Focal Stellia Review, Measurements, Interview - Head-Fi TV

[subguy812]

So, I got a new pair of Stellia, and gave it a solid 4 hours of listen. But so far I'm underwhelmed due to the following aspects when trying to drive it with Hugo, WA7, Headamp

1. Details. I think details are ok but not top tier, nothing really stands out of the norm. I'd say a well driven T1/HD800 has MUCH better detail in mids and high than Stellia (I have my T1 with Crack), consider T1 is 4 times cheaper, it's disappointing.

2. Bass quality. I think the bass quantity is there, but compare to LCD3, the bass quality is pretty mediocre, it's boomy and fat, and the speed is not as fast as T1/HD800s or any LCDs.

However, I am IMPRESSED by 1) how wide the sound stage is and 2) how well placed the sound image is. It's wider and deeper than my T1 and reaching to HD800s territory and the sound image is more holographic and 3D (similar to the LCDx). I don't see people talk about these aspect enough but I would say the hype on detail is a little disappointing (consider T1 is ~10 years old now, and I'd assume it's not nearly close to entry level Staxs).

I'm not listening to very "treble-y" and "sparkled" high fidelity recordings, and that might be the reason causing my reaction of feeling Stellia being veiled - and of course Stellia is always smooth in that regard. Ultimately, I think Stellia's driver technology still fall into making compromise decisions on sound stage/imaging and clarity, it seems to be different allocation of pros and cons compared to a lot of other closed cans (you could argue sound stage/imaging wasn't really allocatable previously), but the total allocable base points seem to be the same and unfortunately scarified sound clarity. I heard burn in will have SOME effect for Stellia, but I also don't believe in burn ins...

At this point , I can say Stellia has the potential to surpass a well driven HD650, but nothing more than that.

If you had read any of the comments on the thread, you will realize your thoughts align with almost everyone here, with a new Stellia with only 4 hours of listening time. Wait for it!

 

[Ilomaenkimi]

So, I got a new pair of Stellia, and gave it a solid 4 hours of listen. But so far I'm underwhelmed due to the following aspects when trying to drive it with Hugo, WA7, Headamp

1. Details. I think details are ok but not top tier, nothing really stands out of the norm. I'd say a well driven T1/HD800 has MUCH better detail in mids and high than Stellia (I have my T1 with Crack), consider T1 is 4 times cheaper, it's disappointing.

2. Bass quality. I think the bass quantity is there, but compare to LCD3, the bass quality is pretty mediocre, it's boomy and fat, and the speed is not as fast as T1/HD800s or any LCDs.

However, I am IMPRESSED by 1) how wide the sound stage is and 2) how well placed the sound image is. It's wider and deeper than my T1 and reaching to HD800s territory and the sound image is more holographic and 3D (similar to the LCDx). I don't see people talk about these aspect enough but I would say the hype on detail is a little disappointing (consider T1 is ~10 years old now, and I'd assume it's not nearly close to entry level Staxs).

I'm not listening to very "treble-y" and "sparkled" high fidelity recordings, and that might be the reason causing my reaction of feeling Stellia being veiled - and of course Stellia is always smooth in that regard. Ultimately, I think Stellia's driver technology still fall into making compromise decisions on sound stage/imaging and clarity, it seems to be different allocation of pros and cons compared to a lot of other closed cans (you could argue sound stage/imaging wasn't really allocatable previously), but the total allocable base points seem to be the same and unfortunately scarified sound clarity. I heard burn in will have SOME effect for Stellia, but I also don't believe in burn ins...

At this point , I can say Stellia has the potential to surpass a well driven HD650, but nothing more than that.

Do you use Stellias factory cable? I’m still wondering why they use so poor cable in Focal.
Stellias need lots of burn in.
What comes to Stellias bass: to me bass was a little boomy and fat with Graham Slee Solo ULDE, with SPL phonitor XE it is very punchy and tight. And fast.
Also factory cable makes a Stellias bass a little boomy. Factory cable sounds overall like a mitten. Poor soundquality.

 

[Picard7]

A new Stellia needs time to work its magic (though it trips up in the bass on the odd occasion - fat and bloomy). Great midrange though. Many have found upgrading the stock cable helps.

 

[donkeywalker]

Do you use Stellias factory cable? I’m still wondering why they use so poor cable in Focal.
Stellias need lots of burn in.
What comes to Stellias bass: to me bass was a little boomy and fat with Graham Slee Solo ULDE, with SPL phonitor XE it is very punchy and tight. And fast.
Also factory cable makes a Stellias bass a little boomy. Factory cable sounds overall like a mitten. Poor soundquality.

