[ColSaulTigh]

I'm interested as well - getting ready to make my purchase. I'd love to hear thoughts on the available pads in general (thick, thin, cowhide, leather, etc.) I like having a variety, but want to keep it semi-reasonable.

 

[YtseJamer]

On White Hoarhound, there is a massive amount of texture, slam and sub bass rumble. The rhythm guitar is on approx the same depth plane as the vocals, which is full frontal.
The soloing is a bit in the background, which is how it sounds on the Atrium in my system.



On this amazing Messa track, The rhythm and lead that come in around 1:45 are hard as hell, you can clearly hear two distinct guitar tracks, lower tuned is upper left, and higher tuned lower right, vocals again front and center about on the same plane.



The acoustic picking is distinct and clear and forward, and when the Iommi-esq electric guitar comes in it wraps around your skull. This is killer!



guitars are full of texture, right at ear level depth, with the ethereal vocals several steps back. Drums roll behind your skull.



This is really intense. When the 2nd guitar comes in around 0:56 its like your head is inside a vacuum with that part. Very, very vivid and there's a lot going on in this track that lesser headphones would just blend in. Great layering.



Opening drums on Ahab's The Pacific have such a heavy weight to them and gorgeous decay and when the the rest of the band kicks in it's like you're being crushed to death. The weight, texture, depth and layering is such a unique combo. Even the vocals have their own space, but still cant understand a damn thing he's saying. When the acoustic guitar kicks in around the 5 minute mark, theyre fully up front. Funeral doom at its finest!



When you speed things up, it's where you're left with your jaw on your chest. This headphone absolutely shreds! No lag. No blur. No muddiness. Just awesome! Man this track is brilliant on the Caldera!

IMHO I prefer the decay and tonality of the Atrium more, but the Caldera has the speed & layering and it allows me to peer deeper into a track. There's so much more going on in metal tracks than one realizes until you hear it on the Caldera.

EDIT: using the Cayin IHA 6 as an amp.

Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to test the Caldera for me. Much appreciated

I tried all the songs on my Atrium, and I'm blown away by all of them (especially Witchwood).

I'm sure the Caldera is a great headphone, but I would probably need to sell my Atrium to finance the purchase of the Caldera. To me, "timbre is everything" and I'm starting to think I will make a big mistake if I'm selling my Atrium to purchase the Caldera.

 

[rivonlol]

I want to see a lot of comparisons for caldera atrium and susvara!

 

[Monsterzero]

Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to test the Caldera for me. Much appreciated

I tried all the songs on my Atrium, and I'm blown away by all of them (especially Witchwood).

I'm sure the Caldera is a great headphone, but I would probably need to sell my Atrium to finance the purchase of the Caldera. To me, "timbre is everything" and I'm starting to think I will make a big mistake if I'm selling my Atrium to purchase the Caldera.

Witchwood's albums are great, very different sound than typical metal. Love em.

To be clear, the tone, timbre and decay of the Atrium are tough to beat by any headphone, not just the Caldera. To my ears, planar headphones cannot match the natural flavor that a good dynamic headphone has. On the other end of the spectrum, no dynamic can match the speed and linear bass, and in the Caldera's case, the layering as well.

Last night when I was putting that post together, although all of the slower stuff sounded fantastic, it wasnt until I put on Bull Riff Stampede that I truly heard the Caldera "flex it's muscles". It was almost like driving a '68 Shelby GT500 at 45 mph with the slower stuff, and then putting the pedal to the metal with the thrash.

 

[goldwerger]

Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to test the Caldera for me. Much appreciated

I tried all the songs on my Atrium, and I'm blown away by all of them (especially Witchwood).

I'm sure the Caldera is a great headphone, but I would probably need to sell my Atrium to finance the purchase of the Caldera. To me, "timbre is everything" and I'm starting to think I will make a big mistake if I'm selling my Atrium to purchase the Caldera.

The Atrium and Caldera are really distinctily different headphones. I don't consider one universally superior to the other, they are both great and offer a truly different presentation. If you love your Atrium, and you'd need to sell it to buy the Caldera, my advice would be to hold on to the Atrium. It is such a wonderful headhpone, and if you find something you enjoy, hold on to it. If it gives you joy today, it will give you joy tomorrow.. In a year or two, you will be able to possibly get a much cheaper Caldera on head-fi, b-stock, or otherwise. It won't go away, that's for sure!

 

[Raidersfan8118]

I would love to hear some caldera and rognir comparisons. Although seems like not a lot of people have rognir. I’m thinking of caldera as a possible replacement.

 

[HeavyCn]

Thought I would put up some natural light photos I took of the Caldera LTD Golden Oak. The pictures were taken with the cowhide pads on. I received this pair as a loaner from Zach. I am loving the sound in the short time I have had with them. I definitely am preferring the cowhide pads vs the Caldera lamb as they provide a more energy and weight to the music. Many thanks to Zach for providing me with the loaner! There are more pics at the imgur link! https://imgur.com/a/lV3i9Jc.

