[EarFatigue]

Hello friends

I am looking for a portable DAC/AMP for my Stellias. I was thinking of the Quedtyle M15, Cayin RU6 or the Mojo 2. Any recommendations?

Thank you.

I've recently (in the past 3 months) added the ifi Gryphon to my collection. It is my only "portable" unit and there are times when I feel it outperforms my Arche and Meridian Prime when paired with the Stellia. With my other cans not so much. For the money this is a VERY capable and well done portable solution that I am now using on my desk when listening to the Stellia.

 

[TheOnetoWin]

Hey everyone! Has anyone had the Stellias long-term (i.e. more than a year)? I'm interested as purchasing these as a second closed back option (especially when traveling for extended periods) but I'm worried about quality control issues with Focal, especially when it comes to the headband snapping and a driver failure.

 

[sparkofinsanity]

Hey everyone! Has anyone had the Stellias long-term (i.e. more than a year)? I'm interested as purchasing these as a second closed back option (especially when traveling for extended periods) but I'm worried about quality control issues with Focal, especially when it comes to the headband snapping and a driver failure.

Headband discolouration is the only thing I can remember reading about. I’ve had my pair for 15 months with heavy use and travel without any issues.

 

[TheOnetoWin]

Headband discolouration is the only thing I can remember reading about. I’ve had my pair for 15 months with heavy use and travel without any issues.

Cool, yeah the discoloration is expected. I just don't want the headband to snap, especially since I have a small head and will have to keep the bands pretty low lol.

 

[zolom]

Only headband discoloration.
Stellia is in a mint condition after more than 3 years. I have it 2nd hand for more than a year now.
Mechanically everything is ok. Sound wise it is sublime.

 

[Caruryn]

Same here.Bought it in 2019 and apart from headband discoloration everything else is working fine and sound is stellar.No driver failures like i seen in focals openback models.

 

[AudioDuck]

Hello friends. Im seeing a great deal for a used Stellia. Id like to know does it push music like this very hard without problems. I have Elear now and its a little bit meh. Its not terrible but a bit shy and not radical enough. How is Stellia with this? Ty.

Hi there,

While this music genre isn’t my personal cup of tea, the Stellia’s Beryllium drivers are faster than the Magnesium-based ones in the Elear (or Clear).

When I play music with fast/hard beats (Foo Fighters, Rage Against the Machine, etc.) it responds really well- but it also depends a lot on your amplifier and source. Music like the metal example you shared can be really limited (muddied beats, less punch to the bass) by those components as well.

It also depends on what you are looking for in metal genre sound reproduction/sound signature (forgive my ignorance if it’s an obvious thing among metal fans)- deep bass vs. fast/clear mids vs. fast bass vs. super-clear treble, for example.

The Stellia isn’t a bass head’s dream headphone- it goes deep and does so fast and with punch, but isn’t bass-heavy per se. This vs. the Focal Radiance, which has warmer tuning and more prominent mid-bass in particular- and from what I’ve read, Fostex has models (TH-900?) that reproduce bass exceptionally well).

Nor is it the fastest headphones either, as planars are pretty unbeatable in that regard- but might be too bright to be enjoyable with metal… I wanted to love the Audeze LCD-XC, but it was too detailed to be enjoyable to me.

However, the appeal of the Stellia for many listeners is that it does most things/reproduce most musical genres really, really well. If your goal is to surpass the Elear in speed, detail/clarity and dynamics- yes, the Stellia will do that (I’ve owned both). Is it the best if metal is the genre you listen to all the time?
I don’t know- but it will sound really good when playing it.

 

[AudioDuck]

With the announcement of the $ 5,000 USD price tag (OK, fine, $4,999 plus tax), the older-model Stellia seems like a bargain!

Never thought I’d write THAT, but there you go-

 

[TheOnetoWin]

With the announcement of the $ 5,000 USD price tag (OK, fine, $4,999 plus tax), the older-model Stellia seems like a bargain!

Never thought I’d write THAT, but there you go-

Yeah, I've been seeing sold on the used market for between $1,600-$1,900 and even retailers are selling the Stellia Open-Box for under $2,300.

 

[TooFrank]

Hi there,

While this music genre isn’t my personal cup of tea, the Stellia’s Beryllium drivers are faster than the Magnesium-based ones in the Elear (or Clear).

When I play music with fast/hard beats (Foo Fighters, Rage Against the Machine, etc.) it responds really well- but it also depends a lot on your amplifier and source. Music like the metal example you shared can be really limited (muddied beats, less punch to the bass) by those components as well.

It also depends on what you are looking for in metal genre sound reproduction/sound signature (forgive my ignorance if it’s an obvious thing among metal fans)- deep bass vs. fast/clear mids vs. fast bass vs. super-clear treble, for example.

The Stellia isn’t a bass head’s dream headphone- it goes deep and does so fast and with punch, but isn’t bass-heavy per se. This vs. the Focal Radiance, which has warmer tuning and more prominent mid-bass in particular- and from what I’ve read, Fostex has models (TH-900?) that reproduce bass exceptionally well).

