[MardukSonofEa]

Received my stabilized Caldera earlier this week (the Calliope from the last drop) and as expected, I'm absolutely in love with them!

Over the first few listening sessions I've been rolling with the stock pads maybe 60% of the time, and thick pads 40%. With the thicks, acoustic music like Waxahatchee - Right Back To It is magical and the larger soundstage just helps the music breathe more in a really lovely way. But I'm also used to daily driving the Arya, and I mostly listen to metal, so the stocks just sound so nicely balanced to me. Cymbals have really smooth sizzle and are at a perfect level in the mix. With the stocks, the attack on drums will just pummel you senseless on a track like An Abstract Illusion - In Heaven Above You Will Become a Monster. Then I listen to some GoGo Penguin and think hmmm this would sound *nice* on the thicks.

So much good music out there to enjoy on these beauties. What a time to be alive!

 

[Toonartist]

Stunning... beautiful colours and texture of grain. My favourite blue CO I've seen I think!! Congrats

 

[Lyssky]

I doubt we will get many more votes, only two came in the last 48 hours.

I wouldn't say this is a proper representative survey about the preferences of all Caldera owners, but with 37 votes it definitely seems to reflect the choice of us forum dwellers.
I was expecting the stock and thick pads to receive pretty much equal number of votes, but it has turned out, twice as many owners actually prefer the thick pads to stocks (including me).

I have to add, that pad swapping can also be a fine-tuning tool to your system synergy, so some people might prefer different pads on different systems.
Also, high five to the only voter on the suedes. Dare to be different!

I don't have all the pads so I didn't vote but from what I understand the thicks may not exactly be for me. The most important aspects for me are:
- Presence and clarity (3k-6k)
- Slap, punch, slap to the point I'm unconscious (I would've used cowhide thins for their incredibly snappy nature but they are too unbalanced to me and well......thin sounding )
- Sufficient mids (not extremely lush but strong enough)
So my take from the relevant posts is that thicks are not friendly enough to these properties (in comparison to stock) but the result of this poll makes me curious enough to try them. Hopefully someday.

 

[K3cT]

if you’ve seen me post this already pls excuse the repetition

---

Hi guys,

Since a couple of you are already engaged there it occured to me this may be of interest to some other of you so figured I'll just quickly share this.

After seeing the Watercooler thread creating an amazingly vibrant and friendly communtiy for portable audio (and having been part of it myself), I had few members asking me to set a parallel Watercooler thread for the headphone community (full size headphones, amps, dacs, realted gears and general banter for headphone community).

After several weeks getting feedbacks and consdiering the undertaking, I decided to plunge in..

The Watercooler Headphone Edition thread is now launched:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the...of-gear-impressions-music-and-musings.972819/

Since launching a week ago Saturday we've got 40 pages of posts. It's highly engaged with lots of great communtiy members and eclectic content from gear to music to audio topics. Everyone is warmly welcome to drop in anytime, share anything related to headphone, music, or just banter and hang around!

---

End of PSA… back to Caldera thread!!!

My beloved Caldera Kingwood headphones

That's a really beautiful kingwood, that's the wood variant that made me finally appreciate Caldera after being relatively unimpressed with oak and redheart LTD.

 

[hafzz123]

if you’ve seen me post this already pls excuse the repetition

---

Hi guys,

Since a couple of you are already engaged there it occured to me this may be of interest to some other of you so figured I'll just quickly share this.

After seeing the Watercooler thread creating an amazingly vibrant and friendly communtiy for portable audio (and having been part of it myself), I had few members asking me to set a parallel Watercooler thread for the headphone community (full size headphones, amps, dacs, realted gears and general banter for headphone community).

After several weeks getting feedbacks and consdiering the undertaking, I decided to plunge in..

The Watercooler Headphone Edition thread is now launched:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the...of-gear-impressions-music-and-musings.972819/

Since launching a week ago Saturday we've got 40 pages of posts. It's highly engaged with lots of great communtiy members and eclectic content from gear to music to audio topics. Everyone is warmly welcome to drop in anytime, share anything related to headphone, music, or just banter and hang around!

---

End of PSA… back to Caldera thread!!!

My beloved Caldera Kingwood headphones

That Kingwood's grain/shade is a joy to look at

 

[thingwfeathers]

FedEx dropped off my Kingwood Caldera yesterday. It has honestly exceeded my expectations across the board.

I definitely prefer the stock pads over the thick pads. The extra energy and clarity is great for metal, hardcore, and progressive stuff with a lot going on in the mix. If I didn’t have an Atrium Closed, I could see myself swapping to thick pads for acoustic or indie genres.

Anyway, this headphone is brilliant.

 

[Lyssky]

FedEx dropped off my Kingwood Caldera yesterday. It

My non-native-english-language side of the brain just saw this and my jaw dropped with a gasp because I thought the FedEx delivery guy dropped your Caldera like literally on the ground. Thank goodness it’s just me.

 

[Frankie D]

Received my stabilized Caldera earlier this week (the Calliope from the last drop) and as expected, I'm absolutely in love with them!

Over the first few listening sessions I've been rolling with the stock pads maybe 60% of the time, and thick pads 40%. With the thicks, acoustic music like Waxahatchee - Right Back To It is magical and the larger soundstage just helps the music breathe more in a really lovely way. But I'm also used to daily driving the Arya, and I mostly listen to metal, so the stocks just sound so nicely balanced to me. Cymbals have really smooth sizzle and are at a perfect level in the mix. With the stocks, the attack on drums will just pummel you senseless on a track like An Abstract Illusion - In Heaven Above You Will Become a Monster. Then I listen to some GoGo Penguin and think hmmm this would sound *nice* on the thicks.