 

[dfiled]

Thought I would put up some natural light photos I took of the Caldera LTD Golden Oak. The pictures were taken with the cowhide pads on. I received this pair as a loaner from Zach. I am loving the sound in the short time I have had with them. I definitely am preferring the cowhide pads vs the Caldera lamb as they provide a more energy and weight to the music. Many thanks to Zach for providing me with the loaner! There are more pics at the imgur link! https://imgur.com/a/lV3i9Jc.

Those are gorgeous. They look much darker than the photos of the others I’ve seen in oak. @zach915m — is there significant color variation within your stock of oak or does the lighting make the wood just look darker in this photo? If there is variation, can buyers request lighter or darker woods for the November release?

 

[HeavyCn]

Those are gorgeous. They look much darker than the photos of the others I’ve seen in oak. @zach915m — is there significant color variation within your stock of oak or does the lighting make the wood just look darker in this photo? If there is variation, can buyers request lighter or darker woods for the November release?

I think when the light catches it differently it can lighten up the wood a little bit as seen in some of the imgur photos.

 

[zach915m]

Those are gorgeous. They look much darker than the photos of the others I’ve seen in oak. @zach915m — is there significant color variation within your stock of oak or does the lighting make the wood just look darker in this photo? If there is variation, can buyers request lighter or darker woods for the November release?

There's slight variation due to mostly the particular piece of wood being used, but no unfortunately we don't have any custom options for the stock headphones. They all are turning out beautiful.

 

[dfiled]

There's slight variation due to mostly the particular piece of wood being used, but no unfortunately we don't have any custom options for the stock headphones. They all are turning out beautiful.

I wasn’t suggesting custom so much as asking if I were to say “please send me darkest ones you have,” if that’s something you could accommodate. No worries if not, I know you’re being asked to do a million things at once.

 

[zach915m]

I wasn’t suggesting custom so much as asking if I were to say “please send me darkest ones you have,” if that’s something you could accommodate. No worries if not, I know you’re being asked to do a million things at once.

Were trying to get more linear with stock headphones, just meaning that hopefully we can start building ahead of schedule or even having a few on hand. So I just mean that we won't be able to pick out sets beyond the options on the website page for stock sets since they aren't built to order. Hope that makes sense!

With LTD models, things lile sap wood, and other natural characteristics absolutely should be noted when ordering. And we can ofcourse give advice or thoughts on different characteristics of species of wood.

 

[YtseJamer]

Witchwood's albums are great, very different sound than typical metal. Love em.

To be clear, the tone, timbre and decay of the Atrium are tough to beat by any headphone, not just the Caldera. To my ears, planar headphones cannot match the natural flavor that a good dynamic headphone has. On the other end of the spectrum, no dynamic can match the speed and linear bass, and in the Caldera's case, the layering as well.

Last night when I was putting that post together, although all of the slower stuff sounded fantastic, it wasnt until I put on Bull Riff Stampede that I truly heard the Caldera "flex it's muscles". It was almost like driving a '68 Shelby GT500 at 45 mph with the slower stuff, and then putting the pedal to the metal with the thrash.

God damn, I never heard about Witchwood before you mentioned them in this thread. It's the perfect album to showcase the strengths of the Atrium.

I just tried the Bull-Riff Stampede song again on my Atrium, and to my ears the sound is not slow or muddy at all. Actually, I never had the impression that the Atrium were slower than the VC or the Utopia when I had the 3 headphones with me. My chain is neutral and clean, and I'm using the vented mesh, so it's probably helping.

The Atrium and Caldera are really distinctily different headphones. I don't consider one universally superior to the other, they are both great and offer a truly different presentation. If you love your Atrium, and you'd need to sell it to buy the Caldera, my advice would be to hold on to the Atrium. It is such a wonderful headhpone, and if you find something you enjoy, hold on to it. If it gives you joy today, it will give you joy tomorrow.. In a year or two, you will be able to possibly get a much cheaper Caldera on head-fi, b-stock, or otherwise. It won't go away, that's for sure!

Thanks for your recommendation, my Atrium is not going anywhere trust me

 

[dfiled]

@zach915m Another question -- and I'm sorry if this has already been answered. The website lists 4 secondary pad options: Caldera suede, Caldera Cowhide (slim), Caldera slim and Caldera thick. If one is to choose "Leather with leather pads" under Headband, Strap & Earpad Material, which one of these 4 pads is included? Or is the "leather pad" yet another type of pad? And would the included pad be thick or thin?

 

[zach915m]

@zach915m Another question -- and I'm sorry if this has already been answered. The website lists 4 secondary pad options: Caldera suede, Caldera Cowhide (slim), Caldera slim and Caldera thick. If one is to choose "Leather with leather pads" under Headband, Strap & Earpad Material, which one of these 4 pads is included? Or is the "leather pad" yet another type of pad? And would the included pad be thick or thin?

There's lambskin caldera, and then a thicker version and a thinner version.

I'll cover this when we do the pad chart and comparisons and measurements as well, but the stock pad is the Caldera pad, then the thinner and thicker are for those that want a warmer or more linear sound. Instead of any mesh in front of the driver like with our dynamic headphones, you would just change the pads on Caldera.