[Monsterzero]

Beautiful gear!

Never heard of Eilen Jewell. Great stuff. Sounds like her vocals are somehow grafted on the original Creedence Clearwater Band, plus some country studio players. Nice!

Yeah she is a Roon recommendation from awhile back. Her bio page on Roon says Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith are her biggest influences.
All of her albums are consistently great. In some ways she reminds me of a female Ray Wylie Hubbard, one of my favs, sans the humor.



and yup, thats Ringo on drums and Joe Walsh on slide guitar

You and Anthony are welcome to come up any weekend and we can do a Mid Hudson listening session.

Owner of three ZMFs (even had a fourth), loved the video, amazing how they keep innovating, and always wish them the greatest continued success...

But am I the only one who wishes (and I know my wish counts for nothing and should count for nothing here, because I am just expressing a personal feeling) they'd stay away from getting too fancy with the colors? All the different colors of the natural wood with the different lacquer finishes are beautiful and I find that that's what ZMF is about. It creates an organic feel about the entire ZMF line-up.

Then moving into Rosson Audio type coloring something is a bit lost. Same with the red-ish chassis and leather straps, etc. I find them beautiful units but slightly less ZMF-y, slightly less natural looking. I think I'm just getting old. Only posting knowing that I am wrong but to see if anyone else feels wrong with me.

I love all of the options that ZMF offers on their designs. Straight up organic wood and leather to mutli colored resin. leather and chassis and everything in between.

Something for everyone.

 

[No Deal]

I own the Eikon and the Atrium. What would the next logical addition be? I am partial to open back headphones.

 

[Pharmaboy]

I own the Eikon and the Atrium. What would the next logical addition be? I am partial to open back headphones.

(this is 100% subjective guesswork)

If you lean towards resolution (you probably do, given those two headphones), then the Verite Open would probably be very interesting. The berylium driver has great speed and resolution, while the overall voicing is IMO ideal ZMF tuning- slightly warm & musical (like other ZMFs, you can change the sound quite a bit by earpad rolling)

If you're jonesing for relaxing warmth and fun, it's the Aeolus all the way. I got mine in the hardest wood possible (at the time it was blackwood), and that headphone really swings. You can effectively fine-tune the sound with recommended ZMF pads: I find the perforated suede universe pads are lights out on the Aeolus.

 

[SlothRock]

Owner of three ZMFs (even had a fourth), loved the video, amazing how they keep innovating, and always wish them the greatest continued success...

But am I the only one who wishes (and I know my wish counts for nothing and should count for nothing here, because I am just expressing a personal feeling) they'd stay away from getting too fancy with the colors? All the different colors of the natural wood with the different lacquer finishes are beautiful and I find that that's what ZMF is about. It creates an organic feel about the entire ZMF line-up.

Then moving into Rosson Audio type coloring something is a bit lost. Same with the red-ish chassis and leather straps, etc. I find them beautiful units but slightly less ZMF-y, slightly less natural looking. I think I'm just getting old. Only posting knowing that I am wrong but to see if anyone else feels wrong with me.

The really crazy colors aren't for me either (I'm the kinda guy that likes blue, grey, black mostly lol) but I love that they're making options for every single person. Even in just the preview posted already, it seems like they're offering very over the top designs for the folks that want it and understated but incredible wood like the Macassar Ebony for people that want more of a classic vibe. I think they're mixing the two very well with this release from what I can see so far

 

[heliosphann]

Owner of three ZMFs (even had a fourth), loved the video, amazing how they keep innovating, and always wish them the greatest continued success...

But am I the only one who wishes (and I know my wish counts for nothing and should count for nothing here, because I am just expressing a personal feeling) they'd stay away from getting too fancy with the colors? All the different colors of the natural wood with the different lacquer finishes are beautiful and I find that that's what ZMF is about. It creates an organic feel about the entire ZMF line-up.

Then moving into Rosson Audio type coloring something is a bit lost. Same with the red-ish chassis and leather straps, etc. I find them beautiful units but slightly less ZMF-y, slightly less natural looking. I think I'm just getting old. Only posting knowing that I am wrong but to see if anyone else feels wrong with me.

Hope you have signs up to warn kids from getting on your lawn...

As always, different strokes for different folks. I think the more options a small manufacturer can provide to their customers, the better. It's not like they're abandoning their classic wood cups, they're just expanding on the popularity and customization of the stabilized sets. We just had Koa, and now Cocoblolo and Macassar Ebony offerings. Hard to get much more classy than those woods!

 

[DigitalScrap]

Owner of three ZMFs (even had a fourth), loved the video, amazing how they keep innovating, and always wish them the greatest continued success...

But am I the only one who wishes (and I know my wish counts for nothing and should count for nothing here, because I am just expressing a personal feeling) they'd stay away from getting too fancy with the colors? All the different colors of the natural wood with the different lacquer finishes are beautiful and I find that that's what ZMF is about. It creates an organic feel about the entire ZMF line-up.

Then moving into Rosson Audio type coloring something is a bit lost. Same with the red-ish chassis and leather straps, etc. I find them beautiful units but slightly less ZMF-y, slightly less natural looking. I think I'm just getting old. Only posting knowing that I am wrong but to see if anyone else feels wrong with me.

I agree about the Atrium in the screencap I posted from the video - I'm not really into the very multicolor options, so a bit too colorful for me, but I know there are plenty who are into that. I doubt that ZMF will ever stop making the more classic designs in various woods though.

