ZMF Caldera - New Planar Magnetic from ZMF!

[mRaaghava]

HE1000SE vs ZMF Caldera?

To those who tried and compared these, which one’s a better buy? What are both’s pros and cons?

TIA.

 

[LCMusicLover]

HE1000SE vs ZMF Caldera?

To those who tried and compared these, which one’s a better buy? What are both’s pros and cons?

TIA.

I only had a 6-day demo of Caldera, but I've owned HEKse for a couple years now -- traded 'up' from HEKv2.

That said, they're not that far apart. Caldera definitely has a bit more ZMF house sound, but not overwhelmingly so. Of my three ZMF listens (Auteur OG ==> Classic, Atrium and Caldera), I'd call Caldera the most linear/referency. At the same time, HEKse seems a little brighter, with a somewhat more open airy headstage.

My bottom line(s) (from my review/impression post over there) were:

tl;dr -- Love my ZMFs, and Atrium Open, Auteur Classic and Caldera are like 3 points of an equilateral triangle with 'ZMF house sound' at the centroid. Which you like best probably comes down to personal taste and preferred genre.

and ...

I'm sitting on the fence about Caldera. If I didn't already own HEKse it would be a no-brainer. But I did honestly prefer HEKse for classical, although Caldera only got a cursory glimpse of that genre.

I do really appreciate the driveability of the HEKse.

Since I auditioned Caldera, I've picked up a used Expanse, and I really like them. Seems likely that I'll end up selling my Hedds and the HEKse, but still debating Expanse vs HEKse. If I were more of a classical music consumer I'd probably stay w/ HEKse, but classical gets less than 10% of my listening time. As it is, Expanse tonality and character lean slightly more ZMF-ward, and I find I really like that. I wish I had been able to hear Caldera and Expanse together, but they just missed each other.

TBH, I've owned or recently demoed HEKse, Elite, Caldera and Expanse and I could be quite happy with any of the four. Pretty small differences.

 

[heliosphann]

HE1000SE vs ZMF Caldera?

To those who tried and compared these, which one’s a better buy? What are both’s pros and cons?

TIA.

Pro: One is by ZMF

Con: One is by HiFiMan

RTINGS HiFiMan Arya Stealth Review Unit DOA

Apologies for not being entirely helpful as I've not heard the HE100SE (although I owned a 1000v1), but I would certainly consider the quality control/customer service aspect of both headphones. I've owned many HiFiMan's in the past and driver failure/QC was always a legit concern. Not only did I have issues with multiple HFM headphones, but I had a driver fail on a Brand New Edition X V2 shortly after receiving it. Not trying to bash on HFM outright, as I enjoyed many of their offerings and wish I still owned several. I'd also love to get a Susvara eventually, but at that cost I feel it's a much risker proposition than buying a Caldera (or even a Meze Elite).

ZMF's customer service is one of the top in the industry as well as their QC process. That's very well established and I'm don't think you'll find many who'd dispute that.

 

[TommehHiFi]

Yeah I listened to the Susvara at CanJam a few times on multiple chains all well over $10k++ and while it's got amazing almost warm tonality yet 0 detail loss, it doesn't have the dynamics needed to fully suck me in. I'd love to have one but it's too expensive to justify when the Caldera would get 90% of my planar time. There was just a Susvara in the classifieds with a broken magnet structure the owner didn't even realize was as serious as it was...

 

[Takarajima]

HE1000SE vs ZMF Caldera?

I've owned two variants of HE1k (v2 and SE) for 3-4 weeks respectively years ago. But never been able to compare he1k se and caldera side by side. So, please bear with my recall bias. Just for another reference, I've been owning Susvara for 1.5 years (and preferred Susvara to any variant of HE1k by far). TLDR is that Caldera is tiny bit more preferable for me than Susvara.

HE1k (anything below can be either pro or con depending on tastes)
- Brighter
- Relatively a little more sibilant
- Some hint of artificiality in highs
- Lighter bass
- A bit overly wide soundstage + slightly distracting spatial cues
- Clearer mids and upper mids
- Details are more straightforwardly separated with mild low-level loss
- Squarer transients
- More vivid and sharper presentation

Caldera
- More refined across the entire spectrum
- More elegant presentation
- Soundstage width-depth ratio is more believable
- Far more natural and convincing timbre
- Better nuance retrieval
- Low-mid-high balance is nearly perfect
- Delicacy in bass is fantastic

To my ears, I felt HE1k used to oversimplify things a little compared to other TOTLs. Susvara fixed this elegantly. Caldera is on par, equivalently good with a little less planar-ish style. Overall, I think HE1k deserves its used/deal prices while Caldera is worth its full asking price.

