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Recommended Component 2024 – Stereophile
French-Made Luxury at Its Best in a Headphone
Less than three years after the launch of the Utopia open-back headphones, Focal returns to center stage with a new product destined to become the leader among high-end closed-back headphones: Stellia. Equipped with the brand's very best technology, incorporating numerous innovations and delivering excellent soundproofing, Stellia perfectly illustrates the renowned manufacturer's refusal to compromise on quality. This is French-made luxury at its best.
"Recommended Component" Honors
Stereophile honored the Stellia by awarding it the magazine's coveted Recommend Component status for 2024.
According to Stereophile, "When he first heard these closed-back headphones, which use 1.5" M-shaped electrodynamic beryllium-dome drivers and have a 35 ohm impedance, HR felt that they 'were delivering a very high level of relaxed and refined sound, with no beryllium metallic-ness.' Continued listening with the Feliks Euforia amplifier resulted in 'more excitement and colorful energy" than with the Auris Nirvana powering the Focals. HR concluded that with the HoloAudio May DAC and the Euforia, "Focal's Stellia closed-backs produced vital, exciting sound.'"
Gear Patrol "Best Expensive Headphones" Pick
The Stellia was chosen by Gear Patrol in Ian White's "The Best Expensive Headphones That Are Actually Worth Buying" article, June 28, 2024.
"It’s hard to argue with the build quality, comfort, accessories, and reference-level sound quality."
The Stellia is for the music listener who wants to hear everything; which may or not be a good thing depending on the quality of your source or music. The Stellia deliver deep bass but it’s more cerebral than visceral. One major plus – their low impedance makes them smartphone friendly."
"A Slam Dunk"
"If you want the privacy and isolation provided by a closed-back design, the Stellias are a slam dunk," raves Alan Taffel, The Absolute Sound, May/June 2022. "They offer a combination of tonal balance, dynamics, comfort, looks, and sheer musical enjoyment that, as I found and now you've read, is hard to beat."
"The Focal Stellia rank as a top-tier closed-enclosure headphone that delivers on all its promises – great sound, beautiful design, excellent comfort, premium parts, high compatibility with a wide range of headphone amplifiers, a full complement of cables supplied with the headphones, and a price commensurate with this level of excellence," reports Steven Stone, Hi-Fi+, January 20, 2021.
"Truly Breathtaking"
"The Focal Stellia are one of the finest closed back headphones available on the market," says John Hoffman, Positive Feedback Issue 113, January 4, 2021. "These cans are the total package, with stunning looks, artisan level build quality, and cutting-edge engineering and materials. The Stellia transcend the stereotypical limitations of sealed headphones by having an expansive and refined soundstage. The level of detail and resolution is truly breathtaking!"
"There’s nothing we don’t like about the sound quality," reports Chris Haslam, Wired, April 1, 2019. <
Exceptional Speaker Drivers
The Stellia concept is simple: the adapta- tion of the Utopia headphones to create a closed-back version. Unfortunately, acoustic laws dictate that a transducer's design depends very heavily on the associated load type and inner volume of the headphones. Stellia therefore integrates a new generation of exclusive electrodynamic speaker drivers, capable of working at low acoustic load while offering an extremely extensive frequency response (5Hz – 40kHz).
The new 110-micron NBR surround offers low compliance and a geometry that is developed entirely in relation to its inner volume. The elongation of the moving part is thereby preserved and ensures exceptional dynamics for closed-back headphones.
Cutting-Edge Technology
Simultaneously, the frameless 100% copper voice coil (exclusive to Focal) offers an extremely reduced mass which, combined with its magnetic coupling to the motor, is able to reproduce the tiniest nuances with great precision, whether bass articulation or the highest frequency details.
The crowning glory of these exceptional speaker drivers is the 'M'-shaped pure Beryllium dome. Focal's signature innovation, this cutting-edge technology offers three major benefits. Its very low mass (seven times lighter than titanium of identical rigidity) enables an extraordinary acceleration factor to be obtained, ensuring unfailing adherence to the original audio signal. Its rigidity ensures both impressive elongation and a high sound level, while preventing distortion of the dome. Finally, the damping level provided by the Beryllium lends it a flawless neutrality, for voices and trebles of astonishing realism.
The Purest Sound
Loading a speaker driver into a small inner volume makes it highly sensitive to its environment. The Stellia's full-range speaker driver therefore includes a vent to control the balance between the bass and the midrange. A second vent, located at the back of the ear cup, picks up the rear wave coming from the center of the motor to avoid any compression and extend the frequency response of the speaker driver. How? By ensuring the connection between the center of the motor and the outer part of the ear cup located beneath the logo. The speaker driver's response in the bass-reflex acoustic loudspeaker is thus extended to the lowest frequencies while providing remarkable linearity and bass articulation, all without any dynamic compression.
As for the higher frequencies, these are absorbed through an EVA foam pad inside the ear cup, behind the speaker driver. Finally, the presence of acoustic diffusers inside this ear cup achieves two objectives: they break up standing waves by uniformly diffusing residual energy throughout the space. The diffusers are also an additional material, making the "cabinetry" even more rigid and, as a result, inert. As such, only the speaker driver generates the sound reproduction, without interfering, adding or removing information from the sound signal.
The Earpads, or the Acoustic Treatment of the Room
The ideal acoustics for a listening space, beyond its dimensions, lies in its reverberation time controlled by the quantity of its absorbent materials (acoustic foam, etc.). The Stellia earpads are a perfect illustration of this: 50% of their height is designed to diffuse sound through a non-perforated full-grain leather; 50% absorbs the audio signal through an acoustic cloth which covers the memory foam. This solution also provides a linear frequency range, between 1 and 10kHz.
Comfort and Elegance
Stellia uses the headband and yoke mechanical features originally developed for the Utopia headphones. The consistent curve between these two elements offers flawless comfort, regardless of the shape and size of the listener's face and head.
Stellia boasts two more impressive key features: its soundproofing capacity, which has been further enhanced by its closed design; and its comfort, guaranteed by the high-resilience memory foam used in the earpads. Each component has been developed with optimal acoustics in mind, without compromising on style. The two cognac and mocha finishes truly showcase each element and are testament to the meticulous attention paid to each and every detail.
Equally Impressive Accessories
For high-end headphones, a high-end pack. Stellia is presented in a cognac and mocha faux-leather case. A storage case houses two high-quality cables with the same materials and finishes. The first 3-metre cable is ideal for use at home on a high-end amplifier, thanks to its symmetrical 4-pin XLR connector. The second is designed to be portable: measuring 3-3/8 feet (1.2m) with a 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo jack, it is the perfect solution for connecting Stellia to a portable audiophile player.
Stellia's voice coil offers extremely low impedance at 35 Ohms, making the headphones very easy to drive through the output of a mobile audio source. The rigid travel case, in cognac and mocha woven finishes, provides effective yet stylish protection for Stellia when you are on the move.
Focal's Industrial Expertise
Focal strictly oversees every stage in the creation of its high-fidelity products, from the development process to manufacturing. With Stellia, the extreme light weight of the moving part composing the full-range speaker driver means it is necessary to strictly control the quantities of glue used on the surround-dome/dome- voice coil connections. A new robot was developed to implement this priority, as well as bringing exceptional repeatability and stability to the production process. This is a manufacturing process where every detail matters, at all times, producing headphones equipped with speaker drivers that deliver identical frequency response curves at +/- 0.5dB. The performance tradition is a 100% Focal design, showcasing innovation in technology, materials and tools.
