Sound Analysis.

I analyzed Stella sound performance using P6 Pro and SP4000, while playing a variety of test tracks, such as Agnes Obel’s “The Curse”, Sandro Cavazza’s “So much Better” (Avicii remix), C-Bool’s “Never Go away”, Ed Sheeran “Shape of you”, Alan Walker “Darkside”, Galantis “Hunter”, Iggy Azalea “Black widow”, Indila “Boite en argent”, Dua Lipa “Love Again”, Counting Crows “Big yellow taxi”, Bob Marley “Jamming”, David Elias “Vision of her”, Michael Jackson “Dirty Diana”, and SaberZ “Without your love”.  The IEMs I received had already undergone proper burn-in for many hours.

Eartips selection

The selection of eartips is always crucial for any universal in-ear monitor. It could significantly affect the sound, particularly the bass impact and treble energy, depending on the seal, as well as soundstage expansion, depending on the insertion depth.  These are just quick notes on how I settled on Crystal eartips for my testing of Stella IEMs.

• SpinFit W1 tips – pushed vocals a little back.
• Eletech Baroque – made the treble a bit too crisp.
• Azla Crystal – created a perfect tonality balance, my preferred choice for use with Stella.

I hear Stella IEMs as having a W-shaped balanced signature with a naturally revealing tonality.  Stella tuning establishes a perfect balance between deep, punchy bass, natural, resolving mids, and crisp, non-fatiguing treble.  As a result, the tonality carries a rather natural, musical character with higher upper-frequency resolution, injecting mids with extra clarity and improved detail retrieval.

With this particular tuning, and the way the lows and mids blend in together as highs inject themselves into the mix, I hear a rather satisfying multi-driver harmony that works quite well.  Also, as soon as you start listening to Stella, the first thing that stood out to me was the HUGE soundstage expansion.  It stretches to the max in all three directions, creating a perfectly round expansion with 3D holographic imaging.  It’s like you are in the middle of the music, with the sound wrapping around and above you.  I went back to confirm whether there is a mention of Sonion BCD drivers.  It was impressive how Jack and team were able to tune the Stella without those, at such a level of immersive-space technicality.

With layering and separation of the sound, everything was in perfect balance, with every instrument and vocals being easily distinguished in the mix, without any congestion or veil.  I wouldn’t call the separation of the sound having too much air in between layers.  Here, you still have a blend of natural, musical performance that gives you a bit of extra note density without too much diffused airiness, but I still found just enough air between layers of the sound to keep it from being congested.

In more detail, the bass shines with a deep, textured rumble, an elevated sub-bass level that is not exaggerated or has too much heft, but with enough foundation to give the low end its weight and presence.  Mid-bass was fast, tight, and punchy.  At this point, I would say the bass has a “hybrid” performance of DD rumble and BA speed, and actually, it is a hybrid of 9mm DD and 2BA, which is exactly how Stella can bring in the depth and extension along with speed and punch.  And thanks to that hybrid design, DD gives you a bit of that slower attack while BA gives you that shorter controlled decay.

Mids are slightly north of neutral, with some extra body in the lower mids, but not too much, just enough to give the mids their smoother coloring, with a little bit of soulful warmth.  Then, you have an adequate pinna gain to bring forward and balance mids between the lows and highs, projecting natural clarity and improved resolution, which gives both male and female vocals very good presence and definition.  The most important thing here is the balance between natural, musical tonality and resolving clarity.

Treble does have a bit of spiciness with a crisper tonality, but it is not overcooked, metallic, or sibilant.  The treble is very precise, well-defined, and well-controlled.  I was a bit nervous after reading that, just like a low-end, there was a hybrid tuning/driver implementation of the top-end.  Dual PMD and quad EST is a very interesting blend that could turn into an overcooked disaster.  But here, it was seamlessly integrated, with no harsh artifacts.  Actually, I had to double-check whether they really meant it about mixing PMD/EST, because it sounded quite coherent.  Crisp, revealing, airy, extended, and still non-fatigued, zero-metallic zing, no sharpness.  The extension was pretty good, especially the cymbal crash tails continuing to resonate after the hit instead of quickly fading away.

Comparison.

The test was conducted using Stella with Cristal eartips, stock cable, and an SP4000 source, and compared against other IEMs, all volume-matched.

Stella vs Volk Etoile – these two definitely have a complementary sound signature/turning, and it actually took my ears a few seconds to adjust to Etoile’s sound after switching from Stella.  Etoile was tuned as a studio monitor, so you should expect a noticeable difference in the soundstage expansion.  Etoile is more focused, with greater depth/height and more restrained width, while Stella has a huge holographic expansion in all three directions with a 3D level of imaging.  Again, the difference doesn’t mean one is superior or inferior to the other.  It’s just the intended nature of tuning.  With the bass, while they have similarities in sub-bass extension and rumble level, Etoile’s bass is more relaxed, whereas Stella’s mid-bass has a much stronger, more elevated, and faster punch.  In contrast, Etoile’s bass has a more laid-back characteristic.  The biggest difference between these IEMs lies in the mids, with Stella’s mids being more neutral, less colored, cleaner, and more revealing.  Etoile has a fuller body and more musical mids.  As a result of that change, the perception of treble is also brighter and more revealing in Stella when compared to Etoile.  As I said, the tuning is quite complementary, with Stella being more on the “fun” side and Etoile leaning more toward the “studio monitor” side.

