Any of you thick pad enjoyers went back to stock?

For those of you who are thick pad enjoyers, do you feel that the treble is thinner than stock?

I remember a certain YT-er said that WANDLA is as good as Holo May too...

Thanks. It seems that the Tungsten must sounds like a further refined LCD-4 which if so they must sound completely different than Caldera.

Any more comparisons with ModHouse Tungsten?

@kkrazik2008 I wonder if the Stellaris would fare better driving the Caldera.

Did you try swapping around the pads of the loaner Caldera?

I am a bit unclear, is this a new offshoot brand from Vinshine made in the Denafrips factory?

Thanks! I am actually interested in older MSBs like the IV or V because the prices of these older flagship DACs of have dropped a lot.

Anyone compared the Wavedream with MSB DACs before?

I shall try it, stock pad sounds slightly imbalanced to me. Too much midrange.

Do the thick pads make the Caldera less mid-centric? Is there echo in the mid when you increase the distance to your ears?

Why not get the Cayin HA-300 mk2? Same midcentric, lush tuning as the Envy and is really not that far behind (90-95% as good maybe?) but so much cheaper. Build quality is similar and probably slightly better with the Cayin. You can even reuse your Envy tubes for the Cayin since they run the same...

Update : After a couple of days, the Sylvania 6SN7W metal base overall still seems to pull a bit ahead (used in the EC Balancing Act, with KR PX4 power tubes and Focal Utopia OG). It has this sparkle in the top end but without harshness (my favourite feature), the Telefunken seems a bit rougher...

@TLO @raindownthunda Thanks for the tips. It does look like TFK made when comparing the getter construction to my TFK E88CC but I am still not too clear because TFK has no history of making this tube? As for the sound it kinda reminds me of the Elrog: seems detailed, neutral and airy if not...