[GCTD]

I've been eyeing on your products for a while now and have been wanting to own the flagship Blackwood, but MrSpeakers' ETHER had me under a spell which makes other options out there meaningless. However, I am intrigue again by your new creation. I'm curious, with the likes of ETHER and HE-1000 taking the flagship glamour do you feel your new flagship is threatened? What's more, how do you feel about the performance of your new flagship in relation to the ETHER and HE-1000? Or perhaps do you have anecdotes from people that tried Omni personally in your Meets?
 
There's so many great choices out there now in the new flagship category and innovating too, that it's hard to just spend all that hard earned cash in one product. It feels like a marraige, I have the ring ($2000), but I don't want to propose yet (pre-order the ETHER) as I might regret glossing over other flagship such as yours. 
 
How soon will the final tuning, and production be? Hopefully, before the end of June, no? 

 

[zach915m]

  I've been eyeing on your products for a while now and have been wanting to own the flagship Blackwood, but MrSpeakers' ETHER had me under a spell which makes other options out there meaningless. However, I am intrigue again by your new creation. I'm curious, with the likes of ETHER and HE-1000 taking the flagship glamour do you feel your new flagship is threatened? What's more, how do you feel about the performance of your new flagship in relation to the ETHER and HE-1000? Or perhaps do you have anecdotes from people that tried Omni personally in your Meets?
 
There's so many great choices out there now in the new flagship category and innovating too, that it's hard to just spend all that hard earned cash in one product. It feels like a marraige, I have the ring ($2000), but I don't want to propose yet (pre-order the ETHER) as I might regret glossing over other flagship such as yours. 
 
How soon will the final tuning, and production be? Hopefully, before the end of June, no? 

 
Something I learned a while back in grad school is that if something is good enough then competition doesn't really matter.  I don't mean this in the sense that it's better than anything, but I mean this in the sense that if it's quality, people will enjoy it.  It's like movies, if it's well made and constructed, people will go see it, and it won't be the only movie they see.  Know what I mean?
 
I love the Ether and the HE1000, they are both great headphones, but they are very different from my headphones, and even the Ether and He1000 are very different from each other although both great.  (I'll take one of each BTW!)  From response so far the Omni seems like it will compete on a very high level, and be enjoyed by many for the sound sig that it provides.  I'm gonna try and make as many meets/shows as possible so people can hear it.
 
I have a few more very slight tweaks to make both sonically and aesthetically and a final proto to make before deciding on final woods/exact tuning (it's close)/release date, but pre-order will be up this month, and I expect them to start shipping sometime in July or August.  As we get closer I'll have more specifics.
 
BTW, pre-order price will be $799, and after that $899.  I will take pre-order's until actual stock is in hand and I'm actually shipping.   I won't take pre-order's though until I have a final proto done and am happy that it will be exactly what the production versions will be.
 
I'll announce on the website and here what the pre-order comes with.

 

[GCTD]

   
Something I learned a while back in grad school is that if something is good enough then competition doesn't really matter.  I don't mean this in the sense that it's better than anything, but I mean this in the sense that if it's quality, people will enjoy it.  It's like movies, if it's well made and constructed, people will go see it, and it won't be the only movie they see.  Know what I mean?
 
I love the Ether and the HE1000, they are both great headphones, but they are very different from my headphones, and even the Ether and He1000 are very different from each other although both great.  (I'll take one of each BTW!)  From response so far the Omni seems like it will compete on a very high level, and be enjoyed by many for the sound sig that it provides.  I'm gonna try and make as many meets/shows as possible so people can hear it.
 
I have a few more very slight tweaks to make both sonically and aesthetically and a final proto to make before deciding on final woods/exact tuning (it's close)/release date, but pre-order will be up this month, and I expect them to start shipping sometime in July or August.  As we get closer I'll have more specifics.
 
BTW, pre-order price will be $799, and after that $899.  I will take pre-order's until actual stock is in hand and I'm actually shipping.   I won't take pre-order's though until I have a final proto done and am happy that it will be exactly what the production versions will be.
 
I'll announce on the website and here what the pre-order comes with.

 
Thanks for the response. One last thing, will you be sending out review samples of Omni before or well after release? I've read a couple of reviews of your previous mods on websites like Headfonia, will you be doing the same thing with Omni?

 

[zach915m]

   
Thanks for the response. One last thing, will you be sending out review samples of Omni before or well after release? I've read a couple of reviews of your previous mods on websites like Headfonia, will you be doing the same thing with Omni?

Haha, I'm still sending out Blackwood and vibro review units!  I'm going to get a number of Omni sets out to reviewers before release.

 

[RiddleyWalker]

Here's hoping for a nice weighty sub-bass and no 10KHz peak 

 

[manbear]

Here's some fuel for the hype train. I got to hear two Omni prototypes last night. Zach is still deciding on the final tuning so I wont be too specific but... The Omni sounds really good!

