ZMF Caldera - New Planar Magnetic from ZMF!

[XVampireX]

Did anyone post this in here yet? A thorough and glowing review that I absolutely agree with:


"I can't make a viable case for the Susvara or the Abyss 1266 TC at six thousand dollars when the ZMF Caldera is offering as good or better performance for one third the price."

I could have posted this video but I wanted to leave the guy a chance to post it here instead as you can see a few posts above you I wrote at @reeltime which you can see his video description says his head-fi account is this

 

[Alenotta]

Oh hey @reeltime! Love your videos.

 

[TheMiddleSky]

A little cable talk: I feel that Caldera is indeed a more transparent headphone compared to other ZMF headphones, because I can hear the differences between cables easier with this headphone.

Had a fun comparison today between Verite Silver Cable, Wywires Platinum, and Lavricable Grand Line. Well, on different headphones, the result may varies, depend on the synergies. However, for Caldera, my first choice would be Verite Silver.

Continuing from this post, finally I met my "best' preference for Caldera cable.

After compared all of the cables:
- ZMF Verite Silver Cable
- ZMF 2K Copper
- Wywires Platinum
- Lavricable Grand Line
- Effect Audio Code23
- Norne Skollvar V2
- One custom cable (Silver/Gold/Palladium Material), build locally here in my country, that cost around $800

My choice would be from Norne. Second place is Verite Silver.

Norne is very engaging, full body, punchy, with 3D pop-out feeling that suit my taste a lot. My usual playlist consist of vocal jazz, pop, rock, and acoustic.

 

[Alenotta]

Continuing from this post, finally I met my "best' preference for Caldera cable.

After compared all of the cables:
- ZMF Verite Silver Cable
- ZMF 2K Copper
- Wywires Platinum
- Lavricable Grand Line
- Effect Audio Code23
- Norne Skollvar V2
- One custom cable (Silver/Gold/Palladium Material), build locally here in my country, that cost around $800

My choice would be from Norne. Second place is Verite Silver.

Norne is very engaging, full body, punchy, with 3D pop-out feeling that suit my taste a lot. My usual playlist consist of vocal jazz, pop, rock, and acoustic.

Wow you tried a lot of nice cables. How would you say the Norne compared to the WyWire? That is what I have and am using with Caldera.

 

[StevenR296]

I don’t believe the CA1000 does offline Tidal. I could be wrong- I did own one for a year.
To my ears, by far the best dap pairings for the Caldera are the Hiby RS8 and the Shanling M9.
I honestly just put my RS8 on shuffle and I am just amazed with this pairing: nearly every song is jaw dropping. The smooth R2R sound mixed with the realistic highs ( horns, cymbals that actually sound like true horns and cymbals). The battery Life is insane along with the Darwin architecture (NOS, plug-ins, etc) all can change the sound, but keep it sounding analog. Definitely worth a listen. Could use a bit more power but have no problem running the Caldera’s properly. The RS8 is really desktop quality R2R.
The Shanling M9 is my favourite delta sigma Dap player. Lots of power, portable and does everything well.

Was between the CA1000T, DX320, and then the RS8 when you posted this comment. RS8 looks like a beast of a device! Hard to justify the extra cost at the moment, and the RS8 doesn't seem to be pocketable anyway, so CA1000T it is! It's arriving tomorrow. The review on Audiophile-Heaven sold me on it.

Continuing from this post, finally I met my "best' preference for Caldera cable.

After compared all of the cables:
- ZMF Verite Silver Cable
- ZMF 2K Copper
- Wywires Platinum
- Lavricable Grand Line
- Effect Audio Code23
- Norne Skollvar V2
- One custom cable (Silver/Gold/Palladium Material), build locally here in my country, that cost around $800

My choice would be from Norne. Second place is Verite Silver.

Norne is very engaging, full body, punchy, with 3D pop-out feeling that suit my taste a lot. My usual playlist consist of vocal jazz, pop, rock, and acoustic.

I listened to the Caldera with my Norne Drausk 16-wire copper cable last night and went to bed waayyy too late. I was having too much fun on my desktop rig. The Norne cable is my first real premium cable and I truly felt I got my money's worth. Nice step up from the ZMF OFC cable, though the OFC cables are no slouch.

