[Hifiearspeakers]

Black Sabbath's titular album is just perfection is one of albums that is just constantly on rotation on every listening session. Warning is one of my favorite metal tracks with one of the best guitar solos and the Atrium fully encapsulate that dark, grungy feel and just a treat to listen.

Lately I've been on a Rush binge and the Atrium once again shine with the way it renders guitars and drums. Caress of Steel, 2112, Fly by Night the list goes on. Definitely give The Necromancer a listen on the Atrium.

Hell yeah! And don’t sleep on the drum solo in the middle of Tom Sawyer. Love the way drums sound on the Atrium.

 

[goldwerger]

cross posted:

---

Hi everyone,

Since posting my review of the Decware // Reference ZMF OTL amp earlier this year, I've received a few private messages with questions from current and prospective owners. I thought it may be a good idea at this point to create a public thread, so knowledge can be captured and widely shared.

I've finally set it up, including links to ZMF product resources. I hope owners can help share their experiences here on anything from tube rolling, headphones, and chain synergies, to tips and advice, thanks..:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/decware-reference-zmf-otl.969513/

 

[JackarlTwo]

I finally got around to trying the Verité (lamb perforated) pads, which I believe are the flattest/ thinnest pad ZMF makes. They remind me a lot of the BE2 Suede pads which I personally love. Coming from Caldera Ultra Perf pads you immediately notice the smaller stage of the Verité pads, but you still have some good staging. The Atrium tonality is absolutely still there, it's almost like you put a pair of speakers in a completely different room. A bit more aggressive, in your face kind of sound.
Nothing really stands out and everything seems super balanced. More "zippy" comes to mind. I can definitely see why some people would love the Verité pads on Atrium, but I'll probably stick to the Caldera or Auteur pads.

 

[Clemmaster]

OMG, am I the only one having so much trouble putting those darn pads on?!
I have little patience for this and am getting extremely frustrated trying to put the Ultra Perf on…

 

[heliosphann]

OMG, am I the only one having so much trouble putting those darn pads on?!
I have little patience for this and am getting extremely frustrated trying to put the Ultra Perf on…

There's two methods you can try:

-Flip the pad lip inside out, mate it to the cup and then flip it back over and thread it in the cup groove. Here's a video:



-The other method is to hook one portion of the pad lip onto the cup groove. Then you use a finger to thread the pad lip all the way around. Rotating the pad while threading it can also help. This way can be a bit tricky depending on how tight the pad's lip is.

 

[Clemmaster]

There's two methods you can try:

-Flip the pad lip inside out, mate it to the cup and then flip it back over and thread it in the cup groove. Here's a video:



-The other method is to hook one portion of the pad lip onto the cup groove. Then you use a finger to thread the pad lip all the way around. Rotating the pad while threading it can also help. This way can be a bit tricky depending on how tight the pad's lip is.

I just feel I’m gonna rip it if I try method 2.
I did method 1 but it took me many attempts because the lip would just flip back underneath the pad at some point and then it’s game over…

Anyway, it was all worth it in the end: the ultra perf are incredible on the AO!

 

[Patmach]

I just feel I’m gonna rip it if I try method 2.
I did method 1 but it took me many attempts because the lip would just flip back underneath the pad at some point and then it’s game over…

Anyway, it was all worth it in the end: the ultra perf are incredible on the AO!

A little tip for putting on the pads (method 1): do like bicycle tires, little by little and towards the end go in the opposite direction to avoid the problem you are talking about. You will give us your detailed impressions, for my part it is difficult for me to choose between the universe and the ultra perf

 

[JackarlTwo]

I like the first method (shown in video). It's a little bit tricky the first few times but after a while it becomes like second nature. It's probably easier if you have bigger hands. What I like to do after you get a bit over half-way is to use your other hand and work from the inside, sort of just dragging it over. Hard to explain over text. But the material is flexible and high quality so you shouldn't have to worry about damaging anything.

 

[heliosphann]

I like the first method (shown in video). It's a little bit tricky the first few times but after a while it becomes like second nature. It's probably easier if you have bigger hands. What I like to do after you get a bit over half-way is to use your other hand and work from the inside, sort of just dragging it over. Hard to explain over text. But the material is flexible and high quality so you shouldn't have to worry about damaging anything.

I've done A LOT of pad swapping over the last 5 years on ZMF heapdhones, and I've never had any pad lips rip. The material is very resilient.

 

[DeepBrown]

Hey all,

A couple of weeks ago I posted about my Atriums being stuck in customs. I thought I'd give an update; I ended up going to the airport they were held at and self-cleared them. The process was overall pretty smooth, and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who gets their shipment held and is close enough to clear it.

