[George Hincapie]

They just released a higher model streamer with the same headphone amplifier, so don’t think you’ll see a new HE model anytime soon.

https://www.naimaudio.com/product/nsc-222
NSC 222 is also equipped with the full Naim technology for headphone listening, which is inherited from the Uniti Atom Headphone Edition

The Atrium sounds best with tubes, so HE not ideal anyway unless you add a tube headphone amp to it. At the last SoCal CanJam, I felt the HE with the Caldera held up quite well to what else was out there. Caldera sounds best to me on solid state and the HE has a great punch with plenty of texture. Similar to what I heard of the Ferrum Oor setup. I came away from the event feeling I had nothing to upgrade. I already upgraded power cable and have ZMF Verite Silver headphone cable which added subtle improvements.

I use Atrium with tubes, but I don't see why it couldn't also sound good with a SS amp.

 

[iamoneagain]

I use Atrium with tubes, but I don't see why it couldn't also sound good with a SS amp.

I think they still can but Zach responded to my reply about the Atrium vs the Caldera on the Felks Envy and said something about how the dynamic drivers have a bigger range of variation than Planars. I’ll try to find his reply.

I heard the Atrium and the Caldera on the dcs Lina stack ($30k) and felt both just sounded ok. Really believe the Caldera sounds better on the HE. But then switched to the Felks Envy and they both improved but the Atrium just shined. Very liquid sounding especially in the mids. More musical than the Caldera. When I got to the Ferrum Orr, which has a similar punchy, textured sound like the HE, the Caldera sounded better than the Atirum. More detail, control, texture. And maybe if had the choice, the Atrium with Felks Envy would be overall winner.

If you want a good SS amp for the Atrium why not try the new Homage amp? I only got to try with my Caldera and it was just ok. Not sure the impedance setting. Just didn’t have the same punch and weight of the HE but that switch might have made a difference?

I found his post. It really doesn’t give preference to SS vs tube, just that dynamic scale differently. So the Atrium are 300 ohms while the Caldera are 60 ohms and the Utopia are 80 ohms. So could be how they tuned the HE to work best with Focal and sounds better with lower ohm headphones.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/zmf-caldera-new-planar-magnetic-from-zmf.964836/post-17833131

 

[George Hincapie]

I think they still can but Zach responded to my reply about the Atrium vs the Caldera on the Felks Envy and said something about how the dynamic drivers have a bigger range of variation than Planars. I’ll try to find his reply.

I heard the Atrium and the Caldera on the dcs Lina stack ($30k) and felt both just sounded ok. Really believe the Caldera sounds better on the HE. But then switched to the Felks Envy and they both improved but the Atrium just shined. Very liquid sounding especially in the mids. More musical than the Caldera. When I got to the Ferrum Orr, which has a similar punchy, textured sound like the HE, the Caldera sounded better than the Atirum. More detail, control, texture. And maybe if had the choice, the Atrium with Felks Envy would be overall winner.

If you want a good SS amp for the Atrium why not try the new Homage amp? I only got to try with my Caldera and it was just ok. Not sure the impedance setting. Just didn’t have the same punch and weight of the HE but that switch might have made a difference?

I found his post. I really doesn’t give preference to SS vs tube, just that dynamic scale differently. So the Atrium are 300 ohms while I the Caldera are 60 ohms and the Utopia are 80 ohms. So could be how they tuned the HE to work best with Focal and sounds better with lower ohm headphones.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/zmf-caldera-new-planar-magnetic-from-zmf.964836/post-17833131

I am thinking about Bliss, Oor or HeadAmp CFA3 for a SS amp to complement my LTA MZ3.

 

[iamoneagain]

I am thinking about Bliss, Oor or HeadAmp CFA3 for a SS amp to complement my LTA MZ3.

The Oor supposedly needs their power supply to sound best. The good thing it that is a small compact unit that takes up just about the same table space as the Naim. Would just be a tad taller if you also get their dac. The bliss is quite a beast. It’s not very high but much bigger than I thought it would be. They also say it gets hot. I regret not giving it a try at CanJam. Just when saw size I knew I didn’t want as my headphone setup. I hear great things about it but more for the Caldera than the Atrium. Still mostly hear people prefer their tube setup for the dynamic ZMF.

I did get to hear the CFA3 but once again I regret not testing it with my Caldera. I kept trying the Susvara on different setups and I wasn’t a fan, it lacked bass and punch. It was only on the CFA3 that I understand the love it gets. Think that’s the only headphone I listened on it. It’s not too bad on size. Little bigger than the HE.

