I've just fallen in love with the Cascades too, after setting them aside for some time. The bugger ear cups, a Lavricable silver cable, were a good start, but I still found with my Sony DAP that I had to do drastic EQing to avoid the bass overwhelming everything. But i now have found the perfect partner in a Woo W11 Topaz, no EQing, glorious sound via 4.4mm balanced, bass strong but in its place. I don't understand why they perform so differently but I'm not complaining...
I've just fallen in love with the Cascades too, after setting them aside for some time. The bugger ear cups, a Lavricable silver cable, were a good start, but I still found with my Sony DAP that I had to do drastic EQing to avoid the bass overwhelming everything. But i now have found the perfect partner in a Woo W11 Topaz, no EQing, glorious sound via 4.4mm balanced, bass strong but in its place. I don't understand why they perform so differently but I'm not complaining...
I've just fallen in love with the Cascades too, after setting them aside for some time. The bugger ear cups, a Lavricable silver cable, were a good start, but I still found with my Sony DAP that I had to do drastic EQing to avoid the bass overwhelming everything. But i now have found the perfect partner in a Woo W11 Topaz, no EQing, glorious sound via 4.4mm balanced, bass strong but in its place. I don't understand why they perform so differently but I'm not complaining...
No, I don't have that. I haven't enjoyed iFi dacs in the past and was torn between a Topaz and a Diablo, but didn't want MQA and did want USB C. The Topaz is for times away with a laptop when I'm not with my usual headphone system.
I had the same experience. It solved some of the metallic flavor as well. I do feel it's less friendly and round feeling, but I appreciate the new sound.
I found that the XL pads were the best with white filters removed and the fabric was the least improved.
I just picked up a new pair of Cascade's 2020; other than the filters, it seems not much has changed outside of, again, filters down to 2, a new black finish and the CA logo are now blacked out instead of white and (I've seen a few Chrome CA logo's around on the Cascades). I've let them burn in for 5 days straight, and I can't tell an audible difference from my playlist I go through on headphones. They sound the same as straight out of the box, and that's with either cable, nothing I can do to get rid of the midbass hump outside of EQ'ing.
With that said, I love the Cascades for the certain genre's that no other headphone seems to compete. This is some newer rock (some might refer to it as butt rock), EDM, Dance, and strangely some Orchestral. That is still a head-scratcher to me how well they do some chamber, orchestral, score, and other random genres. For me, the Cascades have a mix of Polaris V2 and Andromeda Gold but then again, still in their own class, love or hate it.
With that said, I've had the XL and cloth pads since I had my older Cascades and wanted to start seeing how those change up the sound, but my biggest question for the community is removing the white filter on the pads. I see some mention it's easy to reverse, but it seems that my try at removing it would be permanent. If it truly does remove the midbass hump, I could see having 2 pairs of the same pads to retune to desire, but I've never heard much of a difference with the filters, even when it had 4.
Lastly, are there any graphs on removing the white filter on the pads? I'd love to see some charts show exactly where they alter the frequency of the Cascades. On a side note, I 3D printed a few rounded rectangular pieces that have been sanded to a few MM that has small holes go around the 3D print piece that sits between the pads and housing that seem to really tone down the midbass but still messing around with different 3D printed mods as I've noticed a lot of upside to modifying that area of the headphone.
I did some experimenting the past couple of days and have come up with the best configuration for me. I had found the Cascade with the SXC-8 boomy and recessed highs. So I picked up the DHC Molecule Elite 4-wire Silver balanced for my WM1A running Midnight CFW. This along with going to the XL pads opened up the highs but I still wasn't satisfied with the sound when comparing to my MDR-Z1R or Solaris 2020 using silver cables.The highs were better and the soundstage wider. But the bass was now thin and midrange recessed.
First test, switch from low to high gain. This improved the midrange ,but bass was still thin.
Second test, switch back to stock leather pads. Eureka! Now the bass was back and the sound was fuller. It's not perfect compared to the MDR-Z1R or Solaris 2020 but now a very enjoyable combination for when I want to listen to cans in bed.
Lessons learned. The XL pads open up the soundstage but at the expense of reduced bass. I think this is from going from over ear (XL pads) to on ear (stock leather pads). Going to high gain opened up the midrange I guess due to the increase in power. And finally a pure silver cable helps with high end details and opening the soundstage.
