[MatW]

I love my Stellia and Clear (original) equally. Different strengths for different moods.

Had the Elegia as well… it was the option when I felt like eschewing IEMs and hauling a full-size headphone with me to the cafe, due to the fact that it provided decent isolation... Certainly better than the Stellia. And the Stellia’s wallet-bite didn’t exactly encourage me to pack it up and take it someplace with greasy coffee cake crumbs and spilt lattes.

I loved the Elegia for it’s terrific mids and wonderful smooth tone… Almost like a closed back HD650. The slightly rolled treble and only okay low extension were not spectacular, but for the price and fantastic overall tonality, it was a great headphone. Then I gave it to a friend who had drooled over it for years.

Now I miss having a more mobile option. Been eyeing the Celestee.

1. How is the Celestee’s isolation? The pro reviews say it does very well due to clamping force, but that seems to fly in the face of what I know to be true about vented “semi-open” cans…

2. How’s the high/mids/bass compared with the Elegia?

3. Is the Radiance worth the extra bread? And if so, is that Bentley labeling on the aluminum laser engraved or painted on?

Painted on

 

[Malevolent]

Well, there’s an area I’ll be no help in, clearly.

That said, I think if you own the Stellia, there is absolutely no need to own any other Focal closed-backs. That may help with financing. Selling my Radiance got me about 40-45 percent of the way there, at least…

But I needed a “once-in-a-lifetime” type of gift to get me over the threshold and make the purchase, to be fair. I recently hit a milestone birthday and received a very generous monetary gift from a family member. I saw a chance to get to the “ne plus ultra” end game point, and took it.

Given the circumstances, I have no regrets and expect to own and use the Stellia daily until I’m pretty old and gray.

Good luck- I guess my advice is to make the purchase when it makes “cosmic sense”, if you will- and you are the best judge of when that is.

Five years into owning Elears and a week into Stellias. About 36 hours on the Stellia on two amps using both balanced and unbalanced. My advice, give in, buy them, they are totally worth it. Silence the screams. Only downside I have found is they do reveal flaws in some recordings I had not noticed before. A small price for the gains in every other aspect of listening.

Thanks. You've convinced my mind that the Stellia can wait.

My heart, on the other hand, still insists, sadly. We shall see.

 

[Malevolent]

They’ll probs not go because you know how good it is. Best thing for me to stave them off was to listen to my gear and still realise it sounds really good. The other option, get Focal Elegia’s $600, bottle of whiskey $30, down one quarter of the bottle, wait 10 minutes (kind of like letting a tube amp warm up) and start listening. You’ll find the experience does get you somewhere and is perhaps comparable to Stellia’s. Focal hates this trick.

In my stable of headphones, the Elegia is my least used, and probably, my least favorite, too. I only purchased them when they were offered at a really-low price of $450 in a "stock clearing" deal, last year. It's a decent headphone from a technical standpoint; however, in many ways, I prefer its sibling, the Celestee. The extra dose of warmth, body and bass presence bring the Celestee closer to my preferred sound.

Sadly, I'm also allergic to alcohol (yeah), so I could never try that whisky trick.

 

[LaVey1999]

New Celestee Owner here

I have the Celestee since yesterday.

I use him with the iFi Zen Can with Apple Music (Loseless).


Bass:
I didn’t expect that Bass from a Focal Headphone. My M1060C from Monoprice has more Bass (with ~ +6 dB boost), but on the Celestee it sounds very clean and powerful. For Metal and Pop perfect with rumble in Sub-Bass.


Mids:
The mids are good, a little to much on few songs. Overall good and I have not much to say about the Mids.


Treble:
The ''weakest'' thing on the Celestee in my opinion. My ED 11 (with EQ) have more details, but is sometimes to aggressive for relaxed listening. Maybe he opens up a bit. On 'He's a Pirate' he have tons of Details, on 'Progenies of the Great Apocalypse' (Live in Oslo), I miss some details that I can hear with my Ultrasone.


Sound Signature:
The Overall-Sound is amazing. Everything is perfectly coordinated. Bass, Mids and Treble fits all together. The Sound is well balanced.
The Bass has rumble and Punch. The Vocals are forward with body, but a bit dark. On my Ultrasone, the vocals are more ''airy''.
The Details are good, but not spectacular. I think the Celestee is more made for Metal/Rock/Pop as for Classic. I really like this Sound Signature.


