joshua1122
100+ Head-Fier
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I'm happy that you get to enjoy the same awesome headphones soon!
I'm really liking mine right now.ZMF Caldera - New Planar Magnetic from ZMF!
- Thread starter ScornDefeat
- Start date
I'm really liking mine right now.
dfiled
500+ Head-Fier
My Calderas got shipped a week ago and I still haven’t received them – stuck in customs limbo. No one seems to be able to tell me anything. It’s painful not knowing how long I’ll have to wait.
steve468
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2005
- Posts
- 454
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Is it DHL? I'm in Toronto, and DHL used to be the best service to my area. Then all of a sudden at the beginning of the year every shipment I was getting from them was delayed in some stupid way. I had an amp "out for delivery" for 5 days! I had to call so many times just to get them to actually take it off the truck.
dfiled
500+ Head-Fier
Yes! And I agree, DHL used to be great, don’t know what happened.
Not a huge noise floor with the caldera and my FW J2. With the Atrium and Aeolus I get a small buzzing noise only out of the left side and the overall noise floor is louder but only apparent when no music is playing or if it’s a super quiet song. I’m using a tubed dac so that might be part of the problem too. I will try another dac to see if that helps. I tried using my Lampizator and that had a way higher noise floor.
Nimzerz
1000+ Head-Fier
Ugh this is sad because I have heard this issue on other more sensitive headphones on my SIT-3 as well. Always the left side and I also use a tube DAC. I almost wish the Caldera was *less* sensitive haha, but I know for most people it works to their advantage so they can drive it off of nearly anything.
However, the SIT-3 does seem to have half the noise of the J2 (50uV vs. 100uV), so maybe it’s okay. It’s one of those things I wouldn’t feel comfortable unless I was able to try it, though.
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Even 1266’s?
TheFrator
100+ Head-Fier
How's well does the Caldera pair with the Oor/Hypsos?
jlbrach
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2005
- Posts
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- 9,808
to me any review that says a HP destroys the susvara is silly...lots of ways to say you like it but destroys the susvara discredits the review for me
joshua1122
100+ Head-Fier
I had a scary moment a bit ago. I came back to my desk and put my Calderas back on, and my right side was completely silent. Dreading a bad driver, I gingerly stood up to see if the amp connection had come loose – but no, they were tight. Surrendering to defeat, I slumped down in my chair, imagining the emails and shipping nightmares during the holiday season. As I finished leaning back, the sound came back to the right side.
Puzzled, I gently tugged on the cables a bit, and I noticed it cut out again. I rotated it, and I had half my volume back. Ah ha, it's the cable! After gently bending and rotating parts of the cable, I found the splitter region to have a break in it, and could replicate the cutouts reliably. So at least that's an easy fix, and I can breathe easily now. I emailed ZMF's support, so hopefully they can ship a new one out. (Edit: They did send one out pretty fast with Priority Mail!)
On another note, I tried the suede pads:
These red dots are helpful for figuring out which side they go on, but at least on my pads, they both show very prominently in the front and top (as pictured above - the red color turned to pinkish-white as it got stretched). I'd imagine if whoever was marking them put them closer to the inside edge, they wouldn't show. I also suspect the dots fade pretty easily? I recall someone earlier in this thread mentioning something about the dot fading.
Sonically speaking, I'm a bit confused as to what I make of them. In my original impressions, I mentioned I heard a 6dBish dip around 1.4-1.5kHz on the lamb pads. A sine sweep on the suede revealed that the same dip looks a lot closer to the official measurements, although the comparison charts between lamb and suede show them to be nearly the same in that region. Must be my ear shape. However, the rest of the upper spectrum is all over the place for me. The upper mids are more dippy, and the treble region is a lot more peakier in the 7, 9-10kHz region, and I hear it like the charts show it. Maybe the few dB missing in the 2-4.5kHz region is making it feel more wooly than I like, and it's also possible I need more time on them to let my brain adjust. I'll try to keep them on for the evening or so, to see if I warm up to it.
Puzzled, I gently tugged on the cables a bit, and I noticed it cut out again. I rotated it, and I had half my volume back. Ah ha, it's the cable! After gently bending and rotating parts of the cable, I found the splitter region to have a break in it, and could replicate the cutouts reliably. So at least that's an easy fix, and I can breathe easily now. I emailed ZMF's support, so hopefully they can ship a new one out. (Edit: They did send one out pretty fast with Priority Mail!)
On another note, I tried the suede pads:
These red dots are helpful for figuring out which side they go on, but at least on my pads, they both show very prominently in the front and top (as pictured above - the red color turned to pinkish-white as it got stretched). I'd imagine if whoever was marking them put them closer to the inside edge, they wouldn't show. I also suspect the dots fade pretty easily? I recall someone earlier in this thread mentioning something about the dot fading.
Sonically speaking, I'm a bit confused as to what I make of them. In my original impressions, I mentioned I heard a 6dBish dip around 1.4-1.5kHz on the lamb pads. A sine sweep on the suede revealed that the same dip looks a lot closer to the official measurements, although the comparison charts between lamb and suede show them to be nearly the same in that region. Must be my ear shape. However, the rest of the upper spectrum is all over the place for me. The upper mids are more dippy, and the treble region is a lot more peakier in the 7, 9-10kHz region, and I hear it like the charts show it. Maybe the few dB missing in the 2-4.5kHz region is making it feel more wooly than I like, and it's also possible I need more time on them to let my brain adjust. I'll try to keep them on for the evening or so, to see if I warm up to it.
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dfiled
500+ Head-Fier
I know what you mean and the Susvara is obviously a remarkable headphone, but I always found it too soft, lacking bite and impact, and I was running it off a powerful speaker amp. If a headphone had 90 percent of susvara’s resolution and added impact and liveliness it would best the Susvara for my personal preferences.
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rustydabear
100+ Head-Fier
DHL customer service:
Call them. You need to pay duties. Then they will be delivered next day.
1-855-345-7447
Press 5 then 4.
That will get you to the pay duties/ customs department
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paradoxper
Headphoneus Supremus
Ha. How else do you feed hype. Before it was Atrium and before it was VC and before it VO.
I enjoy ZMF but they aren't on the same level as the upper echelon.
ColSaulTigh
Headphoneus Supremus
Personally, I've never experienced the Susvarnas and never will. I have a bad taste in my mouth surrounding build quality of the Chi-fi products they put out so I've decided I won't use them.
SlothRock
1000+ Head-Fier
Disagree. At this level, it's all about taste vs. anything else. Anything in the ZMF price point and up are typically pretty damn good headphones (They better be for the price!) but people value characteristics of certain headphones over others. Yes, the Susvara are my favorite headphone but I also love my VC, loved my Atrium and will love my Atrium Closed when it comes, I am sure. They're fantastic headphones and there are plenty of people who had a Susvara and sold it for a ZMF just like people who have had ZMF's and sold 'em for Susvaras or, the correct option, kept both and enjoy both equally and in very different ways!
Remember that the folks that have issues are highly more vocal than folks that don't have issues. For every issue you've heard from Hifiman, there are 10 others that have had their headphones for 10+ years without a single issue.
