If you want some truly audiophile headphones, the super premium Focal Stellia are on sale

Even for audiophiles, there are some headphones with a price tag that firmly sits in the 'aspirational' category.

The Focal Stellia certainly fit that particular bill. Focal is well known for its luxury audiophile cans, but the Stellia really did push the boundaries when they launched at an eye-watering £2799(!).

The Focal Stellia act as an open-backed alternative to the wonderfully named Focal Utopia, which sounded excellent but were better suited to private listening thanks to their open-backed design.

The Stellia remedies this, offering a closed-back configuration for those listeners likely to encounter noise in their home setup. As you'd expect from Focal, the build is lovely and luxurious, with a nicely padded headband that is both comfortable and stable over long periods.

Thanks to the same 40mm Beryllium dome drive unit as the Utopias, it's no surprise that the Stellia sound amazing. In our review, we called them the best closed-back headphones we'd heard, though bear in mind that was back in 2019, so things have moved on a bit since then.

"Given a few days to run-in, the Focals deliver by the truckload," our review reads. "Our initial impression is that of a mature and refined performance, and that feeling never fades."

You will, of course, need some high-end equipment to get the most out of the Stellia. We recommend the Chord’s Hugo 2 DAC/headphone amp, with a suitable source such as a quality laptop with audiophile music playing software such as Audirvana.

If you have the funds and the setup, then we highly recommend the Focal Stellia. The closed-back audiophile headphones have a price tag to match their talents, but the blow is softened a little now that they're £200 off at Peter Tyson.

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Daniel Furn is a staff writer at What Hi-Fi? focused on all things deal-related. He studied Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield before working as a freelance journalist covering film, TV, gaming, and consumer tech. Outside of work, he can be found travelling far-flung corners of the globe, playing badminton, and watching the latest streaming sensation (in 4K HDR, of course).

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