[Poimandres]

I too ordered a RU7 to see what all the hubbub was about.

In the meantime I decided to hook up my Liquid Platinum Amp (with the nos matched 1975 Voshkods, and tube monger sockets) and the Liquid Platinum DAC, balanced throughout to the Bokeh.

The manual says that the amp and tubes need around 100 hours of burn to sound their best, however I am completely blown away out of the gate. Looking forward to see how the sound transforms over the burn in period.

 

[DavidSerig]

The Bokeh arrived and it is gorgeous. The sound is punchy and wide with a slightly soft top end, not entirely without sparkle.

Sub bass is does not go deep or powerful. Bass is flat and well defined ... notes are not bleeding into one another.

Will I wear them at the poker table? Time will tell. Leakage is a bit high for close seating but with low levels I could get away with it, I think.

I have company arriving tomorrow so these came at a great time to immerse myself in closed back goodness.

These have tough competition at this price point. But if the fantastic looks are worth paying a little extra for, and for me they absolutely are, then the ZMF Bokeh is a sure fire winner!

 

[John Blackshear]

What a time to be alive!!
View attachment IMG_0884.jpeg

 

[idairyou]

Ok I found a method of pad swapping that works for me. It's a combination of BeelzAlBob's and a variation of Zach's method in the Bokeh video.

I use BeelzAlBob's method to get the pad about halfway done. Using this method alone does not get me there at a certain point it gets really hard to get the lip over the groove without some other part of the lip coming loose because of that 1/8th inch difference in size of the cup and pad.

Zach holds it against his chest in his video, but that is a weird angle for me, and it never works, and you can't really slip your finger in if it's up against your chest to continue to use BeelzAlBob's method.

So instead of holding against my chest I hold the cup flat against the table (not to hard of course since I don't want to break the cup) with the cup hanging over the edge of the table so I can continue to slip my finger in and stretch and guide the lip into the groove. Holding the cup against the table on the parts of the pad that I have already in the groove keeps it from sliding out of the groove.

Still not something I want to do too often like I do with the Caldera once every couple of weeks. It's still a bit of a pain.

 

[KaiFi]

Yeah, I did swap back to the hybrid pads a few days ago, and I used the method I described earlier. It does work, but it's not "easy", and it still feels like I'm coming close to tearing the pads. So it's not something I want to do often. That said, I probably won't because the hybrid pads sound the best.

 

[Wes S]

It's been three weeks since I last listened with the Bokeh and my HA300MK2, and man did I miss this sound. As good as the Bokeh/RU7 combo is, this headphone definitely scales up with a full-sized rig.

I just had a 2 hour listening session with my VC's, and now it's Bokeh time and I don't feel anything is lacking going from one to the other, they are just completely different types of awesomeness.

The Bokeh really sings with 300B's, and ya got to love a little tube glow!

Happy Listening.

 

[Atriya]

For those receiving the Bokeh now/recently, what color is the wood? I know the Bokeh page now says "Black Limba", but it was something else when I ordered it. Not sure if Black Limba is what is shipping, or something from earlier.

Trying to figure out which wood on the Salire headphone stand would match my Bokeh coming in next week.

 

[jsmiller58]

It's been three weeks since I last listened with the Bokeh and my HA300MK2, and man did I miss this sound. As good as the Bokeh/RU7 combo is, this headphone definitely scales up with a full-sized rig.

I just had a 2 hour listening session with my VC's, and now it's Bokeh time and I don't feel anything is lacking going from one to the other, they are just completely different types of awesomeness.

The Bokeh really sings with 300B's, and ya got to love a little tube glow!



Happy Listening.

What an amazing set up!!!

 

[zach915m]

For those receiving the Bokeh now/recently, what color is the wood? I know the Bokeh page now says "Black Limba", but it was something else when I ordered it. Not sure if Black Limba is what is shipping, or something from earlier.

Trying to figure out which wood on the Salire headphone stand would match my Bokeh coming in next week.

Oh - the wood is black limba, it's just stained in a deep red/Claret color. I think a contrasting color would work well, like the Oak, walnut or birch stands.

