[turbofeet]

Oh absolutely I will.

Perhaps some units need longer to come to life fully.

It may also be a bit of a mismatched DAC signature.

I have faith.

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

Bought the Stellia's a few weeks ago as I wanted to try and create an "Endgame" headphone setup as I love to listen on HPs.

I have a Naim Unity Atom with Some Acoustic Energy AE500s for my main system and that's nice enough for me (small room) but thought I could get more from some high end headphones and a decent DAC/Head Amp.

All descriptions from reviews I had watched and read made these sound like a perfect match for me:

Supreme Clarity
Punchy Bass

I have quite eclectic taste in music but I really enjoy Acoustic/Folk (vocals), Electronic as well as Drum & Bass. The bass doesn't have to be crazy - I just like it to be felt a little. These sounded perfect.

I realise the soundstage is smaller with Closed Back but i'm fine with that - i just want to enjoy this famous clarity/detail.

I read a number of reviews and also purchased the Matrix Element X so that I could use Roon with the thought of adding a Head Amp later on down the line. I realised that the Element X Headphone out won't be able to compete with a seperate Head Amp but it was a good start.

This to me sounded like a wonderful DAC on paper - with measurements at least. With a DAC so accurate you'd think that would give such wonderful clarity and pairing with the Stellia right?

First thoughts were "Oh no! I've wasted ALL of my Christmas Bonus"..that sinking feeling - like i'd lost my car in a bet (not that i'd do that but i'd imagine quite similar).

Sound was 'OK' with Lyrics but everywhere else they were lacking. Lack of Bass, Lack of Top end - just completely underwhelming.

It's almost as if all of it's sound was in the midrange and nowhere else. I mean listen to an Acoustic Guitar and it's a wonderful experience but that seems to be the only part of the dynamic range it could express properly out of the box.

My thoughts were "Maybe this is high end", "Maybe this is what it's supposed to sound like"..."Maybe i should have bought the Empyrean's" (lol?)

Initially I EQ'd them within Roon's Parametric EQ and I could get the bass to express with that but then it was still so flat elsewhere.

I am not feeding it crap; I have been streaming High Res from Tidal (MQA) and also from Qobuz - using stock XLR cable.

I have now read over 100 pages of the posts on this thread and I hear you shouting "Burn them in", "Change the Stock Cables", "Use a tube amp"...

I can report that after 50hrs or Burn in I had to remove the Roon EQ as it was too bassy with that on now. I mean - wow - what a difference the Burn in makes. That's pretty crazy in itself.

I have not passed 100hrs yet and so I will reserve judgement a little until I have done that but they are definately still not there yet for me.

Those Beryllium drivers really must need work before they perform properly.

I don't want to give up on them and so I have the following plan of attack I am willing to try. I'm just wondering if anyone has had any experience in these pairings...

1. I will initially see how they are after 100+ hours. If they have improved further and I feel more seperation in the frequencies I will change the cables for 4-Wire UPOCC from Arctic Cables. I will also have a play with EQ as well to see how that get's on.

2. I will look to add a Balanced Head Amp - something like the Burson Soloist 3X (although I can't seem to find a reseller in the UK). Since you guys mention the Chord DACs a lot I would use this later down the line with the TT2 (see below).

3. I can trial the Chord Hugo 2 and so I will see how much more that DAC is suited to these Cans. If they're great I may keep it for listening at work.

4. If the Hugo 2 really does sound that much better as a DAC Pairing (rather than the Element X) then I will trial and probably shell out for a TT2.

"Spends 3K on headphones..then over 5k more to make them sound as they should"...I just want to make sure i'm not polishing a cognac coloured turd.

I suspect the Matrix DAC is simply not a good pairing or I just need to burn them in for quite a bit before they are fully settled.

I have a feeling these really could be special and am willing to spend a little (there's always finance) to get it right.

Any comments on the above options with the Stellia's? Does the TT2 sound significantly better that the Hugo 2 with them?

Anyone tried them with a Burson Head Amp?

Thanks in advance

There are a number of different reasons as to why the Stellia didn’t wow you off the bat. Firstly, if you’re new to headphones chances are pretty much all of them sound the same...maybe except for a few outliers. Secondly...jumping on board the ‘endgame-train’ or indeed the kilobuck headphones doesn’t necessarily equate to the right tuning. Maybe you are coming from an entirely different tuning from which you’ve been brainwashed with for a long time now...which would explain why you suddenly are opening up to it’s sound further down the line; simply getting accustomed to the new tuning...or well brain burn-in as others refer to it
Another reason why the Stellia might not sound great out of X amp is it’s rather low damping factor. It’s a 35 ohm headphone with an incredibly high sensitivity of a 106 dB/mW which basically means, that any amplifier with an output impedance over say 4-5 ohm will mess with the bass response...which in general makes it a very poor fit for many balanced amps.
Also regarding TOTL...the jump in dineros does not correspond with the jump one gets in sound quality. Some times one ends up prefering something cheaper or perhaps something completely different...most especially if the tuning/sound signature is way off one’s preferences.