 

[LCMusicLover]

Pro: One is by ZMF

Con: One is by HiFiMan

RTINGS HiFiMan Arya Stealth Review Unit DOA

Apologies for not being entirely helpful as I've not heard the HE100SE (although I owned a 1000v1), but I would certainly consider the quality control/customer service aspect of both headphones. I've owned many HiFiMan's in the past and driver failure/QC was always a legit concern. Not only did I have issues with multiple HFM headphones, but I had a driver fail on a Brand New Edition X V2 shortly after receiving it. Not trying to bash on HFM outright, as I enjoyed man of their offerings and wish I still owned several. I'd also love to get a Susvara eventually, but at that cost I feel it's a much risker proposition than buying a Caldera (or even a Meze Elite).

ZMF's customer service is one of the top in the industry as well as their QC process. That's very well established and I'm don't think you'll find many who'd dispute that.

Agree that ZMF's service has been top-notch.

I haven't personally had any issues with the Hifimans I've owned (HE-560v2, HEKv2, HEKse) but that's just anecdotal data. Hifiman customer service was helpful and prompt when I ordered a replacement headstrap for my HEKv2 before I sold them, and extra pad rings for my HE-560. But I've never had to deal with driver failures or other major issues.

Also agree that Elite is very attractive from a build/QC perspective. It was funny when I was having my Atrium/Elite shoot-out. Both are very attractive and well-designed/built. But talk about opposite ends of the aesthetic spectrum

 

[dbull12]

For those of you with the Caldera and the VO, do you have a preference between the two for classical and jazz?

 

[shafat777]

For those of you with the Caldera and the VO, do you have a preference between the two for classical and jazz?

I prefer to use the VO for jazz/classical/vocal heavy tracks. I prefer the caldera for everything else.

 

[dbull12]

I prefer to use the VO for jazz/classical/vocal heavy tracks. I prefer the caldera for everything else.

Thanks! What is it about the VO that you like more for those types of music? I'm assuming its timbre and spacial presentation?

 

[Leto Dal]

For those of you with the Caldera and the VO, do you have a preference between the two for classical and jazz?

Will come down to which tuning you prefer more, VO is rather special. For more critical listening easily Caldera, for laid back, maybe VO though its tuning might be not for everyone. VO sounds very natural, has a giant stage, is fantastic with tubes and imho has a tuning like no other headphone I heard, while some people dislike it, I think its very easy to fall in love with. The headphone is great for instrumental music of any kind and especially for jazz.
Caldera is much more neutral (but still very natural, life-like) sounding headphone with much better technicalities that for some rival things like Abyss and Susvara, but slightly smaller stage and less excentric tuning.

 

[Monsterzero]

I will throw this monkeywrench into the discussion. In my chain, I prefer ZMF dynamics out of the Piety more than the Caldera.

 

[shafat777]

Thanks! What is it about the VO that you like more for those types of music? I'm assuming its timbre and spacial presentation?

The VO sounds more natural to me with its near perfect timbre and vocal clarity. The caldera, being a planar, is more dynamic with both top and bottom end emphasis, while the VO is more mid focused. Caldera is more spacious and has better/more accurate staging and the VO excels in a more intimate presentation.

 

[robo24]

A few pics of my red resin stabilized Caldera. I was really wanting to get a volcanic color scheme given I live on an active volcano and a 1955 lava flow. Really wanted to try to capture the sparkle in the resin with that close up but it seem impossible to photograph accurately. Also these are obviously darker looking when not in direct sun. Couldn't be happier with them!

 

[Pharmaboy]

A few pics of my red resin stabilized Caldera. I was really wanting to get a volcanic color scheme given I live on an active volcano and a 1955 lava flow. Really wanted to try to capture the sparkle in the resin with that close up but it seem impossible to photograph accurately. Also these are obviously darker looking when not in direct sun. Couldn't be happier with them!

(Pharmaboy suddenly realizes there are benefits to living on an active volcano...)

 

[dbull12]

I will throw this monkeywrench into the discussion. In my chain, I prefer ZMF dynamics out of the Piety more than the Caldera.

I'm guessing that when it's V550 time the Caldera is your favorite though? I probably have a V202 in my future