[betula]

I don't know anything about "soon" but there certainly are headphones to be confirmed im development.

Both with the newly developed dynamic drivers and with a new Iteration of the Isodynamic Hybrid Array drivers from Rinaro.

So there are at least 2 new models currently in the making. Personally I don't expect a new release in 2023

Edit: also it has never been claimed that either one would be a flagship level headphone.
I would think the dynamic will be a 109 closed in the same price range.
And the other maybe a open planar at Liric price range

That would be my expectation as well, although nothing has been confirmed, this is just speculation.

 

[Kristofa]

The album is this on Tidal

I found it on Qobuz as well.

 

[DarginMahkum]

I kind of got what Rob was talking about here, he himself admits that a signal at -300 dB should not be audible but i believe what he was meaning was the not the actual sound level was audible but the effect at that level was audible in the perception of depth and positioning, not volume. I thought the Chord product line was over priced shiny boxes but then hearing Rob's talk and speaking with him afterwards , I got what he was trying to do; he is taking an empirical approach with the FPGA by listening to the sound produced by the DAC and then tweeking the programing to get it to sound 'Real'. I then went off to listen to the Chord products Qutest, Mscaler and later on the Mscaler-Dave-Primevera-Meze elite combo (Boy was that a lush sound!). How many Dac developers are doing live recordings and tweeking the dacs output to match the recorded sound to the actual live sound in spatial awareness?
Normal DACs are like we have the best camera in the world, best lense, highest resolution CCD, Calibrated for absolute colour accuracy and light intensity but our brain still tells us that the image captured is not the real thing, Even 3D cameras capturing depth information dont fool the brain, we can still tell its not the real thing.

So what is it that our brains are sensing if our playback sound doesn't make it sound like we're in the environment where the sound was captured? even though the DAC is reproducing the Volume and Frequency response perfectly in the audible range? I Think Rob believes it is those inaudible transients that are normally discarded in Good Dac Design, that carry the spatial information that the brain can compute into differentiating between Live and recorded sound.

Maybe we need to understand the ear/brain more, we used to think it was just an eardrum, anvil and stirrup but now the cochlear hair, size, shape, density and length all play their part in our sense of sound. Maybe we need to change our recording devices (probably the equivalent of the eardrum, anvil, stirrup model at the moment) to capture the information required by the cochlear hairs.

Not the thread to discuss this, just one last reply and I am going to ignore the other replies. I am happy that Chord is around. I had both Hugos, might get the Hugo3 if implements the EQ from Mojo2 and a more easy to recognise interface (e.g. replace the LEDs). And I do get what he is trying to say. Although I have never worked in the audio field, I earn a living with DSP programming at the moment. For sure I don't have the 10% of the experience he has in the audio field. Still objectivity is what pays my bills and my approach to things will be _inherently_ different. Without going through a blind test where I see this is happening, it is not really possible for me to be convinced about the claims and their relation to depth perception. It is about me, not about the happy owners of Chord products or Rob's points. I have other, for me more important critics about the Chord products (e.g. the colored LEDs). For example, I personally don't care about the number of taps, as much as I care about the dual HP outputs, which is useful when I listen together with my wife.

Anyway, peace. Let's move on.

 

[Progisus]

The “coloured balls” are the next best design after sound on Chord products. They can be easily read and interpreted from across the room. I hope they never change this philosophy.

 

[robinsyl]

I won a Chord Mojo 2 at the Hifonix raffle so definitely the best CanJam ever

Somehow both my friend and I missed completely that there was a ZMF/DCS booth upstairs, hopefully something like that will return next year.

I listened to quite a lot of stuff at the show, but I don’t wanna go into detail. I’d just say that, even after listening to much fancier gear and headphones, I’m still in love with my T1s, so that’s saying something.

Yes I was the girl who Rob told me to stop asking questions at the DAC talk, so I’ll just list my thoughts here instead

Spoiler: infodump

Is the number of channels relevant for realistic sound?
Is soundstage depth related to FR?
Why no audiophile microphones? Surely that's the real bottleneck
Is there a benefit in designing DACs and amps together
How much is depth perception related to the room, reverb, and phase between both ears
Are headphones better because we don't have to control for room

 

[miketlse]

I won a Chord Mojo 2 at the Hifonix raffle so definitely the best CanJam ever

Somehow both my friend and I missed completely that there was a ZMF/DCS booth upstairs, hopefully something like that will return next year.

