[gonintendo]

I wonder and hope @zach915m can chime in or perhaps other Caldera users about the importance of clamp force with Caldera. Wondering how people tune the clamp force, comfort or tight oriented, is there a rule of thumb somewhere? The pads are stiffer than other previous ZMFS.

They don’t seem to be as seal dependent as some planars at least

 

[NutritiousNoodles]

They don’t seem to be as seal dependent as some planars at least

Agreed, I have glasses with thick arms and doesn’t seem to affect the sound.

 

[zach915m]

I wonder and hope @zach915m can chime in or perhaps other Caldera users about the importance of clamp force with Caldera. Wondering how people tune the clamp force, comfort or tight oriented, is there a rule of thumb somewhere? The pads are stiffer than other previous ZMFS.

I would recommend checking this video out for how to adjust the clamping force and just general adjustment advice.
I found the clamping force of the caldera to be on the stronger side out of the box. It is still comfortable especially with the thick stock pads, so I haven’t tried to bend the headband yet.

What he said - only addition which might be in the video as well, is rotate them to whatever feels the most comfortable. Also - it is a a Visco type foam - so wearing them for 10-20 mins will soften them as well. And lastly, the suede is very soft which may be worth a try as well.

 

[goldwerger]

I would recommend checking this video out for how to adjust the clamping force and just general adjustment advice.
I found the clamping force of the caldera to be on the stronger side out of the box. It is still comfortable especially with the thick stock pads, so I haven’t tried to bend the headband yet.

exactly. when I got my Caldera, I simply applied mild force and twisted the headband to the shape that was good for me. they are made to be bent to your comfort, and easy to do

 

[rustydabear]

FedEx finally came! I need to go cook dinner before I can do a full video/photo, but here's a quick snap. Beautiful wood!

Wow!
Really beautiful pair. Enjoy!

 

[AntonRisto]

Have you considered Roon?

Can't recommend Roon enough. For your mobile use case, Qubuz and/or Tidal will be just a background service, the entire UI/Ux is Roon it wouldn't matter; and Roon has a great iPhone app (both for home, and now for the go as well).

Sorry for going a bit off topic here, but I just wanted to say thanks for advising to try out Roon. I've been testing it with Qobuz and Tidal for a few days now and so far have been quite pleased. I also found out that it's actually the 10 kHz range that is causing sibilance for me with the Susvara, so I toned it down with the PEQ and have been enjoying the Susvara so much more ever since!

I'll definitely want to own a Caldera in the future (that Coffee Cold grille with the Aged Coffee Oak finish is just too beautiful for me), but for now I'll settle with the Susvara and the Atrium. Congratulations to all the new Caldera owners though!

 

[Monsterzero]

Sorry for going a bit off topic here, but I just wanted to say thanks for advising to try out Roon. I've been testing it with Qobuz and Tidal for a few days now and so far have been quite pleased

Glad to help. Personally, I cant imagine listening to music any other way, and BTW @zach915m is the one who convinced me to try it.

 

[goldwerger]

Sorry for going a bit off topic here, but I just wanted to say thanks for advising to try out Roon. I've been testing it with Qobuz and Tidal for a few days now and so far have been quite pleased.

Congrats! One of the best investments in music I ever made.

Glad to help. Personally, I cant imagine listening to music any other way, and BTW @zach915m is the one who convinced me to try it.

Music discovery and listening experience is so transformed on Roon, can't imagine any other way at this point. And that team keeps innovating..

(sorry guys.. back to topic.. )

 

[rustydabear]

Ordered. Kingwood with cowhide pads and a wood case. They should complement my camphor Burl VC’s and my Bubinga Atriums.
Can’t wait…
My first pair of “new” ZMF’s!

 

[LoryWiv]

LTA MZ3

Ah yes. LTA OTL's are somewhat unique in their low output impedance. I have a Feliks Euphoria AE with output impedance of approx. 20 and it also also drives high sensitivity planars very well.