 

[turbofeet]

Thanks.
Some great information there.

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

Thanks.
Some great information there.

My pleasure
..oh and reading my previous post back I realise I inadvertently infered that you possibly couldn’t hear a difference between cans. Sorry about that. I should have mentioned that I indeed have come across quite a few people that either couldn’t discern any differences outside of the comfort aspect or felt the differences between my headphones were negligible at best.
Best of luck going forth

 

[turbofeet]

No problem at all.
I have had seperates hifi since the age of 8 in the mid 80s of varying quality but ditched it all quite a few years ago for a top of the range Yamaha receiver to do all music / films / gaming. I miss it and this is a treat for myself.
I am relatively new to DACs and high end Headphones for sure so take all advice with open arms.
To be fair some tracks (HD Tracks version of Bohemian Rhapsody) on a night of the opera sounded sublime.
It just lacked bass initially but after 50hrs it's there.
As you say I think my ears need to adjust as well.
I may well try a Chord DAC next.

 

[NCUS]

No problem at all.
I have had seperates hifi since the age of 8 in the mid 80s of varying quality but ditched it all quite a few years ago for a top of the range Yamaha receiver to do all music / films / gaming. I miss it and this is a treat for myself.
I am relatively new to DACs and high end Headphones for sure so take all advice with open arms.
To be fair some tracks (HD Tracks version of Bohemian Rhapsody) on a night of the opera sounded sublime.
It just lacked bass initially but after 50hrs it's there.
As you say I think my ears need to adjust as well.
I may well try a Chord DAC next.

To be honest, it would make more sense for you to buy the Focal Arche with the discount. You at least know that the pair were designed to work well together. If you don't like the Arche and need to sell it, the discount reduces your monetary loss.

 

[griff500]

FWIW: the Stellia’s should sound quite good from the start. Also they are decent from an iphone or iPad. Despite, I have upgraded the DAC/amp to the pro iDSD and have the signum+ cable from AC, I am somewhat surprised to read of your apparent “disappointment“...Please, go on experimenting....

I’d agree.

They are surprisingly good from my MacBook Pro and amazing from my TT2, although I use VO when I can.

If I could only have one pair of headphones it would be Stellia (or VC).

 

[EarFatigue]

Thanks. I'm probably not explaining the sound too well which is why my description probably sounds a bit surprising to you.
I'll see how they are after some more burn in.
Cheers

I think you need to simplify your environment if I understand your post correctly. Literally start with your phone or a basic output from whatever you have. Stream your favorite Tidal content, MQA or not, and don't EQ, filter or introduce anything else. I spent a lot of time demoing Clear, Stellia, and Utopia. My music interest is wide as well and Techno is definitely something I enjoy listening to. Once I ruled out the Utopia it was a bake off between the Clear and Stellia. I used everything from a portable Teac-50 amp connected via Lightning to an iPhone all the way up to a Meridian 218 going to a Meridian Prime headphone amp with the power supply. The only time I found the sound to be "off" was when I messed with the Roon EQ or tried an old SACD player through my Integrated Amp. What you are describing sounds like the experience I had with SACD and the old amp,

I'm awaiting my Arche amp (on backorder) and mostly using that Teac Amp. It has sounded excellent since I took the headphones out of the box. It's crazy how changes in the DAC and Amp have made such a huge difference. I'm not ready to experiment with cables yet. The Arche being fed by my Meridian 218 is the ultimate for me...

Try some other combos and report back to us...I was nervous about the spend as well and can tell you I'm not regretting it at all...

 

[FenceFurniture]

If you go to the Focal website for your country there should be instructions right there for e-mailing them in order to request the voucher. In the U.S. it is for $1,000. They will want to know the model and serial number. You could ask them if they can recommend a dealer that is open, and if not, can your voucher be used on 1/4/2021 to make the actual purchase.

Hope this helps! My amp is on backorder here in the U.S. but I did get the promo price.

