I'm currently waiting for my Wandla+Hypsos combo, and I'm planning to pair them with my Trafomatic Head 2 amp. I'm pretty bad at reading the spec sheet so can you give any help as to how I should set the Wandla up with the Head 2 volume control/voltage adjustment wise?

Personally, I wouldn't call buying a $3,295 DAC leaving the audiophile circus behind. :smile:

I would definitely suggest you to try the ZMF Caldera then! :sunglasses:

I owned both but recently sold the Elite because I like the Caldera more. I mainly used the Elite with the Hybrid pads but I also used the Angled Alcantara pads for a while. I used to use the Caldera mainly with the stock Caldera Leather pads but I recently switched to the Thick Caldera Leather...

Are you referring to the Caldera Ultra Perforated Suede or the Leather pads?

Yeah, PJ Harvey is unfortunately one of those female artists, for me, that has made some amazing music but the intense vocals make it hard to enjoy sometimes. I also agree that the upper-mids are more aggressive sounding on stock Caldera but with Thick Caldera pads the sound is a little less...

I used to own a Burson Soloist 3XP, and it definitely had a brighter and harsher sound overall. After I switched to the Head 2, the problem with sibilance definitely diminished a little but has never gone away completely. I've tried Mullard and Philips NOS 6922 tubes with my Head 2 but didn't...

There are many female artists whose voice usually has some sibilance in my system, for example PJ Harvey, Taylor Swift, Lorde and St. Vincent to name a few. Some male vocalists also have some sibilance, for example Nick Cave and Harry Wilkinson (from the band Maruja) come to mind.

I have used them with Trafomatic Head 2 as an amp and Gustard R26 as a DAC so I think my gear shouldn't be the problem. I used to have sibilance issues on the same gear with Susvara and sometimes slightly with my Caldera as well.

I have had the same issue with my Elite. The sibilance isn't as aggressive sounding as with some Hifimans I used to own but it still is there more often than with my Atrium Open for example.

Thanks for a great write-up! I've been considering getting the Wandla to replace my Gustard R26 and the Holo Red to go alongside with it as a streamer. Did you use your Holo Red as a streamer or as a DDC? And did I understand correctly that you don't have the Hypsos with your Wandla?

I think they differ quite a lot in their presentation, although it's highly dependable what pads you use with them. Also with Atrium Open (AO), you can tweak the sound with different mesh options as well. I've been using my AO with Caldera Ultra Perforated Leather pads and the stock mesh. I've...

Has anyone shared any impressions of the new Ultra Perforated Suede Caldera pads with the Atrium?

But to my understanding, they are removing all of the MQA content so in time there shouldn’t be any MQA files left. I use Roon and have both a Qobuz and a Tidal subscription, and any new music that has been added to Tidal hasn’t had MQA files in a while.

Actually, Tidal has switched from MQA to all FLAC files, as far as I’m aware.