I for one found Caldera closed to have more sub bass and mid bass. Tried it with various amp.Just home from CanJam, it was quite a show this year! A few brief impressions:
My biggest takeaways are probably the question whether Campfire Trifecta is a revelation or a gimmick, and that there is almost certainly a Susvara in my future.
- Raal Magna & Immanis impressed, as promised. Immanis more so than Magna, but both were amazing. If you’re looking for bass weight and body to the sound, you won’t find it here. But if you want clarity & openness beyond what even e-stats deliver, you’ve come to the right place.
- Valkyria didn’t impress me quite as much as last year. Very midrangey with incredible clarity & dynamics. Similar to Utopia, but maybe a bit less balanced. Not sure why my impression this year is so different from last year - different chain, different ears?
- Caldera’s bass is at least equal to if not better than 1266 TC. Fight me.
- Caldera Closed was a mixed bag. I could definitely hear the Caldera DNA in it, but it was quite different from Caldera Open. Bit more soundstagey than CO, but the treble seemed a bit peaky. The one I heard had thin pads on it, though, and I’m not overly fond of CO with the thin pads either so take my thoughts here with a grain of salt.
- I really liked the looks of the new ZMF Aegis, though I didn’t have a chance to hear it with anything other than CO, so I can’t really comment on the sound.
- Tungsten deserves every bit of the hype. Heard it on the HeadTrip amp and had to turn the volume DOWN a notch when I switched to Susvara. Very much in the same lane as ZMF Caldera; quite different from Susvara.
- FIR Audio RN6 impressed every bit as much as the hype would suggest. Really well balanced, weighty sound with excellent timbre & clarity.
- Canpur CP622B wasn’t my jam. Too midrangey & thin, didn’t line up at all with the reviews I’ve read (maybe I had the wrong tips on them?). Its little brother Canpur CP54E, on the other hand, at half the cost of its big brother, was a surprise hit. Solid Legend EVO / FatFreq competition.
- Campfire Audio Trifecta was perhaps the biggest surprise of the day. I spent about 15 minutes listening to it just trying to understand what I was hearing. These do things I’ve never heard an iem do before, though a brief listen isn’t enough to figure out whether it’s revelatory or a gimmick that would get old fast. Definitely on my radar for further consideration, though.
- Got to listen to Susvara on 4 or 5 different chains and think I finally understand why it is so beloved. It does wide open soundstage in such a holographic organic way that I think it may sound more like a e-stat or ribbon than it sounds like any other planar or dynamic.
- Warwick Aperio did indeed come across as the most complete, even-keeled, “does absolutely everything well” system I’ve ever heard. Wide open soundstage? Check. Perfect timbre? Check. Deep dynamic bass? Check. Subbass rumble? Check. It does no wrong. I could easily be happy with just this and nothing else if I didn’t already have a rack full of gear.
- HE-1 was every bit as amazing as its legend suggests. It made average to above average recordings sound almost like binaural recordings. I listened to my favorite song of all time and it sounded as live and impactful as I’ve ever heard it. I can’t fathom spending $70K on it, nonetheless it probably deserves its reputation as THE best headphone in the world. *SPECIAL THANKS to @szore for sharing his demo slot with me - it was great meeting you!
- Led Zeppelin II on reel-to-reel via WA33 + 1266 TC was positively jaw dropping. I’ve never heard reel-to-reel before, the sense of being just 1 step removed from the live performance is very real. It’s a shame the cost of entry and availability of tapes puts this out of reach of anyone without very deep pockets. I’m grateful to the Abyss guys for lugging that to NYC for us, though, it was a real treat to hear.
It was great seeing & meeting many of you there, I’m only sorry I didn’t have it in me to stick around longer to hang out with my fellow head-fi nutjobs.By early afternoon that crowd gets to me, my battery runs out, and I have to retreat back to my cave.
