Stellavox Introduces a New State of the Art Amplifier IDEM Monoblocks

[Mike Lavigne]

How is the variable gain implemented in the IDEM?

as you very well know, even if someone explained it to me, the odds of me relating properly are low.

the only answer i can give is that "it's likely done in the proper swiss way". in the darTZeel gain adjustment is done in the front panel menu. whether it's software or hardware i don't know. obviously the IDEM uses a mechanical dial. but how it works exactly don't know. i was told to mute the preamp while i switch the gain settings.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I found it somewhat counterintuitive, but lowering the Stellavox input gain produced a dramatic improvement in the sound. For my ears, the lowest gain of 14dB is absolute heaven.

Hello Mike,

Thank you for this report.

I experiment with balancing gain between my phono stage and my line stage, and between my line stage and my amplifiers. I am sure my hearing is not as good as yours, and I hear only slight differences, mainly in the areas of dynamics and of noise level (which makes sense with everything here being tubes -- some tube components are noisier than others).

Do you have a hypothesis why lowering the gain of the Stellavox would change the sound dramatically -- in ways beyond just dynamics (no noise with solid-state, of course)?

Total gain is cumulative among phono stage and line stage and amplifier. Why would reducing the portion of the overall gain generated by the amplifier change the sound dramatically?

Thank you.

 

[Ron Resnick]

The grounding connection is currently on all production models. Here is a picture of the forthcoming Diadem stereo with ground connector located on right bottom underneath the XLR. I have not tried Tripoint or Schnerzinger grounding with Stella yet, tbd…..View attachment 162399

I think it's very nice that Stellavox was responsive to user comments!

 

[Stereophonic]

The grounding connection is currently on all production models. Here is a picture of the forthcoming Diadem stereo with ground connector located on right bottom underneath the XLR. I have not tried Tripoint or Schnerzinger grounding with Stella yet, tbd…..View attachment 162399

Is there any info about Diadem?
Transformer can be see screewed to the chasis as Idem has it. It seems smaller one...

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Hello Mike,

Thank you for this report.

I experiment with balancing gain between my phono stage and my line stage, and between my line stage and my amplifiers. I am sure my hearing is not as good as yours, and I hear only slight differences, mainly in the areas of dynamics and of noise level (which makes sense with everything here being tubes -- some tube components are noisier than others).

Do you have a hypothesis why lowering the gain of the Stellavox would change the sound dramatically -- in ways beyond just dynamics (no noise with solid-state, of course)?

fundamentally the idea is that less pieces of circuit are at play at lower gain levels....so the signal purity is less impacted.

i know in my darTZeel at the lowest phono gain it's the most pure due to less gain circuits being engaged.

no free lunch with adding gain. but sometimes the need for more gain and use of more gain results in the better overall net result. sometimes the gain is adjusted with some sort of attenuation, so there is not elimination of the gain circuit. so then maybe not the improvement in the purity. it depends on the implementation. i'm sure my non techie perspective is flawed, but maybe not too much.

 

[andromedaaudio]

fundamentally the idea is that less pieces of circuit are at play at lower gain levels....so the signal purity is less impacted.

I think Its a fundamentally flawed idea .
(This purist.less circuitry sounds better idea )

Where did this idea derive from ,...the SET crowd ?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I think Its a fundamentally flawed idea .
(This purist.less circuitry sounds better idea )

Where did this idea derive from ,...the SET crowd ?

30 years of listening. seems pretty much how it goes. FMA of course, the exception to the rule.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

How is the variable gain implemented in the IDEM?

additional information;

implementation in Stella is quite unique as it’s 100% in the analog domain with no relays or digital readouts.

 

[pk_LA]

Darts are not tubes. If they have a colouration it will be a solid state colouration.

Silly Mike! And he thought they were tubes...

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Silly Mike! And he thought they were tubes...

yes, it's a glorious silly sickness many are afflicted with.

 

[vinyl_mike]

in the short term yes, those ARE concerns. i'm getting enough of those things so far that i'm comfortable and not feeling missing elements. but until they are more broken in not being too critical. i don't expect the bass is all the way in yet.

on Saturday morning session with my friends, for instance, i was seated in row 2, left side, not in the sweet spot. so @2fastdriving comments about soundstage were mostly not confirmed by me. i will need to do a darTZeel session for myself seated in the holodeck spot. Saturday was more for my friends.

Mike L. brought up the issue of bass. Let me chime in with a few points. From my experience, the Stellavox bass is fundamentally different from other amplifiers. An easy comparison is with the Soulution 717s and my previous Goldmund’s. The moment you turn on the 717s (and Goldmunds) they announce themselves with a deep low-end authority. It is unmistakable - they’re powerful, and frankly exciting. One of my go to records is Cat Stevens Tea For the Tillerman. Listening to the first few moments of Where Do the Children Play through the 717s clearly reveals their power and authority. It is evident from the first note. When I played the same track with the Stellavox, the opening notes were light, delicate and airy. My initial reaction during the first ten seconds was OMG - where is the bass? Twenty seconds later when the bass and Cat’s voice kicked in, I was knocked back not just with the power but the definition. The Stellavox’s low-end is different from anything I remember. I am now able to hear newfound textures and detail. The bass is alive and visceral, but only when it exists on the recording. The Stellavox is NOT the deepest bass impact in the world. I’ve heard bass in my system that was louder and heavier, and at first blush seemingly more powerful than the Stellavox. To test this, I broke out all of my low-end challenge tracks - Jennifer Warren’s Way Down Deep, Greg Brown’s Brand New ’64 Dodge, Donald Fagen’s Morph the Cat, Yello’s Oh Yeah, and Dean Martin’s Blue Moon. All the low-end info was definitely there, but with a purity, and detail that I never heard before. From my perspective, the depth, detail and timbre just feel natural and right. Missing was any hint of “heavy thickness” which in retrospect could give the illusion of deep bass.

