[Rhamnetin]

I'll be getting my fourth soon as well. First had Blackwood, then Ori, then Classic, and soon Eikon LTD. I'm expecting the Eikon to be clearly the best closed back I will have ever heard. High expectations, but so far ZMF has exceeded them every time (granted my expectations for the Blackwood and Ori weren't as high due to lack of experience with ZMF).

 

[EarDrumExplode]

You hit the quadfecta. Lucky man!

what about the ash

 

[GrussGott]

what about the ash

It's pretty sweetash

 

[ohcrapgorillas]

Well, RIP Atticus.

I kept my Crack/Atticus combo on campus over the weekend since I was out of town and had no reason to drag it back home. Mind you, it was working flawlessly on Friday.

Today, I turned it on, powered it up, and didn't put on the headphones for a while... until I heard a pop from the headphones. I put them on and only heard a low freq hum from the Crack. Now, when I plug the Atticus into my MCTH, both channels have a very high pitched hum and the right channel is much quieter than the left.

Keep in mind, over the last two weeks, I've also lost a DAC and most of my tubes. I do not have the finances to recover from this. It feels like it's about time to just give up and sell everything but the KSC75.

 

[gLer]

Well, RIP Atticus.

I kept my Crack/Atticus combo on campus over the weekend since I was out of town and had no reason to drag it back home. Mind you, it was working flawlessly on Friday.

Today, I turned it on, powered it up, and didn't put on the headphones for a while... until I heard a pop from the headphones. I put them on and only heard a low freq hum from the Crack. Now, when I plug the Atticus into my MCTH, both channels have a very high pitched hum and the right channel is much quieter than the left.

Keep in mind, over the last two weeks, I've also lost a DAC and most of my tubes. I do not have the finances to recover from this. It feels like it's about time to just give up and sell everything but the KSC75.

Very sorry to hear this! Reach out to @zach915m - I'm sure he'll make a plan. Good luck.

 

[Henrysharoop]

Well, RIP Atticus.

I kept my Crack/Atticus combo on campus over the weekend since I was out of town and had no reason to drag it back home. Mind you, it was working flawlessly on Friday.

Today, I turned it on, powered it up, and didn't put on the headphones for a while... until I heard a pop from the headphones. I put them on and only heard a low freq hum from the Crack. Now, when I plug the Atticus into my MCTH, both channels have a very high pitched hum and the right channel is much quieter than the left.

Keep in mind, over the last two weeks, I've also lost a DAC and most of my tubes. I do not have the finances to recover from this. It feels like it's about time to just give up and sell everything but the KSC75.

Damn that sucks, hopefully Zach can fix you up. At least the KSC75 is solid tho. Good luck

 

[ohcrapgorillas]

I might have jumped the gun... I plugged in my ZMF Classic into the MCTH and heard the same static. I restarted the Modi Multibit and it seems to have been the problem. Running the Atticus out of the CTH right now and there's nothing wrong.

False alarm re: headphones, but the heart attack it gave me was real.

 

[erics75]

I might have jumped the gun... I plugged in my ZMF Classic into the MCTH and heard the same static. I restarted the Modi Multibit and it seems to have been the problem. Running the Atticus out of the CTH right now and there's nothing wrong.

False alarm re: headphones, but the heart attack it gave me was real.

both my mimby and bimby have issues where they randomly stop working or make odd buzzing sounds, then after a power cycle, they're fine for weeks or months on end. thankfully they've never caused any loud popping sounds though. glad to hear everything is back up and running for you!

 

[Henrysharoop]

I might have jumped the gun... I plugged in my ZMF Classic into the MCTH and heard the same static. I restarted the Modi Multibit and it seems to have been the problem. Running the Atticus out of the CTH right now and there's nothing wrong.

False alarm re: headphones, but the heart attack it gave me was real.

Glad you found the issue early on.

I might have jumped the gun... I plugged in my ZMF Classic into the MCTH and heard the same static. I restarted the Modi Multibit and it seems to have been the problem. Running the Atticus out of the CTH right now and there's nothing wrong.

False alarm re: headphones, but the heart attack it gave me was real.

Glad you found the issue and it wasn't the headphone. That's an interesting problem with the Mimby tho.

 

[Pharmaboy]

I might have jumped the gun... I plugged in my ZMF Classic into the MCTH and heard the same static. I restarted the Modi Multibit and it seems to have been the problem. Running the Atticus out of the CTH right now and there's nothing wrong.