 

[TheMiddleSky]

Wow you tried a lot of nice cables. How would you say the Norne compared to the WyWire? That is what I have and am using with Caldera.

Skollvar V2 is more "muscular" in tonality, punchier bass, a little darker in treble, with wider soundstage than Wywire Platinum.

I can see why some people will love Wywires with Caldera, along with Lavri Grand Cable too (because these two cables actually have some similarities in sound), however I prefer more musical notes from Norne rather than "closer to reference" presentation of Wywires.

Torn between the CA1000T and Hiby RS8. Listened to my Caldera from my desktop last night and

Was between the CA1000T, DX320, and then the RS8 when you posted this comment. RS8 looks like a beast of a device! Hard to justify the extra cost at the moment, and the RS8 doesn't seem to be pocketable anyway, so CA1000T it is! It's arriving tomorrow. The review on Audiophile-Heaven sold me on it.


I listened to the Caldera with my Norne Drausk 16-wire copper cable last night and went to bed waayyy too late. I was having too much fun on my desktop rig. The Norne cable is my first real premium cable and I truly felt I got my money's worth. Nice step up from the ZMF OFC cable, though the OFC cables are no slouch.

I would categorised CA1000T as the best value of high end DAP in today's market, very solid performer, and cheaper than other TOTL. Don't forget to fine tuning your preference in Amp menu.

If i specifically only use IEM (VE Phonix Ltd), actually I like RS8 a little more. It's more transparent with a little more micro detail, and leading line of notes is more solid. However, CA1000T throw larger (wider and better depth) soundstage, a little more forgiving character, and deliver more power for full size headphone.

I think I heard Drausk before, but been long time ago and couldn't really remember the sound.

 

[TommehHiFi]

I agree with the Director's Garage vid about one thing: the drums. The Caldera has the best drum timbre, drum detail and drum imaging of any headphone I've ever tried. I got chills the first time I noticed it months ago and that was way before my brain burn-in period of a new headphone happened. I've only grown to appreciate it more and I didn't really focus on drums in music before. I'd like to hear someone like Golden Sound's opinion since he tends to mention in his vids that he specifically judges drum realism because he is a drummer.

 

[TheMiddleSky]

For me Imaging precision, "clean cut" between notes, and more complete micro detail are main things that really excellent in Caldera when compared to dynamic driver ZMF.

 

[XVampireX]

I agree with the Director's Garage vid about one thing: the drums. The Caldera has the best drum timbre, drum detail and drum imaging of any headphone I've ever tried. I got chills the first time I noticed it months ago and that was way before my brain burn-in period of a new headphone happened. I've only grown to appreciate it more and I didn't really focus on drums in music before. I'd like to hear someone like Golden Sound's opinion since he tends to mention in his vids that he specifically judges drum realism because he is a drummer.

GoldenSound seems to like the Caldera, he had a short video where he said that might just buy it because it's good and he posted here earlier that he also prefers Caldera with the Suede pads cause of the treble taming.

But in the end he isn't going to purchase them because he has the Susvara and it is still a downgrade for him from what I understand. He has a pair and is supposed to make a review soon enough, though he's really taking time with his reviews...

 

[thecrow]

GoldenSound seems to like the Caldera, he had a short video where he said that might just buy it because it's good and he posted here earlier that he also prefers Caldera with the Suede pads cause of the treble taming.

But in the end he isn't going to purchase them because he has the Susvara and it is still a downgrade for him from what I understand. He has a pair and is supposed to make a review soon enough, though he's really taking time with his reviews...

Imho and in a nutshell (owning the susvaras and demoing the caldera for 30 mins) the caldera are a great option for those that like the susvaras but do not want to go down the important path of (finding and) buying a susvara friendly amp to drive the susvaras well

 

[GAJA71]

Hi all,

I'm very interested in buying a set of the Calderas but am hesitant to fork out over £3600 in the UK without a decent demo. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a local Dealer who stocks them with a demo facility.

I had a set of the Verite Open until recently but sold them as I found their signature a little dark for my tastes, even with pad rolling.

I currently have a set of Abyss 1266 PHI but can't get on with them either, they are not the most comfortable set for my head and seem to be very fussy about pad placement/seal and every time I put them on they sound different so they will be shortly on the way out, shame as when they sit well, they really produce fabulous sonics.