UPDATE:
First test, switch from low to high gain. This improved the midrange, but bass was still thin.
Second test, switch back to stock leather pads. Improvement! Now the bass was back and the sound was fuller but the mids were recessed.
Third test, switch back to XL pads and increased the volume in low gain. Eureka!. This is what I was looking for. It's now much closer to the MDR-Z1R or Solaris 2020 and now a very enjoyable combination for when I want to listen to cans in bed.
Lessons learned. The XL pads open up the soundstage. I think this is from going from stock leather pads and increasing the area around the ears. The stock pads just cover my ears (almost cramped). However I did need to increase the volume to get the same sound level as the stock pads. Stock with high gain opened up the midrange but at the loss of bass. And finally a pure silver cable helps with high end details and opening the soundstage.
I just watched Joshua Valour's recent review of the Campfire Cascade v1. As usual, Josh's visuals outperform; I would probably consider it with a healthy grain of salt as he didn't seem to know that there was a v2 in 2020 along with a lot of other details. It's not nearly as much a V-tuned as a Roland or Midbass/Bass tilt tuning. As it so happens Josh's voice was actually what really highlighted how bad the metallic timbre (learn to pronounce it, please) was before removing the filters.
I'm a much bigger fan of the sound with the white filters removed and was thinking about sending in both versions and 6 pads -- Josh, if you read this, I'd do so if you'd give them a second chance. I can at least agree with the review on three points: these do give a Modhouse Argon flavor (I may sell most of mine since I have the Cascades), the tuning and detail is off right out of the box, and I'm really excited to see the v3 of these.
I just watched Joshua Valour's recent review of the Campfire Cascade v1. As usual, Josh's visuals outperform; I would probably consider it with a healthy grain of salt as he didn't seem to know that there was a v2 in 2020 along with a lot of other details. It's not nearly as much a V-tuned as a Roland or Midbass/Bass tilt tuning. As it so happens Josh's voice was actually what really highlighted how bad the metallic timbre (learn to pronounce it, please) was before removing the filters.
I'm a much bigger fan of the sound with the white filters removed and was thinking about sending in both versions and 6 pads -- Josh, if you read this, I'd do so if you'd give them a second chance. I can at least agree with the review on three points: these do give a Modhouse Argon flavor (I may sell most of mine since I have the Cascades), the tuning and detail is off right out of the box, and I'm really excited to see the v3 of these.
Can you direct me to any sources regarding a retune of the Cascade? I asked support at CA and their reply said the only changes since original release have been cosmetic, no tuning changes. I keep reading about a retuning that contradicts what I hear from the manufacturer.
Can you direct me to any sources regarding a retune of the Cascade? I asked support at CA and their reply said the only changes since original release have been cosmetic, no tuning changes. I keep reading about a retuning that contradicts what I hear from the manufacturer.
The retune version is not an official thing. CA just built a new run of headphones and provides one less filter. Everything else is supposed to be the same. Maybe it’s driver break-in that is responsible for people claiming they have been changed in some way.
The retune version is not an official thing. CA just built a new run of headphones and provides one less filter. Everything else is supposed to be the same. Maybe it’s driver break-in that is responsible for people claiming they have been changed in some way.
It could also be earpads wearing, or maybe some material on the new ones is different, could just the new headband shape changes the fit on peoples ears.
From my older notes I took with my previous Cascades to the latest release of my current Cascades, and, from notes and memory there is nothing that jumps out as any re-tune. They still have the same tuning to my ears with big bottom end and slamming mid bass. Which is why I feel the Cascades are tailored for certain genres or adding positive flavor to certain recordings. I watched Joshua’s review and outside of the stellar, MKBHD like production videos, I mostly disagree with his ears but that’s ok as we all will have biases as no eardrum is made the same. Lately, I only follow a few current reviewers/bloggers as I feel they give a great starting point when reviewing a headphone gear, though I've recently really been enjoying the headphones.com review channel.
Lastly, are there any graphs on removing the white filter on the pads? I'd love to see some charts show exactly where they alter the frequency of the Cascades.
To my ears subbass roll off wasn't as bad as my measurements suggest but still clearly audible. Overall that mod was a huge improvement for my purposes. Transformed cascades from useless to one of my alltime favorites
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