ZMF Atrium - new open-back co-flagship

[David A Silva]

I admire your creative solution!!!

 

[Pharmaboy]

A headphone addict with a puppy does what he has to do to get his listening in

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Suddenly I picture you in one of those big shark cages...you and all your stuff in your room with a giant extension cord coming from the panel.

"Nothing can get through these bars"

 

[Velozity]

Ok folks - I’ve went ahead and purchased the Susvara. I love love love my Atrium, but the Susvara has been an itch I’ve been meaning to scratch for some time now and I’m excited to put it through its paces and see which one comes out ahead as the best pairing with my VC. I’ll let y’all know all the comparisons and which way I end up leaning after it’s all said and done. May take awhile tho as I wanna give both the Atrium and Susvara ample amounts of time before coming to any kind of final conclusion. And, who knows, maybe I just keep all 3

I will be very interested in your impressions as well. Either an Atrium or Susvara may be my next headphone.

 

[tinariwen]

The Glenn OTL has a more romantic sound compared to the Euforia. Instruments hold more weight, images aren't as sharp as other amps (fuzzy around the edges), mid bass hits harder, and has a big sound stage (side/side and front/back). Tubes really change the sound of the GOTL.

The Euforia has a more solid state like presentation. Sharper outline, faster, with more extension. The amp is clearer and you don't have background noise (if this bothers you) compared to the GOTL. It's all about synergy really. I wouldn't pair the HD650 with the GOTL but that headphone sounds amazing on the Euforia. I would definitely pair ZMF Auteurs with the GOTL but think it's ok with the Euforia.

On the other hand, I would pair the Verite Open, Auteurs, and HD650 with the ZMF Pendant any day of the week.

That’s really interesting, thanks for the answer. It sounds a lot like the GOTL has the same characteristics as the Cayin HA-6A. I loved that amp with the VC, but with the Atrium it was too soft. The Euforia on the other hand really pairs well with it.

It seems like you’d put the pendant above both. Why is that?

 

[zach915m]

That’s really interesting, thanks for the answer. It sounds a lot like the GOTL has the same characteristics as the Cayin HA-6A. I loved that amp with the VC, but with the Atrium it was too soft. The Euforia on the other hand really pairs well with it.

It seems like you’d put the pendant above both. Why is that?

Did you swap tubes with the 6a? I find the Kt88 and other 6550 and such variants are a lot more transiently sufficient than the el34 tubes that come with it.

 

[WillieB]

Did you swap tubes with the 6a? I find the Kt88 and other 6550 and such variants are a lot more transiently sufficient than the el34 tubes that come with it.

I don't have the ha-6a because it was out of stock everywhere when I tried to buy one a few months ago. I ended up with the Bigger Ben Rev2 and my favorite power tubes with ZMF headphones are Winged C 6550 or 6L6GC. Another honorable mention are Gold Lion KT77s in place of EL34s. They are so close to the tone of 6550s. I have Winged C KT88s as well, but haven't spent much time with them yet.

 

[Monsterzero]

"Nothing can get through these bars"

My puppy is already close to 60lbs and not yet five months old! He's a monster ( pun intended)

In all seriousness though, he's become less destructive, but with vacuum tubes and wooden headphones easily within his reach, I'd rather be safe than sorry.
And I dig the shark cage analogy. I refer to him as the Tiger Shark.

 

[Monsterzero]

Gold Lion KT77s

I like those tubes a lot in my DAC.

 

[Erwinatm]

A headphone addict with a puppy does what he has to do to get his listening in

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What....this is the biggest tube cage I ve ever seen......LOL peace.

 

[Phantaminum]

It seems like you’d put the pendant above both. Why is that?

Both the amps have their own strengths but it comes to down to preference. The Pendant does so many things well that going up in price to other amps nets you the last few percentage in performance. It’s a jack of all trades.

 

[David A Silva]

My puppy is already close to 60lbs and not yet five months old! He's a monster ( pun intended)

In all seriousness though, he's become less destructive, but with vacuum tubes and wooden headphones easily within his reach, I'd rather be safe than sorry.
And I dig the shark cage analogy. I refer to him as the Tiger Shark.

Sheesh - do you have an Anatolian Shepard??? 10+ lb/month puppy - WoW

 

[Xcalibur255]

It's also worth mentioning as far as Glenn OTL amps go that it is very common for owners to run them with rectifiers that introduce higher levels of voltage drop than originally intended. If you stick with the 3DG4 (a few other low Vdrop tubes like the 5AR4 will do it too) the amp will give you a generally faster and cleaner sound. The 5U4G family of rectifier tubes will put the amp more in "romantic" territory with the extra voltage drop. There's no right or wrong answer to which tube to use but the voltage drop of the rectifier directly affects the operating points of the other tubes in the circuit and that's something to keep in mind with amps like these.

 

[Monsterzero]

Sheesh - do you have an Anatolian Shepard??? 10+ lb/month puppy - WoW

The Tiger Shark is a Perro de Presa Canario, or Presa for short, which is the national mammal of the Canary Islands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presa_Canario

He's our guardian and bed hog

 

[hk29]

He's beautiful! He's only 5 months?!? He looks well behaved, but still I think you might need a bigger cage

Re: Midrange is really special after some brain burn-in
I've been listening to the Atriums for about 10 days (e.g., 10hrs?). I purchased them used with 250hrs. With brain burn-in (those capacitors are pretty stiff these days), the midrange/vocals have become really special. When I first put them on, I could tell there was something special about the staging, but the rest felt "regular". But today, something changed, the midrange is rich in tonality, detailed, with a lovely 3D stage. I hear the vocals clearly - this is probably the first headset across (Audeze LCD2, HD800, Ethers 1.1 Open, Meze Empyreans) that I can make out the words clearly. I think its because the spoke words are nicely separated with the instruments. There's less vocal blur or blending. And when there is bass, whoah, its nice. I'm a little of bass head so I might need to EQ on occasion Maybe a Loki in the future. My current chain is: iPad -> Yggy A1/Unison -> MJ2 (amperex bugle boy) -> Norne Drausk.

Re: Isolation
My only complaint is I wish there was less isolation. I have 2 young kids that I like to make sure I can hear them and I usually listen at night when they're asleep. I remember with my planars' I could hear more of my surroundings. But with the Atriums and HD6xx, I hear less -- I suspect it has to do with the physics of a dynamic vs. planar open back designs, e.g., planars are larger thinner membranes and/or Atriums with the acoustic chamber. And I'm taking just a wee bit more isolation - I suspect for most folks this is a real positive.

Re: Pads
I ordered the BE2 suede pads (also after watching DMS's review) to see if it reduces the isolation and to see if i like a more neutral tone. I have to give a huge thank you to ZMF for making pads accessible. There are other headphones in which their pads are just super expensive. At ~$60-$70 a pop, you really can afford to pad roll and experiment relatively easy. Thank you ZMF!

 

[tinariwen]

Did you swap tubes with the 6a? I find the Kt88 and other 6550 and such variants are a lot more transiently sufficient than the el34 tubes that come with it.

Yeah, I went through quite a lot. The fastest, most neutral combination was the PSVane KT88s with RCA Clear Tops, and whilst that got close to the speed of the Euforia, it just wasn’t quite enough.

The Euforia only works well for the Atriums (for me). I much preferred the 6A with the VCs and Aeolus. I must prefer those with a more traditional tube sound.