Still my favorite closed-back!
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I know I found this point somewhere on the internet, so apologies if it is even in this long thread for the Stellia’s, but it was massively impactful to me and finally loving the Stellia’s when I was literally considering selling them off for not sounding good at all!
TL;DR: If you don’t like how these headphones sound, try different pads! I went with the Dekoni Elite Hybrid pads and it completely changed this headphone into one of my, if not the, favorite headphones! Before this pad swap, they sounded thin and almost hollow. Explanation below.
These are not inexpensive headphones, and when I bought them I was hoping that they would be my end-game closed back headphones. I love the look of these, which plays into my headphone purchases more than it should… but I am who I am. 
I am disabled and no longer drive, so going somewhere to listen to it before I buy isn’t very easy or sometimes possible, so I just take my chances on purchases with the idea that I could either return or resell if something doesn’t work out.
My first impression of the Stellia’s was that they are very amp/source dependent. This still holds true IMO, but it was more than just that in the beginning. Even on an amp that “sounded better”, they lacked any real bass or “body”. They sounded super thin and almost hollow. I was kind of crushed having spent all that money and knowing that resale wouldn’t get me back all of it. Since I was still seeing rave reviews from people and especially talking about “incredible bass response”, I figured something was amiss! So, I started to search for what I was hearing. I read someone’s post somewhere (maybe reddit) that it almost sounded like when you hold a seashell up to your ear… and I totally agree! Anyone should be able to replicate this by breaking the seal on the ear-pads slightly and you’ll hear it! Seems as though the seal on closed-back headphones is much more important than open-back comparatively.
I do wear glasses, though not chunky frames. I also tried them without glasses and it didn’t really fix the problem. If I pressed the headphones to my head more to get the seal it would sound better, but still not incredible (IMO). At any rate, I figured I would try some new pads before I gave up all hope. I like more sub-bass than the average “audiophile”, and I lean towards warmer sound signatures, but not at the expense of sparkle up top. Doing a little research I found that Dekoni’s Elite Hybrid pads provide more sub-bass and lean warmer. Because the Stellia’s sounded so incredibly thin to me, I figured I would want all I could get and ordered them.
WOW! The difference was insane!! It completely changed these headphones into something that sounds incredible! Comparing the pads, the stock pads don’t seem to be memory foam, where the Dekoni’s are, and maybe the point of contact on the Dekoni’s allow more tiny variations while still being able to provide a good seal. This change more than saved these headphones for me… they made them one of my favorite headphones now!
Bottom line: If you feel like the Stellia is missing something in the sound, try different pads.
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Still my favorite closed back! Congrats!
Does anybody know what Resolve’s Parametric EQ settings are for the Focal Stellia. He spoke about the in his review but I can’t find them…
Hope someone can help me out with this one.
For the Ones who have a Stellia and EQ them wat are your fav settings?
Enjoy the music. Cheers Fonz
@Fonz What are you looking to change and/or improve with the Stellia?
@nuance Well I was wondering how to get the best sound of it. With a tight bass and a smooth treble. So I wondered what Evolve had done with his EQ settings. But I am open for suggestions 
Oratory1990 has a ton of EQ settings to get things closer to the Harmon Curve. Whether that is better is subjective and to each their own.
This is the full list of headphones. Search for the Stellia and you can download the PDF with the settings.
I use this in Roon, and I even add an additional sub-bass shelf (80Hz +4 dB) to add more bottom end. It ramps gradually to +4dB, so the peak hits around 50Hz and below. That’s my personal preference. I even modified a couple other frequencies in the upper mids to smooth things out to my ears.
The thing is, your ears and how you hear things is unique. So, using someone else’s settings isn’t likely to provide your best experience. The Harmon Curve is a good scientific start, but feel free to play around to find what suites you! If your goal is “enjoyment”, then don’t let anyone tell you how you should enjoy something. That is unique to every individual!
Opinions are like a$$holes… everybody has one and they usually stink to others. 
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My approach: twiddle the dials or settings until I like how it sounds…
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As a big fan of the Stellia’s sound, I tentatively started reading these posts, afraid that everyone will try to tone the bass down, but you are my hero - I never thought of adding more bass LOL.
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Either I am a true “bass head”, or I just struggle to hear bass freq as much as others. I (almost) always tend to add more sub-bass (never mid-bass). Even, or maybe especially, with movie scores (which I listen to a lot while doing knowledge work).
I just like to feel my music, and making sure it is just the sub-bass seems to help keep things tight (IMO).
