looks like my Stellavox amps have an ETA of about 10 days. will need to borrow a 7.5 meter set of XLR's as my Evolution Acoustics 'zeel' 50 ohm BNC's won't work for the IDEM's.
Stellavox Introduces a New State of the Art Amplifier IDEM Monoblocks
- Thread starter Steve Williams
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yes; i have multiple BNC/XLR and BNC/RCA adapters. they are a bit of a kludge. not a huge effect, but more than slight.
looks like my friend Andrey Kosobutsky (of ATR Service, INC) will be able to lend me a 7.5 pair of XLR I.C.'s for that demo/compare. so i'm good. i have other of his cables in my system i think highly of, including an 8 meter set of XLR's for my tape decks that crosses the room to my dart pre. but i want to be able to play tape during the compare.
You need a 50 ohm BNC terminator with a BNC T to do it correctly - this way the cable sees a correct termination at the end. I have used it with success - the 50 ohm BNC outputs of the Dart preamplifier sounded better than the XLR ones. You can't do a BNC /XLR conversion properly.
agree. i have a decent 7 meter long set of RCA's but prefer XLR's when it's that long to RCA's. been many years since i used an adapter.
agree the 50 ohm BNC's are ideal with dart<->dart. have you had the newer MK2 dart preamp? it's much better with XLR's than the MK1 dart pre.
yes, never sounded right.
sounds like you are getting a (free perhaps) in home demo to see if you like the amps? that is a pretty nice accommodation. sounds like Stellavox knows where to go to get attention. curious if you would pay full msrp if they become ‘yours’. just wired full msrp for the lampi aphrodite. my 6th lampi dac over last 7 years. no in home demo offered, just as one data pt of comparison and in the spirit of full transparencyhummm. i did write that didn't i.not quite yet to that point.
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In fact, the 50 ohm terminator allows us to use the DartZeel preamplifier as designed by Herve.
I owned the Mk1 for some years and hosted a MK2 much later. Although the XLR of the MK2 was much better than that of MK1 - it used an active inverter buffer configuration, one reason I was not happy with the Mk2 was that the XLR sounded poorer than the BNC properly terminated. Dart's were designed to be used in the 50 ohm mode.
Cool. Have fun testing it.
(Here in Europe—just a few hundred miles away from the manufacturer—I didn't even get a response from Stellavox, even though I requested information twice.)
For John Lennon fans, wanted to share pt1 of my client’s install at Lennon’s famed Dakota building on Central Park…, the Stellavox monos are arriving soon to partner with his ZELLATON’s, 
AMG analog and Burmester 111 digital front end. More pics to follow as the system and room are completed.
AMG analog and Burmester 111 digital front end. More pics to follow as the system and room are completed.
it does take some effort to convince me to just even try another amplifier. after 20 years with darTZeel and not being in the market for an amp. otherwise i'm not really interested in upsetting my system. i don't need a different amp. do my efforts earn me that? reading about the Stellavox and talking to @vinyl_mike on the phone about the Stellavox convinced me to try it.
i'm not the only one who is offered a free home demo. being a singular dealer in the USA for a product like Stellavox will result in these sorts of situations. sorry you have a problem with it. and clearly a need to tear me down.
contact Gideon and ask him for a home demo. make your case. i'm sure others are doing it too and sometimes it will make sense for Gideon and other times not. my system has had many events over the years sometimes with new products, other times just events. it's a fun thing to do. and many people visit me from all around. i guess doing this causes resentment for some. too bad.
just as soon as everyone discloses what they pay i'll be happy to do so. i suppose everyone's info would need to be audited to have any true value. a real sticky wicket. dealers might not cooperate. so maybe impossible. i'm more interested in getting the right product than what i pay. affordability is always an issue too. now that i am retired my buying power is reduced. and other than digital which changes i keep things forever. some only buy when it's a super duper deal. if you buy to keep gear long term the price effect fades over time but the value retains. the best deal is buying the right piece to begin with. and building a system and sorting it around key pieces.
i paid msrp for my Lampi Golden Gate, and then msrp for the upgrade to the GG 1.5 version. that's the Lampi direct process. i pay msrp for many things. and sometimes a good customer price. just like everyone.
