Thread: HP Amp For Focal Stellias

Shopping for a HP amp that will be symbiotic/compatible with Focal Stellias. Many of you know that Stellias are closed HPs. Interested in suggestions. Thank you.

Did you have a budget in mind? Solid state or tubes? Just single ended or balanced?

I know, too many questions... I have been really getting into headphones lately and have tried several amps and headphones over the last couple years. The Stellias are supposed to be excellent.

Hey, Randy. Good to hear from you. Yeah, I've decided on closed HPs so as to not disturb my wife while I'm listening, and vice versa. Looking seriously at the Focal Stellias. Mike is recommending the new Naim Uniti Atom headphone addition for an amp. I've also considered the Pass HPA-1 and Simaudio 430 among others. Budget around $7000 (total for HP and amp). Maybe a little more depending on the quality of the components. I'm open to any other recommendations.

I am not familiar with the Naim, but I know they have a good name. It looks like a good unit, but my only real issue with it is that it tries to do everything... DAC, streamer, etc., etc. All cool if that is what you need... however you have that amazing MSB already ... it depends on your use. I integrate my headphones into my system and it sounded to me like you were going to be doing the same... so a dedicated headphone amp makes a ton of sense in my view.

I assume you are leaning towards SS (Pass, SimAudio). I hear Pass is very good and I know that the SimAudio can be seriously considered one of the best. I thought it was amazing, but for me it was too large (a full size component) and more than I needed. A bit overwhelming. The Bryston is also excellent! Also SPL is very good. If you are talking single ended only and not looking for tons of features, just a simple headphone amp the SPL Phonitor SE is really good for a bit less money. Another very highly rated and less money unit is the HeadAmp GS-X Mini (maker of the Blue Hawaiian, many rate as the best there is, but it is electrostatic only) ... supposed to be seriously good for the money. Another very highly rated solid state is Eleven Audio. This is the top rated and sold by Abyss! Definitely a bit more $$$, but supposed to be good... not really my cup of tea though....

On the tube end of things I owned the Dennis Had Dragon, which is very nice, but single ended only, again. The Woo Audio I recently purchased is by far my absolute favorite. It is a 100% tube design and fully balanced class A. It is also renowned for its ability to do tube rolling. On Head-Fi there is a thread dedicated just to Woo and another dedicated just to the WA22 amplifier (the current model is called the 2nd Gen)! I had a McIntosh in the past which was pretty good also!

I do prefer American and German amps (ok, most European)... There are others of course.... with this in mind...

Pass - SS - US
Bryston - SS - Canadian
SimAudio - SS - Canadian
SPL - SS - German
Dennis Had - Tube - hand made, US
Woo - Tube - hand made, US
Naim - SS - British
McIntosh - both Tube and SS - US
HeadAmp - SS - US
Eleven Audio - SS - US

All of these are great and your budget should allow you to get most any of these....

I have tried others, but these are my favorites... if you have any thoughts of tubes... WOO AUDIO... headphone amp specialists and absolutely fantastic!

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

I am not familiar with the Naim, but I know they have a good name. It looks like a good unit, but my only real issue with it is that it tries to do everything... DAC, streamer, etc., etc. All cool if that is what you need... however you have that amazing MSB already ... it depends on your use. I integrate my headphones into my system and it sounded to me like you were going to be doing the same... so a dedicated headphone amp makes a ton of sense in my view.

I assume you are leaning towards SS (Pass, SimAudio). I hear Pass is very good and I know that the SimAudio can be seriously considered one of the best. I thought it was amazing, but for me it was too large (a full size component) and more than I needed. A bit overwhelming. The Bryston is also excellent! Also SPL is very good. If you are talking single ended only and not looking for tons of features, just a simple headphone amp the SPL Phonitor SE is really good for a bit less money. Another very highly rated and less money unit is the HeadAmp GS-X Mini (maker of the Blue Hawaiian, many rate as the best there is, but it is electrostatic only) ... supposed to be seriously good for the money. Another very highly rated solid state is Eleven Audio. This is the top rated and sold by Abyss! Definitely a bit more $$$, but supposed to be good... not really my cup of tea though....

On the tube end of things I owned the Dennis Had Dragon, which is very nice, but single ended only, again. The Woo Audio I recently purchased is by far my absolute favorite. It is a 100% tube design and fully balanced class A. It is also renowned for its ability to do tube rolling. On Head-Fi there is a thread dedicated just to Woo and another dedicated just to the WA22 amplifier (the current model is called the 2nd Gen)! I had a McIntosh in the past which was pretty good also!

