[AntonRisto]

I also didn't find the Elite or the Susvara to be at all sibilant.

Thanks for your input as well! Many people say they don't find those headphones sibilant at all, but for me it was/is hard to enjoy a lot of female singers/recordings with them. I guess I'm just extra sensitive to hearing those sibilant sounds. (sigh) I might need to wait for time to lower those high frequencies for me to be able to someday fully enjoy a planar headphone.

 

[klardotsh]

Kingwood LTD (Leather) with stock, suede, and cowhide pads ordered. I am stoked to have a companion to my Koa LTD Atriums to fill the gaps I occasionally felt.

Once these make their way out here to rainy Washington State I'll chime in with how they sound on my own stack (Geshelli J2-AKM4493 + Erish2) as well as a nearby friend's (Denefrips Ares 2 + a modded Schiit Jot2). (That friend owns Arya Stealths I could also compare against, and we both own Sundaras, mine stock and his modded with ZMF pads). If I haven't sold it by then (I'm preparing to), I'll also compare against my Topping D90LE+A90D. I suspect I'll be disappointed by my Cayin RU6 with these, but hey, I'll throw em on there too at some point.

From this former Chicagoan, thanks Zach and Bevin, for being an awesome American made company I love to hype to friends!

 

[DJ XtAzY]

Oops I pressed the Pay Now button. Too late to undo haha.

Thanks to my credit card cash quarterly cash back bonuses, I was able to save an additional $150. Nice. Can't wait to compare this with my VC.

Honestly I haven't really been listening to full sized headphones lately, now that I've been out and about compared to the pandemic days, and been listening more with my TWS IEMs. But I hope the Caldera can change my mindset! Need to unpack my ECP 3F and Asgard 3 amps again, and curious how these pairings will be like.

 

[dfiled]

Thanks for your input as well! Many people say they don't find those headphones sibilant at all, but for me it was/is hard to enjoy a lot of female singers/recordings with them. I guess I'm just extra sensitive to hearing those sibilant sounds. (sigh) I might need to wait for time to lower those high frequencies for me to be able to someday fully enjoy a planar headphone.

Why don’t you just eq? Problem solved.

 

[AntonRisto]

Why don’t you just eq? Problem solved.

I'm listening to my music from Apple Music through my iPhone and haven't find a decent EQ solution for my setup. Any ideas?

 

[karangovil]

I'm listening to my music from Apple Music through my iPhone and haven't find a decent EQ solution for my setup. Any ideas?

Schiit Loki mini+ might be a good (relatively) inexpensive solution if your chain permits

 

[joshua1122]

I'm listening to my music from Apple Music through my iPhone and haven't find a decent EQ solution for my setup. Any ideas?

If you're at a listening spot and have an amp, you could use a hardware EQ device, like the Schiit Loki series. I use one for my PS5 to tame some treble peaks and add some bass for some games.

If you're portable on a phone, you could use the Qudelix 5K and use the PEQ. For a portable source for planars, it's relatively decent. You could just connect via USB to get full 96KHz/24bit on Apple Music Lossless, even, if you don't want to use lossy AAC Bluetooth.

 

[joshua1122]

Schiit Loki mini+ might be a good (relatively) inexpensive solution if your chain permits

The 4th knob on the Loki Mini+ is 8kHz, so that's relatively close to female sibilance range. I don't have mine hooked up to a PC to test, and I'm not at all sensitive to this range, so I'm not sure I'm a good candidate to test, but I'd imagine for someone who is sensitive, a device like this is a great way to enjoy more headphones.

 

[dfiled]

I'm listening to my music from Apple Music through my iPhone and haven't find a decent EQ solution for my setup. Any ideas?

Listening to the caldera or any decent headphone through an iPhone is a wasted opportunity. Get something better. There are lots of android-based Daps with much more power than an iPhone and then you can use USB Audio player pro, which has excellent PEQ

 

[Monsterzero]

Thanks for your input as well! Many people say they don't find those headphones sibilant at all, but for me it was/is hard to enjoy a lot of female singers/recordings with them.

