I’m back home. Only spent a few hours again. My goal this year was just to see how my ZMF Caldera compares to other ZMF headphones and some of the other top of the line headphones. I was also looking to see how the Caldera sounded on a few other setups other than my own Naim Atom Uniti HE.
At the ZMF room I got to try the Atrium open and close, the Verite closed, and my Caldera on the dcs Lina stack, Feliks Envy, and the Ferrum Oor stack. I didn’t really care for either closed headphones. I felt the Atrium and the Caldera were about equal on the dcs but it’s not my favorite setup. The Atrium sounded way better on the Feliks and pulled ahead of the Caldera. But the Caldera beat the Atrium on the Ferrum and may have liked it better than the Atrium/Feliks pairing. They had the Holo stack there too but once I saw how big it was, I didn’t bother to listen because I knew I’d never want to own it since just too big for my living space.
In the dcs room I got to compare my Caldera against the original Utopia, the Meze Elite and the Susvara on the Lina stack. I didn’t care for the Susvara on this setup. I felt Caldera sounded best followed by the Utopia and then the Meze Elite.
Next was the Headamp room. Compared my Caldera to the Abyss 1266, and Susvara on the gx mk2. Once again I didn’t care for the Susvara but the 1266 sounded really nice with powerful bass. But I can’t stand the fit. It’s got a much more open sound than the Caldera, almost speaker like. Due to fit and how hard to drive, it’s a pass. There was a much more powerful unreleased Headamp that I got to hear the Susvara with and it completely changed them. They now had boomy bass. I didn’t get to try my own tracks or compare directly against the Caldera. That’s the most change I’ve heard a headphone have when switching amps. The Caldera changes but not too drastic.
In main showroom I got to try the new headphone the Composer by Austrian Audio with their amp. They were very light, very open and airy, with lots of detail but not sure for me since didn’t have enough weight and warmth to the music. I tried my Caldera on their amp and wasn’t a fan. The Composer sounds better out of it.
Next I tried the Chord Dave. I’m used to own one a few years ago with mscaler. This one just solo but wasn’t a fan of the Caldera directly out of it. It lacks bass weight and punch. And lastly stopped at the Ferrum booth. Got to try the Caldera on it for a longer session. Really impressed. Has plenty of weight, punch and detail. The original Utopia also sounded great out of it. That’s a wrap.
unfortunately I am sick this week and it was challenging enough to just try to get near-production level cfa3 amps out to the show plus one for the Bloom Audio room. We have the previews of the cfa3 Deluxe Edition in the HeadAmp room and the cfa3 Standard Edition in the Bloom room. Glad to hear you noticed the difference with the Susvara..that is my experience as well. At the power levels needed to properly drive Susvara, its really noticeable.