It (obviously) has the ZMF house sound, though I wouldnt necessarily say it sounds more like the Vibro or more like the Blackwood. It has elements of both, plus its own signature. The mids are detailed, rich, and natural, and the open design takes the holography up a notch. I was impressed by the subbass and the overall level of punch. These are vivid sounding headphones, but in a full way, not in an edgy or bright way.

Thanks to Zach for letting me hear these!

 

[grizzlybeast]

Here's some fuel for the hype train. I got to hear two Omni prototypes last night. Zach is still deciding on the final tuning so I wont be too specific but... The Omni sounds really good!

It (obviously) has the ZMF house sound, though I wouldnt necessarily say it sounds more like the Vibro or more like the Blackwood. It has elements of both, plus its own signature. The mids are detailed, rich, and natural, and the open design takes the holography up a notch. I was impressed by the subbass and the overall level of punch. These are vivid sounding headphones, but in a full way, not in an edgy or bright way.

Thanks to Zach for letting me hear these!

sounds exciting and like my kind of phone. Ideally I like the balance of the vibro and the techs of the blackwood. Though the blackwood balance is good for me too. I just prefer the vibro mid emphasis

 

[Levaix]

Along with manbear, I got to hang out and hear the Omni last night as well. Actually, there were two prototypes with slightly different tunings. I think I was the odd man out on which one I preferred, unfortunately. 

 
What I will say is that I was able to sit there and compare my Ultrasone Signature Pro, a Fostex TH600, and a Kennerton Magister back to back with the Omni prototype, and the Omni compared EXTREMELY well to the other models. It actually had a very similar tonality to the Fostex while maintaining a much richer presentation in the mids. One of the prototypes was closer to the Fostex/Ultrasone style sound (which was my personal preference from limited comparison), while the other was more resonant with mids and vocals and a little less emphasis on the highs (I think this one had more of the ZMF "house sound").
 
Depending on how the Omni turns out, I think it might be the one to finally unseat my Ultrasones. It's probably either going to be that or I'll finally cave and get a TH900.

 

[PacoTaco]

I just realized I should probably post this question here, as some people will probably want the answer (even though I already emailed this to Zach...you can ignore that part of the email Zach, lol.) Will we be able to upgrade our blackwood/vibro to the Omni like how you did it for the other models->Vibro/Blackwood?

 

[zach915m]

  I just realized I should probably post this question here, as some people will probably want the answer (even though I already emailed this to Zach...you can ignore that part of the email Zach, lol.) Will we be able to upgrade our blackwood/vibro to the Omni like how you did it for the other models->Vibro/Blackwood?

Just answered your email too!  BUT, I'm not sure about upgrades as every upgrade to the Omni will be like building an entire new headphone.  I definitely need to crunch some numbers and figure out what makes sense both time wise and financially for both me and ZMF owners.  Will surely have this worked out by pre-order time in a couple of weeks.

 

[PacoTaco]

 
Just answered your email too!  BUT, I'm not sure about upgrades as every upgrade to the Omni will be like building an entire new headphone.  I definitely need to crunch some numbers and figure out what makes sense both time wise and financially for both me and ZMF owners.  Will surely have this worked out by pre-order time in a couple of weeks.

 
Thank you for answering both places! As I said in the email, I'm going to ahead and do the safe thing of selling the Blackwood (even though I'll miss the hell out of it,) and get the second 980ti I need to run the Witcher 3 and GTA V at max settings (yay ultrawide resolution being hard on the GPU!) I put the classified ad up here if anyone is interested: http://www.head-fi.org/t/770814/zmf-blackwood-cable-case .
 
I'd end up sending in the ZMF Blackwood for an upgrade or selling it to get the Omni anyway, so the wait won't bother me. I can't wait for these to drop, they already sound like my dream headphones on paper.

 

[zach915m]

Got some pewter coins in for the two final prototypes of which I'll be finishing this week and next.
 
These will go on the face of the headphone below the clamshell attachment.
 
Special thanks to Woodbury Pewter for working with me on these! 

 

[GCTD]

  Got some pewter coins in for the two final prototypes of which I'll be finishing this week and next.
 
These will go on the face of the headphone below the clamshell attachment.
 
Special thanks to Woodbury Pewter for working with me on these! 

 
The coins in the right looks better because the logo comes out much legible.

 

[zach915m]

   
The coins in the right looks better because the logo comes out much legible.

Forgot to mention, either coin will be available for any Omni set.  So you can choose the one you like more with the specific wood chosen.

 

[Schopenhauer]

 

  Got some pewter coins in for the two final prototypes of which I'll be finishing this week and next.
 
These will go on the face of the headphone below the clamshell attachment.
 
Special thanks to Woodbury Pewter for working with me on these! 

 
The coins in the right looks better because the logo comes out much legible.

I agree and I prefer the coins on the right because of of that.
 
A thing to consider would be to make the coin on the right cup of the headphones slightly different from the coin on the left cup so that it's easier to put the headphones one. Of course, maybe that's what's happening.