[Lyssky]

Not luck, but with assistance from Aliens!

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/zmf-november-2023-megathread.970182/post-17792323

Aaaaah that’s why Caldera is an out of the world experience. Ba Dum Tss

 

[Kevintj604]

I do feel the same after receiving these absolute beauties. To me the sound is as beautiful as the craftmanship: work of art in both ways. Every day after work I look forward to putting them on, but I even enjoy just the look of them on the stand.

Stunning. Black and White Ebony?

 

[Pharmaboy]

What are you guys' opinion on the mantle mesh? Which pads do you guys prefer with it ?

1. Love it...greatly prefer it to stock
2. Lambskin thick pads all the way for me. Once I put them on, I never took them off.

 

[betula]

What are you guys' opinion on the mantle mesh? Which pads do you guys prefer with it ?

The mesh to me really tames down the upper mid/treble area. If someone is really bothered by this frequency range, the mesh could be the solution. On the stock and velour pads I can see it working despite the small loss of clarity/dynamics/details. On the thick pads the mesh simply takes too much away from the detailed, dynamic sound, making it sound too 'dampened' to me.
I could see myself still enjoying the Caldera with stock pads and mesh, but I do not like the thick pad/mesh combo. Thick pads without the mesh is my golden key, as in a way it is just softer enough compared to the stock pads, but still clearer and more energetic in the upper frequencies than the stock pads with the mesh.
(I do not like the thin pads at all, so didn't do much experimenting with those.)

 

[betula]

Stunning. Black and White Ebony?

Indeed.

 

[Honeypot]

Has anyone tried pure silver cables on the caldera? I don't have them yet. But intrigued in that regard.
I am not super into out of the world expensive cables. But I see pure silver for 400ish and I have had my experience with other headphones and aftermarket cables giving them some differences. Silver/copper/mixed.
Thoughts?
Thanks everyone

 

[TommehHiFi]

Well the recent unpleasantness has reminded me it's about time to unsub from r/headphones as I've noticed reddit's outspoken hivemind has shifted more toward gear not mattering and not being a true hobby over the last couple of years. Let's all go get sub $400 DACs and turn in all of our amps for Topping gear. Audio is solved! Volume is all that matters! Then we can cherry pick people posting their experiences on other sites and call the whole hobby placebo and snake oil. Who wants another "HD6xx is my end game" post? LOL

Anyways hardly relevant personal rant aside, Zach your headphones rock and anyone reasonable can respect that even if they don't care for the ZMF house sound. That being said some of the ZMF tunings can take some brain burn in when coming in with prior experience! (say the VC which is still my favorite headphone overall). If I a/b'ed headphones without living with them to get to know them for their strengths, I could throw out some hot takes and wade thru a bunch of egg on my face all day too.

Maybe I'm just grumpy that one of my elrogs died so I'm stuck on an a90d (my general use amp, not music amp) while replacement Western Electrics get here. Weird how the a90d gives my Caldera more bass slam in some cases, but the bass sound is still somehow contradictorily softer (rounded off? less detailed and more tubby? I don't know; describe the color green to a person blind from birth) and not as pleasant as the 300b goodness.

 

[betula]

Well the recent unpleasantness has reminded me it's about time to unsub from r/headphones as I've noticed reddit's outspoken hivemind has shifted more toward gear not mattering and not being a true hobby over the last couple of years. Let's all go get sub $400 DACs and turn in all of our amps for Topping gear. Audio is solved! Volume is all that matters! Then we can cherry pick people posting their experiences on other sites and call the whole hobby placebo and snake oil. Who wants another "HD6xx is my end game" post? LOL

Anyways hardly relevant personal rant aside, Zach your headphones rock and anyone reasonable can respect that even if they don't care for the ZMF house sound. That being said some of the ZMF tunings can take some brain burn in when coming in with prior experience! (say the VC which is still my favorite headphone overall). If I a/b'ed headphones without living with them to get to know them for their strengths, I could throw out some hot takes and wade thru a bunch of egg on my face all day too.

Maybe I'm just grumpy that one of my elrogs died so I'm stuck on an a90d (my general use amp, not music amp) while replacement Western Electrics get here. Weird how the a90d gives my Caldera more bass slam in some cases, but the bass sound is still somehow contradictorily softer (rounded off? less detailed and more tubby? I don't know; describe the color green to a person blind from birth) and not as pleasant as the 300b goodness.

Couple of interesting points there.

1, I also find it true, that adjusting to the 'ZMF' sound can take longer than it normally takes to adjust to a new 'house sound'. Why is that? I am honestly not sure. It took longer to me. Two weeks instead of the usual 1-2 days. But once you are sucked in, you lose interest in 80% of the other headphones. At least I did. I just really enjoy this thick, organic sound. 80% of the other headphones just do not sound 'alive' enough in comparison.
2, Bass and particularly bass slam on SS vs. TC tube amps with the Caldera is another interesting topic. There seem to be fierce fans in both of these 'sub-camps'. I was fortunate enough to try the Caldera on several excellent tube and SS amps at CanJam London and my conclusion was that the Caldera can sound great on SS and tubes equally. The sound very much depends on the actual DAC and amp. But in general, I think I get what you mean when you describe a more satisfying bass on your 300b amp versus the slam ('in some cases' - as you say) on the A90D. That SS slam can feel speedy and impactful at first, but it is not as full, not as weighty/satisfying as tube bass can be. And if that tube amp is 'good' enough, like yours is, it will produce plenty of slam and impact.