Not being overly critical here but it’s clear the target customer for stellia and utopia is very different. I suspect stellia is targeting more of a luxury version dr.dre’s beats and the design language, packaging, cable, presentation of the sound reflect that (bloomy bath, 3D sound, sweet mids - if you listen to a lot of pop music this is actually really nice). Utopia on the other hand has completely different packaging and design language and was aiming to compete more on the audiophile market.

What’s also very interesting is that the official focal website’s marketing page of Stellia adds more “luxury” product people candid shots than the utopia, where these people might expect the packaging design of Stellia is the “norm” when it comes to any other luxury products in watches and handbags. Utopia however is a lot more utilitarian.

Paying extreme attention to details to luxury packaging but not to the cable design (the thick part is basically two wires pushed together in a tube and that’s why it’s so hard to turn them and so easy to form a air knot) to me was certainly a red flag. When it comes to audiophile headphones in general that’s usually the opposite case (Grado is on the other extreme, and if they were to make Stellia it will probably cost $1000 less in brand design, material and branding cost alone)

Some final closing thoughts: If I were focal, this is clearly the right call to have developed a reference headphone, and then figure out a way to market it to high income demographics in a different way. I'd imagine it's easier to fish the whole pond for Utopia's target customers, but Stellia's target customer has a much bigger pond - including those who're just buying for the look and perhaps even their first pair of headphone. With that being said, Focal might expect their Stellia customers LIKE the bloomy bass, and what we're trying to do here is to get it drift away from the originally intended sound signature.

 

[SupperTime]

Not being overly critical here but it’s clear the target customer for stellia and utopia is very different. I suspect stellia is targeting more of a luxury version dr.dre’s beats and the design language, packaging, cable, presentation of the sound reflect that (bloomy bath, 3D sound, sweet mids - if you listen to a lot of pop music this is actually really nice). Utopia on the other hand has completely different packaging and design language and was aiming to compete more on the audiophile market.

What’s also very interesting is that the official focal website’s marketing page of Stellia adds more “luxury” product people candid shots than the utopia, where these people might expect the packaging design of Stellia is the “norm” when it comes to any other luxury products in watches and handbags. Utopia however is a lot more utilitarian.

Paying extreme attention to details to luxury packaging but not to the cable design (the thick part is basically two wires pushed together in a tube and that’s why it’s so hard to turn them and so easy to form a air knot) to me was certainly a red flag. When it comes to audiophile headphones in general that’s usually the opposite case (Grado is on the other extreme, and if they were to make Stellia it will probably cost $1000 less in brand design, material and branding cost alone)

Would it be fair to say the utopia are better in sense of detail, resolution and imaging?

 

[donkeywalker]

Would it be fair to say the utopia are better in sense of detail, resolution and imaging?

I had 2-3 hours auditing the Utopia before buying the Stellia. Utopia's imaging is about the same, the resolution and detail on full spectrum is sharper -BUT they only sound really nice on audiophile quality recordings. If you listen to pop song recording, even Justin Bieber's "S and T" sound will offend your ear a little and won't make a long listening session. Stellia is a lot calmer and cushiony in its detail presentations. I pulled the trigger on Stellia because I think it's probably easier for amp gears to inject more details and clarity and trim out the bass to Stellia, than doing the other way around for Utopia - might take a $1k amp to make Stellia to sound more like Utopia, but a $5k amp to make Utopia to sound more like Stellia : ) .

To me the quality of cans have a lot to do with the expectation of what music you listen to. There is no such headphone that can perform the best in all genres better than some cheaper, specialty cans. Higher end cans tend to have leaner bass and more treble details in general precisely because the target audience is probably listen to a different type of music, while the majority of people like fatter bass response. I believe that's also why most lower end amps focus on aggressively adding clarity and detail for fatter and less detailed oriented headphones, while higher end amps focus on bring balance to treble and bass as the high end headphones already have all those details. You'd be surprised how many highend amp+headphone combo basically wants to bring it back to Dr.dre's low-mid-high energy distribution , but with much more details.

 

[SupperTime]

I had 2-3 hours auditing the Utopia before buying the Stellia. Utopia's imaging is about the same, the resolution and detail on full spectrum is sharper -BUT they only sound really nice on audiophile quality recordings. If you listen to pop song recording, even Justin Bieber's "S and T" sound will offend your ear a little and won't make a long listening session. Stellia is a lot calmer and cushiony in its detail presentations. I pulled the trigger on Stellia because I think it's probably easier for amp gears to inject more details and clarity and trim out the bass to Stellia, than doing the other way around for Utopia - might take a $1k amp to make Stellia to sound more like Utopia, but a $5k amp to make Utopia to sound more like Stellia : ) .

