Yessss I love prog metal! Just found out that my stabilized Caldera from the last drop is coming on Tuesday, so I'm eagerly planning the first playlist now. There will be some Polyphia and Caligula's Horse for sure. I think the first song will have to be one of Ne Obliviscaris's many masterpieces...

Never had a ZMF before, but I've been lusting over the idea of having a stabilized Caldera for the better part of a year now, and managed to score my first choice in the drop this morning! Can't wait to see and hear these beauties in person... 🤤

I had the same issue with Xelastics and Crystals. I had good seals but they still just killed the bass. Final Audio Type E Clear/Red brought back the bass but veiled the treble too much. Finally landed on Radius Deep Mounts and it's been so good - best treble clarity and bass slam and rumble out...

I have the Arya SE with the Soloist 3XP and Bifrost 2. I use medium gain because I can't comfortably go past 10-12% on high gain and that just seemed a bit excessive lol. I find the Arya SE to already have enough speed and dynamics, which people usually cite as the benefit of high gain / power...

My favorite track from that EP is The Reticent. Really enjoy how atmospheric it is, and that synth hits so good.

All my Arya + Class A amp homies should check out the A Humdrum Star album by GoGo Penguin. Man what a sumptuous feast for the ears. Excellent resolution on the attack of the drums no matter how fast they get, cymbals really showing off the soundstage and delicate treble response, and such...

I think for Rock/Metal, any dynamic driver may be disappointing after you've heard the wicked speed of the Arya. The Arya is actually endgame to me for metal once it has more punch and slam, which is what the V3 does (even better with some help from the Bifrost and a slammy amp) This symphonic...

Yeah Fleshgod Apocalypse is not my cup of tea either. I'm actually coming at this from the other side - symphonic metal is my favorite style but it's kind of a stale subgenre outside of the big name acts with lots of derivative stuff (Seven Spires is a notable recent exception). Fortunately...

Symphonic death metal - lots of really strong tracks in this one. Damn that's some good musicianship. The Devils of Loudun - Arcana Imperii

Thanks for taking the time - all the details in your post about your impressions of the Arya's siblings are really helpful. As a fellow Arya SE and Monarch MkII owner, I totally agree with this. Dollar for dollar it's been my best audio purchase. The tuning is just magical. There are djenty...

Interesting. That does match up with DMS's review as well. His tastes don't really match mine, but he seems like one of the more credible YouTubers.

The Modius, which is honestly a very impressive DAC for 200 dollars. It's pretty smooth and I never heard any treble glare with it feeding the Soloist and Arya, and only occasionally when it was feeding the Magnius. Soundstage was wide, just somewhat shallow, though not completely flat. Clean...

The Bifrost 2 unlocked the holographic quality of the Arya even more for me. With Chocolate Chip Trip, before it was not as obvious that the intro tones were orbiting my head - center channel imaging was a bit fuzzy and directionality was both a little vague (whether it was front vs back) and...

This just reminded me that I haven't heard any good headphones and IEMs that Demons and Wizards don't sound like ass on. The ride cymbals were EQ'd with the "ice pick to the eardrum" filter or something.

Good call! Plus they look pretty nice too. They're the Bluecell aluminum speaker feet on Amazon. I actually found them through Xerosnake plugging them on Reddit.