[teknorob23]

I may be picking up some Stellias to augment my IEMs Noble Kaiser X10 and Massdrop+. I also have some pre-fazor Audeze LCD-2. I plan on driving them with the THX AAA 789 or my Chord Mojo. I was wondering if people are running any EQ at all on these. If so, what are your recommendations. Looking forward to ownership if things work out.

Good call, but have you heard them yet? Personally I haven’t found any need for eq.

 

[Caruryn]

I may be picking them up too.Currently torn between them and Verite and leaning towards Stellias even if they're not as open and wide mainly cause they're easier to drive like from SP1000m and because i can't seem to find the pheasantwood version of Verite.That and i don't feel like messing with tubes and since i can't audition them it puts me in a bind.

Has anyone heard the Stellia out of focal Arche?May pick them up later even though i'm not terribly excited about the use of AK4490EN chip for the price regardless of successful implementation or not.

 

[teknorob23]

I may be picking them up too.Currently torn between them and Verite and leaning towards Stellias even if they're not as open and wide mainly cause they're easier to drive like from SP1000m and because i can't seem to find the pheasantwood version of Verite.That and i don't feel like messing with tubes and since i can't audition them it puts me in a bind.

Has anyone heard the Stellia out of focal Arche?May pick them up later even though i'm not terribly excited about the use of AK4490EN chip for the price regardless of successful implementation or not.

I havent heard the Verite so i cant comment on how they compare, but i did get an hour and half with the arche during one of my numerous demos prior to buying the Stellias. Definitely not enough time to give anything more than cursory impressions, but for what its worth i found the presentation to be very clean neutral, leaning towards smooth. Coming directly across from a Hugo2 which i was using for most of my in-shop demo'ing, the arche didnt have the same dynamism or level of detail retrieval as the chord and just sounded a bit ordinary by comparison especially with its punchy price tag. That said and now i've had getting on 5 months of daily listening with the Stellia, i'd love to give it another go. If I had to buy blind, i wouldnt go for it and if i wanted a dac/amp one box solution then it would be the H2 all the way unless i could afford the Hugo TT2. The stellia and the H2 are pretty hard to beat pairing, only beaten for me with addition of a the Euforia taking on the amp duties and letting the H2 pick up the DAC work.

Good luck and if you do go for the Stellia's i think you'll be in for fun time no matter what you pair it with as i'm sat at my laptop out on a shoot today, powering them with the new Dragon fly cobalt and i havent done a stroke of work since i pressed play! This little DAC is lovely and is sounding like a real bargain.

 

[dawktah2]

I am planning on going to CanJam London, for the first time. Can someone give me a quick rundown as to what will happen at the Focal booth?

 

[joesuburb]

I may be picking up some Stellias to augment my IEMs Noble Kaiser X10 and Massdrop+. I also have some pre-fazor Audeze LCD-2. I plan on driving them with the THX AAA 789 or my Chord Mojo. I was wondering if people are running any EQ at all on these. If so, what are your recommendations. Looking forward to ownership if things work out.

Not me. I love the sound signature as-is.

 

[teknorob23]

Not me. I love the sound signature as-is.

snap, and this isnt meant as a criticism as each to their own, but if i'd spending £3k on a pair of headphones and subsequently felt the need to eq them, then i'd be pretty gutted as i had probably bought the wrong headphones

 

[joesuburb]

i'm sat at my laptop out on a shoot today, powering them with the new Dragon fly cobalt and i havent done a stroke of work since i pressed play! This little DAC is lovely and is sounding like a real bargain.

Did you happen to have a Dragon Fly Red before the cobalt? I'm running mine off a Red and I'm very satisfied. Wondering if there was a noticeable improvement going to the Cobalt.

 

[teknorob23]

Did you happen to have a Dragon Fly Red before the cobalt? I'm running mine off a Red and I'm very satisfied. Wondering if there was a noticeable improvement going to the Cobalt.

Yes i did and was really loved it, but the cobalt has slightly different tuning but it is better and technically by some margin. I've just posted some slightly more early impressions in the cobalt vs thread, but i think a lot of the improvements in detail retrieval and seperation are down the way it eliminates noise compared to the Red. I'd say if you love the red stick with it and just dont listen to the cobalt... i appreciate thats the most ludicrous and unfair suggestion one audiophile can make to another

 

[joesuburb]

InnerFidelity Review is online: https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/focal-stellia-review

Good review and in line with my experience. Glad I ignored the Rtings review. Almost stopped my from buying something I love!

 

[noplsestar]

I may be picking up some Stellias to augment my IEMs Noble Kaiser X10 and Massdrop+. I also have some pre-fazor Audeze LCD-2. I plan on driving them with the THX AAA 789 or my Chord Mojo. I was wondering if people are running any EQ at all on these. If so, what are your recommendations. Looking forward to ownership if things work out.

I happen to have a VorzAMP Duo II and sometimes activate the EQ switch (guilty pleasure when listening to EDM) and can tell you that the Stellia really take the additional sub-bass very well. Of course its not neutral anymore but if I miss the sound of some Audeze killer bass I now know how to get it out of the Stellia without having to buy another headphone

 

[mamsterla]

snap, and this isnt meant as a criticism as each to their own, but if i'd spending £3k on a pair of headphones and subsequently felt the need to eq them, then i'd be pretty gutted as i had probably bought the wrong headphones

Actually that is not true, some equipment does almost everything right. Many folks love the LCD4 with a touch of EQ to fix the high end peak. I am not looking at any drastic EQ at all. But there are times when some peak taming is in order. I tend to be pretty accepting of each of my transducer's sound, but I never rule out a bit of possible honing.
If there were a gross mismatch, I would get other phones for sure. I am speculating as I am considering different rigs to play upon and each has a slightly different signature.

Seems like the answer from most is "no" so far.

 

[mamsterla]

I happen to have a VorzAMP Duo II and sometimes activate the EQ switch (guilty pleasure when listening to EDM) and can tell you that the Stellia really take the additional sub-bass very well. Of course its not neutral anymore but if I miss the sound of some Audeze killer bass I now know how to get it out of the Stellia without having to buy another headphone

Exactly. I have LCD2 which have that killer bass, but nowhere near the level of detail of newer phones. I find the main issue for me is fatigue. So if I have some high frequencies to damp down, that is what I would EQ.

The Nobel Kaiser IEMs are pretty darn neutral to my ears and I don't EQ them at all. Not fatiguing either.

 

[noplsestar]

Good review and in line with my experience. Glad I ignored the Rtings review. Almost stopped my from buying something I love!

Forget this strange Rting review. Is that even a review?

 

[mamsterla]

Forget this strange Rting review. Is that even a review?

It is the consumer reports of headphone reviews. More concerned with features than quality of sounds.

 

[noplsestar]

Exactly. I have LCD2 which have that killer bass, but nowhere near the level of detail of newer phones. I find the main issue for me is fatigue. So if I have some high frequencies to damp down, that is what I would EQ.

The Nobel Kaiser IEMs are pretty darn neutral to my ears and I don't EQ them at all. Not fatiguing either.

I don’t find the Stellias fatiguing at all, in contrast to the Campfire Audio Cascades which had way too much upper frequency energy (fake resolution) which after half an hour hurt my ears.
I can listen to the Stellia the whole day without problems!