Pharmaboy
Headphoneus Supremus
I'm hardly an expert on the Caldera. I had a loaner and had finished burning it in when medical issues started messing with my hearing, so I didn't fully explore its sound. But I do own and love my silkwood VO and did compare the two, however briefly.VO is great, but when direct comparison with Caldera, you wil notice that there are some upper mid / lower treble VO that a bit piercing or has metallic feel.
I don't hear anything in the upper mids/lower treble of the VO that sounds piercing or has a metallic feel (have heard it on 2-3 different DACs and at least a dozen amps). I also don't hear the "midrange recession" that has been mentioned many times in connection with the VO.
From day-1 I found the VO to be unusually expressive and musical tonally/timbrally, IMO its greatest strength. I just don't hear significant deviations from sonic reality with this headphone. In fact, I keep coming back to it to tell me the "absolute truth" about any amp or recording I'm getting to know.
One of these days I'll do more Caldera listening and finish comparing it to not just the VO, but also the Final D8000 (that was the comparison I most looked forward to). But I just had to put in my 2 cents on the VO...