So much good music out there to enjoy on these beauties. What a time to be alive!

Need way more pics of these please!

 

[iamoneagain]

I don't have all the pads so I didn't vote but from what I understand the thicks may not exactly be for me. The most important aspects for me are:
- Presence and clarity (3k-6k)
- Slap, punch, slap to the point I'm unconscious (I would've used cowhide thins for their incredibly snappy nature but they are too unbalanced to me and well......thin sounding )
- Sufficient mids (not extremely lush but strong enough)
So my take from the relevant posts is that thicks are not friendly enough to these properties (in comparison to stock) but the result of this poll makes me curious enough to try them. Hopefully someday.

The thick actually still have pretty good punch and attack and even more sub bass. So don’t really have any issue with this. Well that’s not true. Bass is actually a hair too much on some tracks. The suede actually fall short in this area where the bass is not tight enough and lacks attack. And depending on the album, suede can sound better than stock. It just can’t rock out the same way.

Where the thick for short for me is mid presence. It’s still there and only slightly lacking compared to the stock, but comes off as a little more smoother in that area. So electric guitar are missing that extra twangy sound. Over time, I start to find the thick to be slightly dull. It’s not bad on some stuff but it’s not an all rounder like the stock and I prefer to just leave one pad in place than pad rolling per album. And I don’t find the stock lacking on any albums, so it stays put except when see these post and figure I’ll give thick another try.

 

[goldwerger]

Received my stabilized Caldera earlier this week (the Calliope from the last drop) and as expected, I'm absolutely in love with them!

Over the first few listening sessions I've been rolling with the stock pads maybe 60% of the time, and thick pads 40%. With the thicks, acoustic music like Waxahatchee - Right Back To It is magical and the larger soundstage just helps the music breathe more in a really lovely way. But I'm also used to daily driving the Arya, and I mostly listen to metal, so the stocks just sound so nicely balanced to me. Cymbals have really smooth sizzle and are at a perfect level in the mix. With the stocks, the attack on drums will just pummel you senseless on a track like An Abstract Illusion - In Heaven Above You Will Become a Monster. Then I listen to some GoGo Penguin and think hmmm this would sound *nice* on the thicks.

So much good music out there to enjoy on these beauties. What a time to be alive!

These are really special!

That's a really beautiful kingwood, that's the wood variant that made me finally appreciate Caldera after being relatively unimpressed with oak and redheart LTD.

That Kingwood's grain/shade is a joy to look at

This was the first Kingwood set (and first Caldera set). I remember getting from Zach the pictures of the wood cup as they were just freshly painted and they looked quite special but, when I received them in person, they exceeded my expectation.

 

[chrisnyc75]

Goldensound's review is out. Beware - he's a SUEDE devotee!

 

[idairyou]

FedEx dropped off my Kingwood Caldera yesterday. It has honestly exceeded my expectations across the board.

I definitely prefer the stock pads over the thick pads. The extra energy and clarity is great for metal, hardcore, and progressive stuff with a lot going on in the mix. If I didn’t have an Atrium Closed, I could see myself swapping to thick pads for acoustic or indie genres.

Anyway, this headphone is brilliant.

Try the ultra perf pads as well.

I thought the Kingwood only came with the silver rods and grill?

 

[Lyssky]

The thick actually still have pretty good punch and attack and even more sub bass. So don’t really have any issue with this. Well that’s not true. Bass is actually a hair too much on some tracks. The suede actually fall short in this area where the bass is not tight enough and lacks attack. And depending on the album, suede can sound better than stock. It just can’t rock out the same way.

Where the thick for short for me is mid presence. It’s still there and only slightly lacking compared to the stock, but comes off as a little more smoother in that area. So electric guitar are missing that extra twangy sound. Over time, I start to find the thick to be slightly dull. It’s not bad on some stuff but it’s not an all rounder like the stock and I prefer to just leave one pad in place than pad rolling per album. And I don’t find the stock lacking on any albums, so it stays put except when see these post and figure I’ll give thick another try.

I get it. My post was just deducted from the statements that thicks lose a little dynamics compared to the stocks. But yea mids are important and for me especially the presence region. So when you try them again let us hear your impressions.

 

[thingwfeathers]

Try the ultra perf pads as well.

I thought the Kingwood only came with the silver rods and grill?

This unit was a B-stock/demo pair offered during the stabilized drop last month.

 

[Kirklandia]

The thick actually still have pretty good punch and attack and even more sub bass. So don’t really have any issue with this. Well that’s not true. Bass is actually a hair too much on some tracks. The suede actually fall short in this area where the bass is not tight enough and lacks attack. And depending on the album, suede can sound better than stock. It just can’t rock out the same way.

Where the thick for short for me is mid presence. It’s still there and only slightly lacking compared to the stock, but comes off as a little more smoother in that area. So electric guitar are missing that extra twangy sound. Over time, I start to find the thick to be slightly dull. It’s not bad on some stuff but it’s not an all rounder like the stock and I prefer to just leave one pad in place than pad rolling per album. And I don’t find the stock lacking on any albums, so it stays put except when see these post and figure I’ll give thick another try.

From reading about different viewpoints of the sound qualities of the same pads, I wonder how much of the difference comes down to the audio chain. A few days ago, just changing one power cord and the power filtration in my chain resulted in a different presentation from the same (thick) pads. I'm not as enamored now but will give it time before going back to the stock pads.