Yeah, Stellaris isn't known for its punch. I could say the exact same about Susvara on Stellaris - sounds great around 8/10 with soundstage and imaging for days, but less punch than on Bliss.

TGIF music :musical_keyboard::trumpet::saxophone::drum: - first with Susvara, then Caldera bc Susvara sounded a bit too thin for my mood tonight. Tonight I need BODY. I love having options! :) Happy Friday all!

AZ80 is the first TWS earbud I've heard that I could honestly say the sound quality is competitive with similarly priced chi-fi IEMs. My only complaint is that I can get the driver to clip in "Bass Boost" mode, although to be fair only with VERY sub-bass heavy music. If Technics could somehow...

Ok, now you're just showing off! :wink: lol Seriously though, intriguing design, I would love to hear this! How much power does it have on tap?

Omg, I might buy those just because they're beautiful!

If only I could. Over-ears mess up my hair. LOL Fine for when I'm at home, but not so good for my daily commute.

...The ability of the IEM/bud to drown out that low frequency background noise really matters in this context (much like on an airplane) - which *almost* makes Bose the best option of all. I'm really struggling with that lately, as AZ80's sound quality is materially better, but the ANC is...

I already have vibration damping feet under my DAC, somebody else is going to have to test this one. LOL

I could entertain this theory with a 2-channel speaker system, but like vibration isolating feet under a DAC, with a headphone system that doesn't produce any material vibrations I can't fathom how this makes any sense. But stranger things have happened. :wink:

Me? No, unfortunately my number still hasn't come up on the Immanis demo waitlist. I've heard anecdotally from several people that Immanis has real synergy with 2A3 tubes, though, so I'm hopeful.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but neither Prestige nor Mystique has ANC, do they? That's a deal breaker for me. Give me that true audiophile IEM sound quality all day long, but it has to come with equally good ANC. That's why I landed on Technics, while I wait patiently for a Prestige ANC.

I haven't heard them myself, but I have a friend who swears by them. Says they absorb excess vibrations from the glass envelope of the tube. "Tube Dampers Virtually all vacuum tubes are prone to distortion caused by microphonic vibrations. To overcome audible distortions, a titanium C-ring...

Red Caldera just hits different. :100:

It depends on what you prioritize, but there seems to be pretty good consensus that all things taken into consideration Technics AZ80 is tough to beat. Based on Bose's release cadence the last couple of years, we should be looking out for a new qc iii flagship in October.

Vibrations are objective, they exist outside of the perceiver. But "sound" is 100% in your mind - the vibration is only that until your brain interprets it as a "sound". All I'm saying is don't be so quick to assume we understand everything that goes into that interpretation.

I take your point, and as a fellow head-fi'er I of course agree, but there is some part of me that wonders how much of this is actually just placebo? I mean, Susvara and my friend's TWS iBud plays the same exact music, and they can't quite hear a difference. I have no doubt that there is an...

Very this. Also, sound isn't real, it's in your head. VIBRATIONS are real, but until your brain interprets them as sound they are no more audible than light. This is why I will never criticize anyone who hears a sonic improvement from their cables, power supply, or their audio crystals...

Interesting concept. If this actually worked this would be the answer all audiophiles have been looking for. I'll have to keep my eyes open for this to go on sale. If it's priced similarly to v1 I would be willing to gamble that much just to see if it lives up to its promise.

"Sound" is 100% in your head, so if the placebo makes you hear something different then it's real. This is a hill I will die on.

You know what's my favorite part of owning several TOTL headphones? It's when I've gone through a phase of listening to just one of them for awhile and I start thinking it's my favorite and maybe I don't need the others anymore. And then I listen to one of the others and I suddenly remember...

Very well put! This is why I've held for some time that Caldera has the best bass of any headphone. Not necessarily the MOST bass, but the BEST bass. If you just want the MOST bass, Beats & Eris are there for you. :wink:

While I do not want to further hijack the ZMF Caldera thread, I appreciate the insight into 2A3s (I literally keep a notepad file with all such info aggregated for future reference. Because I am an uber-nerd, apparently. LOL) And it is precisely the RCA's clarity & precision that I think works...

Very nice, though I suspect you're going to have a hard time getting NYers (who mostly do not have cars) to bring gear to Brooklyn. I'll think on this, though. ;)

With the recent deregulation of the "hearing aid" industry, it seems like a small leap for the likes of Apple to move into that market, and decrease the amplification just enough to market those same devices to the general public as a better earplug. Apple's dominance in audio pass-through...

This little niche of ours is a bright spot of community in a world full of cold profit-mongering. :)