There is a lot of personal preference at these sorts of levels.
There are plenty of more expensive amps that do some thing differently.
I’m very enamored with big DHT’s at the moment, and recently acquired a Viva Egoista 845, with stock tubes it was pretty good, with a changed tube compliment (another $3K) it’s easily my favorite tube amp, and at 15W/Channel it’ll drive a Susvara. But it’s also I think $14K list at this point and on the dryer side. Probably similar levels of warmth to the Stellaris.
People swear by the Riviera AIC-10 which is warmer, but’s a hybrid, and I think the current Balanced version is >$20K list.
The Eddie Current Studio T/M are about as dry as SE tube amps get, but probably at a comparable level, no longer in production and so few were made they are all but unobtainable.
WA33/Elite, very different because it’s a PP amp, technically very impressive, but again no tube warmth.
You can also get into obscure stuff I haven’t personally heard but people I trust rate very highly like the Aries Cerat Genus, or the Angstrom Stella.
Short version there are lots of amps out there that compete with one version of the Stellaris or other, because of the price points, they are going to be few and far between, Donald has a very dedicated following, that the others haven’t really attained.
They are often difficult to hear, unless your know some one or are willing to go used and resell to hear them, and even in those cases most of them rarely turn up on the used market and used prices tend to be all over the place.
You should be able to find dealers that will demo the Riviera/Viva/Aries Cerat, but you may have to travel to hear them, there is for example exactly 1 AC dealer in the country, and I don’t think there are any Viva dealers on the West Coast.
As a Stellaris owner who has owned a lot of other tube amps, I actually wouldn’t classify it as “warm” at all. I actually don’t like warm tube amps, and the Stellaris is my favorite tube amp that I’ve heard. It may lean that way with the stock tubes, but I don’t think they’re particularly good - especially the rectifier (which is slow and bloat-y, perhaps giving the impression of warmth).
Agreed I don’t think any of Donald’s amps are really warm. With stock tubes I’d describe them as relaxed, and with the tube complements I’ve tried they always tend to err that wat to some extent, though you can dramatically improve the dynamics and incitefulness. Best paired with a more inciteful DAC IMO.
The aren’t Eddie Current Studio T/M or WA33 dry though.
Sure, but I actually think warm/cool and wet/dry are different things. An amp can be any combination of those. Like, I would describe the Feliks Euforia AE as warm and dry. With my current tube setup I would classify my Stellaris as neutral-ish on the warm-cool spectrum and a touch wet.
Wet = layers of audible harmonics. Maintaining detail is perhaps impossible? Higher end amps tend to converge on a balance between clarity and harmonics.
You should look at some of the Amp & Sound options, they have 300B and 2A3 amps with little wait time in comparison to DNA. They sound like they would fit your needs.
I’m not totally sure about the wet vs dry debate, but LTA Z40+ would be worth auditioning.
I tried both the Ultralinear+ and Z40+ at Axpona this year and ended up buying the UL+ because the Z40+ was a little too warm for my taste. I preferred the more neutral sound of the UL+.
It’s a long wait but the it is worth it. You’ll need to place a deposit of around $500 but it is refundable and you can get a used amp in the interim if you can’t wait. I’ve not heard the Anniversary Feliks Euforia but I’d classify the original pre-revised version of the Euforia as a warm/wet sounding amp and you might be able to get one used while you wait for the Stellaris.
My 2c on the wait, and when I ordered my Stratus from from Donald it was more like 5 months.
The problem with the wait is that if your system is still evolving by the time you get it, it might not still be be what you want/need.
The big question you have to answer before you jump into a 12 month+ wait for one of Donald’s or any number of other tube amps is if your Headphone endgame is driven well from it, or if your willing to select that headphone based on the amp.
The DNA amps are magical with the Utopia, or MySphere 3.1, work well with D8000Pro, or various Dynamic ZMF’s, but they aren’t what you want for a Raal (thought the CA-1A wasn’t bad), Susvara or 1266. I have two systems and I can dedicate them to specific headphones, but not everyone wants that level of expenditure in 2 Amps, 2 Dac’s etc.
In the end I sold my Stratus to move up, and I’d probably have ordered a Stellaris even with the wait had the EC Studio T (which probably slightly better aligns with my personal tastes) not shown up as available for sale locally, days after I sold it.
If you can tie up the money DNA amps aren’t a huge risk, the wait times and reticence of owners to sell lead to high resale values, and I think Donald has a loaner Stellaris on tour if you contact him.
But at this level it is absolutely worth travelling to hear options, The Viva is well worth hearing if you can, it has the biggest stage of any tube headphone amp I have ever heard, and the leading edge dynamics are astonishing, I personally still want to hear the AC Genus, another 845 amp.
DNA only requires a small refundable deposit so it’s pretty flexible. Explore other options whilst keeping this open.
I agree and personally speaking I wouldn’t advice getting an amp this expensive unless we already exhausted the lower price options and have a rough idea on the sort of sound we are trying to achieve.
Indeed, but not with ZMF Caldera (planar). My top current pairings are Stellaris > ZMF Atrium and Schiit Mjolnir 3 > ZMF Caldera.
On the broader question “worth the wait?” Yes. I waited for my Stellaris Special well over one year. I spend a lot of time at another location as well, and when a used Stellaris appeared on a forum, I snapped it up. My take on these amps, and other pricey audio gear is simple: if you could see it up in smoke and only be sad for losing a beautiful music source, not for the financial loss, go for it. If the financial side is a concern, don’t.
I’ve been trying some vcap ODAM in my Stratus(v3) for the last few months. These replaced the stock interstage coupling caps (Jensen pure copper foil/oil). You will need two 0.22uf 650v caps.
I’ve wanted to do this ever since loving ODAMs in my past Bottlehead gear (Mainline and Bepree 2).
After a good few months of slowly burning these in I can confidently say they are a worthwhile upgrade and do not change the character of the amp.
I actually put the stock caps back after 50 hours as I wasnt liking how lean and flat the vcaps were suddenly sounding. After gritting my teeth I put the vcap back in and gave them another 50 hours of use. I won’t be removing them again.
I’m noticing more resolution and detail and things sound very fast and clear but not analytical. Very pure and clear, similar to installing a better potentiometer.
Pretty much exactly what I noticed on all my Bottlehead kits. You would think the increase in detail and speed would make any sibilance worse, but it’s the opposite here. Really extended effortless treble with oodles of detail.
Another cool bonus is getting more spacial cues and better imaging. It really showcases live recordings and the room / venue.
These caps didn’t require to adjust my chain at all. Stuck with the same interconnects, source and tubes, which reinforces my feeling that they didnt change the amps overall character or tuning, they just add CLARITY.
I realize 0.1 percent of DNA owners would feel comfortable modding their amps but I thought it was worth sharing in case anyone goes down the capacitor road.
Does anyone here have experience comparing the Stellaris against Eddie Current 300B based amps before? I currently have a classic Balancing Act and despite the lack of current to drive inefficient planar, the tuning is unlike any other new 300B amps which tend to sound warm and syrupy (like Feliks Envy or Cayin HA300). It has minimal tube bloom, a muscular presentation and a very open / airy 3D sound with great layering and separation. It’s a bit to the dry side for sure.
I’m primarily a Focal Utopia user so the Stellaris definitely piqued my interest because of its supposed great synergy with them. I guess I’m just trying to figure out how the DNA house sound sounds like before committing…
