[VanHai]

Looks Awesome. Fantastic tubes you have there!

Thank you @David222 .

 

[skeeb23]

There were many great combos in the ZMF room at CJ. I loved the Milo amp he had powering I believe it was a Caldera I was listening on.

Any of his tubes were fantastic and I did like what I was hearing out of the new jdslabs collab.

At home I was suggested to try the Cayin iHA-6 for my ZMF and yep, sounds great!! Love the options for that SS.

If I ever get around to trying my BHC again, I know that is a great amp for ZMFs too!

 

[ckhirnigs113]

There were many great combos in the ZMF room at CJ. I loved the Milo amp he had powering I believe it was a Caldera I was listening on.

Any of his tubes were fantastic and I did like what I was hearing out of the new jdslabs collab.

At home I was suggested to try the Cayin iHA-6 for my ZMF and yep, sounds great!! Love the options for that SS.

If I ever get around to trying my BHC again, I know that is a great amp for ZMFs too!

Are you using one of the single-ended outputs with your ZMFs on the iHA-6? I much prefer those to the balanced out with my Auteur.

 

[skeeb23]

Are you using one of the single-ended outputs with your ZMFs on the iHA-6? I much prefer those to the balanced out with my Auteur.

Yes. It's interesting but ZMF is about the only HP that I like the SE inputs better than balanced. The balanced dishes out serious power. I think the SE gives it a tube-like flavor to my music. Love the Closed Atrium on it!

 

[ckhirnigs113]

Yes. It's interesting but ZMF is about the only HP that I like the SE inputs better than balanced. The balanced dishes out serious power. I think the SE gives it a tube-like flavor to my music. Love the Closed Atrium on it!

Agreed. I much prefer my Meze Elite out of the 4-pin XLR, but the Auteur likes the higher output impedance of the SE outs.

 

[Mattyjm]

Yes. It's interesting but ZMF is about the only HP that I like the SE inputs better than balanced. The balanced dishes out serious power. I think the SE gives it a tube-like flavor to my music. Love the Closed Atrium on it!

The XLR out on the IHA-6 has a output impedance of .15 ohms, while the SE out has 10 & 120 ohms on the low and high impedance outout respectively. You probably just like the impedance "mismatch", which can add a little more in the low end and/or tame treble more.

https://goldensound.audio/2022/08/27/cayin-iha6-measurements/

 

[David222]

There were many great combos in the ZMF room at CJ. I loved the Milo amp he had powering I believe it was a Caldera I was listening on.

Any of his tubes were fantastic and I did like what I was hearing out of the new jdslabs collab.

At home I was suggested to try the Cayin iHA-6 for my ZMF and yep, sounds great!! Love the options for that SS.

If I ever get around to trying my BHC again, I know that is a great amp for ZMFs too!

+1 for ZMF & Milo. The transients on this pairing are next level, without sacrificing any timbre/flow

 

[goldwerger]

I’ve got to try the new ZMF/JDS Labs collab amp at CanJam Chicago last weekend

My impressions of it (and picture) are near the top my show writeup. Having an output impedance selector was a smart feature to make it universally usable for all ZMF headphones. More here:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/can...-june-24-25-2023.968710/page-11#post-17626581

 

[dbull12]

The single-ended headphone output on the ZMF/JDS collab is 1/4" right? Does anyone have any thoughts on how much of a benefit there is running ZMFs balanced into it vs single-ended? I've never had an amp with a balanced out but the ZMF/JDS will likely be my next amp and I'm thinking about upgrading my current single-ended headphone cable but probably shouldn't bother getting a very expensive one if I should be switching to balanced with my next amp anyway.

Edit: oops, is it true that there's no single-ended output on the upcoming JDS? If that's the case I should probably hold off on a cable upgrade.

 

[goldwerger]

The single-ended headphone output on the ZMF/JDS collab is 1/4" right? Does anyone have any thoughts on how much of a benefit there is running ZMFs balanced into it vs single-ended? I've never had an amp with a balanced out but the ZMF/JDS will likely be my next amp and I'm thinking about upgrading my current single-ended headphone cable but probably shouldn't bother getting a very expensive one if I should be switching to balanced with my next amp anyway.

Edit: oops, is it true that there's no single-ended output on the upcoming JDS? If that's the case I should probably hold off on a cable upgrade.

in my experience, unless the amp itself sounds different out of its balanced vs. its single ended, which can happen, and then it is a matter of personal taste which you may prefer (experimenting being the way to go), it otherwise makes no difference. I've used my ZMF headphones with both balanced and single-ended amps. ZMF headphones are generally not overly power demanding,and the quality of amplificaiton (e.g. power supply, circuit design, components used) is more important than its quantity. Often though, quality and quantiy come conveniently packed together..

 

[skeeb23]

in my experience, unless the amp itself sounds different out of its balanced vs. its single ended, which can happen, and then it is a matter of personal taste which you may prefer (experimenting being the way to go), it otherwise makes no difference. I've used my ZMF headphones with both balanced and single-ended amps. ZMF headphones are generally not overly power demanding,and the quality of amplificaiton (e.g. power supply, circuit design, components used) is more important than its quantity. Often though, quality and quantiy come conveniently packed together..

This.
I have the Cayin iHA-6 and many don't care for the SE output. However, you can get 10ohm or 120ohm of output from that amp with the SE. It pairs very well with ZMF! All about flavor and preferences.

 

[dbull12]

in my experience, unless the amp itself sounds different out of its balanced vs. its single ended, which can happen, and then it is a matter of personal taste which you may prefer (experimenting being the way to go), it otherwise makes no difference. I've used my ZMF headphones with both balanced and single-ended amps. ZMF headphones are generally not overly power demanding,and the quality of amplificaiton (e.g. power supply, circuit design, components used) is more important than its quantity. Often though, quality and quantiy come conveniently packed together..

This.
I have the Cayin iHA-6 and many don't care for the SE output. However, you can get 10ohm or 120ohm of output from that amp with the SE. It pairs very well with ZMF! All about flavor and preferences.

Thanks! Sounds like I'll probably be fine with SE. @goldwerger I've seen some people say the JDS doesn't have an SE output, but unless I'm mistaken it looks like there's a 1/4" SE output that you were using based on your picture in the CanJam impressions thread. Is that correct?

 

[goldwerger]

Thanks! Sounds like I'll probably be fine with SE. @goldwerger I've seen some people say the JDS doesn't have an SE output, but unless I'm mistaken it looks like there's a 1/4" SE output that you were using based on your picture in the CanJam impressions thread. Is that correct?

I wish I took a closer look, frankly I didn’t pay close enough attention to the plug!

 

[henrix]

I wish I took a closer look, frankly I didn’t pay close enough attention to the plug!

Think that’s a 4.4 balanced…

 

[dbull12]

Think that’s a 4.4 balanced…

Ah yep looks like it. That's too bad but I guess I can get a balanced cable and then also get a ZMF adapter to 1/4" SE for my current amp