 

[shafat777]

1. Love it...greatly prefer it to stock
2. Lambskin thick pads all the way for me. Once I put them on, I never took them off.

Thats exactly what I have on mine as well. However, i feel like something is missing from the mids with the thick pads, especially when paired with my Bliss KTE. I really dont want to take off the mesh because of the adhesives, so i think im gonna A/B between the stock and the thick pads.

 

[shafat777]

The mesh to me really tames down the upper mid/treble area. If someone is really bothered by this frequency range, the mesh could be the solution. On the stock and velour pads I can see it working despite the small loss of clarity/dynamics/details. On the thick pads the mesh simply takes too much away from the detailed, dynamic sound, making it sound too 'dampened' to me.
I could see myself still enjoying the Caldera with stock pads and mesh, but I do not like the thick pad/mesh combo. Thick pads without the mesh is my golden key, as in a way it is just softer enough compared to the stock pads, but still clearer and more energetic in the upper frequencies than the stock pads with the mesh.
(I do not like the thin pads at all, so didn't do much experimenting with those.)

I couldnt agree more with your impressions as mine are actually really similar. I m going to try the stock with mesh in a little bit. The thick pads sounds excellent but i agree it takes a little too much away from the mids.

 

[fuhnoo]

Has anyone tried pure silver cables on the caldera? I don't have them yet. But intrigued in that regard.
I am not super into out of the world expensive cables. But I see pure silver for 400ish and I have had my experience with other headphones and aftermarket cables giving them some differences. Silver/copper/mixed.
Thoughts?
Thanks everyone

I use a Lavricables Grand Line cable with my Caldera and I have no complaints. I am not overly sensitive to treble (within reason, there's definitely a line), but I have found this combination to be very enjoyable without ever crossing the line of being too spicy.

 

[Pharmaboy]

Thats exactly what I have on mine as well. However, i feel like something is missing from the mids with the thick pads, especially when paired with my Bliss KTE. I really dont want to take off the mesh because of the adhesives, so i think im gonna A/B between the stock and the thick pads.

This is another example of people hearing things differently: I tried all the pads on the Caldera, loved the thicks, and don't notice any deficit in the mids. To be balanced about this, though: the upper mids are obviously part of the mids, and these do become less exuberant w/the mantle mesh + thick pads. But I hear that as being like live music, not at all a deficiency or deviation from normal.

Different brains, different ears, different life experience and expectations...it's kind of a miracle we can agree on anything!

 

[commtrd]

Has anyone by chance run the Caldera on a GSX Mini with a Schiit LiM dac? My LCD-4z sound really (REALLY) awesome with these components, really like to hear how a Caldera might sound with these. Thinking the pairing will be very good.

 

[tvrboy]

Well the recent unpleasantness has reminded me it's about time to unsub from r/headphones as I've noticed reddit's outspoken hivemind has shifted more toward gear not mattering and not being a true hobby over the last couple of years. Let's all go get sub $400 DACs and turn in all of our amps for Topping gear. Audio is solved! Volume is all that matters! Then we can cherry pick people posting their experiences on other sites and call the whole hobby placebo and snake oil. Who wants another "HD6xx is my end game" post? LOL

Haha the end game posts are truly annoying. Everyone thinks they reached endgame because they bought two $300 headphones and kept the one they liked better. It's like if someone test drove a Corolla and Civic, bought the Civic, and then posted on r/cars "hey bois I've found my car endgame, Civic is as good as it gets for me, I'm out of the car game for life, much peace and love to you still on your car journey!"

r/headphones is worthless as a source of accurate information. It's basically an echo chamber of young people who have just bought their first headphone and read a few ASR articles. Last week a user asked how to get better quality music than YouTube and I advised him to pick a service which offers lossless music (and shared a link to an article comparing the pros and cons of all streaming services). Immediately had several users reply to me that lossless is unnecessary because "science has shown" nobody can hear the difference between 320kpbs and lossless. I didn't reply but I really wanted to say ... if you believe that why are you in this hobby? Is it fun for you to tell people nothing matters and they can't hear anything over and over again? If nothing makes a difference and everything's a scam / placebo, why do you even want to discuss it?

/rant

 

[zach915m]

Has anyone by chance run the Caldera on a GSX Mini with a Schiit LiM dac? My LCD-4z sound really (REALLY) awesome with these components, really like to hear how a Caldera might sound with these. Thinking the pairing will be very good.

We have the GSX MK II with the OG Yggy, it's a fast, precise and quick sound with decent but not penultimate note density. I find it really aggressively linear and with good bite as that setup does a fast clear sound extremely well.

Ymmv with the slightly different gear ofcourse.