[MatW]

Yeah, I have the leather strap.

I haven't tried the suede strap, but if you need only a little extra this might indeed be worth exploring. If you do go with the pilot pad, make sure you remove the leather strap, as it makes the pilot pad fit better, and make very sure to tighten the screws again afterwards, to avoid the cups dropping off, like happened to me... (Fortunately without damage )

 

[Rowethren]

From your memory, do you think it could be too warm / too sloppy in the bass for the VC?

I have the Mojo/VC which I take on holiday (holidays? What is this strange concept...) and never found the combination too warm compared to my desktop Mjolnir 2/Gungnir Multibit.

Don't get me wrong the Mojo is certainly warmer, has a bit less detail and a slightly more closed in sound but considering the cost and package size it is pretty decent.

I will say though that whether something sounds too warm is incredibly subject so YMMV.

 

[pkcpga]

Yeah, I understand that need for some more neutrality (that's why I own the Utopia as a complement for my VC...).

Hey, thanks a lot! It definitely help me.
Can't wait for your Mojo / Lotoo Paw S1 quick comparison...

I currently have the mojo, A&K 380, Fiio m15 for portable dac/players. I personally haven’t used the mojo much in a few years, not because it doesn’t sound great. I just hate the iPhone to mojo two part dongle to the mojo. I found it easier to just use a dap and not drain my phone battery. And using the mojo with an iPad is not great unless you’re sitting at desk then I’d use a desktop amp. I also found myself using Tidal mqa and the mojo does not play mqa, most likely due to it was released before mqa existed.
The mojo with VC is a good combo, warm sounding, does really well with jazz. Not as technical in the bass region, definitely a bit slower then any of my other dacs/daps. Which for me works well for jazz/blues since a more intimate warmer sound does well. Horns still have a decent edge, vocals have a great texture for a portable. With classical and anything where micro dynamics in bass are needed the mojo definitely doesn’t do as well as the A&K or Fiio m15. All three power the VC well, A&K requires the attachable extra power boosting amp. The Fiio m15 adds a bit more air to the highs, doesn’t necessarily add more separation just a little more space and air. The Fiio m15 speeds the bass up(quicker decay), adds a little micro dynamics in bass but overall dynamics I wouldn’t say are better. The mojo has more sub bass, Fiio sub bass is hard hitting also but quicker. The mojo is a more “fun” listen, works better with pop and poor recording over the Fiio m15 which seems to be less forgiving.
For the hell of it I ran both as dacs only, line out to my pendant amp. The Fiio m15 dac definitely has more finesse and control when connected to a better amp. The mojo’s bass can get to be too much when matched with powerful amp like the pendant. The mojo also has more pronounced rolling of its vocals, giving them more of a syrupy texture. But to be fair the pendant is a tube amp matched with a dac that’s trying to sound tube like.
My regular dac with the pendant has been my chord Dave, which is a great combo. Although I’ve been tempted to update my dac since it is aging and I like listening to VC’s in my bedroom. While I typically like leaving the Dave in my listening room for my speaker set up. And my current office set up doesn’t mesh well with the VC’s, so that’s staying with Focal headphones and KEF LS50 speakers. Just haven’t decided what dac to buy, one for the bedroom or one to replace the Dave in my listening room that has older Nautilus speakers and my LCD4’s. Please no one suggest Schiit. I’ve heard a few Schiit dacs, they are very good but definitely not the Dave.

 

[breckstar]

I currently have the mojo, A&K 380, Fiio m15 for portable dac/players. I personally haven’t used the mojo much in a few years, not because it doesn’t sound great. I just hate the iPhone to mojo two part dongle to the mojo. I found it easier to just use a dap and not drain my phone battery. And using the mojo with an iPad is not great unless you’re sitting at desk then I’d use a desktop amp. I also found myself using Tidal mqa and the mojo does not play mqa, most likely due to it was released before mqa existed.
The mojo with VC is a good combo, warm sounding, does really well with jazz. Not as technical in the bass region, definitely a bit slower then any of my other dacs/daps. Which for me works well for jazz/blues since a more intimate warmer sound does well. Horns still have a decent edge, vocals have a great texture for a portable. With classical and anything where micro dynamics in bass are needed the mojo definitely doesn’t do as well as the A&K or Fiio m15. All three power the VC well, A&K requires the attachable extra power boosting amp. The Fiio m15 adds a bit more air to the highs, doesn’t necessarily add more separation just a little more space and air. The Fiio m15 speeds the bass up(quicker decay), adds a little micro dynamics in bass but overall dynamics I wouldn’t say are better. The mojo has more sub bass, Fiio sub bass is hard hitting also but quicker. The mojo is a more “fun” listen, works better with pop and poor recording over the Fiio m15 which seems to be less forgiving.
For the hell of it I ran both as dacs only, line out to my pendant amp. The Fiio m15 dac definitely has more finesse and control when connected to a better amp. The mojo’s bass can get to be too much when matched with powerful amp like the pendant. The mojo also has more pronounced rolling of its vocals, giving them more of a syrupy texture. But to be fair the pendant is a tube amp matched with a dac that’s trying to sound tube like.
My regular dac with the pendant has been my chord Dave, which is a great combo. Although I’ve been tempted to update my dac since it is aging and I like listening to VC’s in my bedroom. While I typically like leaving the Dave in my listening room for my speaker set up. And my current office set up doesn’t mesh well with the VC’s, so that’s staying with Focal headphones and KEF LS50 speakers. Just haven’t decided what dac to buy, one for the bedroom or one to replace the Dave in my listening room that has older Nautilus speakers and my LCD4’s. Please no one suggest Schiit. I’ve heard a few Schiit dacs, they are very good but definitely not the Dave.