 

[idairyou]

It's been three weeks since I last listened with the Bokeh and my HA300MK2, and man did I miss this sound. As good as the Bokeh/RU7 combo is, this headphone definitely scales up with a full-sized rig.

I just had a 2 hour listening session with my VC's, and now it's Bokeh time and I don't feel anything is lacking going from one to the other, they are just completely different types of awesomeness.

The Bokeh really sings with 300B's, and ya got to love a little tube glow!



Happy Listening.

Agreed, I love listening to these on the 300MKII. During the day at the office on the RS6 DAP, but then get home and put them on the Bliss or the 300MKII and you realize how well they scale.

When I switched to the Hybrid pads last night, the bass reaches even deeper. I think these are my favorite pads for the Bokeh.

Listen to Hok Man Yim: Poems of Thunder. It's a blast on the Bokeh.

 

[Wes S]

Agreed, I love listening to these on the 300MKII. During the day at the office on the RS6 DAP, but then get home and put them on the Bliss or the 300MKII and you realize how well they scale.

When I switched to the Hybrid pads last night, the bass reaches even deeper. I think these are my favorite pads for the Bokeh.

Listen to Hok Man Yim: Poems of Thunder. It's a blast on the Bokeh.

Nice! Once I put the Hybrid Pads on the magic happened, and they have been on there ever since.

 

[hikaru12]

I actually had a really decent sub-bass experience with these last night when plugged into my ZMF Pendant with my Bifrost II and HQPlayer upscaling to 192khz. It was noticeably more intense. Not sure if I had chosen new tracks, was using HQPlayer, or if the cans are showing their true nature after spending some time listening.

A decent amount of physicality and rumble with modern rap. Great time.

Now I am curious about the Atrium's. Would be fun to listen to them. I still really love my Aeolus for more intense orchestral music with the same setup last night. It was just so beautiful and easy on the ears even during complex orchestral arrangements.

I started dabbling with upscaling and realized my DAC doesn't support DSD. (I'm pretty curious bout DSD even if its only a little bit better). I unfortunately do not have any true DSD tracks to test out and I notice the selection is not crazy.

Do you guys prefer DSD? How would you describe it?

I was looking for your review to come in. Looks like the Bokehs and ZMF Pendant are a good match. I listen to a lot of Hip-Hop and RnB, do you think this pairing would do it justice? I also have the BF2 as the DAC powering these guys which is the sweet spot I think. Maybe these scale up like crazy where something like a Yggy or Sonnet Morpheus would be a better match but I think the Bifrost would probably pair to this guys strengths.

 

[cgiammona]

Agreed, I love listening to these on the 300MKII. During the day at the office on the RS6 DAP, but then get home and put them on the Bliss or the 300MKII and you realize how well they scale.

When I switched to the Hybrid pads last night, the bass reaches even deeper. I think these are my favorite pads for the Bokeh.

Listen to Hok Man Yim: Poems of Thunder. It's a blast on the Bokeh.

My hybrid pads are going on this week. I love the Bokeh and the Decware tube Amp at home and with my Fiio App when on the go. Will give this album a listen.

 

[Promee]

I don't mean to get into a cable debate, but I am guessing you all use the third party cables because you need a different length or the quality is different, correct? There is a USB C-USB C cable that is included with the RU7, which works fine and is rather short, correct?

With the iPhone 14, several lightning to USB C cables I had wouldn’t power it on even though they worked with other DACs. Interestingly, the W4 actually didn’t work with one that ultimately worked with the RU7. It was a big cluster. I’m guessing that since iPhone 15 it would be better with straight USB-C, but I sold my RU7, so can’t test…

 

[cgiammona]

With the iPhone 14, several lightning to USB C cables I had wouldn’t power it on even though they worked with other DACs. Interestingly, the W4 actually didn’t work with one that ultimately worked with the RU7. It was a big cluster. I’m guessing that since iPhone 15 it would be better with straight USB-C, but I sold my RU7, so can’t test…

I have the iPhone 15 Pro Max and the stock RU7 cable does not work as well as the ddhifi tc07s due to the power limitations of the iPhone. For IEMs, the RU7 stock cable is fine.