Audiophilepure

As much as I enjoyed playing around with filters to endlessly unravel music threads in hopes of discovering something new about old chestnuts, the Stellar DAC is not really made for such interrogations. This is a beautiful sounding DAC, by design. Playing Sasha Matson’s newest album, Fillmore Street, proved to be a splendid way to put the Stellar DAC to the test. This album is full of interesting twists and turns in composition, timing, and melodic themes. Flawlessly recorded, the title track opens the album to give you a taste of what’s to come—orchestral energy with competing instruments propelling the ascending melody line to create tension that ultimately resolves in a languorous swoon reminiscent of Gershwin. The Stellar DAC does an exceptional job of capturing the breadth and dimension of the orchestra, but more importantly, the tone and texture of the instruments sings naturally and without distracting emphasis. I played many, many other artists from a variety of genres, but the overall balance and tonal fulsomeness was sustained in excellent fashion.

https://www.whathifi.com/hi-fi/stereo-amplifiers/pathos-inpol-remix-mkii

This surprising low-end heft comes to the fore when we play Bob Marley’s Exodus. Bass is relatively taut and tuneful, underpinning the rest of the performance in a seamless manner. As we work through our music collection, it turns out that the Pathos is able to tick most boxes.

Tonally, it is smooth but has enough bite in its otherwise sweet top-end to satisfy. There is delicacy at those high frequencies that makes most non-valve alternatives sound a little mechanical and tonally grey in comparison.

This is one of the few valve/transistor hybrid amplifiers we’ve heard where we do feel like we are hearing the best of both technologies, yet the result remains cohesive and balanced.

The Master Tapes are based on newly created analogue masters, prepared from carefully selected high-resolution digital sources. The mastering process is conducted by Christoph Stickel (ECM, Deutsche Grammophon, Keith Jarrett), one of Europe’s most respected mastering engineers and a Grammy nominee. The aim is to transfer the source material to analogue tape with the highest possible fidelity and dynamic quality.

Product Variants:

• Start: ¼”, 2-track, NAB, 7.5 ips (19 cm/s), RTM LPR90, reference level 250 nWb/m, 1 metal reel, eco packaging
• Standard: ¼”, 2-track, CCIR, 15 ips (38 cm/s), RTM LPR90, reference level 320 nWb/m, 1 metal reel, eco packaging
• Studio: ¼”, 2-track, CCIR, 15 ips (38 cm/s), RTM SM900, reference level 510 nWb/m, 2 metal reels, deluxe packaging