Soundstage:
Soundstage, what is that? The Celestee don't know anything about Soundstage. I've never heard such a little Soundstage in my whole life. It's just between the eyes. The iFi Zen Can has an ''3D Button'' to increase the width and Soundstage.
The Celestee needs that badly. Now the Soundstage is not just between the eyes, now it's between the ears

I'm not a fan of big Soundstages, my Ultrasone Edition 11 has a huge Soundstage and I didn’t like it that much. For games btw (yes, you can play games with the Celestee) is that not a big factor for me. I play Story Games and I don't need every footstep from 60ft away.


Imaging:
The Imaging is good especially for the tiny Soundstage. For Games It's perfect for my taste. For music not really. I hear guitars or drums from left to right/right to left sooner on my Ultrasone than on the Celestee.


Back Noise:
I think It's more a Setup problem.
The Celestee is very easy to drive. I use my other Headphones all on High Gain. The Celestee has more Back Noise than my other HP. Maybe I use Low Gain today and test it out. I hear very loud, so that is not a huge problem for me, but on quiet or acoustic Songs It's pretty audible.



Conclusion:
The Celestee is without EQ the best of my Headphones. But when I compare the Celestee with my EQ-Ultrasone he is still on the same level but has not that much details. He is easy to drive, well built and has overall a really good and balanced sound.

I get balanced cables in a few weeks (hopefully) from audioverse.de to use the Celestee with 4,4mm on my Zen Can and with 2,5mm on my FiiO Q1 Mark II.

At the moment I don’t think I will use EQ on the Celestee. I will give him time to shine.

 

[godmax]

New Celestee Owner here

I have the Celestee since yesterday.

I use him with the iFi Zen Can with Apple Music (Loseless).


Bass:
I didn’t expect that Bass from a Focal Headphone. My M1060C from Monoprice has more Bass (with ~ +6 dB boost), but on the Celestee it sounds very clean and powerful. For Metal and Pop perfect with rumble in Sub-Bass.


Mids:
The mids are good, a little to much on few songs. Overall good and I have not much to say about the Mids.


Treble:
The ''weakest'' thing on the Celestee in my opinion. My ED 11 (with EQ) have more details, but is sometimes to aggressive for relaxed listening. Maybe he opens up a bit. On 'He's a Pirate' he have tons of Details, on 'Progenies of the Great Apocalypse' (Live in Oslo), I miss some details that I can hear with my Ultrasone.


Sound Signature:
The Overall-Sound is amazing. Everything is perfectly coordinated. Bass, Mids and Treble fits all together. The Sound is well balanced.
The Bass has rumble and Punch. The Vocals are forward with body, but a bit dark. On my Ultrasone, the vocals are more ''airy''.
The Details are good, but not spectacular. I think the Celestee is more made for Metal/Rock/Pop as for Classic. I really like this Sound Signature.


Soundstage:
Soundstage, what is that? The Celestee don't know anything about Soundstage. I've never heard such a little Soundstage in my whole life. It's just between the eyes. The iFi Zen Can has an ''3D Button'' to increase the width and Soundstage.
The Celestee needs that badly. Now the Soundstage is not just between the eyes, now it's between the ears

I'm not a fan of big Soundstages, my Ultrasone Edition 11 has a huge Soundstage and I didn’t like it that much. For games btw (yes, you can play games with the Celestee) is that not a big factor for me. I play Story Games and I don't need every footstep from 60ft away.


Imaging:
The Imaging is good especially for the tiny Soundstage. For Games It's perfect for my taste. For music not really. I hear guitars or drums from left to right/right to left sooner on my Ultrasone than on the Celestee.


Back Noise:
I think It's more a Setup problem.
The Celestee is very easy to drive. I use my other Headphones all on High Gain. The Celestee has more Back Noise than my other HP. Maybe I use Low Gain today and test it out. I hear very loud, so that is not a huge problem for me, but on quiet or acoustic Songs It's pretty audible.