False alarm re: headphones, but the heart attack it gave me was real.

Relieved to hear your Atticus is OK. After all, this headphone cost more than any these components you mention...

It also makes intuitive sense: headphones being entirely passive (albeit wired) devices, they seem less likely to fail than electronics-containing active components whose parts counts are dozens of times higher than any headphone.

 

[ohcrapgorillas]

The real risk with the Crack is DC voltage on the headphone output. I fried a HD600 driver that way, and have yet to replace it...another recent casualty that I haven't mentioned but that is just as upsetting as the loss of the SDAC and 5998. I think the total losses of audio gear over the last couple months comes out to about $500 if my tubes are indeed dead (it seems obvious now that it's the Crack itself, not the tubes, that's having issues... but whether the tubes have survived remains to be seen). In any case, the Crack uses two 100uF output capacitors to filter out the DC. Because of my now-dead HD600, I was extremely sensitive to wiring the output stage correctly and to measure for VDC before plugging anything in. When I heard one of my tubes going bad and the amp started producing a low-freq hum instead of music, I immediately unplugged my headphones and measured for VDC on the output and didn't find any. The point of all this is to say that if it would have fried my headphones earlier today, I would have been really surprised because whatever is causing this weird tube-wrecking behavior is definitely not putting DC into the output. I have been really really careful to keep the Crack and Atticus apart from each other until I know for damn sure that nothing is going to happen to them. That made my heart attack earlier that much worse, because I HAD taken precautions and been very careful...

Anyway, this isn't a Crack troubleshooting thread, so I'll shut up now and move my overcaffeinated ranting to the Bottlehead forums. Very very very relieved that my Atticus are still fine.

 

[phthora]

The real risk with the Crack is DC voltage on the headphone output. I fried a HD600 driver that way, and have yet to replace it...another recent casualty that I haven't mentioned but that is just as upsetting as the loss of the SDAC and 5998. I think the total losses of audio gear over the last couple months comes out to about $500 if my tubes are indeed dead (it seems obvious now that it's the Crack itself, not the tubes, that's having issues... but whether the tubes have survived remains to be seen). In any case, the Crack uses two 100uF output capacitors to filter out the DC. Because of my now-dead HD600, I was extremely sensitive to wiring the output stage correctly and to measure for VDC before plugging anything in. When I heard one of my tubes going bad and the amp started producing a low-freq hum instead of music, I immediately unplugged my headphones and measured for VDC on the output and didn't find any. The point of all this is to say that if it would have fried my headphones earlier today, I would have been really surprised because whatever is causing this weird tube-wrecking behavior is definitely not putting DC into the output. I have been really really careful to keep the Crack and Atticus apart from each other until I know for damn sure that nothing is going to happen to them. That made my heart attack earlier that much worse, because I HAD taken precautions and been very careful...

Anyway, this isn't a Crack troubleshooting thread, so I'll shut up now and move my overcaffeinated ranting to the Bottlehead forums. Very very very relieved that my Atticus are still fine.

Have you considered getting a power conditioner? Sounds like you have some dirty AC in that building (older college campus building, I think?). I had the same issue in the 50 year old classroom where I teach and a power conditioner cleaned up the sound quite a bit. Plus, it offers a lot more protection against surges and such. Glad your Atty is okay.

 

[ohcrapgorillas]

Have you considered getting a power conditioner? Sounds like you have some dirty AC in that building (older college campus building, I think?). I had the same issue in the 50 year old classroom where I teach and a power conditioner cleaned up the sound quite a bit. Plus, it offers a lot more protection against surges and such. Glad your Atty is okay.

Oh yeah, the power supply in this building is narsty. I mean, everything about this building is hilariously bad, but let's not even go there. I actually snagged some cheapo Middle Atlantic PD-915R power conditioners from the campus surplus for free. We use the same thing to power our mass spec and associated equipment. I can't tell you whether or not it makes a difference because I've never tried to hook things up here without one of those, but the building power is definitely Bad.

 

[zach915m]

Well, RIP Atticus.

Hey hey if anything did ever happen like that we would just replace the drivers for you as the OG owner. It's a normal use accident so, your atticus wouldn't have to suffer etc. Anyways let us know if we can help in anyways - glad it sounds like they are OK!

 

[Nick-s-f]

@zach915m

If one purchases b-stock zmf headphones through paypal, how does one get a shipment tracking number? I sent you an email regarding this, but not sure if you received or read it yet.