Rediscovering Radiohead with Atrium Closed recently, the weight that it add to the notes is something I missed in their recordings with many other high end headphones. KID A is absolutely amazing with AC.
ZMF Atrium Closed
- Thread starter goldwerger
- Start date
AudioDuck
Headphoneus Supremus
You are speaking my (musical love) language now! Radiohead is one of my fave bands and I’ll look forward to getting an AC and playing ALL the Radiohead albums with it…
SlothRock
500+ Head-Fier
After a few more hours with the Atrium Closed, I'm ready to share some more in-depth initial impressions!
First off, the bass is everything that has been raved about in this thread. I will start with this: It is NOT boomy. Yes, there are gobs of bass on hand but it is well controlled and lends itself much more towards the sub-bass than mid-bass. And I will add that I think this is probably the best bass I've ever heard in any headphone I've owned to date. It has gotten to the point that whenever I've listened to something else, I'm left wondering how it would sound on the AC and missing that sweet, sweet bass. It adds character to every song, makes you tap your feet that much more and just makes you feel the music so well. I am absolutely in love with the bass that this headphone puts out.
Onto the mids - there were a lot of reviews that talked about vocals sounding more recessed/pushed back relative to the rest of the mix. When I responded that I was worried about this, Zach described the vocals not as being recessed in the way many might think, but just being more relaxed/non-fatiguing. I'd agree with Zach's assessment fully. I don't find the vocals to be recessed - in fact, they are pretty present but they are 100% non-fatiguing and I don't ever hit that point where I might on another headphone where a certain inflection might make me wince. I also think the vocals and instruments sound so natural which is exactly what I loved about the Atrium Open. Guitars just sound right. Vocals just sound right. And to top it off, I could listen for hours as it doesn't fatigue me at all.
Treble is well extended and, I might skewered for this, but I think the Atrium Closed might actually have more detail than the Verite Closed. Maybe it's the newer damping system, but I'm picking up more details in my music than I had been with the Verite and it's been very fun to catch some of those details as I'm listening to familiar songs. Lastly, soundstage is fricken' fantastic. It almost feels like I'm listening to an open-back headphone. Wider/Taller soundstage than the VC's in my opinion, as well.
I haven't been able to compare as much to the VC as I'd like so I don't have a more detailed comparison there just yet but will eventually after enough listening time. So far, I'm extremely impressed. And the best part is, I probably have 10 hours or so on them so far and I know they open up a lot more than most so I'm excited to see how this continues to evolve/get even better over time. Killer headphones.
First off, the bass is everything that has been raved about in this thread. I will start with this: It is NOT boomy. Yes, there are gobs of bass on hand but it is well controlled and lends itself much more towards the sub-bass than mid-bass. And I will add that I think this is probably the best bass I've ever heard in any headphone I've owned to date. It has gotten to the point that whenever I've listened to something else, I'm left wondering how it would sound on the AC and missing that sweet, sweet bass. It adds character to every song, makes you tap your feet that much more and just makes you feel the music so well. I am absolutely in love with the bass that this headphone puts out.
Onto the mids - there were a lot of reviews that talked about vocals sounding more recessed/pushed back relative to the rest of the mix. When I responded that I was worried about this, Zach described the vocals not as being recessed in the way many might think, but just being more relaxed/non-fatiguing. I'd agree with Zach's assessment fully. I don't find the vocals to be recessed - in fact, they are pretty present but they are 100% non-fatiguing and I don't ever hit that point where I might on another headphone where a certain inflection might make me wince. I also think the vocals and instruments sound so natural which is exactly what I loved about the Atrium Open. Guitars just sound right. Vocals just sound right. And to top it off, I could listen for hours as it doesn't fatigue me at all.
Treble is well extended and, I might skewered for this, but I think the Atrium Closed might actually have more detail than the Verite Closed. Maybe it's the newer damping system, but I'm picking up more details in my music than I had been with the Verite and it's been very fun to catch some of those details as I'm listening to familiar songs. Lastly, soundstage is fricken' fantastic. It almost feels like I'm listening to an open-back headphone. Wider/Taller soundstage than the VC's in my opinion, as well.
I haven't been able to compare as much to the VC as I'd like so I don't have a more detailed comparison there just yet but will eventually after enough listening time. So far, I'm extremely impressed. And the best part is, I probably have 10 hours or so on them so far and I know they open up a lot more than most so I'm excited to see how this continues to evolve/get even better over time. Killer headphones.
I agree. It depends also whether these are lower mids, which are more laidack to my ears (such as lower male vocals) vs. upper mids to presence region, which to me are in fact quite forward and more intimate (usually female vocals and instruments in this register).
Overall, timbre is wonderful across the board, making these heapdhones sound so natural. One of the happiest meeting points of natural presentation and enjoyment.