Conclusion:
The Celestee is without EQ the best of my Headphones. But when I compare the Celestee with my EQ-Ultrasone he is still on the same level but has not that much details. He is easy to drive, well built and has overall a really good and balanced sound.

I get balanced cables in a few weeks (hopefully) from audioverse.de to use the Celestee with 4,4mm on my Zen Can and with 2,5mm on my FiiO Q1 Mark II.

At the moment I don’t think I will use EQ on the Celestee. I will give him time to shine.

Nice impression write-up. My comments on ...
... soundstage: give them some more days, you will notice improvement in this area, without changing anything (had the same).
... details: same, when the pad wear-in and brain adaption is done, you will get more perceived details on them (but you might also reach the limit of the ZEN DAC+CAN combo)
... noise: the Celestee has higher sensitivity (105dB/mW) than your other headphones, so its better to use lowest possible gain on your amp

 

[LaVey1999]

Day 2 with the Celestee

Back Noise Update:
The Back Noise is gone. Yeah, I'm Dumb.
+18dB Gain was to much for the Celestee. I'm now at +6dB with very, very little back noise. haha

I'm still impressed with the Bass. Pop sounds very nice with this Bass and I'm normally a Metal-Head.
'Redneck Stomp' (no Pop, haha) sounds spectacular.

The overall tonality is pretty impressive. The Dynamics and vocals are incredible.

I'm still using the '3D Button' but, yeah the soundstage is a bit wider now, but with 3D it's still 10%-15% more.

The Details are still the same (I know Burn-In etc.) but with non-EQ still on a good level.

The Celestee is a really 'in your Face' Headphone and I like that.

 

[arielext]

Ordered the radiance pads today. Have an ETA of 4 weeks and will report back once I have tried them on.

Radiance pads came in today: Same depth as the Celestee pads but with a higher quality leather (full grain) which have an amazing feel and fit to them.
Sound wise: Don't have the feeling much changed. Perhaps a tad more bass emphasis and a slightly wider soundstage but I need more time to properly test the differences.
Are they worth the steep asking price? Perhaps not but they are the best pads I've tried and are ahead of all of the Dekoni offerings.

 

[deafenears]

Perhaps not but they are the best pads I've tried and are ahead of all of the Dekoni offerings.

Is that including the Dekoni limited edition Stellia pads?

 

[arielext]

Is that including the Dekoni limited edition Stellia pads?

yes. The leather quality difference is very noticeable. the Dekoni pads are a bit thicker which also has influence on the comfort. For me, the Radiance pads win by a large margin.

 

[deafenears]

yes. The leather quality difference is very noticeable. the Dekoni pads are a bit thicker which also has influence on the comfort. For me, the Radiance pads win by a large margin.

Great, thanks - now to find a dealer in the U.S. that sells the Radiance pads...

 

[550591]

yes. The leather quality difference is very noticeable. the Dekoni pads are a bit thicker which also has influence on the comfort. For me, the Radiance pads win by a large margin.

Even better than the Dekonis Sheepskin Stellia? Wow.

I use the Dekonis with the focal Elegia and Really like the pads.

 

[arielext]

Keep in mind that the differences from a sound quality perspective are minimum. Fit and feel is a different story though.

 

[Fabdube]

Getting them soon ... hopefully topping nx4 is a good mix with the Celestee!

 

[arielext]

Swapped back to the stock pads. On the head the difference in feel between stock and Radiance pads is next to nothing. I have the feeling I need to swap pads between left and right more often cause one of the Radiance pads has 'deflated'. I know I checked both wen I got them and they felt the same but after a month my "right" pad feels as if ~ 20% of the memory foam has disappeared. At €79 a piece I can hardly recommend them if this is normal behaviour for those pads.

The stock pads, maybe due to the thicker/stiffer leather feel sturdier.

 

[550591]

Swapped back to the stock pads. On the head the difference in feel between stock and Radiance pads is next to nothing. I have the feeling I need to swap pads between left and right more often cause one of the Radiance pads has 'deflated'. I know I checked both wen I got them and they felt the same but after a month my "right" pad feels as if ~ 20% of the memory foam has disappeared. At €79 a piece I can hardly recommend them if this is normal behaviour for those pads.

The stock pads, maybe due to the thicker/stiffer leather feel sturdier.

Where did U order the radiance pads?