Donald North Audio Stellaris - The Experience

I can't get behind all this talk of running stock tubes in your hotrod amp. If you have a Ferrari, do you go to Walmart and put shit tires on it, or do you put the Pirelli track tires on it for best performance?

Does the amp sound great with stock tubes? Absolutely. Does it sound a few notches better with primo tubes? Absofuckinglutely. Why pay gobs for great gear then not squeeze the last of the juice out of it?

Listening to music not tubes is of course what we do, but great tubes get you better music. Better performance from your expensive amp that you bought because you want music to sound better.

So make the music sound as good as possible by TubeMaxxing that mofo then proceed to get the most enjoyment you can get because the sound is optimized for your enjoyment.

Tubes make a difference and will tune the amp. Invest in good tubes to get the most out of your listening experience. Stock tubes are almost never optimal. Amp builders put in passable but cheap tubes because they know most people will put what they want in anyway, so it's not worth them putting in better tubes if people are just going to roll them out.

Maximize your listening experience. Customize your listening experience. Buy good tubes to hear music the way you want to hear it.

 

A more challenging quest than it was for the Af that the Stellaris replaced. A 2A3 that worked beautifully on the Af has an irreducible low hum on the Stellaris; good NOS rectifiers and input tubes were a lot easier to find for the Af. It will take a while (and a significant budget) to land on the best configuration.

 

*Cries in money and time spent*

In all seriousness though, I didn't like rolling through so many tubes, and if I'm honest, I can't say it was 100% worth it for me in the end. Additionally, it was even trickier because this is not an amp where "more money = more good" with the tubes used. That and individual preferences. And to top it all off, I've stumbled upon multiple tube compliments with completely different tubes that yielded almost indistinguishable results. I've also stumbled upon tube compliments that on paper have the same tubes with the same construction, but individual tube variance yielded a bigger relative difference than expected, so you can't even necessarily follow any kind of formula here.

With that being said though, I'm VERY happy with how my Stellaris sounds right now having tried all but 2 "uber tubes" that can be used (Single plate 2A3 and WE422a - the 2nd requires Donald to mod the amp as well). After a few years of ownership I still have quite a few wow moments with the amp. My entire setup is built around the amp as well.

 

No kidding. I paid $21.80 for 2x Sylvania 6BK7B, and that "cheap" input tube does more for dynamics and detail in my chain with my music choices than the Linlai E-2A3 that I had to put aside because of the hum from one of the pair.

 

Just bought these on ebay for a couple euros and I can second that they're strong. Nuances but still surprising: hearing slightly more dynamics & microdetails. Maybe also touch brighter? Probably best tube ROI investment so far. Not sure what was in there before, no labelling but it was something that headfi raved about... Other tubes are Elrog 5U4G and Acme 2A3s. Very happy with this combo.

 

Last week I was fortunate (or unfortunate depending on whether I can scrape together the money for one or not and thus not be haunted by what I can't unhear) enough to hear @Erroneous ' recently delivered Stellaris. It was hooked to his Holo May being fed by a CD transport (some high end model I can't remember),

@Donald North really outdid himself. Having used to own a Starlett, I was pretty familiar with the house sound, and Stellaris is basically a Starlett wielding the infinity gauntlet with all the stones.

My ZDSE is like hearing the recording, Stellaris is like being there when it happened.

I don't think people understand how important micro detail/plankton is until there's so much of it that the gear just melts away and technical jargon is no longer adequate to describe what you're hearing. It's just real life in a box... a time machine.

At one point I turned to Charles and we started talking specifics and he said "you can hear the singer purse their lips", and I responded "you can even sense what they're feeling when they sing a particular section". The emotion of singers really comes through more than any amp I've heard. These are the kinds of nuances you don't get on lesser amps. My old EC 445 gets close, but Stellaris is yet another level above.

Hats off to @Donald North for creating a masterpiece, and curses to you sir for torturing me with desperate longing for one of these things.

