Stellavox Introduces a New State of the Art Amplifier IDEM Monoblocks

[Kvali1]

nope, but how many amps has Stellavox designed/built?

Whole point here is to have no pre conceived notions . DarTZeel is great but they are very colored ; I suspect Mike will like the openness and naturalness the stellavox will bring to the table. But that’s all speculation ; let’s just wait and see what happens .

 

[ctydwn]

can we trust mikeL has no skin in the game and will give his honest, candid observations, no holds barred? i sure hope so. but remain skeptical.

 

[Kvali1]

can we trust mikeL has no skin in the game and will give his honest, candid observations, no holds barred? i sure hope so. but remain skeptical.

Jesus , yes . What skin In the game are you worried about. How many of us will have the luxury hear the OG darts versus a brand new amp . This is a lot more valuable than any bullshit magazine reviewers write up.
I say , don’t be skeptical .
We will hear an honest assessment .
Ultimately this is a subjective hobby and everyone hears and prefers different things .
But let’s cherish these write ups instead of looking for made up reasons to discount them.

 

[ctydwn]

i love it. and no one better than Mike to opine on these amps. i do hope/trust Mike will share his true, nuanced critique. i absolutely though hope veterans like @KeithR and @Elliot G. would agree too/opine, given the arrangements

 

[Mike Lavigne]

You probably should get them off the floor and put them on the stands that you are currently using for the Darts…

my intension is that the Stellavox on the floor has to surpass the darts on the Taiko Tana/Herzan platforms straight up. at least for the Saturday morning compare. i have a relatively short 3 hour window (at 12:30 pm my UW Huskies play the Oregon Ducks) to (1) listen to the IDEM, (2) move the cables from the IDEM to the dart 468's (3) allow for enough time for the darts to warm up after being off for 3 days, and (4) listen to the darts. doing all that sufficiently right is a tall task.

trying to move things around to allow for the change of the active platform for both too is just pushing it too far. i figure even if the compare favors the dart on the active, i can then move the IDEM's onto the active and do that compare myself. if the compare favors the IDEM even on the floor, i will end up long term with the IDEM's on the platform anyway. and i will report on either situation once done.

so just trying to make sure what we do do is not harried and too stressful Saturday morning. we want to have a fun session and execute the parts we do effectively.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

i love it. and no one better than Mike to opine on these amps. i do hope/trust Mike will share his true, nuanced critique.

i will do my best to keep the long term best choice for my system.

i absolutely though hope veterans like @KeithR and @Elliot G. would agree too/opine, given the arrangements

Keith and Elliot would certainly be welcome if they can make it. there may be other such sessions in the coming days/weeks. at least until i ship one of these amps away. my room always has an open door.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

can we trust mikeL has no skin in the game and will give his honest, candid observations, no holds barred? i sure hope so. but remain skeptical.

people will think what they will think. i can't concern myself with all that. if i can choose either set of amps, why would i not choose the one i prefer? if that is not enough for anyone, not my problem. i've done plenty of public shootouts before and never not went the way of the better performance to my personal ears. i have lots of history. i'm an open book. YMMV.

i'll have three sets of experienced WBF Member ears with me Saturday. one owns medium powered tubes, one is buying a much respected big push pull tube amp, and one is a die hard dartTZeel lover. so hopefully they will take the time to comment on their compare perspective. all three are very familiar with my system and appreciate the darTZeel already and have never met or communicated with Gideon.

skeptics can speculate all they want about what they will say. knives out.....but take care.