I listened to quite a lot of stuff at the show, but I don’t wanna go into detail. I’d just say that, even after listening to much fancier gear and headphones, I’m still in love with my T1s, so that’s saying something.

Yes I was the girl who Rob told me to stop asking questions at the DAC talk, so I’ll just list my thoughts here instead

Spoiler: infodump

Is the number of channels relevant for realistic sound?
Is soundstage depth related to FR?
Why no audiophile microphones? Surely that's the real bottleneck
Is there a benefit in designing DACs and amps together
How much is depth perception related to the room, reverb, and phase between both ears
Are headphones better because we don't have to control for room

Why don't you ask your questions on his Watts Up thread.
Thread

Many readers on this thread will probably consider the questions OT.

 

[ostewart]

I won a Chord Mojo 2 at the Hifonix raffle so definitely the best CanJam ever

Somehow both my friend and I missed completely that there was a ZMF/DCS booth upstairs, hopefully something like that will return next year.

I listened to quite a lot of stuff at the show, but I don’t wanna go into detail. I’d just say that, even after listening to much fancier gear and headphones, I’m still in love with my T1s, so that’s saying something.

Yes I was the girl who Rob told me to stop asking questions at the DAC talk, so I’ll just list my thoughts here instead

Spoiler: infodump

Is the number of channels relevant for realistic sound?
Is soundstage depth related to FR?
Why no audiophile microphones? Surely that's the real bottleneck
Is there a benefit in designing DACs and amps together
How much is depth perception related to the room, reverb, and phase between both ears
Are headphones better because we don't have to control for room

T1 2nd gen are still one of my favourite headphones even though I don't own a pair.

They're fantastic and scale up really well with good OTL amps.

 

[Rob Watts]

I won a Chord Mojo 2 at the Hifonix raffle so definitely the best CanJam ever

Somehow both my friend and I missed completely that there was a ZMF/DCS booth upstairs, hopefully something like that will return next year.

I listened to quite a lot of stuff at the show, but I don’t wanna go into detail. I’d just say that, even after listening to much fancier gear and headphones, I’m still in love with my T1s, so that’s saying something.

Yes I was the girl who Rob told me to stop asking questions at the DAC talk, so I’ll just list my thoughts here instead

Spoiler: infodump

Is the number of channels relevant for realistic sound?
Is soundstage depth related to FR?
Why no audiophile microphones? Surely that's the real bottleneck
Is there a benefit in designing DACs and amps together
How much is depth perception related to the room, reverb, and phase between both ears
Are headphones better because we don't have to control for room

I remember you well - but I didn't tell you to stop asking questions (as they were good ones) but to save them up to the end with the Q&A session!

I enjoy the questions most from my seminars.

 

[Spyronight]

can someone add more insight to the new zmf prototype headphone? Hiw does it compare to the Verite. I hope its something that can change the market a bit. Just got my he1000 stealths used under 1k and am amazed at the sound, i dont think anything comes close at the prices that hifiman have put their headphones and hope that zmf can follow suite. we need what happened to the iem market in the headphone market.

 

[nijfi]

can someone add more insight to the new zmf prototype headphone? Hiw does it compare to the Verite. I hope its something that can change the market a bit. Just got my he1000 stealths used under 1k and am amazed at the sound, i dont think anything comes close at the prices that hifiman have put their headphones and hope that zmf can follow suite. we need what happened to the iem market in the headphone market.

Here's my brief thoughts on them, with context. I had never heard ZMF before Sunday. The prototypes were the first set of ZMF's I put on and I was immediately blown away by them! I actually got quite emotional about them, they were that engaging compared to anything else I'd heard that day.

I didn't do any pad rolling, I didn't know what pads were on them, and I think, but don't know for sure, that the wood on the prototypes (second pic) was Sapele?, judging by the colour, and perhaps Ironwood on the VC? (first pic).

