[Honeypot]

Just reach out to ZMF if you want it replaced I’m sure @zach915m and his team will take care of you

All sorted out. My mistake

 

[Knee Deep In Epoxy]

I'm a bit confused as to why people say the Arium has "coloured" rather that neutral or accurate sound.

It has one of the most the most natural and controlled timbres I've heard. What's more "accurate" than that?

The one area where it is "enhanced" is in its staging (addictive)... But I don't get the impression that's what people are referring to when talking about it being "coloured"... Otherwise I imagine they'd say the same about the HD800

 

[JackarlTwo]

I'm a bit confused as to why people say the Arium has "coloured" rather that neutral or accurate sound.

It has one of the most the most natural and controlled timbres I've heard. What's more "accurate" than that?

The one area where it is "enhanced" is in its staging (addictive)... But I don't get the impression that's what people are referring to when talking about it being "coloured"... Otherwise I imagine they'd say the same about the HD800

I think it depends a lot on what you mean by neutral and colored. What's neutral to someone might be very different to someone else. Defining neutrality has always seemed like a difficult thing to do in this hobby.

I can see Atrium as "neutral" (or linear) but with some "coloration" in the bass, some warmth in the mid-range and treble yet very natural and accurate throughout the spectrum. That doesn't mean it's heavily colored like a V-shaped headphone might be, or neutral in the same way an LCD-5 or even HD600 would be (for example). When someone says headphone X is neutral it can sometimes sound a bit cold or flat to me.

 

[Mattyjm]

I'm a bit confused as to why people say the Arium has "coloured" rather that neutral or accurate sound.

It has one of the most the most natural and controlled timbres I've heard. What's more "accurate" than that?

The one area where it is "enhanced" is in its staging (addictive)... But I don't get the impression that's what people are referring to when talking about it being "coloured"... Otherwise I imagine they'd say the same about the HD800

people often associate neutral with boring; lacking dynamics and just overall sounding like "nothing". Atrium as we all know doesn't sound like that at all.

I can see how people can find it slightly coloured, especially coming from other "neutral" headphones which (I'm comparison to atrium) are much less flavoured.

 

[goldwerger]

I'm a bit confused as to why people say the Arium has "coloured" rather that neutral or accurate sound.

It has one of the most the most natural and controlled timbres I've heard. What's more "accurate" than that?

The one area where it is "enhanced" is in its staging (addictive)... But I don't get the impression that's what people are referring to when talking about it being "coloured"... Otherwise I imagine they'd say the same about the HD800

it's such a tricky question as, first, it depends on what one means when they use this term. i believe it's usually meant to say that the reproduction of music varies in some way from how thae music originally sounded when played (or would sound if you heard it in person).

The tricky part is that we all pursue this hobby and enjoy finding new headphones which are each a little different. So in fact we all enjoy various colors.

At the end of the day, whatever coloration gives you joy is the right tuning for you...

 

[orbilius]

I agree - it's a tough question to assess. I wouldn't call the Atrium as neutral, but I would consider it tonally accurate. Acoustic instruments sound natural, and the headphone has plenty of dynamics and doesn't needs EQ to sound great. I am listening to Rubber Soul on vinyl and tubes as I type this on the Atriums and couldn't be happier. I have headphones that are better than the Atrium at certain types of music, but these are an great all around set.

 

[betula]

Neutral to me is when no particular feature really draws attention in the sound; nothing is accentuated. It is not a negative term, just a style of tuning/taste. Also, the term is very relative depending on your perspective. Like if you say a dessert is sweet: ok, but how sweet, to whom and compared to what?
Back to my starting thought, to me neutral is neither warm and wet, nor dry and 'cool'. Not dark, not bright. Bass is not emphasised, but it is equally present with the rest of the frequencies. Mids are not super sweet, but not boring either. Treble is not overly bright, but also not dark. A little bit like water versus a soft drink: neutral without any particular flavour. Clear without any immediately distinctive feature.
I also wouldn't consider the Atrium a neutral headphone, but that's fine as I am not after neutrality. I like my bass, I love realistic tone and timbre, a slightly sweeter and more engaging listen.

 

[JackarlTwo]

I agree with these comments. We all have our own reference for what's neutral too. I consider LCD-X pretty neutral for my taste because that's what I'm most familiar with and nothing "stands out" to me. With Atrium everything is just more vibrant.

I believe Goldensound said something similar in his review. It's like using an OLED TV compared to a perfectly calibrated monitor, and everything kind of pops out more, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily inaccurate or unrealistic, and maybe not as accurate as say something like a Susvara. Instruments still sound as they should. Atrium is just a highly musical, natural sounding headphone.

 

[fonna]

All I know is that this is my favorite headphone, and the honeymoon period seems to never end.

 

[funkyfish]

Terribly long waiting time at the moment… Ordered my LTD Edition Canary via the official german dealer mid of March, but they think I won't get it before mid of May Seems like ZMF is quite busy at the moment.

 

[zach915m]

Terribly long waiting time at the moment… Ordered my LTD Edition Canary via the official german dealer mid of March, but they think I won't get it before mid of May Seems like ZMF is quite busy at the moment.

With dealers, best thing to do to
hold them accountable is to make sure you ask them if they have the unit on order, and if they don't, hold them accountable to tell you when they do finally put the order in.

Dealer orders typically ship in 30 to 60 days, so that timeline seems somewhat reasonable fortunately.

 

[Leto Dal]

Terribly long waiting time at the moment… Ordered my LTD Edition Canary via the official german dealer mid of March, but they think I won't get it before mid of May Seems like ZMF is quite busy at the moment.

If you bought from Thomas, unfortunately he tends to overpromise on the delivery date before the sale, to secure this sale. Then it can take months over months till you get your headphone.

 

[funkyfish]

If you bought from Thomas, unfortunately he tends to overpromise on the delivery date before the sale, to secure this sale. Then it can take months over months till you get your headphone.

I did. First it was one week (which seemed weird to me), then end of April, now mid of May. But thanks for mentioning that, so I can mentally prepare

 

[Leto Dal]

I did. First it was one week (which seemed weird to me), then end of April, now mid of May. But thanks for mentioning that, so I can mentally prepare

Thomas is a great guy when it comes to small discounts and after sales support, but the overpromising on delivery dates (sometimes by 2-3 months) and not paying attention to more detailed customer request is something to be aware of. Keep pushing, this can speed things up.

 

[fonna]

Are the auteur pads as deep as the universe pads ?