Marblecake walnut Caldera, what a natural beauty!
Visually they are much darker in person than on the picture. The wood lights up nicely in sunlight and the figures/grain really pop. Great contrast with the steel grills also.
I'm really amazed about the resolution and the adaptive staging capabilities. Especially pad rolling changes the staging alot. Also how open the headphone is compared to my dynamics.
Pad rolling is fun also:
Cowhide pads relax and warm up the tonality. Staging is intimate. Very easy listening with these.
Stock pads are the most resolving, a little bright with wrong choice of tubes and punchy low-end.
Thick pads are my favourite so far. Treble and mids are brought down a bit. Staging becomes 3D similar to the VO, that's very addicting. This is like a hyper detailed VO, but not overly laid back.
For wood impact I don't hear resonances with 1200janka. Low-end is also not thin like a hard wood VO. It's a good balance of smoothness and fast transients.
For amplification a powerful solid-state might drive the Caldera to its full potential. The Cayin HA-3A is a good match also. I like low impedance most for a punchy low-end so far. Mid impedance takes away a little low-end punch but doesn't change tonality and decay like with a dynamic.
Overall this a highly resolving flagship headphone. ZMF house sound is beautifully integrated in the planar driver. It's a great contrast to my more euphonic ZMF dynamics.
Everything is just a first impression and the headphone is not burned in yet.
Thank you @zach915m for this wonderful headphone and opportunity to grab a canjam set. It's a masterpiece to complete my collection.
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