So, for a week and a half I've had my pair of Redwood Burl Atriums. I have some thoughts although I'm sure I'm not done with the burn in process. It's a fun experience to get to listen for the attributes that you see people talk about on this forum, like the openness and richness of the mid-range. I can definitely attest to the Atrium having those qualities, and I think coming from the Verite Closed it's easiest for me to think about how the two shift my focus in how I listen. Immediately I noticed how much more vocals were grabbing me. I've been appreciating the space in good mixes, and the lifelike timbre of well recorded drum kits. There's an organic nature to the Atrium that can make it more emotional than the VC at times. This could be partially because of how much vocal performance dictates emotion in vocal-driven music. That's not to say the VC isn't still a fantastic headphone, but I find the two moreso shift my focus to different areas of any given song.

Regarding the Redwood Burl, I don't have other Atriums to compare the sound to but the weight is very nice, there is quite a difference between my resin VC and this Atrium. It's quite beautiful as well, I've included some photos but it's difficult to capture it.

In terms of pads, I decided to have my first listen through the Caldera ultra perf pads to get a different perspective from most people who are switching to them after already being familiar with the Atrium. I definitely like these pads the best, I also tried the Auteur lambskin and the universe lambskin afterwards. While I noticed some excess energy in the upper mids on some tracks, switching to the Auteur or universe pads didn't seem to change that, and it actually seemed like the highs were a bit smoother overall on the caldera pads. This was only on some tracks however, which I somewhat attribute to imperfect mixes. The caldera pads for me give a really nice presence in the highs, while maintaining enough bass presence and also feeling very open.

Finally, I tried the solid mesh as well and while it did tame the excess energy on pretty much any track, I find it took too much away from what I'm loving about these headphones. Even though some tracks I have to turn down a little, the stock mesh gives the sound a more engaging and visceral experience for me. The solid mesh dulled things a bit too much for me.

That's all for now, I didn't want to ramble too long but I might've anyways. I've been wanting to contribute my own experience here for years so I'm glad I'm doing it now.

 

[jinxy245]

Hey all,

A couple of weeks ago I posted about my Atriums being stuck in customs. I thought I'd give an update; I ended up going to the airport they were held at and self-cleared them. The process was overall pretty smooth, and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who gets their shipment held and is close enough to clear it.

So, for a week and a half I've had my pair of Redwood Burl Atriums. I have some thoughts although I'm sure I'm not done with the burn in process. It's a fun experience to get to listen for the attributes that you see people talk about on this forum, like the openness and richness of the mid-range. I can definitely attest to the Atrium having those qualities, and I think coming from the Verite Closed it's easiest for me to think about how the two shift my focus in how I listen. Immediately I noticed how much more vocals were grabbing me. I've been appreciating the space in good mixes, and the lifelike timbre of well recorded drum kits. There's an organic nature to the Atrium that can make it more emotional than the VC at times. This could be partially because of how much vocal performance dictates emotion in vocal-driven music. That's not to say the VC isn't still a fantastic headphone, but I find the two moreso shift my focus to different areas of any given song.

Regarding the Redwood Burl, I don't have other Atriums to compare the sound to but the weight is very nice, there is quite a difference between my resin VC and this Atrium. It's quite beautiful as well, I've included some photos but it's difficult to capture it.

In terms of pads, I decided to have my first listen through the Caldera ultra perf pads to get a different perspective from most people who are switching to them after already being familiar with the Atrium. I definitely like these pads the best, I also tried the Auteur lambskin and the universe lambskin afterwards. While I noticed some excess energy in the upper mids on some tracks, switching to the Auteur or universe pads didn't seem to change that, and it actually seemed like the highs were a bit smoother overall on the caldera pads. This was only on some tracks however, which I somewhat attribute to imperfect mixes. The caldera pads for me give a really nice presence in the highs, while maintaining enough bass presence and also feeling very open.

Finally, I tried the solid mesh as well and while it did tame the excess energy on pretty much any track, I find it took too much away from what I'm loving about these headphones. Even though some tracks I have to turn down a little, the stock mesh gives the sound a more engaging and visceral experience for me. The solid mesh dulled things a bit too much for me.

That's all for now, I didn't want to ramble too long but I might've anyways. I've been wanting to contribute my own experience here for years so I'm glad I'm doing it now.

Gorgeous photos and a really good write up there.
Enjoy!

 

[Tchoupitoulas]

Daft question of the day: if you leave ZMF a note when placing an order, does it show up on the receipt page? I ask because I ordered a pair of Bimble Box Burl Atrium last night and I'm not sure if the note I left went through.

 

[LXMc]

Daft question of the day: if you leave ZMF a note when placing an order, does it show up on the receipt page? I ask because I ordered a pair of Bimble Box Burl Atrium last night and I'm not sure if the note I left went through.

If you go to 'order lookup' at the bottom of the store page and put in your info there, you'll get a slightly more detailed page that will have your note - it doesn't show up in the emailed receipt or under your account (that i've found anyway)

 

[Tchoupitoulas]

If you go to 'order lookup' at the bottom of the store page and put in your info there, you'll get a slightly more detailed page that will have your note - it doesn't show up in the emailed receipt or under your account (that i've found anyway)

Perfect, thank you so much! I really appreciate the suggestion.

 

[zach915m]

We definitely see all notes and that a really good tip to see what you have in our file. I'll try to find a way to incorporate the notes into the email reminders we do as well.