 

[joshua1122]

Initial Impressions - Preface
I'm a relatively new audiophile, when it comes to collecting audio gear. However, I've been a musician since I was young, mostly piano and violin through college, then playing around with viola more recently. I'm pretty picky about my sound. I was introduced to ZMF through many sites like Head-Fi and Reddit, and have been enjoying my Atrium since September.

I've been saving for ZMF November and the Caldera release, and instead of buying that stabilized blue Atrium I'd been drooling over, I decided to put the cost difference of the Atrium upgrade into upgrading the Caldera. Since the Caldera's release date coincided with my 40th birthday, I decided to celebrate it by pull the trigger on the Kingwood Caldera!

I won't bore everyone with the details that others have already posted ad nauseam, and someone with more experience can surely do a better job of describing the finer details in length. So I'll just be sharing some pictures and my personal impressions.

Build
Unboxing video coming soon! To put it plainly: It's everything the official videos and pictures made it look like. It's beautifully crafted, and the gloss finish is fantastic. The craftsmanship clearly shows in both the finish and sanding of the wood. I don't regret the extra costs one bit! I've been giddy all evening since FedEx dropped off the package (wife is calling me "cute") – it's just that cool!

The wooden case is basic, but tasteful and classy. I really love the etched logo on the top!

Fit
Out of the box, it has a bit more clamp than my Atrium. Not uncomfortable, but snug. I may loosen it later. My unit weighs 602g, and after 2 hours of wear, the weight doesn't seem to be any more fatiguing to me than my cherry Atrium (520g). Of course, I've been using the 612g LCD-X every day for the past bit to prepare my neck for the Kingwood!

Source
Currently listening on a SMSL D300 (really love the ROHM DAC chip) through a Schiit Jotunheim 2 via XLR balanced, XLR balanced out to Caldera via the OFC cable. I'm looking into whether I want to upgrade to an iHA-6, but that's another story for later. Music is from FLAC and DSD files through FooBar2000 or JRiver.

Mids
On first listen, I immediately noticed mids sounding very life-like. Pianos in the mid range have a more realistic timbre and decay than any other headphones I own. At times, the Caldera makes me feel like I'm in the accompanist's seat at a nice full grand! Low violin and upper cello strings have so much texture that I can almost see the wafting rosin. Violas have a tonal quality that is very hard to capture and reproduce cleanly, especially on many headphones – and I feel like I've finally found one that can bring them to life.

Doing a quick sine sweep revealed a pretty deep dip (about 5-6dB to my ears) around 1.5kHz. Jury's out whether I like this hole filled with EQ, but it's growing on me without. It can reduces some honkiness in poorly mastered tracks.

Female altos are very forward and clean; however, sopranos' fundamental frequencies start hitting the dip around 1.3-1.4kHz and feels stifled unless I add some of it back via EQ. Pianos can also hit this region, and that can come off as a bit muted. I can live with it, though, but time will tell whether I EQ it or not.

Treble
Cymbals and hats have a lot of tactility. Guitar plucks are very pronounced and detailed in a way that grabs my attention. Speed of much of the upper-treble percussion are amazing, making them sound crisp and resolving without blending too much into each other. Initial attacks of kotos and harps are so clear, that octave plucks (when a note is played one octave apart simultaneously) are so much easier to tell when in a mix, even compared to a bright planar like the Arya. Unsurprisingly, the Caldera easily outclasses my other planars like the Arya or LCD-X in this regard.

It's clear that I hear a lot more treble on the Caldera compared to Atrium. It's not too much where I'm tempted to EQ it down yet, and I'm not feeling any fatigue so far after a couple hours. Of course, I like bright (or V-shaped) headphones. I had to EQ some treble back in with my Atrium (admittedly could do a better job), which made some poorly mastered tracks really piercing. I don't have to do that with Caldera, and the same tracks are much more pleasant to listen to.

One area where the Caldera's treble shines for me is in pure DSD recordings of strings. I was floored the moment I heard Rachel Podger's La Stravaganza (by Vivaldi). The attacks of her violin's incredibly articulate spiccatos, combined with the crystal clear harpsichord was an experience unlike any other. The extra amount of treble that the Caldera has reveals plenty of texture in upper violin strings. The dynamics and speed make for some of the best baroque listening I've ever heard, bar none. It's too bad it's not as roomy as the Atrium (more on that later), but I think the Caldera's positives clearly outshine that slight weakness.

