paradoxper
Headphoneus Supremus
Ask Steve if the special sauce includes CryoTone tubes.
ZMF Atrium - new open-back co-flagship
- Thread starter DeweyCH
- Start date
erics75
Headphoneus Supremus
I don't think the configuration (otl vs set) matters as much as the execution of the amp and synergy with the Atrium (or whatever headphone a person is using). I find synergy to be most important. And to get that synergy I tend to look at sound characteristics much more than configuration.
For example I find the Atrium to be warm and smooth sounding, with tremendous midbass punch. I find a good compliment to that to be a faster, more neutral sounding amp. In this case the MZ2 otl amp fit the bill. But the Pendant amp is also fast and fairly neutral, and also would be a great pairing. That's a set amp.
The Auteur on the other hand sounds very neutral, with very present treble. I can get fatigued by it on the wrong amp, so I look for amps with a slightly smooth, warm tilt. That would be a Kenzie set amp for me, or a Bottlehead Crack otl amp.
I've had much more success system building when focusing on sound characteristics and synergy more than configuration or specs.
dfiled
500+ Head-Fier
I think this makes sense. This is very preliminary, but I listened to my newly-acquired Atriums last night on a GS-X mini I have at home. I listened to them this morning at work on a Feliks Elise I have at work. Much to my surprise, I think I prefer them on the mini so far. Dynamics are more impressive, drums hits sound snappier, midbass slam is more visceral.
SlothRock
500+ Head-Fier
I also prefer the Atriums on my Ferrum OOR + Hypsos vs. the Euforia 20th AE. It does depend on the song, though, but the reason for me is that the Euforia bumps up the mids to a degree where the vocals can become fatiguing depending the song since vocals are already so emphasized with the Atriums' tuning. For acoustic and soft songs or songs where I really wanna feel the bass impact, the Euforia works great. For everything else, I keep leaning to my SS amp for the Atrium
erics75
Headphoneus Supremus
The mini has been haunting me, one of the few higher end solid states i've not been able to properly demo. I might need to bite the bullet and get one to test. I've yet to find a good solid state that holds it's own with my tube amps, maybe the mini is the one. How does the Elise differ from the mini tonally?
Tchoupitoulas
100+ Head-Fier
I can offer a couple of quick comments about the sound of a DNA amp, generally, and its pairing with the Atrium, specifically. I apologize in advance but these impressions will be irredeemably subjective. Even so, I hope they might help in conveying a sense of how well DNA amps can work with the Atrium.
I have a DNA Stratus. I'll confirm @helljudgement's observation that DNA amps are far from solid-state sounding. I'd characterize the Stratus as being mildly warm with a lovely, slightly rounded and wet sound - quite the opposite of the stereotypical characterization of solid-state amps as having a more clinical, sharper, and drier sound. I should hasten to add that, in my limited experience, this stereotypical characterization of solid-state amps is not always - and is often very far from - accurate.
I opted for the Stratus as my preferred amp because it pairs exceptionally well - indeed, synergistically - with my stable of headphones. I have the HD 600 and HD 800 SDR, both of which benefit from a warmer, wetter sound. I also have the Vérité Open (African Blackwood Ltd). Because this latter headphone has something of a harder-hitting sound, especially with its overall speed and its fast transient attacks, the Stratus complements it beautifully by softening the overall sound ever so slightly. I should also point out that sources ought to be considered here, and the above comments apply to my use of a Mac Mini M1 with Roon (Qobuz and FLAC/ALAC files) to either a Bifrost 2 or a Holo Spring 3 KTE DAC (this latter I got to hear on a loaner tour).
I was fortunate enough, thanks to some kind folks, to be able to audition briefly an Atrium this past week with the same DACs and my Stratus. The Atrium had the full mesh installed. The Auteur pads made for a sound that was both too warm for my tastes (I prefer the HD 600 to the HD 650) and too soft, to the point of being pillowy. Part of the problem here, unquestionably was the pairing of warm components and headphones with the Auteur pads. The Universe pads, however, fixed these issues.
The Atrium now had a stronger, more incisive attack, its macrodynamics were stronger, and it was a good deal more percussive and hard-hitting. At the same time, though, the Atrium remained pleasantly - but not overly - warm and had a gloriously deep and robust bass sound, which was slightly bloomy (in a good way, for me). The mids were outstandingly good, rich and coherent, with enough lift to give male and female vocals an engagingly forward presentation. (I'm not usually much interested in vocal presentations, and can find them overly forward but that wasn't the case here). The Stratus also offers a lovely smooth treble and the Atrium's treble was perfectly pleasant, sweet even, if a little rolled off. The only issue I had with the frequency response pertained to snare hits, which could be a bit sharp and wince-inducing, for me. (I'm particularly sensitive to snare hits, though, and find them painful in real life, so there's nothing really wrong here). Finally, the soundstage was glorious. It was spacious and open-sounding; its width fell somewhere between those of the VO and the HD 800; and its depth and height were superb, perhaps besting those two other headphones (I'd need more time to be able to tell properly). The Stratus is well-known for the soundstage it offers, and here, I suspect, the qualities of both the Atrium and the Stratus came together exceptionally well.
The only area where I felt the Atrium to be lacking, when compared to the VO and HD 800 SDR, was in its resolution. Those other two headphones, though, offer class-leading resolution, and the Atrium's comparative lack of resolution was almost beside the point: it was the pleasing tuning, the expansive and spacious staging, and the inviting bass heft and depth that make the Atrium something really very special.
I'll end with a couple of caveats: I didn't have long with the Atrium and, for this reason, I didn't try it with other amps, so I don't know if the combination with the Stratus was unusually good or not; my lack of experimentation also had to do with the fact that everything clicked into place once I swapped over to the Universe pads. I'm not a fan of what are - to my ears - overly warm headphones like the HD 650, Empyrean, and Aeolus, especially with my warmer chain. What usually bothers me about warm-sounding headphones is a kind of muffled, claustrophobic quality to their sound, especially if they have a pronounced mid-bass emphasis. With its sub-bass depth, the Atrium, by contrast, pulls off the neat - and maybe unique - trick of having a nice warmth to it even as it sounds so spacious and open.
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Do you have the Zahl HM1 yet?
I saw those Cocobolo sets in Chicago, they are gorgeous. It was a very hard choice between them and the Macassar Ebony (which I ended up getting...)