Now everything you mentioned is just amps, so you’d still need dac and streamer. The HE could be used as preamp and then hook up any amp. Only issue is you can’t plug HE directly into pc. Has no UBS input other than memory cards. So that can be limiting. Can bypass with usb to optical or coaxial.

 

[George Hincapie]

The Oor supposedly needs their power supply to sound best. The good thing it that is a small compact unit that takes up just about the same table space as the Naim. Would just be a tad taller if you also get their dac. The bliss is quite a beast. It’s not very high but much bigger than I thought it would be. They also say it gets hot. I regret not giving it a try at CanJam. Just when saw size I knew I didn’t want as my headphone setup. I hear great things about it but more for the Caldera than the Atrium. Still mostly hear people prefer their tube setup for the dynamic ZMF.

I did get to hear the CFA3 but once again I regret not testing it with my Caldera. I kept trying the Susvara on different setups and I wasn’t a fan, it lacked bass and punch. It was only on the CFA3 that I understand the love it gets. Think that’s the only headphone I listened on it. It’s not too bad on size. Little bigger than the HE.

Now everything you mentioned is just amps, so you’d still need dac and streamer. The HE could be used as preamp and then hook up any amp. Only issue is you can’t plug HE directly into pc. Has no UBS input other than memory cards. So that can be limiting. Can bypass with usb to optical or coaxial.

Nice reply. Thank you.

 

[iamoneagain]

I posted this pic in the Caldera thread but think there are very few setups I could have pulled this off with. This is why I love the Naim HE. One box in the living room and I’m good to go. I used to have the Dave/mscaler and was such a pain to move around and setup. With the HE, I can throw in bedroom and be ready to go within a minute.

 

[joefig44]

I have the Utopia 22 heading my way and also bought a used Ferrum Erco coming.

Has anyone compared the Erco to the Uniti Atom? Even better if you've done it with a Utopia.

 

[George Hincapie]

I think they still can but Zach responded to my reply about the Atrium vs the Caldera on the Felks Envy and said something about how the dynamic drivers have a bigger range of variation than Planars. I’ll try to find his reply.

I heard the Atrium and the Caldera on the dcs Lina stack ($30k) and felt both just sounded ok. Really believe the Caldera sounds better on the HE. But then switched to the Felks Envy and they both improved but the Atrium just shined. Very liquid sounding especially in the mids. More musical than the Caldera. When I got to the Ferrum Orr, which has a similar punchy, textured sound like the HE, the Caldera sounded better than the Atirum. More detail, control, texture. And maybe if had the choice, the Atrium with Felks Envy would be overall winner.

If you want a good SS amp for the Atrium why not try the new Homage amp? I only got to try with my Caldera and it was just ok. Not sure the impedance setting. Just didn’t have the same punch and weight of the HE but that switch might have made a difference?

I found his post. It really doesn’t give preference to SS vs tube, just that dynamic scale differently. So the Atrium are 300 ohms while the Caldera are 60 ohms and the Utopia are 80 ohms. So could be how they tuned the HE to work best with Focal and sounds better with lower ohm headphones.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/zmf-caldera-new-planar-magnetic-from-zmf.964836/post-17833131

Atrium sounded amazing on Bartok Apex.

 

[George Hincapie]

I posted this pic in the Caldera thread but think there are very few setups I could have pulled this off with. This is why I love the Naim HE. One box in the living room and I’m good to go. I used to have the Dave/mscaler and was such a pain to move around and setup. With the HE, I can throw in bedroom and be ready to go within a minute.

The SQ can't be the same though. I suspect HE is picky about which cans work with it; it sounded boring with Atrium to my ears. I'm told Focal are better but I've never heard them, so no idea.

 

[iamoneagain]

The SQ can't be the same though. I suspect HE is picky about which cans work with it; it sounded boring with Atrium to my ears. I'm told Focal are better but I've never heard them, so no idea.

I personally don’t think I’m sacrificing sound quality either for my all in one setup. The couple of meets I’ve attended, nothing stood out significantly better with the Caldera. The HE provides great weight, texture, richness, and sense of space. It is not the most detailed or airy setup I’ve heard. But has one of the better balances of technical and fun. I’ve only heard the original Utopia, Expanse, and Caldera out of it.

The Atrium open I only got to hear at the last SoCal CanJam in Zach’s ZFM room. I just heard out of the Feliks Envy, dcs Lina stack, and Ferrum Oor stack. It sounded by far the best out of the Envy and maybe better than Caldera. Less technical but much richer mids and most liquid musical sound.