Stella vs EE Raven – With three of these IEMs (Stella, Etoile, and Raven), Stella will be closer in tuning to Raven than to Etoile.  Still, overall, it is a noticeable upgrade over Raven’s tuning and technical performance.  First of all, while both share a similar 3D level of imaging and soundstage depth/height expansion (Stella L/R spread is wider), with Stella, you feel like being inside the sound, the way it wraps around you, while with Raven, the sound expands and projects in front of you.  Their bass performance is very similar, both in quality and quantity level; both have deep sub-bass rumble, maybe with Raven digging in a bit deeper, and both have a fast, controlled mid-bass punch.  Mids have a bit more body in Stella.  Still, the big difference is their presentation: with Stella, I find you placed closer to the stage, like you are a few rows away from the performer, while with Raven, the vocals are a bit more forward and distant, like you are a few more rows behind, further away from the performer.  This analogy aligns with how I experience the soundstage: Stella puts you in the middle, so you are surrounded and closer to everything, within your reach, while Raven has the sound in front of you, slightly distant.  The Raven’s treble is also a little more intense, more forward.  Their treble characteristics are not too far apart, but the intensity makes Raven sound more forward and a little more aggressive than Stella.

Source pair-up.

With a sensitivity of 104 dB and an impedance of 7 ohms, Stella is very easy to drive from any source.  For this test, I used these IEMs with Crystal eartips and the stock cable.

A&K SP4000 (Advanced DAR on, HDM mode on) – This was my baseline sound, having a W-shaped balanced signature with a naturally revealing tonality; a perfect balance between deep, punchy bass, natural, resolving mids, and crisp, non-fatiguing treble surrounded by holographic soundstage expansion.

Hiby RS8ii (Adaptive AMP mode, Turbo on) – similar to SP4k, with just a bit more note density in mids, making vocals a bit warmer and a bit more pulled back in their presentation.

iBasso DX320Max Ti (Gain 3) – huge soundstage expansion, deeper rumble with more sub-bass texture, and cleaner and airier treble.  The focus on sub-bass and treble pulled the mids back a bit more.  The sound signature remains W-shaped, not U-shaped, but the focus has shifted slightly, with the presentation of mids pulled back.

L&P P6 Pro – caught me by surprise as soon as I hit Play.  P6Pro can be a bit reserved in soundstage expansion in some pair-ups, while remaining on a 3D holographic level here.  Bass was tight and punchy, with a velvety, textured rumble, very well controlled.  Treble was clear, detailed, and quite natural.  But the mids are what set it apart, with more body, extra warmth, and no compromise on detail retrieval or resolution.

Brise Audio WATATSUMI w/SP4000 and Orochi IC – in this pairing, the performance was like a hybrid of what I heard with other sources.  The sub-bass was deeper and more textured, but the mid-bass was more laidback, with a slower attack and a bit longer decay.  Mids gained extra body and warmth, very similar to the P6 Pro changes in the mid-range.  The treble was cleaner and airier, similar to 320Max.  This pair-up yielded a different overall sound.

NiPO A100 – with this dongle performing on the level of some of the flagship DAPs, I always try to feature it in my source pair-ups.  Here, the pair-up reminded me a lot of P6 Pro, having the same deep, visceral bass, textured rumble, and tight, punchy mid-bass.  Mids had extra body, with an added layer of warmth while remaining quite resolving.  With treble, I had to switch from high gain to normal gain because at HG, it was a bit shouty, while at normal gain, it sounded more natural.

Always a matter of personal preference, but here I found SP4000 and P6 Pro to yield the best pairing synergy with Stella for my ears.

Conclusion.

With their debut release of the Etoile, Jack and Michael set a new tuning direction for Volk Audio, introducing something different that sets them apart from previous EE releases with an engaging, resolving, fuller-bodied “studio monitor” tuning. With Stella, its W-shaped balanced signature and a naturally revealing tuning felt more familiar, while still taking it to the next level by getting creative with different driver combinations to push its performance further, especially in a holographic soundstage expansion. I’m not sure whether this was intentional or part of the collab guidance. Still, to me, the tuning and overall technical performance of the Stella felt like a noticeable upgrade over the Raven.

And it wasn’t just the tuning; it was also a more compact, solid-build aluminum shell with a satin-black anodized finish, along with a premium cable that felt like a luxurious step up, along the lines of the A&K x EE Novus collab.  I was especially pleased with a redesigned vent system that addresses a long-standing question about driver flex in EE releases, which is common in many other IEMs and may be distracting for some, but has been resolved in Stella.

Last but not least, as I already mentioned in my CanJam NYC ’26 report, it was a little bittersweet to see Jack at the Volk Audio tables, even though a few weeks earlier (before the show), the audio industry had learned that Empire Ears was closing its doors.  Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but I hope these doors won’t be closed permanently and that there’s some way to reopen them in the future.