If you’ve read my review of the ZMF x Vibro mk II, you’ll know that I enjoy ZMF Headphones. I’ve had a review Omni unit for some time now and I’ve been procrastinating writing this review because, once it’s complete, I’ll have to return it! But the time has come to put my thoughts down for all to see; your enjoyment will make me feel better about the whole “returning it” thing.
Oh, if you did read that review, you’ll also have a great amount of background on Zach and ZMF so I am going to eschew that section of this review and just jump into the relevant stuff.
[size=20.007px]Relevant Stuff[/size]
The Omni is ZMF’s current flagship headphone. Some people will tell you that it’s a heavily modified Fostex T50rp planar dynamic headphone. But that doesn’t really do them justice. It has custom wooden cups, new ear pads, new headband straps and pads, new attachments for the cups, all its internal wiring replaced, and other magic modifications. There’s so little of the original headphone left that I’d prefer to say that it’s based on the T50rp.
As with all ZMF headphones, the Omni can be customized in many ways. The most obvious will be your choice of wood. Zach offers it in cherry, walnut and blackwood; he also has seasonal specials where he’ll offer limited editions in rare woods. Besides changing the looks and weight of the headphone, the wood choice will change the sound a bit. Some people tend to get really hung up on this choice so I’ll go into the sonic differences a bit later on.
The construction on these is solid wood, thick metal and sturdy leather. While I can see someone worrying about dinging the softer woods, overall these are a very rugged headphone. This is reflected in the weight, of course. The Omni line ranges in weight from 480g to 600g. The blackwood is the heaviest and I found that I got used to it. In fact, wearing the lighter Omnis after the blackwood feels odd, like it will fall off if I sneeze. I guess brain burn-in works on more than just sound! (For the record, no Omni has yet fallen off my head from a sneeze. Trust me, I have a cold while writing this, so I’ve had plenty of time to test that aspect of the build!)
The weight will obviously be a turn-off for some people. But if you can deal with it, the Omni is a comfortable headphone. The cup pivot system that Zach created for this headphone allows a much better fit with no fiddling, compared to older system. It’s so good that he’s ported it onto his other models now. The earpads are deep and cushy so they should fit anyone with no problems while allowing a seal with minimal fuss. And the headband pad and strap distribute the weight nicely so there are no hot spots that can cause pain during long listening sessions. The leather and pleather ear pads (there are options for both) can trap heat so that’s something to consider for those in the warmer climes.
Sonically, all ZMF headphones share a common lineage. As you may have read in my Vibro review, Zach unabashedly tunes his headphones to make them sound great with acoustic instruments, which apparently means boosting the bass. The Omni is no different in this respect; it’s bass-heavy and proud of it. If you’re looking for a reference-level balanced tuning, this won’t be the headphone for you. But if you want something that will make an upright bass or acoustic guitar sound like it’s right next to you, you’re definitely in the right place.
The bass is one of the special aspects of the Omni, especially the blackwood variant. The wooden cups shape the bass into a large, all-encompassing entity. And I mean that literally: it feels like the bass surrounds and defines most of the spherical soundstage. Almost every other sound is presented within the bass rather than alongside it or layered above it. But unlike some other bass-heavy headphones, the bass never intrudes into the other frequencies. The mids and treble are presented with clarity despite the potentially booming bass.
It should come as no surprise then to read that the bass extends well into the sub-bass regions and presents a rumble that’s hard to match. I’m not one to really differentiate “impact” and “slam” and some other qualitative bass terms. I’ll just say that as a planar, the bass hits hard with a very detailed feel. Yet it doesn’t feel thin like some planars because of the resonance provided by the wooden cups. It’s a great trick and I think bassheads will appreciate these headphones.
The other star of the show with the Omni is the detail retrieval. This is a flagship headphone with commensurate pricing ($899-999 for the standard wood models) and the technical performance reflects that.
My main rig for some time has been the Hifiman HE-560 and Cavalli Liquid Carbon. The 560 is priced comparably to the Omni and at one time I found the performance to be about on par, with the Hifiman giving a more balanced presentation but with a lighter and cheaper-feeling build. However when I upgraded to the Cavalli Liquid Crimson, a much more powerful and resolving amplifier, it became clear immediately that the Omni outscales the HE-560 by a good margin. It’s capable of retrieving much more micro-detail, making the HE-560 sound a bit fuzzy in the same way the HE-560 did to my old mid-fi dynamics. The Omni loves power and the more you give it, the more it will give back.
The Omni, as I’ve mentioned is bass-heavy, but that doesn’t come at the expense of the other frequencies. The treble is crisp and snappy with no bothersome peaks, and it’s adequately extended. I have a track that I use to test treble extension and on a headphone with rolled-off treble you simply can’t hear the hi-hat during the verses. The Omni does not have that problem. You should note that the treble too is affected by the chosen wood and I’ll address how shortly.