To me the quality of cans have a lot to do with the expectation of what music you listen to. There is no such headphone that can perform the best in all genres better than some cheaper, specialty cans. Higher end cans tend to have leaner bass and more treble details in general precisely because the target audience is probably listen to a different type of music, while the majority of people like fatter bass response. I believe that's also why most lower end amps focus on aggressively adding clarity and detail for fatter and less detailed oriented headphones, while higher end amps focus on bring balance to treble and bass as the high end headphones already have all those details. You'd be surprised how many highend amp+headphone combo basically wants to bring it back to Dr.dre's low-mid-high energy distribution , but with much more details.

Stellia it is.
Now what amp to get...

Focal arche?
Phonitor xe?
Felix tube?
I currently got a rme adi-2 dac, which is an insane awesome dac, but sub par headphone out (quarter inch)

 

[Whitigir]

Wait.... I am lost....how is Dr.Dre get mentioned in high end audio performances ?

 

[donkeywalker]

Wait.... I am lost....how is Dr.Dre get mentioned in high end audio performances ?

Both are headphones with mainstream tuning for EDM/pop/hip hop , and dre has vastly improved over the last two gens

 

[SupperTime]

Both are headphones with mainstream tuning for EDM/pop/hip hop , and dre has vastly improved over the last two gens

I would be using stellia for edm but I like techno and minimal, which requires a lot of detail retrieval, resolution and imaging

 

[noplsestar]

Both are headphones with mainstream tuning for EDM/pop/hip hop , and dre has vastly improved over the last two gens

The approximation of the harman curve is mainstream? If so, I am glad

 

[Whitigir]

There are a fine line, very fine line, that distinct between the high-fidelity performances VS Dre or Apple or mainstream headphones. It depends on a person to choose to stick on either sides.

If I could remain on the other side, I would. But since I come to this side, there is really a fine lines. That is why I am jealous over people who can be satisfied with Dre.

I have always been curious about it myself...what is Axel Grell if Dre is a Dr.

but don’t take that to heart

 

[donkeywalker]

There are a fine line, very fine line, that distinct between the high-fidelity performances VS Dre or Apple or mainstream headphones. It depends on a person to choose to stick on either sides.

If I could remain on the other side, I would. But since I come to this side, there is really a fine lines. That is why I am jealous over people who can be satisfied with Dre.

I have always been curious about it myself...what is Axel Grell if Dre is a Dr.

but don’t take that to heart

I fully agree. It's just Focal made itself a bit of a harder time defining what Stellia is.

Is it for "on the go" (marketing said yes - "Stellia’s offers extremely low impedance at 35 Ω, making the headphones very easy to drive through the output of a mobile audio source: experience the purity of sound, everywhere."), or it needs amp (sales also sells amp combo-"To fully enjoy your music and amplify yours emotions, discover Arche, a perfect audiophile DAC and amplifier to combine with your hi-fi headphones.").

Is it luxury (showy design and overall materials and look) or performance (driver tech)

This whole trying to be too many things , and Focal says itself on its website "Stellia delivers a perfect sound", feels amateur level product execution compared to Utopia. I wonder if Focal has an insider story of those two teams : )

 

[noplsestar]

I fully agree. It's just Focal made itself a bit of a harder time defining what Stellia is.

Is it for "on the go" (marketing said yes - "Stellia’s offers extremely low impedance at 35 Ω, making the headphones very easy to drive through the output of a mobile audio source: experience the purity of sound, everywhere."), or it needs amp (sales also sells amp combo-"To fully enjoy your music and amplify yours emotions, discover Arche, a perfect audiophile DAC and amplifier to combine with your hi-fi headphones.").

Is it luxury (showy design and overall materials and look) or performance (driver tech)

This whole trying to be too many things , and Focal says itself on its website "Stellia delivers a perfect sound", feels amateur level product execution compared to Utopia. I wonder if Focal has an insider story of those two teams : )

Yeah, but that’s all the marketing blablah. As I see it, they did want to make the best possible closed back headphone (that also sound quite good when on the go with a dedicated DAP) but then their marketing team thought about how they could sell a few hundred (or thousand) more of them and came up with the idea of „luxury“. I happen to like the look of the Stellia but wouldn’t have needed the packaging. And I needed a closed back because I am one of them insane enough to listen on the go with a DAP.
I also happen to like pop/rock/EDM and am not a classical guy so that also helps

 

[donkeywalker]

Stellia it is.
Now what amp to get...

Focal arche?
Phonitor xe?
Felix tube?
I currently got a rme adi-2 dac, which is an insane awesome dac, but sub par headphone out (quarter inch)

Chord Mojo and Hugo so far provide me most of the counter balance - bass is tighter, more mid/high details. You want to avoid OTL and tube amp and stay with class A if possible.