[Redwingnine]

I do know that the Stellia benefits from better electronics. I'm using an Oppo Sonica DAC feeding a Mjolnir Audio Pure Bipolar via XLR. The Pure Bipolar is one of the best amps available at any price.

I'm not a fan of the Sennheiser house sound. I find the Focal house sound more engaging, and closer to sounding like speakers. YMMV.

 

[Failed Engineer]

Regarding the headband, I agree it's susceptible to discoloration so I bought one of these (as well as one for my Utopia):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hand-Woven...var=553469389451&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

I believe I got the idea from somewhere in this thread. It fits perfect, looks good and I find it to be slightly more comfortable. A good $10 purchase.

 

[Redwingnine]

Yes haha that's a possibility. But geez I wasted days of listening, wondering where the heck was the bass and midbass... I felt even the Utopia had so much more bass than the Stellia!

The Stellia provides a lot of bass with my setup. Perhaps the pads are well worn with the demo version? I fell that the bass is near perfect with the Stellia, and the fit for me is excellent. They have a lot of isolation. I can hardly hear others in the room when they are on the head, even without music playing. I also have the Elear, and being open, can hear others in the room easily.

 

[Redwingnine]

After listening to the Stellia for a few days, couldn't be more pleased. The sound from them is truly first rate. The sound isolation is excellent, they are comfortable for extended listening, and the frequency response and clarity is simply among the very best. They don't need a lot of power to drive them, but do benefit from top shelf electronics (in my case, an Oppo Sonica DAC and Mjolnir Audio Pure Bipolar amp).

The beryllium driver is the real deal. The combination dynamics, clarity, and frequency extension are among the best of any headphone I've come across. The Stellia would be an outstanding choice for mixing/mastering in a studio environment. They work equally well with pretty much all music genres, from classical to blues/jazz to rock/electronica.

 

[teknorob23]

I was doing Stellia vs VC comparisons over past few days. I thought the Stellia was severely lacking in bass and mid bass, to the point of being almost non-existent. Was so disappointed with the Stellia.

But today I listened to them again and I just decided to try and press the earcups inwards towards with the palms of my hand. I pressed them in maybe half to 1 cm, and suddenly the bass and midbass appeared. It was like some miracle of sound had happened. Immediately, there was nice thumping bass line, and a nice voluminous mid bass and mid section.

Has anyone else experienced this with the Stellia? The Stellia I have were a demo set from the shop. Maybe my head is too small and can't compress the pads enough or my ears are too far from the drivers without having the earcups pressed inwards.

Totally messed up my comparison review hahaha now I have to relisten to everything again..

the stellias are a grower, well at least I found them to be, whereas the VC’s are bit showstopper, massive stage, visceral bass, lovelysl sweet treble, but and it became a big but for me, and that’s the slight W shaped-ness. The mids are there but slightly to recessed for me, they’re also By a small amount slower and not as resolving. I was lucky enough to have both for a couple of months. Initially I was sure the stellias were on their way, but after a month of favouring the VC’s I found my self reaching for the focals more and more until selling the VC’s was an easy choice. Personally I found the stellias toward, faster, more focused, way more consistent across the range and just more nourishing over the long run. I was in the minority at the time.

 

[Hoegaardener70]

the stellias are a grower, well at least I found them to be, whereas the VC’s are bit showstopper, massive stage, visceral bass, lovelysl sweet treble, but and it became a big but for me, and that’s the slight W shaped-ness. The mids are there but slightly to recessed for me, they’re also By a small amount slower and not as resolving. I was lucky enough to have both for a couple of months. Initially I was sure the stellias were on their way, but after a month of favouring the VC’s I found my self reaching for the focals more and more until selling the VC’s was an easy choice. Personally I found the stellias toward, faster, more focused, way more consistent across the range and just more nourishing over the long run. I was in the minority at the time.

Haha, I think you'd still be a minority if this had been posted in the VC thread . ZMF has for sure a very devoted crowd, on which I cannot comment since I never owned a ZMF and never had the chance to compare them side by side. But as far as I understood, the Stellias are much easier to drive (with low-end gear being so-so with the VC) and also less heavy, both big plus points in my book.

Still, would like to directly compare, and I hope Roasty has fun doing so.