Although not my genre, I put on some metal since this thread has been mentioning them a bit lately. And oh my – that's something else. I now understand what people meant by speed and metal. I don't have the words to describe it, but it's pretty crazy, that's for sure.

Bass
I'm a total bass head: My low-shelf is +8dB on the Atrium. I added the +7dB on the Caldera, and it sure slams like a nice planar. I've read people saying Atrium has more bass, but I'm not sure I hear it that way. Bass texture is quite a bit better than LCD-X (my bass benchmark). Even when adding in a good amount of sub-bass with EQ, it's still coherent.

Other Notes
Sound stage is smaller than Atrium by a bit, but I'm noticing more height than with the Atrium. That roomy atmosphere that the Atrium gives with its organic decay is replaced with clean, tight speed. It's more of a in-your-head intimacy, yet not claustrophobically so.

Noise isolation is reduced compared to the Atrium. I'm hearing the heater fans a bit more than I typically would. I actually like it more open (like the Arya), so I can hear what the girls and the dog are up to, or when they invariably need to ask something. A quick test of pink noise measured by a SPL meter at 72dB at 2ft from the speaker. It reads as 62dB at the same distance, when the same SPL meter is inside an Atrium cup closed off with a cardboard baffle. On the Caldera, it reads as 68dB. So on this quick and dirty experiment, the Atrium had a 10dB noise attenuation, and Caldera had a mere 4dB of attenuation.

Conclusion
The Caldera is most certainly a different beast than the Atrium. While I love the roomy organic feel of the Atrium for some tracks, there's really nothing the Caldera does an inferior job at. I'm pretty happy listening to it for all genres. The insane resolution makes it such a joy to listen to, and the aside from the mids-dip, the tonality is spot-on. I can wholeheartedly recommend this beautiful, yet amazing ear and eye candy of a headphone. Zach did a tremendous job, and the team has done a wonderful job of craftsmanship to put it all together. Many thanks to all the amazing people at ZMF and their many efforts over the years to develop the excellent Caldera.

I still need to try the different earpads, but I wanted to at least get some words down first. Thanks for reading!

 

[Derek Dean]

joshua1122, wow, that was an excellent review. Well organized and presented, and with fantastic photos. It's nice to read a review from the perspective of a musician. Thanks for taking the time to put that together and post it here. Happy listening : )

 

[Deceneu808]

Ah yes. LTA OTL's are somewhat unique in their low output impedance. I have a Feliks Euphoria AE with output impedance of approx. 20 and it also also drives high sensitivity planars very well.

I am curious about how the Caldera sounds with the OTL Feliks amps. From last I spoke to Lukasz the Elise has OI of 62 ohms and Euforia AE 52

 

[greyforest]

some quick notes on caldera

really good resolution and mids-high overtone presentation

but if the track is busy and complicated caldera may seems bit chaotic and lose some mids focus.

the headphone is superb for female vocals

 

[NutritiousNoodles]

Did some A/B between the suede and thick pads. Did the A/B on three tracks, one with female vocals, one with male vocals and one an orchestral piece.

Comfort wise they're on par, suede wins in out right softness whereas the thick pads just hugs my ears like a baby it's equally good.
Sound wise, suede has this great sense of air and clarity through mids and highs, bass is impactful and remains good amount of tightness. Depending on the source, vocals can at times sound a tad cold to my ears. The thick pads tones down the air. Pianos are more warm and sweet sounding. It also takes the edge off the vocals, most noticeable in the plosives. Bass is a little bit more forward, and has slightly more decay.

They're both great sounding, but with a slightly different presentation. Classical is gonna sound better on the suedes. I prefer the thick pads because I mostly listen to vocal-centred music. They're better at allowing the vocals to just draw you into the music and relax.

Update: I’ve changed my mind on this, see post #2312