I've read a lot of reviews about the Caldera and they seem to get universally praised. I'm currently enjoying my old favourites, the Fostex TH900 MKII, I really love the V shaped signature. Please can anyone shed any light on how the Fostex compare to the Caldera ZMF's please?

For reference, I am using a Primare NP5 MK2 Streamer, into an RME ADI 2 DAC & out to a Violectric V281 with balanced XLR cable to the Fostex.

Thanks for any help out there.

 

[chrisnyc75]

Hi all,

I'm very interested in buying a set of the Calderas but am hesitant to fork out over £3600 in the UK without a decent demo. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a local Dealer who stocks them with a demo facility.

I had a set of the Verite Open until recently but sold them as I found their signature a little dark for my tastes, even with pad rolling.

I currently have a set of Abyss 1266 PHI but can't get on with them either, they are not the most comfortable set for my head and seem to be very fussy about pad placement/seal and every time I put them on they sound different so they will be shortly on the way out, shame as when they sit well, they really produce fabulous sonics.

I've read a lot of reviews about the Caldera and they seem to get universally praised. I'm currently enjoying my old favourites, the Fostex TH900 MKII, I really love the V shaped signature. Please can anyone shed any light on how the Fostex compare to the Caldera ZMF's please?

For reference, I am using a Primare NP5 MK2 Streamer, into an RME ADI 2 DAC & out to a Violectric V281 with balanced XLR cable to the Fostex.

Thanks for any help out there.

Fwiw, I find Caldera to be a generally all-around better headphone than Verite Open, but I do not find it to be any less dark. Caldera has objectively more soundstage and bass extension, and subjectively better mids and smoother treble, but it's not any brighter (to my ears).

 

[Alenotta]

Hi all,

I'm very interested in buying a set of the Calderas but am hesitant to fork out over £3600 in the UK without a decent demo. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a local Dealer who stocks them with a demo facility.

I had a set of the Verite Open until recently but sold them as I found their signature a little dark for my tastes, even with pad rolling.

I currently have a set of Abyss 1266 PHI but can't get on with them either, they are not the most comfortable set for my head and seem to be very fussy about pad placement/seal and every time I put them on they sound different so they will be shortly on the way out, shame as when they sit well, they really produce fabulous sonics.

I've read a lot of reviews about the Caldera and they seem to get universally praised. I'm currently enjoying my old favourites, the Fostex TH900 MKII, I really love the V shaped signature. Please can anyone shed any light on how the Fostex compare to the Caldera ZMF's please?

For reference, I am using a Primare NP5 MK2 Streamer, into an RME ADI 2 DAC & out to a Violectric V281 with balanced XLR cable to the Fostex.

Thanks for any help out there.

Fwiw, I find Caldera to be a generally all-around better headphone than Verite Open, but I do not find it to be any less dark. Caldera has objectively more soundstage and bass extension, and subjectively better mids and smoother treble, but it's not any brighter (to my ears).

I agree with this. I find the Verité to be more upper mid focused. The caldera has more treble extension, but the increased low end impact skews it darker than Verité to my ears. The upper treble on the Caldera is brighter than my VC. If you found the Verité dark you may also want to go for an estat option.

I haven't had time with the TH900, but I did have the drop Fostex TH-X00. I think Caldera is actually a logical step from Fostex sound actually. This makes sense since Zach started with Fostex mods. I really enjoyed the lively low end of the Fostex and you get all that here and more. The treble is more controlled and realistic on the Caldera. A lot more dimension than my Fostex had.

I mention the Fostex in the thing I wrote way back when I first got the Caldera:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/zmf-caldera-new-planar-magnetic-from-zmf.964836/post-17161246

 

[GAJA71]

Fwiw, I find Caldera to be a generally all-around better headphone than Verite Open, but I do not find it to be any less dark. Caldera has objectively more soundstage and bass extension, and subjectively better mids and smoother treble, but it's not any brighter (to my ears).

Thanks for your input, appreciate it.

 

[Leto Dal]

Having Verite Open and waiting for Caldera, I am wondering if the is still a use case where VO excels vs Caldera