 

[Takarajima]

I own the Eikon and the Atrium. What would the next logical addition be? I am partial to open back headphones.

I largely agree with @Pharmaboy 's guess. But if I were you, I might want to get Verite Closed and replace Eikon with VC.
This is simply because (1) Atrium is almost as resolving and detailing as VO, (2) VC and Atrium must be more complementary to my liking than Eikon and Atrium.

Alternatively, you can explore higher-end estats or orthos as well, which is another risky but rewarding quest.

 

[jgwtriode]

Agreed that is kind of a Rosson thing, which is cool, but not my idea of ZMF. But staying more with the wood theme and even the stabilized and resin enhancement is fine. But the multicolor is a bit overboard. I do really like the Ruby headband endcaps and the Amber is nice. Would probably order the Ruby just to match my Airmid amp, which is almost burgundy in current room lighting, albeit more like a Cranberry Red.

Oh well but it's all very subjective. Nice to have lots of choice.

Happy listening and looking,

jgwtriode

 

[goldwerger]

I love the Atrium in Macassar Ebony, and absolutely love the look of it. But I also dig some of those stabilized color. Can totally see the appeal

 

[GenEricOne]

Owner of three ZMFs (even had a fourth), loved the video, amazing how they keep innovating, and always wish them the greatest continued success...

But am I the only one who wishes (and I know my wish counts for nothing and should count for nothing here, because I am just expressing a personal feeling) they'd stay away from getting too fancy with the colors? All the different colors of the natural wood with the different lacquer finishes are beautiful and I find that that's what ZMF is about. It creates an organic feel about the entire ZMF line-up.

Then moving into Rosson Audio type coloring something is a bit lost. Same with the red-ish chassis and leather straps, etc. I find them beautiful units but slightly less ZMF-y, slightly less natural looking. I think I'm just getting old. Only posting knowing that I am wrong but to see if anyone else feels wrong with me.

Seems like different strokes for different folks. The traditional wood colors have been a barrier to entry for me. I just won't buy headphones that use wood that aren't at least as visually exotic as purpleheart wood (my 1060C are in some plastic storage container and I haven't seen them in at least a year).

I wasn't in the market during other stabilized runs but now I kind of am, likely for an Atrium.

I think the cocobolo + all black meets my minimum exotic-ness requirements (depends how fiery/grained/imperfect the cocobolo is--the ones at this timestamp look great to me), but I'm really excited what else Hot Cup Summer may bring to Atriums.

 

[hongky]

I have odd problem with my Atrium XLR cable.
It didn't recognized by Shanling M30, no sound at all from both left & right channel.
But when I use XLR to 4.4m adapter, it work just fine
My dealer send me another cable to try and it's the same
Anyone here have M30 to try ?

Thanks
PS: I have other XLR cables that work fine with M30

 

[SteveM324]

Owner of three ZMFs (even had a fourth), loved the video, amazing how they keep innovating, and always wish them the greatest continued success...

But am I the only one who wishes (and I know my wish counts for nothing and should count for nothing here, because I am just expressing a personal feeling) they'd stay away from getting too fancy with the colors? All the different colors of the natural wood with the different lacquer finishes are beautiful and I find that that's what ZMF is about. It creates an organic feel about the entire ZMF line-up.

Then moving into Rosson Audio type coloring something is a bit lost. Same with the red-ish chassis and leather straps, etc. I find them beautiful units but slightly less ZMF-y, slightly less natural looking. I think I'm just getting old. Only posting knowing that I am wrong but to see if anyone else feels wrong with me.

I have no problem with Zach making the multi-color headphones. Would I buy one? Absolutely not. I think they look cheap and I wouldn't pay LTD prices for them even if they require more work to finish . Obviously some people like them so Zach is making headphones that his customers desire. Nothing wrong with that. I prefer Zach's natural wood finished headphones and I think they're heirloom quality in appearance. The multi-color stabilized wood cups, not so much.

 

[alsorkin]

I have no problem with Zach making the multi-color headphones. Would I buy one? Absolutely not. I think they look cheap and I wouldn't pay LTD prices for them even if they require more work to finish . Obviously some people like them so Zach is making headphones that his customers desire. Nothing wrong with that. I prefer Zach's natural wood finished headphones and I think they're heirloom quality in appearance. The multi-color stabilized wood cups, not so much.

You summarized my feelings exactly.

 

[ckhirnigs113]

I have owned 7 different ZMFs, and they have all been amazing to look at in their own unique ways. After recently owning an Epoxy Resin VC, I can definitely understand the attraction. They are quite impressive to behold in person.

Though for my preferences, I still find myself partial to a ZMF headphone that is a spectacular example of a natural wood. My Manchurian Ash Auteur is a perfect example as well as the Blackwood Auteur I sold to @David A Silva. Both are prime examples of their respective wood types.

I’ve become irrationally picky about my ZMF purchases after owning such beauties. Because I’ve been so spoiled, I can’t bring myself to buy blindly at this point. I may like a particular wood choice on offer, but I want to see the specific wood grain and the symmetry between the two cups before making the purchase. The only way to satisfy this specific form of “ZMF OCD” is to buy used sets or buy from ZMF during something like the November sale where you get to see the particular sets on offer before you buy.

I like that Zach is branching out in his craft. I believe there is a contingent of buyers out there that is eager for some of these super-colorful options. Rest-assured though that Zach will always have plenty of options for those among us that favor the look of natural woods.

 

[mvneufeld]

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