Any Digital Impressions of the Caiman yet?

[Fi-Wi]

Still braking in my Caiman (since 5 days) but I really can appreciate the mids en bass which already were apparent 'out of the box'. In my ears there are no frequenties that dominate or that are audibly absent.

I love the headphone amp as well since I have 2 little kids crawling around that do make a lot of noise. Nothing fancy, but my Sennheiser HD-570 work great with the amp.

No flaws yet? Well, just minor ones. The on/off button on my unit does not always work. Clicking it on or off produces the clicking sound but the Caiman doesn't alway obey. I guess it is still a wild animal that needs to be tamed if it ever will. My 7510 doesn't have this problem.

I like the bigger size of the volume knob but I prefer the better resitance the knop of the 7510 offers. I think it revolves too easy/light which gives it a cheap/plastic feeling. But then, it's not that I am switching the headphone volume all day long.

So far my first impressions.

I am looking forward to the improved psu as well!

[twelvebears]

Hi Steve,
I have just received my 'Wolfsoned' 7520 from Tirna this morning and I have the 4032 fitted in the line out with the 4562 in the variable output.
I dont think I should put any comments down until its bedded in for a few days so bear with me Twelvebears
A great service from Tirna by the way so a big thank you to Jimmy and Alan.
I am sure I will use them again soon.

Cheers Jerry, in no big rush (need to concentrate on my impending house move), but I would appreciate your views.

[MartinT]

I've just ordered a Caiman today and will post my thoughts when I've got it up and running and with at least 24 hours' burn-in.

Looking forward to trying some Blu-rays as well as CD and streamed hi-res music.

[trailer]

I've just ordered a Caiman today and will post my thoughts when I've got it up and running and with at least 24 hours' burn-in.

Looking forward to trying some Blu-rays as well as CD and streamed hi-res music.

Remember to output the blu-rays in stereo on the digital out.

[MartinT]

Remember to output the blu-rays in stereo on the digital out.

Oh yes, it's already set up that way (I'm currently using an old Assemblage DAC3.0, good in its day but a little old now).

[Dougr33]

Hi Steve,
I have just received my 'Wolfsoned' 7520 from Tirna this morning and I have the 4032 fitted in the line out with the 4562 in the variable output....

Hi Jerry.. actually, the line out and variable out are the same (chip over the hp jack; the op amp over the volume control is for the HPA.

[Covenant]

I stand corrected Doug.

[Alex_UK]

Well my Caiman arrived about 2 hours ago (thanks Stan for a great service) and I've hooked it up temporarily to the laptop (USB) and the Roku Soundbridge (Profigold coax) and even though it is running in and connected with a very dodgy interconnect (Silver High Breed will be the solution when I install it properly) I can already tell what a great purchase I have made. The Soundbridge no longer sounds compressed, I've only tried Spotify from the laptop so far (not premium, so 160kbps?) but that sounded promising too - too early though to be too analytical, until properly installed and run in (plus my new Creek amp should be ready tomorrow, which will change everything again anyway) but so far it is looking very promising indeed. And I love the blue LEDS...!

[HighFidelityGuy]

I finally managed to get a reasonably good listen to my Caiman over the weekend.
I think it still needs more running it yet but I've now got a better idea of what the differences are in the sound between my 7520 and the Caiman. For clarification my 7520 has the metal can version of the opamps used in the Caimen and has the MLC5/6 caps removed. So the main difference between the two is the DAC chip.

The Caiman is definitely extracting more detail from the recordings. I've never heard so much detail in the treble and mid-range. The soundstage is also more three dimensional and airy and more subtle underlying details are now audible. There seems to be better separation and clarity as well which makes everything sound more lively and enjoyable.

I've also noticed that the frequency response of my system now seems to be flatter.
I use a very basic pink noise generator and RTA to help me to tweak the EQ on my PC soundcard to get a flat frequency response. I used to have to cut a lot of bass frequencies and boost high frequencies but I noticed that using these same setting on the Caimen sounded too harsh in the treble and weak in the bass. So I've now been able back off the amount of EQ I use which is a big bonus. This came as a bit of a surprise as I doubt the standard 7520 has a lumpy frequency response. So it must just be something to do with the way the Caiman works with the rest of my system and how that interacts with my room.
Whatever the reason it works for me.

Thanks Mr Beresford for making a fantastic piece of kit!!

[Simon P]

I've had my Caiman for over a week now, and it has been playing pretty much constantly to run in.

I'm using it purely to drive my Denon AHD-5000 headphones to play FLAC files from my laptop, and I have to say I'm extremely pleased with it.

In my rather limited vocabulary, I'd describe the Caiman as having a very enjoyable and detailed sound. It doesn't seem to have a preference for any particular type of music, as I've thrown a fair variety at it. It pulls a lot of detail out of the mix, but not in a distracting way. The real benefit for me is that it has good timing and plays basslines _properly_ - this is key to a lot of the music that I'm more biased towards playing.

I don't have any of the older Beresfords to compare it with, but from the perspective of using it as a DAC and headphone amp it's great. I think my Little Dot Microtube headphone amp has just become superfluous and may end up on eBay soon

In summary - I'm very impressed with the Caiman.

Simon