Comparing them to the VC which I heard afterwards, from my brief impressions and limited vocabulary, the VC definitely seemed to have the wider soundstage, but the prototypes are certainly not lacking in that department, especially for a closed back. Overall sound was 'warm', never analytical, but with plenty of treble sparkle for me without any sibilance. Some lovely clean bass, never getting muddy and good extension when called upon. Fit was very comfortable and isolation from outside noise was good. If you lined them up with the VC and asked me which one was the most expensive i'd be hard pressed to call it. If anything, bar the wider soundstage on the VC, I marginally preferred the prototypes. Whether longer, more detailed, listening would yield a different conclusion, I can't say. What I can say is that I'm very excited by them and quiet frankly, at that price point, I'm almost certain they'll be my next purchase and so will hope to go prepared to next year's CanJam. I'm really liking the 3.5mm cable connections to cups too, as I'm into getting custom cables to 4.4mm for balanced listening on my dx300.

 

[Spyronight]

Here's my brief thoughts on them, with context. I had never heard ZMF before Sunday. The prototypes were the first set of ZMF's I put on and I was immediately blown away by them! I actually got quite emotional about them, they were that engaging compared to anything else I'd heard that day.

I didn't do any pad rolling, I didn't know what pads were on them, and I think, but don't know for sure, that the wood on the prototypes (second pic) was Sapele?, judging by the colour, and perhaps Ironwood on the VC? (first pic).




Comparing them to the VC which I heard afterwards, from my brief impressions and limited vocabulary, the VC definitely seemed to have the wider soundstage, but the prototypes are certainly not lacking in that department, especially for a closed back. Overall sound was 'warm', never analytical, but with plenty of treble sparkle for me without any sibilance. Some lovely clean bass, never getting muddy and good extension when called upon. Fit was very comfortable and isolation from outside noise was good. If you lined them up with the VC and asked me which one was the most expensive i'd be hard pressed to call it. If anything, bar the wider soundstage on the VC, I marginally preferred the prototypes. Whether longer, more detailed, listening would yield a different conclusion, I can't say. What I can say is that I'm very excited by them and quiet frankly, at that price point, I'm almost certain they'll be my next purchase and so will hope to go prepared to next year's CanJam. I'm really liking the 3.5mm cable connections to cups too, as I'm into getting custom cables to 4.4mm for balanced listening on my dx300.

Appreciate the info, will keep a lookout for them

 

[yapp]

Here's my brief thoughts on them, with context. I had never heard ZMF before Sunday. The prototypes were the first set of ZMF's I put on and I was immediately blown away by them! I actually got quite emotional about them, they were that engaging compared to anything else I'd heard that day.

I didn't do any pad rolling, I didn't know what pads were on them, and I think, but don't know for sure, that the wood on the prototypes (second pic) was Sapele?, judging by the colour, and perhaps Ironwood on the VC? (first pic).




Comparing them to the VC which I heard afterwards, from my brief impressions and limited vocabulary, the VC definitely seemed to have the wider soundstage, but the prototypes are certainly not lacking in that department, especially for a closed back. Overall sound was 'warm', never analytical, but with plenty of treble sparkle for me without any sibilance. Some lovely clean bass, never getting muddy and good extension when called upon. Fit was very comfortable and isolation from outside noise was good. If you lined them up with the VC and asked me which one was the most expensive i'd be hard pressed to call it. If anything, bar the wider soundstage on the VC, I marginally preferred the prototypes. Whether longer, more detailed, listening would yield a different conclusion, I can't say. What I can say is that I'm very excited by them and quiet frankly, at that price point, I'm almost certain they'll be my next purchase and so will hope to go prepared to next year's CanJam. I'm really liking the 3.5mm cable connections to cups too, as I'm into getting custom cables to 4.4mm for balanced listening on my dx300.

Great info. Thank you!
What source, dac and amp did you try the prototype with?

 

[nijfi]

Great info. Thank you!
What source, dac and amp did you try the prototype with?

You're welcome. A pleasure to report on such a beautiful headphone to me on every level.

I used my iBasso DX300 on balanced 4.4mm. They were very easy to drive. Although the DX300 is pretty capable of driving most things tbf, although not all obviously, lol.

 

[erik701]

Hey, does any one recognize the brand and model of these?

Photo from HifiPig's London CanJam Report

Thank you in advance.

 

[Cabbages]

Hey, does any one recognize the brand and model of these?

Photo from HifiPig's London CanJam Report

Thank you in advance.

It's the Nan-7, made by a small chinese company called Nan-Z I think.