The mids are not notably bad or notably good. They’re well done and, more important, they’re not recessed. I heard a pre-production model that had some small weirdness in the mids, but Zach promptly fixed that issue for the final tuning. In fact, the entire frequency response feels very natural other than the lifted bass. Because of that, the Omni can really work with many genres where some basshead cans tend to be more one-dimensional.
The Omni is a semi-open headphone, meaning it’s mostly closed but has some openings. This gives it a best-of-both-worlds feel in some respects. The bass benefits from the closed aspects, with its big, heavy feel. The treble, on the other hand, benefits from the open aspects. The soundstage extends out quite a bit further than the other ZMF models (which are all closed). The treble actually extends a bit outside of the sphere delimited by the bass, which can be a little odd sounding on tracks with lots of bass. On more balanced tracks, the discrepancy isn’t noticeable and you just get a nice big soundstage.
[size=20.007px]Relevant Aside[/size]
Here’s the most important thing you need to know about the different wood choices: they all sound far more alike than different. Unless you’re listening to them back to back, you’re going to have a hard time noting the differences. Pick the lightest one or the sexiest looking one or the one whose sonic characteristics seem the best. If it turns out you don’t like the one you got, you won’t like the others either. Remember, all the models are tuned to the exact same frequency response.
As I described in the Vibro review, the hardness of the wood affects the sonic presentation and the weight of the headphone. The harder woods are heavier and tend to have chunkier bass and sharper transients. The softer woods are lighter and tend to have more decay, softening the bass and the transients. I like to think of it as a scale from 1 (soft) to 10 (hard). Cherry is a 1, blackwood is a 10 and walnut is a 5. The exotics tend to fall on the in-between numbers.
**Now I’m going to get into very subjective territory here so take this bit with a grain of salt. Remember: my preferences may not match your own, so keep that in mind when I talk about which I like best.**
I find that the blackwood is the most technically proficient model. It’s got the cleanest presentation with the most detail. It also has the biggest, chunkiest bass, which I found a bit over-the-top until I got used to it. Now that I’m used to it, I think the bass is one of the special aspects of the Omni and I’m happy to get as much of it as I can. I don’t know if I’d like it as my only headphone though. Oh and it’s the heaviest.
It’s worth noting here that the blackwood is $100 more than the other models. This is because the wood is simply more expensive. In my very subjective opinion, it’s worth the extra money. I know that not everyone who has tried multiple models back to back has agreed.
On the other end of the spectrum, you have the cherry. This guy is quite a bit lighter than the blackwood, which is very welcome. The bass is still there and still big, but it’s a bit bloomier. The treble is also a bit laid back compared to the blackwood, letting the mids breathe a bit more. Overall, it’s a more relaxed sound, which, when combined with the lighter weight, makes for an easy listen over a long time.
The walnut tends to be right in the middle in all respects. This is a very safe choice, but while you might think it’s a best-of-both-worlds proposition, I personally feel like it’s actually the opposite. You don’t get the technicality of the blackwood but it’s still on the heavy side. I realize this is just personal preference though. I’m what video gamers call a min/maxer; if you know what that means, you’ll understand my opinion here.
I won’t go into the specifics of any of the exotic woods. They’re not always readily available and Zach always likes to surprise us with new choices. Anything I talk about now might never show up again. Suffice it to say, you can tune your experience a bit with the exotics. Want something almost as technical as the blackwood but with a tad more decay and less weight? How about something as light as the cherry with just a bit more edge? Whichever you pick, they all look amazing.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I want to stress again that all these woods sound like an Omni. You can’t go wrong with any of them so decide which most appeals to you on paper and just go for it.
Anyways, very subjective section over. Now back to normal levels of subjectivity.
The Omni, like all ZMF cans, excels with acoustic genres like bluegrass and jazz. Counter-intuitively, it also rocks with electronica thanks to the wonderful bass. Unlike other ZMF cans, however, the Omni is very good with most every genre I’ve listened to on it.
The ZMF Omni is a the culmination of everything Zach has learned making headphones -- it’s the best headphone he’s ever made. It outperforms other similarly-priced headphones, with looks to match. I highly recommend folks give this headphone a listen and don’t skimp on the amping if you want to hear it really sing. I think you’re really going to like it.
Note: All impressions were with review units provided by Zach (@zach915m). I’ve had a good amount of time with all three standard wood models, as well as the exotic Black Limba wood (shown in the photographs). Thanks to Zach for being so accommodating!