 

Great report, thanks. What were you listening with? Utopia? Clear OG?

 

My HD8xx/HD6xx and his legion of Sennheisers. Seriously he could open a Sennheiser museum. I think he had every single notable dynamic Senn and every material variation of each (silk, black paper, white paper, JAR etc).

 

Gotta pay the piper to get good sound, and if you're willing to pay for a good amp then you should be willing to pay for good tubes. Unfortunately to Tubemaxx this amp is $1150+ but it's worth it to get everything you can get out of it.

 

At least for Stratus I have yet to hear anything better than a cheap ($32 Brimar 13D3 w/ $30 adapter), $90 NOS KenRad rectifier, and $550 LinLai E-2A3s. So, around $700 or so?

I'm sure things would change a bit with Stellaris, but they are very similar amps.

 

I'm scared of the toobs. Too much nervosa and cost and desk space for me, though I am so tempted when I read all of these glowing (ha!) reviews. I'll stick with my 3F for now, but I'm sure I'll end up with a Stellaris or something similar someday.

 

Confession: I put the proceeds from selling my remaining Af into a pair of Takatsuki 2A3s for Stellaris #0020, with RCA JAN 5U4G and Sylvania 6BK7B. I can't stop listening. The T. 2A3s basically seem to "tighten" the sound relative to the Psvane ACMEs and Linlai E-2A3s. Still somewhat wet, but absolutely no flab, fast, highly dynamic, even more layers of detail. It's as if some hidden dial had gone to 11 making the Stellaris even more itself. Listening to a brilliant live session led by Tyshawn Sorey (The Off Off Broadway Guide to Synergism), Greg Osby's sax opens "Ask Me Now" with a dense tone and grit that could be right here in the room, and I could go on and on about all the instrumental detail and solidity.

 

Would you say the sound is drier than the Psvane/Linlai?

 

I'm not sure I'd describe it as drier, in the sense that I did not feel it moved closer to the EC Af I used to own. Instead, it's less bloomy, bass is dense but tighter, faster throughout, and yet more spacious. Still wetter than EC Af with any tubes I used on the Af (RCA black plates, Psvane, Linlai).

 

After a year of owning a Starlett, I started the 14th month wait for a Stellaris. A few weeks ago it arrived! Here are my initial impressions with stock tubes. Source is a Spring 2 KTE being fed over I2S with RoPieeeXL as a roon endpoint.

• Sennheiser HD800S @ 8 ohms: No harshness, no peaks, nothing unpleasant at all, even on high volume! Mids are the best I’ve heard them.
• Focal Utopia @ 3 ohms: No issues with metallic timbre, eerily accurate staging and separation.
• Hifiman HE1000se @ 8 ohms: Tightened up highs that sound more like Susvara. This is an unexpectedly good pairing.
• Abyss Diana Phi: Gets loud, but clearly doesn’t have enough current.
• Hifiman Susvara: Gets loud, but clearly doesn’t have enough current.
• Abyss 1266 TC: Gets loud, but clearly doesn’t have enough current.

The Stellaris is an incredible amp, better in every aspect than every tube amp I have heard before. What makes the situation complicated for me personally is the headphones it pairs well with. I’ve not been reaching for Sennheisers or Focals very often.

If Donald ever makes a turbocharged tube amp with enough juice for a Susvara, I’ll be the first to sign up.

 

Congrats! Have you tried Utopia at 8 ohms? How does it compare to 3 ohms?

 

Yes, 3Ω gives a wider stage on Utopia compared to 8Ω.

 

Thanks to suggestions and posts from @Erroneous, @penguins, and @earnmyturns, I've done some tube rolling and spent more time listening.

Tubes matter! A lot!

I rescind my previous statements about Stellaris not being able to handle Susvara and 1266. The Elrog ER5U4G Rectifier made the biggest difference here. The pairing doesn’t seems to make sense on paper, but it’s magical.