I do prefer American and German amps (ok, most European)... There are others of course.... with this in mind...

Pass - SS - US
Bryston - SS - Canadian
SimAudio - SS - Canadian
SPL - SS - German
Dennis Had - Tube - hand made, US
Woo - Tube - hand made, US
Naim - SS - British
McIntosh - both Tube and SS - US
HeadAmp - SS - US
Eleven Audio - SS - US

All of these are great and your budget should allow you to get most any of these....

I have tried others, but these are my favorites... if you have any thoughts of tubes... WOO AUDIO... headphone amp specialists and absolutely fantastic!

The MSB DAC has only one set of outputs, so if he goes amp only, he’s constantly unplugging and plugging wires.


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Couldn't he use the outputs off his Pass? It has both SE and XLR outputs. I prefer to go off my main system then I get my finest music capability, my best DAC, can play records or tuner if I like. A ton more flexibility. He would be putting his money into a better amp in my view. The bottom line is whatever works best for him. We are talking nice items with pretty much all of the above.

Randy, I'm still a relative novice at this stuff. So, with something like the Woo or the Eleven Audio, do I just plug it into the inputs on the Pass 250 INT and I'm good to go? Does the HP amp need it's own DAC and streamer or will the MSB and Roon Nucleus do for everything? I paid a ton of cash for the MSB Discrete and it's a cream of the crop unit. I like to use it.

Right now I'm also running a Roon Nucleus. Would I connect the Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition amp the same way?

I'm a little confused on what hooks to what. It would be simple if everything plugged into the 250 INT inputs. But would that get me the signal path that I need? The amps you mentioned above are all "amp only" units...is that correct? Do I still use the MSB on any of those units? I prefer not having to unplug/plug a HP amp in every time I want to use the HPs.

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm still learning.

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

Couldn't he use the outputs off his Pass? It has both SE and XLR outputs. I prefer to go off my main system then I get my finest music capability, my best DAC, can play records or tuner if I like. A ton more flexibility. He would be putting his money into a better amp in my view. The bottom line is whatever works best for him. We are talking nice items with pretty much all of the above.

And what, disconnect his speakers? So, no, with an integrated he would be turning up the volume on his Pass and playing his speakers and headphones at the same time.


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Hey Bluegrass,

I assume you can use your Pass and connect the headphone amplifier directly to its outputs just like any other amp. I looked at the Pass manual. Besides being woefully inadequate (most manuals are any more), I did find that the outputs are active on the back and could therefore be used to power amplifiers (speakers or headphone amplifiers), and/or subwoofers or powered speakers. I could not determine if the internal amplifier/speaker outputs could be turned off. Common sense and industry norms would indicate that you can since they say these can be used to power other systems. "The Preamp Outputs can be used to drive a second system, a sub-woofer or other amplifiers for bi-amping."

If used in this manner you can use and enjoy any component as you would currently with your speakers. Therefore listening to your MSB from the Nucleus should work as normal. My only real concern is if you can use it without the speakers being on, since they state you can drive a second system to me indicates that you can turn off the speaker outputs, but this I do not know since as I stated, the manual does not really cover the amplifiers use well.

In my system I run one of the outputs to the headphone amp and can listen to any source be it my digital through the T+A, either turntable through the phono stage, or FM from the tuner. If I want to use my speakers I turn on the MBL amplifier and subwoofers. If I am listening to headphones I turn on the Woo. Fairly straight forward.

The outputs need gain from the preamp. So he will be turning up the volume on his 250 and thus playing his speakers at the same time.

In his scenario, the Uniti Atom headphone edition is a better option. He’s already running roon ans the Atom can use Roon.


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Originally Posted by Mike

And what, disconnect his speakers? So, no, with an integrated he would be turning up the volume on his Pass and playing his speakers and headphones at the same time.

That is kind of shocking honestly. Why would the Pass give two outputs but not allow you to select between what you are listening to, the built in speakers or the external, "second system" as they refer to it? So to use headphones you have to use completely separate systems, DAC, music source such as the Nucleus, turntables, etc. I knew there has always been a very good reason that I stick with separates .

Originally Posted by Mike

The outputs need gain from the preamp. So he will be turning up the volume on his 250 and thus playing his speakers at the same time.

In his scenario, the Uniti Atom headphone edition is a better option. He’s already running roon ans the Atom can use Roon.

What would be the source to the Naim? I assume his Nucleus cannot connect to both the MSB and the Naim... So he would basically be using the Naim to stream, Tidal, etc.? The DAC would be the one built into the Naim, so his headphones would be using a different DAC and source then his speakers?