Listening impressions were mostly with the Audio-GD DAC-19, Cavalli Liquid Carbon and Cavalli Liquid Crimson. Cables were variously stock and upgraded cables sold by ZMF.
Oh, if you did read that review, you’ll also have a great amount of background on Zach and ZMF so I am going to eschew that section of this review and just jump into the relevant stuff.
[size=20.007px]Relevant Stuff[/size]
The Omni is ZMF’s current flagship headphone. Some people will tell you that it’s a heavily modified Fostex T50rp planar dynamic headphone. But that doesn’t really do them justice. It has custom wooden cups, new ear pads, new headband straps and pads, new attachments for the cups, all its internal wiring replaced, and other magic modifications. There’s so little of the original headphone left that I’d prefer to say that it’s based on the T50rp.
As with all ZMF headphones, the Omni can be customized in many ways. The most obvious will be your choice of wood. Zach offers it in cherry, walnut and blackwood; he also has seasonal specials where he’ll offer limited editions in rare woods. Besides changing the looks and weight of the headphone, the wood choice will change the sound a bit. Some people tend to get really hung up on this choice so I’ll go into the sonic differences a bit later on.
The construction on these is solid wood, thick metal and sturdy leather. While I can see someone worrying about dinging the softer woods, overall these are a very rugged headphone. This is reflected in the weight, of course. The Omni line ranges in weight from 480g to 600g. The blackwood is the heaviest and I found that I got used to it. In fact, wearing the lighter Omnis after the blackwood feels odd, like it will fall off if I sneeze. I guess brain burn-in works on more than just sound! (For the record, no Omni has yet fallen off my head from a sneeze. Trust me, I have a cold while writing this, so I’ve had plenty of time to test that aspect of the build!)
The weight will obviously be a turn-off for some people. But if you can deal with it, the Omni is a comfortable headphone. The cup pivot system that Zach created for this headphone allows a much better fit with no fiddling, compared to older system. It’s so good that he’s ported it onto his other models now. The earpads are deep and cushy so they should fit anyone with no problems while allowing a seal with minimal fuss. And the headband pad and strap distribute the weight nicely so there are no hot spots that can cause pain during long listening sessions. The leather and pleather ear pads (there are options for both) can trap heat so that’s something to consider for those in the warmer climes.
More Relevant Stuff
Sonically, all ZMF headphones share a common lineage. As you may have read in my Vibro review, Zach unabashedly tunes his headphones to make them sound great with acoustic instruments, which apparently means boosting the bass. The Omni is no different in this respect; it’s bass-heavy and proud of it. If you’re looking for a reference-level balanced tuning, this won’t be the headphone for you. But if you want something that will make an upright bass or acoustic guitar sound like it’s right next to you, you’re definitely in the right place.
The bass is one of the special aspects of the Omni, especially the blackwood variant. The wooden cups shape the bass into a large, all-encompassing entity. And I mean that literally: it feels like the bass surrounds and defines most of the spherical soundstage. Almost every other sound is presented within the bass rather than alongside it or layered above it. But unlike some other bass-heavy headphones, the bass never intrudes into the other frequencies. The mids and treble are presented with clarity despite the potentially booming bass.
It should come as no surprise then to read that the bass extends well into the sub-bass regions and presents a rumble that’s hard to match. I’m not one to really differentiate “impact” and “slam” and some other qualitative bass terms. I’ll just say that as a planar, the bass hits hard with a very detailed feel. Yet it doesn’t feel thin like some planars because of the resonance provided by the wooden cups. It’s a great trick and I think bassheads will appreciate these headphones.
The other star of the show with the Omni is the detail retrieval. This is a flagship headphone with commensurate pricing ($899-999 for the standard wood models) and the technical performance reflects that.
My main rig for some time has been the Hifiman HE-560 and Cavalli Liquid Carbon. The 560 is priced comparably to the Omni and at one time I found the performance to be about on par, with the Hifiman giving a more balanced presentation but with a lighter and cheaper-feeling build. However when I upgraded to the Cavalli Liquid Crimson, a much more powerful and resolving amplifier, it became clear immediately that the Omni outscales the HE-560 by a good margin. It’s capable of retrieving much more micro-detail, making the HE-560 sound a bit fuzzy in the same way the HE-560 did to my old mid-fi dynamics. The Omni loves power and the more you give it, the more it will give back.
The Omni, as I’ve mentioned is bass-heavy, but that doesn’t come at the expense of the other frequencies. The treble is crisp and snappy with no bothersome peaks, and it’s adequately extended. I have a track that I use to test treble extension and on a headphone with rolled-off treble you simply can’t hear the hi-hat during the verses. The Omni does not have that problem. You should note that the treble too is affected by the chosen wood and I’ll address how shortly.
