Over the past few months, I've been listening exclusively to my Hammacher Schlemmer Zebra Wood headphones.. They were comissioned by Hammacher Schlemmer from a Company called Wesonic Audio in China. They originaly sold for 199.00 and when H/S sold thier remaining pairs off for 59.00 shipped many of us Head-Fi'ers snagged them up. They have an incredible range with little roll off even at the lowest and highest frequencies. The soundstage,clarity,and imagery is astounding. At first they seem a bit unrefined compared to my previous high end listening experiences with Denons, Sennheiser, Grado, Ultrasone, etc. but when I take the time to compare them with my previous listening experiences, I find that my perception of lack of refinement is actually an erie transparency giving the others a veil similar to the infamous HD650's. I listen to all genre but mostly instramental soundtracks ( James Horner, Hans Zimmer, John Williams, etc.)and the instramental placement and staging is amazing. I have gladly given up a bit of refinement for clarity and "Reality". It reminds me of the "Feel" of the music you get with surround sound in a movie theater. I've had two pairs in pieces, gave away two pair, sold two pair, and still have two pair. The drivers are very similar to the JVC drivers I tried to fix in my son's JVC hx700's., and it's very likely that the drivers in the Zebra Woods were also made by JVC ( Or whoever JVC has make them) for Wesonic. There is a small dab of white silicone goo apparently crossing over from the positive and negative contacts. I wasn't sure what it was but if I scraped it off, the drivers died.
Maybe some sort of crossover? Anyway, I just need to find out if the Top JVC's are a refined version of the drivers I've grown to love.It's an "Aquired Taste" and for most who've tried them a "Love It or Hate It" thing,