Two points that Gideon made during the install. The Stellavox amps were designed to be the proverbial window into the sound without a character of their own. That makes them highly revealing of the source components. I agree, with Stellavox I am uncovering and discerning new details between and among vinyl, tape and even digital. Also, there is an undeniable synergy with Zellaton. Without a doubt they bring out the best in Zellaton speakers - they are magic together.

Although my Soulution 727 is an excellent match, it is my understanding that the new Stella pre is supposed to maximize the IDEM- looking forward to hearing it once available.

I do understand that this might not be for everyone’s taste - but for me it’s been a revelation.

 

[andromedaaudio]

I ll be hearing them in VIENNA next year i assume most likely with the matching pre amp.
They look nice.

 

[pk_LA]

Mike L. brought up the issue of bass. Let me chime in with a few points. From my experience, the Stellavox bass is fundamentally different from other amplifiers. An easy comparison is with the Soulution 717s and my previous Goldmund’s. The moment you turn on the 717s (and Goldmunds) they announce themselves with a deep low-end authority. It is unmistakable - they’re powerful, and frankly exciting. One of my go to records is Cat Stevens Tea For the Tillerman. Listening to the first few moments of Where Do the Children Play through the 717s clearly reveals their power and authority. It is evident from the first note. When I played the same track with the Stellavox, the opening notes were light, delicate and airy. My initial reaction during the first ten seconds was OMG - where is the bass? Twenty seconds later when the bass and Cat’s voice kicked in, I was knocked back not just with the power but the definition. The Stellavox’s low-end is different from anything I remember. I am now able to hear newfound textures and detail. The bass is alive and visceral, but only when it exists on the recording. The Stellavox is NOT the deepest bass impact in the world. I’ve heard bass in my system that was louder and heavier, and at first blush seemingly more powerful than the Stellavox. To test this, I broke out all of my low-end challenge tracks - Jennifer Warren’s Way Down Deep, Greg Brown’s Brand New ’64 Dodge, Donald Fagen’s Morph the Cat, Yello’s Oh Yeah, and Dean Martin’s Blue Moon. All the low-end info was definitely there, but with a purity, and detail that I never heard before. From my perspective, the depth, detail and timbre just feel natural and right. Missing was any hint of “heavy thickness” which in retrospect could give the illusion of deep bass.

Two points that Gideon made during the install. The Stellavox amps were designed to be the proverbial window into the sound without a character of their own. That makes them highly revealing of the source components. I agree, with Stellavox I am uncovering and discerning new details between and among vinyl, tape and even digital. Also, there is an undeniable synergy with Zellaton. Without a doubt they bring out the best in Zellaton speakers - they are magic together.

Although my Soulution 727 is an excellent match, it is my understanding that the new Stella pre is supposed to maximize the IDEM- looking forward to hearing it once available.

I do understand that this might not be for everyone’s taste - but for me it’s been a revelation.

Thank you for the notes! Very informative. That said, in my experience neither the 717s nor the Telos 4800s invent bass where it does not exist. My point being that if there are frequencies that feel thin with the Stellavoxes then just accept it for what it is - they are thin in that area. That the Stellavoxes resolve bass well makes sense in my experience where you sort get your choice between bass authority and high resolution.

On a related note, I asked Mike about the bass (vs. the Darts) because it has been my understanding that bass is the one area where the Darts don't relatively excel like they do everywhere else.

 

[Al M.]

Thank you for the notes! Very informative. That said, in my experience neither the 717s nor the Telos 4800s invent bass where it does not exist. My point being that if there are frequencies that feel thin with the Stellavoxes then just accept it for what it is - they are thin in that area. That the Stellavoxes resolve bass well makes sense in my experience where you sort get your choice between bass authority and high resolution.

I cannot comment specifically on the Stellavox, but also in my experience lighter bass has a tendency to sound more "resolved" -- just by virtue of being lighter.

For example, you can hear certain vibrations of a stand-up bass more easily when the sound has a less heavy footprint. Yet then the question arises, is it really more "resolution" when the sound actually should have more weight and tonal density if reproduced correctly, and thus is missing that information?

 

[microstrip]

(...) On a related note, I asked Mike about the bass (vs. the Darts) because it has been my understanding that bass is the one area where the Darts don't relatively excel like they do everywhere else.

Don't Mike's Evolution Acosutics MM7's have active bass towers using extremely powerful separate mono amplifiers?

 

[LL21]

Don't Mike's Evolution Acosutics MM7's have active bass towers using extremely powerful separate mono amplifiers?

Yes, and to Mike's credit, he has always noted that fact when opining on Dartzeels, noting that in respect of their deep pass, the MM7 bass towers are self-powered.

 

[vinyl_mike]

Thank you for the notes! Very informative. That said, in my experience neither the 717s nor the Telos 4800s invent bass where it does not exist. My point being that if there are frequencies that feel thin with the Stellavoxes then just accept it for what it is - they are thin in that area. That the Stellavoxes resolve bass well makes sense in my experience where you sort get your choice between bass authority and high resolution.

On a related note, I asked Mike about the bass (vs. the Darts) because it has been my understanding that bass is the one area where the Darts don't relatively excel like they do everywhere else.

Let me clarify. I am absolutely not implying that Soulution nor Goldmund “invent bass where it does not exist.” I think that we both would agree that they are among two of the best amps in the world. However, every piece has a definable character, and to my ears these are both “bottom up.” Not a criticism - I loved them both. But to my ears, the Stellavox is different. If you have a chance listen to the Stellavox, I would like to hear your thoughts.