I spend my listening time about 50/50 between my OTL and the Violectric v550. Different presentations for different moods and genres
ZMF Atrium Closed - the latest closed back headphone from ZMF
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RestoredSparda
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I feel you. I too battle OCD. But with recent medication I'm much more able to handle the symptoms. Sometimes it gets away from me, like being up till 4 am the last 3 nights trying to figure out why the treble on my Atrium sounded so bad. I swapped probably 25 tubes in my amp, changed cables, tried different outlets, power conditioner or straight from the wall, different streamer settings, on and on and on....all while having intense anxiety and racing thoughts.
Finally cracked the code last night and things are all good. Reminder next time to take it slow and not give in to trying the next fix and the next and the next.
I'm surprised I still have a tube amp honestly. But when everything is sounding good it's sounding REALLY good and I can just get lost in music and completely forget about the gear.
Anyways, sort of off topic but I had to comment. Lol.
geoffalter11
Headphoneus Supremus
It is amazing on tubes. Just sayin'....
Nittany 86
New Head-Fier
@Monsterzero Thanks for another great installment of HeadKarma. Always appreciate the comments you give related to music genres. If you were focusing listening on Hard Rock, Folk, Blues would your go-to be the AC or would you pair AO or another ZMF model instead?
If you aren't listening to anything super fast and heavy you should be fine with Atrium open.
geoffalter11
Headphoneus Supremus
I love the AO with rock, blues, and bluegrass and psychedelic rock. Love it! Love the AC too, though. Sorry not that much help. They are very different but both wonderful with crunchy improvisational music.
Thank you for the compliment. It's appreciated.
Hard Rock, I'd go Atrium open for a more intense experience, or Atrium closed for a more relaxed, but visceral experience.
Blues I'd go Atrium closed, regardless of whether we're talking old blues like Howlin' Wolf or new electric blues, either way the bass on the AC is going to help older thinner recordings, or newer stuff like Buddy Guy, which has much better production and dynamics will be accentuated by the bottom end of the AC.
For folk music you can literally go with pretty much any ZMF, as for me folk is all about the tone and the mids, two areas where all ZMF headphones excel at.
Nittany 86
New Head-Fier
This is really helpful insight. Thanks!
SlothRock
500+ Head-Fier
Awesome review per usual man! Curious your thoughts on which between the AC or VC would be your preferred “all arounder”. I found the AO to be my fav ZMF as an all around headphone because of it’s ZMF Neutral profile, but from reading multiple reviews it sounds like the AC isn’t neutral in the same way and is more of a fun headphone which is also awesome.
But if you had to choose one to play all your music as an all arounder, what do you think you’d choose at this point?
That's a tough question to answer without context.
The users chain is going to play a big role in how the AC sounds. Like my Lampi DAC made the AC with the lambskin pads total bass overkill for many genres. Your amp is also going to dictate how this headphone sounds as well, perhaps moreso than on other ZMF headphones. And I'm not talking about the typical tube vs. solid state debate either. @zach915m can chime in here, but I feel that perhaps it's an amp impedance thing that can impact the bass response one way or the other.
When I dropped the 7802 tubes into the Airmid the AC sounded downright neutral. If I'm understanding things correctly, 7802 tubes lower the output impedance more than 6as7g or 6080s do.
Honestly I feel that most ZMF headphones can be excellent all-arounders. Obviously certain ZMFs are going to sound better than others on specific genres, but I don't think any ZMF fails on any genre, but if I had to pick just one ZMF to be , it would probably be the VC.
Fortunately, I don't have to choose just one
SlothRock
500+ Head-Fier
Super fair and I totally agree - I’ve only had two ZMF’s but neither have ever been “bad” at any genre and I’ve loved both of them as well. Appreciate your response!That's a tough question to answer without context.
The users chain is going to play a big role in how the AC sounds. Like my Lampi DAC made the AC with the lambskin pads total bass overkill for many genres. Your amp is also going to dictate how this headphone sounds as well, perhaps moreso than on other ZMF headphones. And I'm not talking about the typical tube vs. solid state debate either. @zach915m can chime in here, but I feel that perhaps it's an amp impedance thing that can impact the bass response one way or the other.
When I dropped the 7802 tubes into the Airmid the AC sounded downright neutral. If I'm understanding things correctly, 7802 tubes lower the output impedance more than 6as7g or 6080s do.
Honestly I feel that most ZMF headphones can be excellent all-arounders. Obviously certain ZMFs are going to sound better than others on specific genres, but I don't think any ZMF fails on any genre, but if I had to pick just one ZMF to be , it would probably be the VC.