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

What would be the source to the Naim? I assume his Nucleus cannot connect to both the MSB and the Naim... So he would basically be using the Naim to stream, Tidal, etc.? The DAC would be the one built into the Naim, so his headphones would be using a different DAC and source then his speakers?

The NAIM is the source. Has everything built in he needs. We have one in the store and it’s fabulous. Drives all the difficult headphones easily.


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Originally Posted by Mike

The NAIM is the source. Has everything built in he needs. We have one in the store and it’s fabulous. Drives all the difficult headphones easily.

I know Naim is good gear, no doubt. It is the source... from Streaming, right. Certainly not music he has stored on his Nucleus and not other sources if he ever adds, such as a turntable ...

It is too bad that he has to use another DAC and not his fabulous MSB...

I am still curious by what Pass means by "second system"... if they mean another system in another room (what would be thought of as a "second system") then one would assume that the volume could be independently controlled or one could be played versus the other. I mean if you have music going on the "second system" you may not necessarily want it going on the first system, or at the same volume... but their manuals are not clear at all on this point.

Since Pass literally mention "a second system" as the first thing in their description of the outputs one can only assume they mean another system such as another room, a headphone system, etc.

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

I know Naim is good gear, no doubt. It is the source... from Streaming, right. Certainly not music he has stored on his Nucleus and not other sources if he ever adds, such as a turntable ...

It is too bad that he has to use another DAC and not his fabulous MSB...

He can stream from ripped music no problem and it has RCA inputs for a turntable from a Phonostage.


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Originally Posted by Randy Myers

I know Naim is good gear, no doubt. It is the source... from Streaming, right. Certainly not music he has stored on his Nucleus and not other sources if he ever adds, such as a turntable ...

It is too bad that he has to use another DAC and not his fabulous MSB...

I am still curious by what Pass means by "second system"... if they mean another system in another room (what would be thought of by "second system") then one would assume that the volume could be independently controlled or one could be played versus the other. I mean if you have music going on the "second system" you may not necessarily want it going on the first system, or at the same volume... but their manuals are not clear at all on this point.

The volume is not fixed, it’s variable. He would need a fixed output for what you’re suggesting. All pass outputs are variable.

A stand-alone headphone system is what will work best.

But then again, that’s what his dealer already told him.


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Originally Posted by Mike

The volume is not fixed, it’s variable. He would need a fixed output for what you’re suggesting. All pass outputs are variable.

A stand-alone headphone system is what will work best.

But then again, that’s what his dealer already told him.


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You certainly do not need a fixed output to feed a headphone amp. I actually prefer a variable output. I can then use the volume control from the remote to control the volume through headphones. I have used it in this way through the T+A DAC and from several pre-amps, and even from the Oppo spinner. It works fantastic and has worked in this manner through at least 10-15 different headphone amplifier that I have tried. A headphone amplifier works exactly the same as speaker power amplifiers except they are designed to power headphones instead of speakers. There are "volume" controls, sure, just like some amplifiers have gain controls and some even entitle them as volume controls and even advertise that they can control the volume straight from your source.

I believe my headphone setup would be considered world class and I 100% believe having a headphone setup separate from main system, or stand-alone is not advantageous. It actually is a disadvantage because you then require secondary sources, and other, probably lower grade DACs, as an example.

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

You certainly do not need a fixed output to feed a headphone amp. I actually prefer a variable output. I can then use the volume control from the remote to control the volume through headphones. I have used it in this way through the T+A DAC and from several pre-amps, and even from the Oppo spinner. It works fantastic and has worked in this manner through at least 10-15 different headphone amplifier that I have tried. A headphone amplifier works exactly the same as speaker power amplifiers except they are designed to power headphones instead of speakers. There are "volume" controls, sure, just like some amplifiers have gain controls and some even entitle them as volume controls and even advertise that they can control the volume straight from your source.

I believe my headphone setup would be considered world class and I 100% believe having a headphone setup separate from main system, or stand-alone is not advantageous. It actually is a disadvantage because you then require secondary sources, and other, probably lower grade DACs, as an example.

You need a fixed output from the preamp or integrated to feed an external headphone amp. His is an integrated so using the volume on the 250 will send music to the speakers too.


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I understand that sadly the Pass does not allow for the use of the outputs to be used separately from the internal amplifier. So unfortunately in Bluegrass's case it may not be appropriate.

However fixed outputs from a preamp, etc., is definitely not needed or required for use with an external headphone amplifier. A variable output works absolutely fine, and in many ways is preferred. It is 100% the way I have used it with virtually every headphone amplifier I have owned including my current Woo Audio WA22 2nd Gen amplifier.

