AUDIO Verstärker und DACs (Vorschau)

tering magnifying glass that lives up to
even the highest professional expectations.
In the AUDIOphile listening room
both versions had their own appeal, especially
since the loudspeaker’s essential
strengths remained the same either
way.
Well, I could recite music examples
mechanically now for hours on end – how
well Oscar Peterson was communicating
with his bassman, how emphatically this
or that folk bard was uttering his voice,
how the latest Archive album was building
up with gorgeous pomp and pathos before
the awestruck listeners. Due to her
generous length of stay in our listening
room the Stella accompanied me on a
tour through the 30,000 songs on our
harddisk server, I used her to compare
network players, amps and turntables for
dozens of reviews, and now I’ve got a
problem: I don’t want to work without her
any more.
The Stella has one quality that only true
super speakers enjoy and which makes a
comprehensive discussion about certain
single tracks obsolete: she has a huge and
rock-solid scale which is always at least
one step ahead of every recording, yet
also of every electronical component connected.
Thus the speaker is merely perceived
as a mighty, pure white canvas,
which potentially covers the whole field
of vision, but is painted variably wide and
with a shifting wealth of details and colours,
depending on the chain and recording.
One cannot only delightfully listen to
records with the Stella, but also savour
amplifiers like noble wines. And there are
surprisingly few disappointing amps – here
the above-average efficiency of the colossal
speaker pays off and maybe even
helps to cut costs on the electronic side.
For instance, even a Naim Nait XS2 plays
wonderfully consistent and with great
dynamics over the Stella, although it
costs only one thirtieth of the speakers
and draws less current from the mains
grid than one of the two electric woofer
power supplies. Compared to really large
Matured to a legend: Numerous
details improvements have made the
Beryllium tweeter better than ever.
amplifiers, the acoustical image is just a
bit smaller, but in a graceful and solid
manner, like framed with a slightly wider
passe-partout.
True, who has the means of listening
AUDIOphile Charakter
Frequency response
Effortless,
airy, soft
Gripping
Emotional
Dynamic
Focal Stella Utopia Pegel- & Klirrverlauf
110 dB
85 dB 90 dB 95 dB 100 dB
100 dB
90 dB
80 dB
70 dB
60 dB
50 dB
20 Hz 50 Hz 100 Hz 200 Hz 500 Hz 1 kHz 2 kHz 5 kHz
The frequency response
(left, upper) shows an
extremely large bandwidth
and near perfect linearity.
Distortion (lower) is extremely
low over the whole
frequency spectrum, including
the bass, which is a
rare feat even in very large
loudspeakers.
Neutral,
authentic
AUDIOphile Potential
AUDIOphile Advice
Direct,
high resolution
Ideally combined with a neutralto-warm
sounding, powerful
amplifier, the Stellas form a high
resolution monitoring system with
a surprising boogie factor.