good, my neck is trashed as it is

No kidding. That Caldera price tag drove me to Hifiman HeK Stealths. They've been fantastic for the price (1/3 of Caldera's) of $1260 new lately.

what about these 'Serenity Pads'? Any differences from the Ultra pads- they claim to be the next evolution of the ultra pad-...

I wonder how many people are contemplating turning their up really loud for a quick 5 seconds now lmao. Honestly idk. But if it exorcised some treble gremlins then I say thats a Win for you, Sir!

They appear to be the same size as stock- I'll probably give the Elite Hybrids a try.

right? I LOVE the brushed silver on my Yggy and definitely woulda matched the MJ3 if I had one.

Well thats unfortunate. If anything Id want the pads a bit thicker. Are the different foam materials used more comfortable despite being thinner or less so? Bigger problem for me is any shorter and my ears will be touching and i dont want that. What about Dekoni? Any other options? I would...

They do look exactly like ZMF pads to my eye- anybody see any differences? Could pad roll all 4 options for the price of one set of ZMF pads.

Feels more like the 3rd row to me. I dislike too-forward of vocals but adore my OG Yggy on my Class A amp (Mentor). In fact it feels great width and depth wise. Can't speak to how the MiB sounds bc Ive never heard one though. According to Marv's chart they have great head-stage as well.

it will if paired with a 4v or 5v DAC. But it won't be as good as other more powerful amps, which you are obviously well aware of as you asked about a starting point.

great point. 4v is absolutely necessary and really Tungstens like 5v even better.

Ah- but the GS2 he mentioned is $1699 for now but won't be here forever (limited time product) so there's some math to consider.

100%. Content farming with Demo cans.

Sell it and buy a Mentor... Im teasing but also not. Not poopooing Mjolnir, though, more just gassing up Mentor- which is fair and it's worthy. Costs a little more than MJ3 but not significantly. Synergy with a Pontus II >> Meze Elite via Mentor would be there.

I mean, I too love Hifiman, my reference is HeK Stealth and his is HeKse. Saying they are detail monsters or even better in some aspects than Tungsten is fine and fair even. But saying Arya was more detailed than DS Tungz has to be wrong, for instance. IDK, his voice and the slow way in which he...