If you’re hung up on the Atrium, look elsewhere from the HE. Not much more to be said. But that doesn’t mean the HE is a boring setup for others or even a lesser unit. All about synergy.

 

[George Hincapie]

I personally don’t think I’m sacrificing sound quality either for my all in one setup. The couple of meets I’ve attended, nothing stood out significantly better with the Caldera. The HE provides great weight, texture, richness, and sense of space. It is not the most detailed or airy setup I’ve heard. But has one of the better balances of technical and fun. I’ve only heard the original Utopia, Expanse, and Caldera out of it.

The Atrium open I only got to hear at the last SoCal CanJam in Zach’s ZFM room. I just heard out of the Feliks Envy, dcs Lina stack, and Ferrum Oor stack. It sounded by far the best out of the Envy and maybe better than Caldera. Less technical but much richer mids and most liquid musical sound.

If you’re hung up on the Atrium, look elsewhere from the HE. Not much more to be said. But that doesn’t mean the HE is a boring setup for others or even a lesser unit. All about synergy.

I'm not hung up on them. HE has been on my radar for ages; just want to make sure I can find synergy with the cans I have, or which are on my list. I own Sundara, Arya SE, AO, VC, and Aeolus. Going to add Caldera, AC (Auteur Classic) and HE1000SE. So as long as one or more pairs will work well, then I'll go for it.

 

[iamoneagain]

I mean if you really like the HE than can use as a preamp into another headphone amp for the ones it doesn’t synergize with. But hard to tell how much of its sound is the dac vs the amp without testing. I never got to try it as a preamp. I thought of going this route when thought the Caldera was maybe being held back by the HE. But the Caldera and Atrium have totally different requirements, so if you want the best out the Atrium, already sounds like the HE on its own is out of the question. There’s a whole amp thread for ZMF and most of its recommendation for the 300 ohm dynamics.

I’m not trying to discourage you but also wanting others to know it a can actually be a pretty great setup on its own depending on the headphones. I’m still looking at all the possibilities out there for the Caldera within my requirements. So I’m not loyal to Naim just for the sake of it. Just haven’t found any replacements for it either. But who knows what’s coming in next few years.

 

[George Hincapie]

I mean if you really like the HE than can use as a preamp into another headphone amp for the ones it doesn’t synergize with. But hard to tell how much of its sound is the dac vs the amp without testing. I never got to try it as a preamp. I thought of going this route when thought the Caldera was maybe being held back by the HE. But the Caldera and Atrium have totally different requirements, so if you want the best out the Atrium, already sounds like the HE on its own is out of the question. There’s a whole amp thread for ZMF and most of its recommendation for the 300 ohm dynamics.

I’m not trying to discourage you but also wanting others to know it a can actually be a pretty great setup on its own depending on the headphones. I’m still looking at all the possibilities out there for the Caldera within my requirements. So I’m not loyal to Naim just for the sake of it. Just haven’t found any replacements for it either. But who knows what’s coming in next few years.

Actually, Atrium has amazing synergy with the LTA MZ3 I own. SS wise, I am also considering the Holo Audio Bliss, which seems like a beast.

 

[iamoneagain]

Actually, Atrium has amazing synergy with the LTA MZ3 I own. SS wise, I am also considering the Holo Audio Bliss, which seems like a beast.

Looked up the size. It’s only about 2.5” tall but it’s almost 17” across by 12” deep. Just takes up more desktop space than expected. So for me, where would I even try to put that. It also has a very long wait time on ordering and not sure if can listen locally other than meets. Don’t think used units come up too often. I’ll check it out at CanJam but mostly interested in the Caldera closed this year than equipment.

 

[George Hincapie]

Looked up the size. It’s only about 2.5” tall but it’s almost 17” across by 12” deep. Just takes up more desktop space than expected. So for me, where would I even try to put that. It also has a very long wait time on ordering and not sure if can listen locally other than meets. Don’t think used units come up too often. I’ll check it out at CanJam but mostly interested in the Caldera closed this year than equipment.

I know a lot of people like to collect both open and closed versions of the cans, but at £3K a pair each, plus VAT @ 20%, that seems excessive to me. If the only ZMF you bought were Caldera Open and Closed, then that doesn't seem excessive. I only bought my VC because my wife often sits next to me reading and I don't like to disturb her with my Taylor Swift LP

Bliss is big, but I have a huge rack so that's fine. For you, look at Ferrum Oor with Hypsos.