I have the Susvara here as well as the Caldera. I like the Susvara a lot, but I can only take it for about an hour before I have to tap out. I don't necessarily find it "sibilant" so much as I find it to be a bit of sensory overload after awhile. Too much detail, too much air...it becomes distracting and a bit fatiguing after a short time listening.

I find the Caldera to be a more musical, coherent listen with more body and weight to the sound. YMMV.

 

[AntonRisto]

Schiit Loki mini+ might be a good (relatively) inexpensive solution if your chain permits

I actually have been considering the Schiit products. Not sure the Loki Mini + would work with my desktop setup since I'm using XLR interconnects between my DAC and my amp?

The other problem I have is that maybe half of my music listening is done while cooking or doing house chores with my headphones connected to my iFi Diablo connected straight to my iPhone. So, I really can't use any extra devices there. I might be the only person doing this, haha.

 

[joshua1122]

Listening to the caldera or any decent headphone through an iPhone is a wasted opportunity. Get something better. There are lots of android-based Daps with much more power than an iPhone and then you can use USB Audio player pro, which has excellent PEQ

They could use a decent portable DAC/amp – something like an iFi Hip DAC V2 to hook up to an iPhone (via Lightning Camera Connector Kit cable). If you can tolerate the clunkiness of the app, Neutron Player (on both iOS and Android) has full PEQ + AutoEQ support, as well as PCM upsampling and DSD upsampling. It's far cheaper than an Android-based DAP of similar sound quality. Of course, it's clunky to carry around 2 devices, so this may not be ideal for you. I just put mine in a waist bag as I do chores around the house, and I personally love this combo.

 

[joshua1122]

I actually have been considering the Schiit products. Not sure the Loki Mini + would work with my desktop setup since I'm using XLR interconnects between my DAC and my amp?

The other problem I have is that maybe half of my music listening is done while cooking or doing house chores with my headphones connected to my iFi Diablo connected straight to my iPhone. So, I really can't use any extra devices there. I might be the only person doing this, haha.

Lokius has XLR balanced. $300, though.

Like I mentioned above, I do use a portable iFi with my phone while doing chores, etc. But I have my music as FLAC files so I can use PEQ on them through Neutron Player.

If I had to use Apple Music, that would greatly limit my options to the 10-band GEQ that is in the Music app. IIRC, there was a way to make a custom GEQ preset in iTunes, then transfer that to your iOS devices. Not sure if that still exists, would have to look... (EDIT: nope, they must have removed this)

 

[AntonRisto]

They could use a decent portable DAC/amp – something like an iFi Hip DAC V2 to hook up to an iPhone (via Lightning Camera Connector Kit cable). If you can tolerate the clunkiness of the app, Neutron Player (on both iOS and Android) has full PEQ + AutoEQ support, as well as PCM upsampling and DSD upsampling. It's far cheaper than an Android-based DAP of similar sound quality. Of course, it's clunky to carry around 2 devices, so this may not be ideal for you. I just put mine in a waist bag as I do chores around the house, and I personally love this combo.

Yeah, I am actually using iFi Diablo to drive the Susvara decently while doing chores. But yeah, the problem is that no app supports Apple Music really, and for me a streaming service is a must since I listen to a different new album almost every day.

 

[AntonRisto]

Lokius has XLR balanced. $300, though.

Like I mentioned above, I do use a portable iFi with my phone while doing chores, etc. But I have my music as FLAC files so I can use PEQ on them through Neutron Player.

If I had to use Apple Music, that would greatly limit my options to the 10-band GEQ that is in the Music app. IIRC, there was a way to make a custom GEQ preset in iTunes, then transfer that to your iOS devices. Not sure if that still exists, would have to look... (EDIT: nope, they must have removed this)

Yeah, might need to test the Lokius one day maybe.

EDIT: Getting a Schiit product in Europe is a bit more expensive though.