[Ultron 5]

The VC isn’t perfect? News to me tbh…

Yes, yrstruly, the VC is awesome without a doubt. Perfect though?

 

[Ultron 5]

I borrowed a friend's DCA E3's for a couple of weeks with an option to buy and to compare to my VC's. To me the E3's were a little too mid forward and couldn't quite match the naturalness of the VC's vocals which is something very special. The treble on the E3's was pushing I felt a little bit too much emphasis.

The VC's win out and of course that is only my humble subjective opinion.

Yes, WarrenS, the vocals on the VC are quite natural. Listening to Geddy Lee sing is a great way to establish how headphones do vocals. How good he sounds on the VC.

 

[JerseyD]

Okay, thank you, for pointing out that the connectors are not proprietary; nevertheless, you sustain my position when you say that not many other manufacturers use the HiRose connector. Out of curiosity, other than DCA, what manufacturer uses these connectors?

I’m not aware of any other hi-fi headphones with them, but have seen them in more industrial headsets as well as some mixers and soundboards.

 

[Ultron 5]

I’m not aware of any other hi-fi headphones with them, but have seen them in more industrial headsets as well as some mixers and soundboards.

Thanks, JerseyD. Because they are used in mixers and soundboards, they are probably efficient. For hi-fi headphone use not really convenient.

 

[NenadJ]

Hello all,
New to the community, Second time ZMC VC owner here and pleased to say it surprises me still. First was a leopardwood and now i have been lucky enough to find an Ironwood from a headfier. The VC has a way about it being subtle at first listen but then you get to a passage where you are overwhelmed with sound. Thee is a subtleness to its resolving power. This is one of those headphones i have found to be very source revealing as well. I have from the start been a Auture pads kind of person but i see the appeal of the other pads as well. You can either be enveloped by sound to fly away in the clouds or bombarded with sounds flying at you from everywhere making you look around the room

Currently i have come back to the hobby to find myself with a VC in Ironwood paired to a ZMF Pendant SE fed by a Chord Mojo soon to be replaced with a Holo Cyan 2 in a few weeks.

Are there any favorite SS XLR based amp some of you would be able to recommend? Looking for an XLR balanced option i might be able to add onto the Cyan 2 later on. Mainly curious for perspective on what people pair with their VC and why.

 

[Ultron 5]

Hello all,
New to the community, Second time ZMC VC owner here and pleased to say it surprises me still. First was a leopardwood and now i have been lucky enough to find an Ironwood from a headfier. The VC has a way about it being subtle at first listen but then you get to a passage where you are overwhelmed with sound. Thee is a subtleness to its resolving power. This is one of those headphones i have found to be very source revealing as well. I have from the start been a Auture pads kind of person but i see the appeal of the other pads as well. You can either be enveloped by sound to fly away in the clouds or bombarded with sounds flying at you from everywhere making you look around the room

Currently i have come back to the hobby to find myself with a VC in Ironwood paired to a ZMF Pendant SE fed by a Chord Mojo soon to be replaced with a Holo Cyan 2 in a few weeks.

Are there any favorite SS XLR based amp some of you would be able to recommend? Looking for an XLR balanced option i might be able to add onto the Cyan 2 later on. Mainly curious for perspective on what people pair with their VC and why.

Hi Nenad. Is the PENDANT SE a cable? Thank you.

 

[NenadJ]

Hi Nenad. Is the PENDANT SE a cable? Thank you.

The Pendant SE is a transformer based pure tube amp that ZMF and Ampsandsound partnered to create around the time the VC was being launched. The SE is mainly for its special edition nature but more refers to the change of the high z to 100ohm instead of 300ohm Like its OG pendant. The SE also has a 24 step pot along side its upgraded Jupiter caps and other under the hood upgrades.

Ampsndspunds sells this amp under a new name LeeLoo, unfortunetly i do not have much experience with that one, from the way Justin speaks it is a 1 to 1 with the pendants most recent versions.

For referance her is the headfi threat.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/zmf...rolling-and-general-discussions.939249/page-5

 

[Ultron 5]

The Pendant SE is a transformer based pure tube amp that ZMF and Ampsandsound partnered to create around the time the VC was being launched. The SE is mainly for its special edition nature but more refers to the change of the high z to 100ohm instead of 300ohm Like its OG pendant. The SE also has a 24 step pot along side its upgraded Jupiter caps and other under the hood upgrades.

Ampsndspunds sells this amp under a new name LeeLoo, unfortunetly i do not have much experience with that one, from the way Justin speaks it is a 1 to 1 with the pendants most recent versions.

For referance her is the headfi threat.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/zmf...rolling-and-general-discussions.939249/page-5

Good looking, NenadJ. Very helpful, thank you.

 

[bokononista]

Hello all,
New to the community, Second time ZMC VC owner here and pleased to say it surprises me still. First was a leopardwood and now i have been lucky enough to find an Ironwood from a headfier. The VC has a way about it being subtle at first listen but then you get to a passage where you are overwhelmed with sound. Thee is a subtleness to its resolving power. This is one of those headphones i have found to be very source revealing as well. I have from the start been a Auture pads kind of person but i see the appeal of the other pads as well. You can either be enveloped by sound to fly away in the clouds or bombarded with sounds flying at you from everywhere making you look around the room

Currently i have come back to the hobby to find myself with a VC in Ironwood paired to a ZMF Pendant SE fed by a Chord Mojo soon to be replaced with a Holo Cyan 2 in a few weeks.