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looking forward to seeing the room completed. That is indeed a fabled building
Did you ever consider the risk Gideaon is taking with his Stellavox line. Mike is not just another unknown forum member. He has been around a long time and has one of the most mature and well applied systems. He has shared for many years the steps he has gone through to get it to where he is. He has a very open door and many people have heard it for themselves.
What if Mike listens to the Stellavox and does not like it. What if he post the positive attributes the Dartzeel have over the Stellavox. That is not going to help Gideaon promote the brand. If on the other hand, Mike does like it and switches brands, what will that do for Gideon. I would say it could result in many more "Easy" sales. Isn't that worth some amount of discount. If you don't think so, then I disagree with you, and I believe many other would also. It might upset some people they don't have the online influencer value to be offered discounts. But that should not be a reason to try and knock down those that do.
knock down? i think similarly many are asking for more transparency as Keith raised earlier. mike had many opportunities to do so in similar thread, re: WBF founders, and I greatly appreciate his response above, albeit we don’t know any terms, which is fine. The question goes back to Elliot’s thread which I assume you have read, and now is apparently closed.
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I'm glad to see how strong Stellavox has entered in Hi-End circle.
Although i'm not a fan of "Swiss sound", it is refreshing to see a new brand with new ideas.
Price is lower than other Swiss brands too...
Darzeel is almost out business so i see Mike's demo very clever and interesting.
Although i'm not a fan of "Swiss sound", it is refreshing to see a new brand with new ideas.
Price is lower than other Swiss brands too...
Darzeel is almost out business so i see Mike's demo very clever and interesting.
Risk? It’s the exact opposite. How many $150k amps are shipped cross country with a dealer install for demo with no sale on the other end.
Hint, it’s basically nil.
He’s hoping Mike likes it and writes about it, thereby promoting more sales. And Mike gets a big discount by doing it. If Mike doesn’t like it, they will go back and vague comments if any will be stated.
And then Steve starts this very own thread and conveniently is hosting an event to sell more amps for the same WBF sponsor. Hmm.
Let’s just be honest and state what is happening and stop dancing around the issues. These are just but a few of what I can mention.
sorry if i go off on a tangent here. but this transparency question is a big one.
an interesting thing happened during Covid in the car business. inventories were greatly reduced, prices went up, and customers who purchased were way happier. and my employees were happier. why? for 2 reasons. 1---with scarcity everyone paid the same. prices went up, but mostly discounts went away. so there were no negotiations. and 2---the bottom-feeders who had to get a good deal and would tell us how they knew much more about our business than we did, and were nasty and angry and we wished they never would have purchased from us, just stayed away.
ill say that for sure not everyone who negotiates a great deal is a negative customer. but those who push the most also are more likely to have the most angst. and if you remove those customers from the situation the environment is much more positive.
so those who did buy liked us and the process much more. transparency. yes; maybe their payment was $479 per month instead of $459 per month or something like that. the actual price paid relative to MSRP was less than 3-4% more than the previous average. not that much relative to the overall price. we sold less but made a little more in the end. so my employees were happier too.
yes; some dealers went too far and gouged the customers, and some did not. so that was a bad part. we only stopped discounting. manufacturers did raise prices, and reduce incentives. so that was also part of it.
the hifi business also had their Covid period where inventories were reduced, prices were inflated, and discounts were eliminated. everyone paid the same, and those that got products were happy. those needing a discount stayed away.
unfortunately as much of a nice situation as the Covid market was, it was over by 2023, since then inventories inflated. i retired in early 2023. now it's a free for all again. the people who pay the least are the most unhappy still. never had faith and never will.
price transparency is important. valuable. and only possible if everyone pays the same price. but it's not everything. it might mean you are paying too much. or not. you can never make everyone happy. that is ultimately up to them. wherever you go, there you are.
Keith you are not wrong. can't argue about it. but that is not going to change anything. people will think what they think. and view thru their own prism.
i apologize for my detour.
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