 

[Failed Engineer]

I owned both together for awhile and truthfully I found the VC decent before getting the Stellia but flat out boring in direct comparison. For me, it was a no contest in favor of the Stellia but I do prefer the Focal house sound of forward, intimate staging with pinpoint imaging. I can totally understand the ZMF mafia preferring the ZMF signature, but the unfortunate thing is that most of them (on internet forums at least) can't recognize someone else having a differing opinion than theirs. This has nothing to do with Zach though. He's as good of a guy there is in this community.

 

[KPzypher]

Does anyone use a Focal Arche to power these up? Any thoughts?

I do. I love it. I think the Stellia preset sounds the best. It takes away the slight metallic sound in the upper range I've noticed on other devices. Liked it better than the HD820/HDV820 combo, minus the volume knob, which I ended up returning. Few things I don't like are 1, the standby LED light is too bright and gets slightly annoying during nighttime, and 2, the volume resets to 20 every time its turned back on from standby. Other than those two minor gripes, I love it. Sounds clean, sleek design, and the HP stand comes very handy.

 

[boxster233]

I do. I love it. I think the Stellia preset sounds the best. It takes away the slight metallic sound in the upper range I've noticed on other devices. Liked it better than the HD820/HDV820 combo, minus the volume knob, which I ended up returning. Few things I don't like are 1, the standby LED light is too bright and gets slightly annoying during nighttime, and 2, the volume resets to 20 every time its turned back on from standby. Other than those two minor gripes, I love it. Sounds clean, sleek design, and the HP stand comes very handy.

Do you use it with any other headphones?

 

[KPzypher]

Do you use it with any other headphones?

Since I've moved the Arche to my desktop, I mainly just use it with Stellia. But any lower impedance cans should generally work good. I've briefly tried HD820/HD650 on SE and..... it worked. On higher impedance HPs like the HD820s, I felt they sounded better running it out of HDV820. I'm quite content with the Arche/Stellia pairing, I really haven't felt the need to plug in other HPs. Still waiting for my ZMF combo (Verite/Pendant) to arrive but hoping VO sounds better on Pendant than Arche.

 

[Ilomaenkimi]

Amazing Headphones

What cable is that?

 

[QRomo]

I decided to pull the trigger on a pair of Stellias and have been going through this thread while I wait for them to arrive. Now I've got a couple of questions.

First, all the complaints I've read about the stock cables being too stiff and microphonic convinced me to pre-emptively replace them. I went with Arctic Cable's Ion+ series. I'm not a cable guy, so all the praise of silver UP-OCC cables has made me wonder what I might be missing out on. What are the distinguishing sonic characteristics between UP-OCC copper and silver, and how subtle or obvious are the differences (in particular with the Stellia)? I'm not likely to change to the 8-wire silver variant and pay over double the price, but I'm still curious.

Second, for those of you in the know about leather upkeep, does this look like a decent product? COLOURLOCK Aniline Leather Cleaning and Care Kit
The products recommended by teknorob23 aren't readily available where I am, so I thought that kit might be a suitable replacement. I have essentially zero knowledge about this, so any info would be appreciated. Also, most of the talk has been about treating the headband, but would it be worthwhile to treat the pads, too?

 

[Ilomaenkimi]

I decided to pull the trigger on a pair of Stellias and have been going through this thread while I wait for them to arrive. Now I've got a couple of questions.

First, all the complaints I've read about the stock cables being too stiff and microphonic convinced me to pre-emptively replace them. I went with Arctic Cable's Ion+ series. I'm not a cable guy, so all the praise of silver UP-OCC cables has made me wonder what I might be missing out on. What are the distinguishing sonic characteristics between UP-OCC copper and silver, and how subtle or obvious are the differences (in particular with the Stellia)? I'm not likely to change to the 8-wire silver variant and pay over double the price, but I'm still curious.

Second, for those of you in the know about leather upkeep, does this look like a decent product? COLOURLOCK Aniline Leather Cleaning and Care Kit
The products recommended by teknorob23 aren't readily available where I am, so I thought that kit might be a suitable replacement. I have essentially zero knowledge about this, so any info would be appreciated. Also, most of the talk has been about treating the headband, but would it be worthwhile to treat the pads, too?

My advice is not to use any leather product. I'm quessing that couple of months from now on my Stellias have had enough "dirt" from my head and leather is "ready".

Edit:
Picture quality sucks, but anyway: upper pictures are taken one month ago. Pictures below them i took just moment ago.

 

[Focux]

Is there a reason this isn’t under the high end sub forum?

 

[MacedonianHero]

Is there a reason this isn’t under the high end sub forum?

Very good question.