Ok, thanks for that. I suspect that what is happening here in Oz is that are just knocking USD1000 of any Arche purchase, whether or not you purchased HPs in 2020 (I did). The regular price is AUD3800 and the sale price is AUD2300 so that difference of $1500 is equivalent to USD1000 roughly. It's hard to know but I think that the distributor is also part of the same mob that owns the retail shop that is having the sale (another retailer still has the Arche at full price). It's probably highly likely that the only people who purchase an Arche are Focal HP owners anyway.

There is no mention of the $1000 discount on the local Focal website, not even under "Focal Special Deals".




Am I close to the mark thinking that the Arche has significantly less power than the Jotunheim, when I interpret the following, or is it because one is termed in RMS and the other is not?.

The Jotunheim is "2 x 6w RMS at 32 Ohms", and the Arche is "2 x 1w at 1kHz under 32 Ohms"- not quite sure what that means, but to me it reads like it has 1/6 the power of the Jotunheim.

Generally I have the Jotunheim between 10 and 12 o'clock with the gain switch on (zero is 7 o'clock, full is 5 o'clock)

 

[FenceFurniture]

Turbofeet, I purchased my Stellias at the same time as the Schiit Jotunheim, which has a balanced (as well as unbalanced) circuit. The sound was absolutely stunning straight out of the box. I only ever used balanced, until one day I did a comparison between balanced and unbalanced. The results were cheese and chalk, but as someone pointed out, that could possibly be because Schiit use inferior components in the unbalanced circuit. Whatever it was, the difference was very noticeable, particularly with well recorded, detailed Rock music (Sting). See my post #2120 for more detail. I am still using the Focal supplied cable, but can't wait to change it to an Arctic to get rid of the dreadful microphonics.

 

[Caruryn]

I really wish you guys could hear the Arche/Stellia combo with upgraded cables and power supply.It is mind blowingly good.Granted i spend almost 4000 euros on top of the Arche which would not make much sense in the beginning but since i felt the synergy was there with the Stellia all was left was to improve the technical part which was already rather good.

Now everything is ramped up to eleven,You want holographic pin point soundstage that streches in all directions,check,great micro/macro details,check,engaging and organic mids that make you listening to cellos,guitar,drums a pleasure,check,visceral bass with tight decay,yup,silky treble without harshness but retaing great extension and detail check again.For me though,the most important improvement of all was the engagement factor,you go from nothing to do let's hear some music to i can't wait to get back from work to hear some music and that is hard to achieve.

Those with the Arche invest in good quality power cables/supply,you're not throwing money,you do take your system to the next level.

 

[turbofeet]

Lovely thanks guys

 

[judomaniak57]

Just a photo of my favorite headphone

 

[Clemmaster]

I really wish you guys could hear the Arche/Stellia combo with upgraded cables and power supply.It is mind blowingly good.Granted i spend almost 4000 euros on top of the Arche which would not make much sense in the beginning but since i felt the synergy was there with the Stellia all was left was to improve the technical part which was already rather good.

Now everything is ramped up to eleven,You want holographic pin point soundstage that streches in all directions,check,great micro/macro details,check,engaging and organic mids that make you listening to cellos,guitar,drums a pleasure,check,visceral bass with tight decay,yup,silky treble without harshness but retaing great extension and detail check again.For me though,the most important improvement of all was the engagement factor,you go from nothing to do let's hear some music to i can't wait to get back from work to hear some music and that is hard to achieve.

Those with the Arche invest in good quality power cables/supply,you're not throwing money,you do take your system to the next level.

What do you mean by “power supply”? Conditioning? Or actual PSU inside the Arche?

 

[rangerid]

I really wish you guys could hear the Arche/Stellia combo with upgraded cables and power supply.It is mind blowingly good.Granted i spend almost 4000 euros on top of the Arche which would not make much sense in the beginning but since i felt the synergy was there with the Stellia all was left was to improve the technical part which was already rather good.

Now everything is ramped up to eleven,You want holographic pin point soundstage that streches in all directions,check,great micro/macro details,check,engaging and organic mids that make you listening to cellos,guitar,drums a pleasure,check,visceral bass with tight decay,yup,silky treble without harshness but retaing great extension and detail check again.For me though,the most important improvement of all was the engagement factor,you go from nothing to do let's hear some music to i can't wait to get back from work to hear some music and that is hard to achieve.

Those with the Arche invest in good quality power cables/supply,you're not throwing money,you do take your system to the next level.

I remember your post. After seeing it, I got a used $1k power cord at $500 from Wywires and was blown away by the performance improvement in my amp. It's actually quite a dilemma for me atm whether to upgrade my DAC or get a power conditioner/broker.