Oh! Another thing to consider for @Fonz, or anyone else if you are new’ish to EQ’ing… make sure to adjust the overall level so none of your frequency “peaks” are too additive. Otherwise you will likely get clipping and possible distortion. If you cannot adjust the overall level, I tend to use reductive EQ’ing. Meaning, lower the other frequencies to effectively boost the frequencies you leave at level.
Meaning, if you want to boost only bass, lower all other frequencies instead of boosting only the bass. More mids? Lower the bass and high freqs, etc.
As @generic points out, don’t be afraid to fiddle to see what does and doesn’t work for you. You can always start over! @Resolve has an amazing video on EQ’ing that you can learn a lot from.
and
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Headphones routinely struggle with deep lows. My HD 800 S sounds vacant without a huge boost to the deep end. Even then, small headphone drivers typically don’t go that deep and don’t move the massive amounts of air required for realistic bass that resembles genuine instruments. One niche response is to use under-chair woofers or forced-feedback vibration wearables. It’s a niche because it’s weird and hard to execute. See the Nuraphone thread for example.
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I don’t know if Resolve has an EQ profile for the Stellia - I’m sure he’ll chime in if he does. In the meantime, have you done the following yet?
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Run a sine sweep with your Stellia to locate the peaks and valleys.
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Determine specifically what adjustments you want to make.
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Installed Equalizer APO and Peace or verified your music player has PEQ.
Once you’ve done the above, you can play with the Squig.link Equalizer tool and mock up some EQ profiles. The one below is using Resolve’s 5128 measurement of the Stellia and EQing to be closer to the -.8dB Diffuse Field target. Of course, you should be EQing by ear as well - the EQ tool should only be a guide.
I had the same experience with the Radiance but I just used EQ sound great now
I also add a big bass lift even mid bass. I find I need to do this with all my headphones. Just my preference.
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Thanks so much. I have Roon and I use the PEQ in roon. Will try out your settings. Thanks so much 
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Do i get the fancy gloves too! If so i am sold. 
Long-time audiophile but I am just starting my headphone journey and after reading and watching many, many reviews I think I am going to take the plunge and buy the Stellia. These will be mainly driven by my primary system which consists of a Luxman L-509X integrated amp, Cary Audio DMS-700 digital source and Clearaudio Performance AiR turntable. Luxman is very vague about the headphone output - after many calls I was told it’s rated 45mw at 32ohm’s and they are tapping the amps’ mains and putting resistors in-line. Since the Stellia’s are very efficient I think they would perform fine - but my question is if I purchase a dedicated solid state headphone amp, say in the $1,500 range, and connect it to pre-amp outputs(Varabile) or the Tape Output (Fixed) of the Luxman will there be a noticeable increase in performance?
Depending on the output impedance of the headphone output, that’s more power than needed to drive the Stellia.
This, however, tends to result in rather silly output impedances. And anything above about 4 ohms is going to start affecting the Stellia’s frequency response (mostly with looser/more-pronounced bass).
Impossible to say for sure without knowing what the output performance (e.g. THD+N, SNR etc.) of the pre-amp outputs are and the same values, plus output impedance, of the native headphone output.
If you DO go for a separate headphone amplifier, you’ll be MUCH better off connecting it directly to one of the outputs from this than you will from the pre/integrated amplifier.
Get something with dual inputs so you can take a second feed off the Luxman if you also want to listen to LPs via your headphones.
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Thank you for the reply.
Yes your correct Luxman quotes a high impedance headphone output: 800ohms.
They quote Rec Out: 180mV, Pre-Out: 1V, Line Freq Response: 20Hz to 100kHz (within -3dB), Line S/N Ratio 105dB or more
I have thought about taking the single ended feed from the DMS-700 directly into a head phone amp. I have a question into Cary Audio asking if the DMS-700 supports both outputs (balanced and unbalanced) being connected at the same time.
A friend a has older Auralic Taurus MkII class A HA that I probably could borrow.
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That’s going to result in one very skewed frequency response from the Stellia.
That’s about half what most single-ended headphone amplifiers will need in order to get their maximum output, though it’ll probably be fine since the Stellia are quite efficient.
If you do connect to the pre-outs, just be careful about turning up the volume on the Luxman instead of the headphone amplifier.
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This product has an AKM AK4499EQ DAC chip. It’ll be fine to get started as the source for a dedicated headphone amp.
In my experience and the reports of others, the headphone output of speaker-oriented amps, preamps, and receivers tends to disappoint. Sometimes it’s an afterthought or check-box requirement and can shockingly disappoint. “How can something so big sound so weak and thin?”
If you are serious about audio quality, take @Torq’s comments seriously. With hindsight I’d personally avoid the (likely) pain or inferior performance of a workaround and jump straight into a dedicated headphone amp.
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