The mids are not notably bad or notably good. They’re well done and, more important, they’re not recessed. I heard a pre-production model that had some small weirdness in the mids, but Zach promptly fixed that issue for the final tuning. In fact, the entire frequency response feels very natural other than the lifted bass. Because of that, the Omni can really work with many genres where some basshead cans tend to be more one-dimensional.
The Omni is a semi-open headphone, meaning it’s mostly closed but has some openings. This gives it a best-of-both-worlds feel in some respects. The bass benefits from the closed aspects, with its big, heavy feel. The treble, on the other hand, benefits from the open aspects. The soundstage extends out quite a bit further than the other ZMF models (which are all closed). The treble actually extends a bit outside of the sphere delimited by the bass, which can be a little odd sounding on tracks with lots of bass. On more balanced tracks, the discrepancy isn’t noticeable and you just get a nice big soundstage.
[size=20.007px]Relevant Aside[/size]
Here’s the most important thing you need to know about the different wood choices: they all sound far more alike than different. Unless you’re listening to them back to back, you’re going to have a hard time noting the differences. Pick the lightest one or the sexiest looking one or the one whose sonic characteristics seem the best. If it turns out you don’t like the one you got, you won’t like the others either. Remember, all the models are tuned to the exact same frequency response.
As I described in the Vibro review, the hardness of the wood affects the sonic presentation and the weight of the headphone. The harder woods are heavier and tend to have chunkier bass and sharper transients. The softer woods are lighter and tend to have more decay, softening the bass and the transients. I like to think of it as a scale from 1 (soft) to 10 (hard). Cherry is a 1, blackwood is a 10 and walnut is a 5. The exotics tend to fall on the in-between numbers.
**Now I’m going to get into very subjective territory here so take this bit with a grain of salt. Remember: my preferences may not match your own, so keep that in mind when I talk about which I like best.**
I find that the blackwood is the most technically proficient model. It’s got the cleanest presentation with the most detail. It also has the biggest, chunkiest bass, which I found a bit over-the-top until I got used to it. Now that I’m used to it, I think the bass is one of the special aspects of the Omni and I’m happy to get as much of it as I can. I don’t know if I’d like it as my only headphone though. Oh and it’s the heaviest.
It’s worth noting here that the blackwood is $100 more than the other models. This is because the wood is simply more expensive. In my very subjective opinion, it’s worth the extra money. I know that not everyone who has tried multiple models back to back has agreed.
On the other end of the spectrum, you have the cherry. This guy is quite a bit lighter than the blackwood, which is very welcome. The bass is still there and still big, but it’s a bit bloomier. The treble is also a bit laid back compared to the blackwood, letting the mids breathe a bit more. Overall, it’s a more relaxed sound, which, when combined with the lighter weight, makes for an easy listen over a long time.
The walnut tends to be right in the middle in all respects. This is a very safe choice, but while you might think it’s a best-of-both-worlds proposition, I personally feel like it’s actually the opposite. You don’t get the technicality of the blackwood but it’s still on the heavy side. I realize this is just personal preference though. I’m what video gamers call a min/maxer; if you know what that means, you’ll understand my opinion here.
I won’t go into the specifics of any of the exotic woods. They’re not always readily available and Zach always likes to surprise us with new choices. Anything I talk about now might never show up again. Suffice it to say, you can tune your experience a bit with the exotics. Want something almost as technical as the blackwood but with a tad more decay and less weight? How about something as light as the cherry with just a bit more edge? Whichever you pick, they all look amazing.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I want to stress again that all these woods sound like an Omni. You can’t go wrong with any of them so decide which most appeals to you on paper and just go for it.
Anyways, very subjective section over. Now back to normal levels of subjectivity.
Relevant Coda
The Omni, like all ZMF cans, excels with acoustic genres like bluegrass and jazz. Counter-intuitively, it also rocks with electronica thanks to the wonderful bass. Unlike other ZMF cans, however, the Omni is very good with most every genre I’ve listened to on it.
The ZMF Omni is a the culmination of everything Zach has learned making headphones -- it’s the best headphone he’s ever made. It outperforms other similarly-priced headphones, with looks to match. I highly recommend folks give this headphone a listen and don’t skimp on the amping if you want to hear it really sing. I think you’re really going to like it.
Note: All impressions were with review units provided by Zach (@zach915m). I’ve had a good amount of time with all three standard wood models, as well as the exotic Black Limba wood (shown in the photographs). Thanks to Zach for being so accommodating!
Listening impressions were mostly with the Audio-GD DAC-19, Cavalli Liquid Carbon and Cavalli Liquid Crimson. Cables were variously stock and upgraded cables sold by ZMF.