[jimWA]

@jimWA @ogodei What speakers are you using with the Stellaris Special and how has your experience been so far? Thinking of building a nearfield/headphone system around a SSpecial for a small home office room (12 sqm / 130 square feet).

Sorry for my long reply delay, saint.panda!

Here for speakers I've used a single driver open baffle speaker, and a 2-way horn speaker with Altec drivers to good effect. I want to try it out on small LS3/5 monitors (period-original manufacture) which are 15 ohm. I've a couple others to try also which should work well due to their efficiency - a WE755/replica single driver closed cabinet & an Altec 604E concentric horn/woofer in a Utopish Family King cabinet. The sound of SSpecial is exceptional.

In the meantime, I've finally got into headphones and haven't been listening to speakers as much, such that my SO wonders if we can sell some of them...8^)

 

[xand]

Some concerns:
- I've not had the chance to listen to either Studio or Stellaris.
- warranty issue, should anything happen. Am located in Singapore. On the other hand, Woo and JPS have a local distributor/dealer.

Small side issue, but has anyone gotten a "custom" Stellaris made, or is this a simply out of the question kind of thing? I'm thinking it would look amazing in black..

Did you get the Stellaris? In Black?

(I'm in Singapore too lol.)

 

[Roasty]

Did you get the Stellaris? In Black?

(I'm in Singapore too lol.)

I ended up with the woo audio 33. In black.

 

[xand]

I ended up with the woo audio 33. In black.

Thanks!

 

[ogodei]

Well, I'm now glad I didn't spring for the option to allow use of the 422A...8^), but, ogodei, you've now devalued the 422A I wish to sell..... seriously, Donald said he finds the DH rectifiers to sound best, so I took his advice. I've recently put in a Sophia Aqua 274B (this is quite different from a WE 274B, which is not usable in DNA amps) and it sounds first rate to my ears - and it's approved by Donald as ok electrically.

Yes, my poor devalued 422As. I wont write them off yet though, more listening to be done.

 

[Frihed89]

This is a shot in the dark: Can any of you tell me whether any of the Focal headphones do justice to the Stellaris. Do they see into the music better than other premium headphones? In fact, I have found that the Stellaris reproduces music in a fantastic way on a pretty wide variety of headphones, including several that are reasonably priced. Still, I have been thinking about taking the plunge into Focal.

 

[Carlos CPA]

This is a shot in the dark: Can any of you tell me whether any of the Focal headphones do justice to the Stellaris. Do they see into the music better than other premium headphones? In fact, I have found that the Stellaris reproduces music in a fantastic way on a pretty wide variety of headphones, including several that are reasonably priced. Still, I have been thinking about taking the plunge into Focal.

I think the Stellaris and Focal Utopia have tremendous synergy. This is my favorite headphone with this amp. I am currently running Pi2AES > Yggdrasil A2 > Stellaris > Utopia.

The only drawback to the Utopia for me was the stock cable, which I do not care for. I currently use a DanaCables Lazuli Reference with a 4-pin XLR termination, which I highly recommend.

 

[TomSix]

This is a shot in the dark: Can any of you tell me whether any of the Focal headphones do justice to the Stellaris. Do they see into the music better than other premium headphones? In fact, I have found that the Stellaris reproduces music in a fantastic way on a pretty wide variety of headphones, including several that are reasonably priced. Still, I have been thinking about taking the plunge into Focal.

The DNA amps are obviously quality units. Quite attractively classic and minimalist in design. The long-term repairability of these amps should be very good.

Does anyone know if Donald has been actively building and shipping amplifiers as of lately?

I've long been curious to hear of listening comparisons between these fine DNA amplifiers and my own Studio-Six design.

Whatever the case, I hope DNA will continue to build this lovely audio equipment

 

[saint.panda]

This is a shot in the dark: Can any of you tell me whether any of the Focal headphones do justice to the Stellaris. Do they see into the music better than other premium headphones? In fact, I have found that the Stellaris reproduces music in a fantastic way on a pretty wide variety of headphones, including several that are reasonably priced. Still, I have been thinking about taking the plunge into Focal.

The Utopia Stellaris synergy is world class.

 

[bigfatpaulie]

It's a great combo.

Keep in mind that the characteristics of the headphones will remain, regardless of the amp. For example, if a really big head-space is a priority for you, the Focals may not be the choice but if resolution is important they are probably the best there is.

 

[genefruit]

Does anyone know if Donald has been actively building and shipping amplifiers as of lately?

Still building and I'm in the queue. Two months down and four to go.

 

[jimWA]

How energized in the treble are Utopias though? I cannot deal with too much treble and Focal often gets that description it seems (but I have not actually heard any Focal).

So far in my hp foray, I've only used ZMF phones, which sound tremendous and certainly mate well with Stellaris.

A buddy of mine only listens to phones & via vinyl (no digital) and seems to have tried most, I've heard various Audeze there & liked them, as well as an older Sony which is his fav, but no Focals.

 

[helljudgement]

This is a shot in the dark: Can any of you tell me whether any of the Focal headphones do justice to the Stellaris. Do they see into the music better than other premium headphones? In fact, I have found that the Stellaris reproduces music in a fantastic way on a pretty wide variety of headphones, including several that are reasonably priced. Still, I have been thinking about taking the plunge into Focal.

I'd put utopia up there with the most revealing headphones. Paired the utopia with my starlett and it matches beautifully with DNA amps. It rounds out the transients a tad and doesn't mess with with it's tonality unlike the Euphoria.

 

[saint.panda]

How energized in the treble are Utopias though? I cannot deal with too much treble and Focal often gets that description it seems (but I have not actually heard any Focal).

So far in my hp foray, I've only used ZMF phones, which sound tremendous and certainly mate well with Stellaris.

A buddy of mine only listens to phones & via vinyl (no digital) and seems to have tried most, I've heard various Audeze there & liked them, as well as an older Sony which is his fav, but no Focals.

It's a bright headphone for sure and it took me a while to get used to them (almost sold them after week 1 because of how bright they were). Even now, I alternate between the Utopia/HD650/Verite. On top, I EQ the Utopia with -3db at 5khz and Q of 2 (and a small shelf at 100hz rising until 20Hz for more bass below). The treble isn't harsh and there's zero sibilance, it's just bright. My preference is towards darker in general, i.e. HD650. And headstage is tiny. That said, there are things the Utopia can do that the ZMF or Sennheiser cannot. The synergy with the Stellaris is also uncanny.

 

[azvargulis]

How energized in the treble are Utopias though? I cannot deal with too much treble and Focal often gets that description it seems (but I have not actually heard any Focal).

I think it's a bit of a misconception that the Utopia is bright or overly energized in the treble region. Think of the Utopia as a microscope for your source chain. It gives you exactly what your chain is putting out, so if your source is overly energetic on the high end, so will be the Utopia. Things like RF (and other) noise coming in from poorly managed power sources can also add to this. However, pair your Utopia with the right elements upstream of it, and you'll be hard pressed to find better.

Of course, you can take several approaches to building out your chain. You can try to find a headphone that best matches what you have, or you can buy a holy grail headphone and match your chain to it.

At the end of the day, it's all a fun journey and personal preference, and the Utopia isn't necessarily right for everyone either. I mainly wanted to point out that the Utopia is very source-dependent, and it's not always the "fault" of the headphone when you're getting a signature you don't love.