's quite close.
Ken Rad smoked glass has a smaller stage again but superb bass extension and smoothness. Detail is a bit muffled but has a solid mid range. Meaty is the word to use, someone said it's the hiphop tube and I agree.
Sylvania dual flat plates has a wider stage than the Ken Rads with detail somewhere in between the Kens and single plates though bass extension isn't as good as either. Great tube for instrumental, not so much for rock.
EML Solids sound thick. Midrange is good with punchy bass but detail is the worst so far. Never liked them on the Stellaris or Stratus.
Sylvania S plates while an upgrade to stock doesn't do justice to the amp.

422A is my preferred rectifier and Donald modded the amp to use it correctly. U52 is too warm in the bass for me and other 5U4G/VT244 don't have the same technicalities. Haven't tried any 274B/GZ32 metal but looking at the specs for those tubes I wouldn't want to.
6N1P-E is the best of the bunch but I'm not really satisfied with this family of tubes. High end extension is not a strong point of the 6N1P family. 6BQ7A sound too thin to me but some highlights include CBS horseshoe getter and Sylvania 6BQ7A gold branded.

Having owned the Stellaris close to a year now I can say it's above the Stratus in shear musical enjoyment. I've owned a few TOTL amps(GSX-MK2,WA5,Moon 600i,Liquid Glass,Stratus,Apex Teton, Apex Peak etc.) and all of them are a level or two below with the Teton being the closest even against the Stratus.

What the Stellaris does is perfectly blend tube qualities(smoothness, soundstage, air) with the best SS traits(flat response, hugely dynamic etc.)

I love my Stellaris and will never part with it. I'm now working on the rest of my chain, this amp is so resolving that any small change is quite obvious.

I've even modded mine to remote control it. It's surprisingly easy to work on.

How did you do this?

I wonder if this is something I can have done when it is being built...

 

[msiklvr]

Has anyone listened to the Abyss 1266, in any of the configurations, and the Susvara with the Stellaris? Would you mind sharing your impressions?
Thanks!

 

[m17xr2b]

DIY and hard work. You need a motorised pot, the equivalent is TKD 2CP-2511 MC and either a hole drilled for the external connection or be creative and put everything inside. In my case I routed using one of the small air vents as to not drill the beautiful chassis.
The hard part is the Arduino setup with a motor control unit and to program it. If you search you'll find what I did on another forum.

 

[Failed Engineer]

Curiosity took the best of me and I just picked up a second hand one locally. What's the optimal way to connect a balanced DAC (with only XLR output) to the single ended input?

 

[m17xr2b]

Ideally you'd do the same as the balanced stellaris, input transformers. The Jense PC-2XR and other models are just what you need.

 

[Joao Paulo Martins]

Number #16 comming in !

 

[adamaley]

Stellaris #001 in the house!!! Kindly delivered personally by none other than the man himself, thank you very much Donald. As a current Stratus owner who loves that amp with the 800s, all I can say is that the Stellaris takes the 800s's to a whole nother level!!!

A million thanks Donald for producing such an exquisite amp!! Well worth the wait!!

Beautiful setup. Is that a balanced Golden Gate I spy on the lower shelf? If so, what are your preferred tubes in it?

 

[zach915m]

Curiosity took the best of me and I just picked up a second hand one locally. What's the optimal way to connect a balanced DAC (with only XLR output) to the single ended input?

Likely the "easiest" way without sending the amp back to Donald and paying for tbe upgrade is to use one of these: https://ampsandsound.com/collections/accessories/products/xlr-to-rca-converters

I've done a lot of A/B to make sure it's "working" and I've been surprised how much an improvement these make, aside from allowing you to use your XLR out on your dac instead of rca - the transformers in these really clean up the signal (blacker background) and increase dynamics.