Are there any favorite SS XLR based amp some of you would be able to recommend? Looking for an XLR balanced option i might be able to add onto the Cyan 2 later on. Mainly curious for perspective on what people pair with their VC and why.

Do you prefer Ironwood or Leopardwood VC?

 

[NenadJ]

Do you prefer Ironwood or Leopardwood VC?

From a wood only side the Ironwood has always been my must have wood, the dense nature of the wood and outstanding shimmer is what drew me in The leopordwood was a close second in density.

The main reason and I might be part of the minority to prefer a denser wood. My thoughts behind this were if I can keep the speed of the PEN Beryllium driver but aid in it by pairing the VC with an R2R and tube amp. With the R2R aiding In tonality and the tube amp slowing the driver down a smidge without having added decay from the wood.

At this level of resolution I have found the VC to be very chain revealing. Chain synergy at this point will dictate more than you think.

 

[jonathan c]

From a wood only side the Ironwood has always been my must have wood, the dense nature of the wood and outstanding shimmer is what drew me in. ****The leopordwood was a close second in density.****

The main reason and I might be part of the minority to prefer a denser wood. My thoughts behind this were if I can keep the speed of the PEN Beryllium driver but aid in it by pairing the VC with an R2R and tube amp. With the R2R aiding In tonality and the tube amp slowing the driver down a smidge without having added decay from the wood.

At this level of resolution I have found the VC to be very chain revealing. Chain synergy at this point will dictate more than you think.

**** The Janka wood hardness rating (in pound-force) for Ironwood is 3840; that for Leopardwood is 2160. Not really close. Ironwood is one of the hardest woods, period. Leopardwood is definitely above average in that respect.

 

[NenadJ]

**** The Janka wood hardness rating (in pound-force) for Ironwood is 3840; that for Leopardwood is 2160. Not really close. Ironwood is one of the hardest woods, period. Leopardwood is definitely above average in that respect.

You are 100% correct, at that time I missed the Ironwood run so the closest density I was able to get was the leopordwood. Those were early ZMF days and I had no idea when I would see an Ironwood in the wild.

Fast forward to several years later after stepping away from the hobby I was lucky to stumble upon one here.

 

[bokononista]

From a wood only side the Ironwood has always been my must have wood, the dense nature of the wood and outstanding shimmer is what drew me in The leopordwood was a close second in density.

The main reason and I might be part of the minority to prefer a denser wood. My thoughts behind this were if I can keep the speed of the PEN Beryllium driver but aid in it by pairing the VC with an R2R and tube amp. With the R2R aiding In tonality and the tube amp slowing the driver down a smidge without having added decay from the wood.

At this level of resolution I have found the VC to be very chain revealing. Chain synergy at this point will dictate more than you think.

Thank you,

I have got Ironwood VC and I had borrowed stock Sapele VC. I still can not decide what wood to have. Sapele wood VC is 1360 Janka and I was pleased by its weighty sound caused by decay - it was gorgeous with a prog metal music, but added decay was too much for other genres like classic (with my setup). Ironwood VC is beautiful, I can tell there is more clarity, less decay, this pair is fantastic allrounder with all genres (I mostly listen to the jazz). But there is a little bit less weight in the sound (stil great as all ZMF!). So I am curious about some medium hardness woods to have all positives . Leopardwood is also in my spotlight.
I cant decide if I should have VC in different wood mostly for progmetal or keep the Ironwood VC - but VO is already my allrounder .

I have to confess, I bought the VC and VO with a thought I will choose between them and sell the other - I cant, I simply cant and still have both

 

[yrstruly]

I have only ever heard / owned Sapele and not coincidentally love the VC for heavy music. The weighty decay effect is sort of fundamental to the VC’s sound for me.

 

[Galapac]

Thank you,

I have got Ironwood VC and I had borrowed stock Sapele VC. I still can not decide what wood to have. Sapele wood VC is 1360 Janka and I was pleased by its weighty sound caused by decay - it was gorgeous with a prog metal music, but added decay was too much for other genres like classic (with my setup). Ironwood VC is beautiful, I can tell there is more clarity, less decay, this pair is fantastic allrounder with all genres (I mostly listen to the jazz). But there is a little bit less weight in the sound (stil great as all ZMF!). So I am curious about some medium hardness woods to have all positives . Leopardwood is also in my spotlight.
I cant decide if I should have VC in different wood mostly for progmetal or keep the Ironwood VC - but VO is already my allrounder .

I have to confess, I bought the VC and VO with a thought I will choose between them and sell the other - I cant, I simply cant and still have both

I can understand as I have kept both VC and VO as they are different enough depending on my mood. I never noticed much between the different woods nor have I had much opportunity to try different ones but I would think pads make more of a difference than wood hardness. Overall you cannot go wrong with a ZMF set and they are keepers for me. I own the VO in Ironwood and the VC in Camphor Burl and love them equally.