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

I understand that sadly the Pass does not allow for the use of the outputs to be used separately from the internal amplifier. So unfortunately in Bluegrass's case it may not be appropriate.

However fixed outputs from a preamp, etc., is definitely not needed or required for use with an external headphone amplifier. A variable output works absolutely fine, and in many ways is preferred. It is 100% the way I have used it with virtually every headphone amplifier I have owned including my current Woo Audio WA22 2nd Gen amplifier.

Not needed, but now you have two VC’s, which add noise. Best to eliminate one for Sonics.

Originally Posted by Mike

Not needed, but now you have two VC’s, which add noise. Best to eliminate one for Sonics.

Sure... in theory... but I have tested back and forth and can honestly not hear any difference.

However I do believe the flexibility of listening to whichever source I prefer is a very nice advantage, and of course using my better sources, music through Roon and HQPlayer and through my main DAC will give me much better SQ then whatever disadvantages that may affect the music going through two high quality volume controls .

Wow!! And I thought this was going to be easy peasy and straight forward. From what I can gather, so far, it sounds like the Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition amp would be the simplest way to go. But I also want the best SQ I can get regardless of the convenience factor. I may have to chew on this awhile. Please keep this discussion going. I'm learning some things.

You'll probably want something on the warm side, for sure. When I borrowed the Stellia and a Headamp GS-X Mini amp (which I'd describe as really great neutral amp - I'm a big fan of Headamp), it sounded good - very punchy and dynamic, but also definitely too bright and tipped-up on top. It would get fatiguing after a while. By comparison, the Hifiman Susvara was PERFECTLY balanced on that same amp (very close to the best headphone sound I've EVER heard), and The Meze Empyrean was woken up a bit but was still too dark and thick for my tastes (I just don't love the Empyrean).

When I tried Focal Utopia on a Naim Integrated amp's headphone jack, it was actually a beautifully voiced combination, despite an annoying bit of ground hum. And Naim clearly voiced its headphone driver slightly to the warm side. So a Naim amp could be a good choice for Stellia too.

And then ECP Audio is an under-the-radar "cult" favorite amp maker that has small batch runs of some incredibly well designed headphone amps. All their stuff sounds amazing for the money. And I know they've made variant of some models specifically tweaked for Focal headphones, denoted by an "F" suffix. I don't know what models they're currently making these days, but they're always worth a look.

Hey Bluegrass, you got some really great gear and Mike definitely steered you in the right direction for your systems and the needs you had at that point in time. I bet you probably did not ever think about a high end headphone setup at the time.

I use a pre-amp and amplifier setup which makes it easy to feed a nice headphone amplifier, allowing me to choose which amp I am going to listen to, my speaker amp or headphone amp.

You certainly have the budget to get a world class headphone setup, and the Naim is a solution that can certainly work at setting you up with a separate system for listening to headphones.

Unfortunately it does not appear as if the Pass allows for the flexibility to use a separate high end headphone amp while simultaneously using it as the control center, although I still do not understand what they mean by being able to use the outputs; "Preamp Outputs can be used to drive a second system" that they list as the primary reason for the outputs on the back. This would lead me to think a headphone system but it now sounds like this may not be the case .

Here is a great review of the new Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition. See the link below. I think it is definitely a unit I should give serious consideration to. It seems to fit my needs perfectly. However, I can only go by the review when it comes to SQ. I have no idea how well it compares to Woo, Eleven Audio, HeadAmp and others. Unlike when I started my selection of components, I won't be able to make a weekend trip to Suncoast Audio for an audition.

OTOH, Mike has never steered me wrong. When he says a component sounds really good you can take that to the bank. But, like Mike, Randy and others on this forum have so much first hand experience. Far more than myself. I have a lot to consider. I think it comes down to; if the SQ of the Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition is fully comparable to the other brands mentioned above, I think my choice is made. It seems to be designed with an integrated amp in mind. If the Naim is not competitive with the others in SQ then I'll have to reconsider and look at other options.

So, given all the above, how do I make a decision? Like so many other components are decided upon, it will have to be based on reviews, articles, and discussions just like this one. I still want to hear further discussions on all the options. Tough decision.

Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition Review - Moon Audio

Honestly, in your situation there are limitations and the Naim offers a great unit and a way around those limitations. It also appears that Naim and Focal have a corporate working relationship.

My situation is different than yours so my needs are different.

At this point it is not worth driving yourself too crazy... just get to Naim and the Focal cans and be happy ...