I compared it to the Caldara yesterday and from memory I can compare it to the LCD-5 and a few others.
The Caldara is an amazing headphone. It's also about $2k more than the Tungsten. It has a bit more detail and a little tighter bass when compared to the Tungsten. That said, the Tungsten stacks up very well. I feel like it is easier to listen to when compared to the Caldara. The mids on the Caldara are slightly more forward.
Technically the LCD5 is VERY good but comes across a bit dry and boring with some tracks. IMO, unlike the Tungsten the LCD5 does not play well with all genres. With the right music that is well recorded the 5 is a stunning headphone.
I've also heard the Susvara but not enough to really make a comparison. I heard the Elite a while ago and really liked it. From memory, it's got a deeper V signature with substantially more energy in the low end. It's a fun headphone and great for electronic.
I tend to agree with your thoughts on the Caldera.
Lots of folks seem to think they sound incredibly natural, but I personally thought that they were way too forward in the mids with spicy treble.
Thanks for posting. Looking forward to seeing what people end up thinking about these.
I tend to agree with your thoughts on the Caldera.
Lots of folks seem to think they sound incredibly natural, but I personally thought that they were way too forward in the mids with spicy treble.
Thanks for posting. Looking forward to seeing what people end up thinking about these.
I tend to agree with your thoughts on the Caldera.
Lots of folks seem to think they sound incredibly natural, but I personally thought that they were way too forward in the mids with spicy treble.
Thanks for posting. Looking forward to seeing what people end up thinking about these.
The owner of the Caldera prefers a tube amp for it. I used the Jot and it was pretty smooth to my ears. It definitely had an energetic treble but I'm not too sensitive to it.
The owner of the Caldera prefers a tube amp for it. I used the Jot and it was pretty smooth to my ears. It definitely had an energetic treble but I'm not too sensitive to it.
We have the mantle mesh too if the treble is too hot, with the mantle it's too smooth for me but with different systems etc YMMV.
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I also want to congratulate @Tulon - if there's one person in the industry that I know cares and goes about things the right way it's him. I know how long and how much sweat and tears goes into making something like this and I'm just as excited as the rest of you to get one!
ZMF headphones hand-crafts wood headphones in Chicago, USA with special attention to exceptional sound and craftsmanship.
Stay updated on ZMFheadphones at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
@Tulon what design metric with this headphone makes the sensitivity so low? And is it possible to increase the sensitivity a little, or would that degrade the audio?
@zach915m : Thank you for the kind words and support!
@Hifiearspeakers : The sensitivity is low because the gold we're using for the traces is very thin (and gold is naturally less conductive than silver for example). If we had made the impedance low, similar to LCD-5 or DCA Expanse, the sensitivity would be similar to those. However, because of how we're doing the traces we can't use gold that would be thick enough to get that low in impedance. If we used some thicker silver (as we have in earlier prototypes), the impedance would be in that ballpark (say 20-30 ohms). For example the prototypes I took to NYC earlier this year were identical other than one being 180 ohm gold and the other being about 25 ohm silver.
But is anybody else quite happy the sensitivity is as low as it is / impedance is as high as it is?
Selfishly, it feels like the perfect headphone to justify the time and expense of building/buying (pricey) headphone amplifiers
Not every product needs to be accessible for everybody. Certainly one of the fun aspects of the hobby is finding some of the niche products that just work so well for you.
I have a feeling Wells Milo (or any wells) and Tungsten are going to be a match made in heaven
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Stay updated on ZMFheadphones at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
@Tulon
Apologies for potentially stupid question, but which version (single or double) should scale better with better/more powerful system? Or in different words, which one has the higher potential?
I tend to have some bias towards hard to drive headphones, as they often seem to respond to higher end systems in more interesting ways, so I'm definitely very curious about Tungstens.
@firegon - While I wouldn't feel too confident in giving an open ended answer, single sided requires more current than double sided, so I would suspect single sided would scale more relative to the power of your amplifier.
But is anybody else quite happy the sensitivity is as low as it is / impedance is as high as it is?
Selfishly, it feels like the perfect headphone to justify the time and expense of building/buying (pricey) headphone amplifiers
Not every product needs to be accessible for everybody. Certainly one of the fun aspects of the hobby is finding some of the niche products that just work so well for you.
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