Nor is it the fastest headphones either, as planars are pretty unbeatable in that regard- but might be too bright to be enjoyable with metal… I wanted to love the Audeze LCD-XC, but it was too detailed to be enjoyable to me.

However, the appeal of the Stellia for many listeners is that it does most things/reproduce most musical genres really, really well. If your goal is to surpass the Elear in speed, detail/clarity and dynamics- yes, the Stellia will do that (I’ve owned both). Is it the best if metal is the genre you listen to all the time?
I don’t know- but it will sound really good when playing it.

+1 - I am not particularly in metal, but no matter what I throw at the Stellia's, they sound very good indeed (most of the time with ifi iCAN and Pro iDSD, but even with the new BT device Go Blu from ifi)

 

[chaz_flhr]

Hi there,

While this music genre isn’t my personal cup of tea, the Stellia’s Beryllium drivers are faster than the Magnesium-based ones in the Elear (or Clear).

When I play music with fast/hard beats (Foo Fighters, Rage Against the Machine, etc.) it responds really well- but it also depends a lot on your amplifier and source. Music like the metal example you shared can be really limited (muddied beats, less punch to the bass) by those components as well.

It also depends on what you are looking for in metal genre sound reproduction/sound signature (forgive my ignorance if it’s an obvious thing among metal fans)- deep bass vs. fast/clear mids vs. fast bass vs. super-clear treble, for example.

The Stellia isn’t a bass head’s dream headphone- it goes deep and does so fast and with punch, but isn’t bass-heavy per se. This vs. the Focal Radiance, which has warmer tuning and more prominent mid-bass in particular- and from what I’ve read, Fostex has models (TH-900?) that reproduce bass exceptionally well).

Nor is it the fastest headphones either, as planars are pretty unbeatable in that regard- but might be too bright to be enjoyable with metal… I wanted to love the Audeze LCD-XC, but it was too detailed to be enjoyable to me.

However, the appeal of the Stellia for many listeners is that it does most things/reproduce most musical genres really, really well. If your goal is to surpass the Elear in speed, detail/clarity and dynamics- yes, the Stellia will do that (I’ve owned both). Is it the best if metal is the genre you listen to all the time?
I don’t know- but it will sound really good when playing it.

That is a great description of the Stellia, the Stellia is difficult to unhear once listened to with the right front end and that will vary with each listener. For me the right front end is a ifi pro stack because I can add more warmth and bottom end to my hearts content. While the Stellia sounds great on my cap moded LP or my firefly it is best to me with the ifi pro stack. My Radiance is my travel and general listening HP with a Arya in the downstairs quiet zone.

 

[chaz_flhr]

I've recently (in the past 3 months) added the ifi Gryphon to my collection. It is my only "portable" unit and there are times when I feel it outperforms my Arche and Meridian Prime when paired with the Stellia. With my other cans not so much. For the money this is a VERY capable and well done portable solution that I am now using on my desk when listening to the Stellia.

I am also thinking about adding a gryphon for another travel option with my Radiance on long trips, wondering how well it does with the Empyrean or a Arya.
How would you characterize the Empyrean vs the Stellia I am thinking about adding a Empyrean to my collection.

 

[EarFatigue]

I am also thinking about adding a gryphon for another travel option with my Radiance on long trips, wondering how well it does with the Empyrean or a Arya.
How would you characterize the Empyrean vs the Stellia I am thinking about adding an Empyrean to my collection.

Completely different beasts. If I could only own one set of cans it would be Stellia. Having said that I spend more time listening to the Empyrean. Why? The Stellia are for my technical short term listening sessions and the Empy are for (it doesn’t matter the quality of the recording) longer listening sessions taking advantage of the fatigue free sound and headband comfort.

 

[Caruryn]

I wouldn't.The Empyreans while having a warm,musical and easy going consumer sound they lack too much technicalities to be worthy of their price tag.They have good width and positioning and bass hits hard but they are many steps below the Stellias in detail,transparency and speed.I got bored with them after the 3rd song and after ab next to Stellia there was no comparison.I could buy them for $2000 used but personally i wouldn't give more than $1000 and that's cause of the beautiful construction and fit.Detail and clarity i would put them in the $500 category.

 

[THGM]

I am also thinking about adding a gryphon for another travel option with my Radiance on long trips, wondering how well it does with the Empyrean or a Arya.
How would you characterize the Empyrean vs the Stellia I am thinking about adding a Empyrean to my collection.

I was able to home demo the Empyrean recently, which were themselves a demo unit so already had some hours on them. To my ears, they were accomplished, accurate monitors, comfortable, safe and non-fatiguing. But they lacked soul. I just couldn't connect with my music, irrespective of genre. I packed them up and sent them back without any regrets. My source was Auralic's Vega G2.1 but I have also heard them with the dCS Bartok and felt the same. Maybe they benefit from dedicated headphone amps, I don't know. The Stellia, however, has soul in spades; they are detailed, engaging, resolving, insightful and punchy, making listening to music a joyous experience.