Fortunately, I don't have to choose just one
jgwtriode
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Another Brilliant review Monster! Soundstage was a bit of a concern from what I have read previously. But I am wondering now that Caldera Suedes seem to be the standard thick pad as opposed to thick lambskin variant is that going to drop some of the staging. That has been my experience with Suede on both the Auteur Blackwood and on my VC leopardwood. So I am curious about your thoughts on that Monster. I would certainly go hardwood and most likely a harder wood then Olive.
Leopardwood is fine but on absolute basis I may have been happier with a 3K+ Janka wood. But I love their look and much prefer them to my old Auteurs. So will see what Zach has in the goodie bag for LTD's towards the end of the year.
So you would say the AC creates a larger more coherent stage than the VC? That is a big deal to me.
What about the speed of notes, does the AC give up that much to the VC?
Since you are discussing output impedance on the Airmid. Where would the tungsol 5998's and WE 421A's fall on that scale.? A bit lower perhaps?
I do feel like I get a reasonably neutral slighly warmish overall sound, and with just a hint of sweetness that I never quite got out of the Auteur, despite. I never felt like the VC was bright after break in, even against the Auteur Blackwood. The Auteur actually had a slightly harder upper midrange that was more fatiguing in long listening. Did not have the National Unions in back then in my Airmid though, so that could account for some of that!
One of the things that also seem to help with some of this tunnng thing is surprisingly not just my Shun mook pucks, but to a greater degree Orya's memory jitter software that I load into memory and tune directly with Process Lasso. It's obviously a Jplay thing. But does not require it.
Oh well I have always found you have a better handle on how Zach's phones end up sounding to me, so you always pull me back into the mix Monster!
Before I forget, could you hear the difference from Keenan changing the cathode bypass resistors to Riken's.
Anyway once again thank you for a superlative review,
jgwtriode
Leopardwood is fine but on absolute basis I may have been happier with a 3K+ Janka wood. But I love their look and much prefer them to my old Auteurs. So will see what Zach has in the goodie bag for LTD's towards the end of the year.
So you would say the AC creates a larger more coherent stage than the VC? That is a big deal to me.
What about the speed of notes, does the AC give up that much to the VC?
Since you are discussing output impedance on the Airmid. Where would the tungsol 5998's and WE 421A's fall on that scale.? A bit lower perhaps?
I do feel like I get a reasonably neutral slighly warmish overall sound, and with just a hint of sweetness that I never quite got out of the Auteur, despite. I never felt like the VC was bright after break in, even against the Auteur Blackwood. The Auteur actually had a slightly harder upper midrange that was more fatiguing in long listening. Did not have the National Unions in back then in my Airmid though, so that could account for some of that!
One of the things that also seem to help with some of this tunnng thing is surprisingly not just my Shun mook pucks, but to a greater degree Orya's memory jitter software that I load into memory and tune directly with Process Lasso. It's obviously a Jplay thing. But does not require it.
Oh well I have always found you have a better handle on how Zach's phones end up sounding to me, so you always pull me back into the mix Monster!
Before I forget, could you hear the difference from Keenan changing the cathode bypass resistors to Riken's.
Anyway once again thank you for a superlative review,
jgwtriode
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Thank you!
Again, to my ears and in my system the AC has the largest stage of any closed back I have ever heard. It isn't night vs. day difference vs. the VC in sheer size, but it is larger to my ears.
To be honest I really didn't enjoy the suede pads, and realized that almost immediately. In the pre-edited version of my review I spoke about how the suede pads made my ears sweat after a very short time. That section of the review ended up on the proverbial cutting room floor, but I just can't hang with discomfort when listening.
Frankly I really do not recall how the suede pads impacted the stage. Perhaps @goldwerger can chime in on that?
I probably would give the speed factor to the VC, but like the Atrium open, it does just fine up to the fastest of thrash metal tracks. The bass decay is where you might hear some overlap, depending upon the hardness of the wood and pads used.
Another segment of my review that did not make the final cut was where I spoke about how the harder wood AC is a bit snappier and slightly brighter vs. softer wood AC. again not a night and day difference, but I did notice it while doing my A/Bing out of the v550, which BTW can drive two ZMFs simultaneously brilliantly and makes doing comparisons an absolute breeze.
I will defer to some of our more astute tubeologysts on that one. I believe the 7802 drops the impedance farther than either the 421a or the 5998, but don't quote me on that. Perhaps @L0rdGwyn can clarify?
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I remain with the Suede pads on my hard wood AC. I really love this combination. For me, the suede pads take off a little of the sub-bass while retaining most of it in a non-exaggerated way while eliminating the bleed of bass to the mid offering a clean transition. High mids/presence regions (e.g. vocals) are not as forward and more balanced. TLDR, the suede pads retain the core character of the AC bass heaviness, but tame the transition to high frequencies for a more tonally balanced experience.
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