Are those zebrawood VCs in your picture?

 

[pkcpga]

Are those zebrawood VCs in your picture?

Yeah, I’ll take a photo with the pendant one of these days. Zebra, black magnesium and brass with I believe Rosewood Pendant.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

I currently have the mojo, A&K 380, Fiio m15 for portable dac/players. I personally haven’t used the mojo much in a few years, not because it doesn’t sound great. I just hate the iPhone to mojo two part dongle to the mojo. I found it easier to just use a dap and not drain my phone battery. And using the mojo with an iPad is not great unless you’re sitting at desk then I’d use a desktop amp. I also found myself using Tidal mqa and the mojo does not play mqa, most likely due to it was released before mqa existed.
The mojo with VC is a good combo, warm sounding, does really well with jazz. Not as technical in the bass region, definitely a bit slower then any of my other dacs/daps. Which for me works well for jazz/blues since a more intimate warmer sound does well. Horns still have a decent edge, vocals have a great texture for a portable. With classical and anything where micro dynamics in bass are needed the mojo definitely doesn’t do as well as the A&K or Fiio m15. All three power the VC well, A&K requires the attachable extra power boosting amp. The Fiio m15 adds a bit more air to the highs, doesn’t necessarily add more separation just a little more space and air. The Fiio m15 speeds the bass up(quicker decay), adds a little micro dynamics in bass but overall dynamics I wouldn’t say are better. The mojo has more sub bass, Fiio sub bass is hard hitting also but quicker. The mojo is a more “fun” listen, works better with pop and poor recording over the Fiio m15 which seems to be less forgiving.
For the hell of it I ran both as dacs only, line out to my pendant amp. The Fiio m15 dac definitely has more finesse and control when connected to a better amp. The mojo’s bass can get to be too much when matched with powerful amp like the pendant. The mojo also has more pronounced rolling of its vocals, giving them more of a syrupy texture. But to be fair the pendant is a tube amp matched with a dac that’s trying to sound tube like.
My regular dac with the pendant has been my chord Dave, which is a great combo. Although I’ve been tempted to update my dac since it is aging and I like listening to VC’s in my bedroom. While I typically like leaving the Dave in my listening room for my speaker set up. And my current office set up doesn’t mesh well with the VC’s, so that’s staying with Focal headphones and KEF LS50 speakers. Just haven’t decided what dac to buy, one for the bedroom or one to replace the Dave in my listening room that has older Nautilus speakers and my LCD4’s. Please no one suggest Schiit. I’ve heard a few Schiit dacs, they are very good but definitely not the Dave.

All those cables is the reason I bought the Poly. But then, I ran into their networking and player software issues. I hope that Chord solves those problems some day because the Chord Mojo is a great little product.

 

[Junglebook3]

This

1. Heaphones/Speakers
2. Amp
3. DAC
4. Earpads/tubes
5. A good bottle of Scotch instead of the cable kool-aid

Waaaa no way, earpads make a way bigger difference than amps, especially with ZMF!

 

[breckstar]

Yeah, I’ll take a photo with the pendant one of these days. Zebra, black magnesium and brass with I believe Rosewood Pendant.

Sounds and looks, when we all get a pic, like a lovely combo. Can’t wait to get mine in. Glad that the batch two have shipped. Getting that much closer for mine to ship!

 

[Monsterzero]

Waaaa no way, earpads make a way bigger difference than amps, especially with ZMF!

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

Waaaa no way, earpads make a way bigger difference than amps, especially with ZMF!

For those who believe that tubes make a difference to sound, but not cables, you do realize that not all tube distortion shows up in changes on the FR curve, right?

 

[pkcpga]

This

1. Heaphones/Speakers
2. Amp
3. DAC
4. Earpads/tubes
5. A good bottle of Scotch instead of the cable kool-aid

Number 1 is a given. The rest I guess it depends on what’s being swapped, swapping a solid state thx to tube amp would be drastic, correctly powering a headphone. So would swapping a generic single chip dac to a chord Dave. For ZMF VC’s swapping BE2 pads to Universe makes a big difference, specially for not much money. Swapping tubes can make a very noticeable difference if your going from a modern cheap tube to a nos tube or maybe Telefunken to Mullard tubes. Agree on cables, I’m not really one to believe cables make a drastic difference unless your going from cheap aluminum wire to copper or silver. Some wire look/feel better then others or has less micro phonics then others but occ copper is copper and silver is silver. And the differences between silver and copper has been very insignificant to me verse price difference. When I moved my older Nautilus speakers, the hifi company setting then decided my old cables were past prime and convinced me to buy Nordost cables. I swapped those expensive cables back and forth with my old cables serval times and never really heard much of difference to specially to warrant their price. I upgraded from an old dac Naim to the Chord Dave 5-6 years ago and that was night and day. Much more so then switching from an old class a amp set to a newer more expensive class a amp quad, very little difference, even with bi amping each speaker from single amp per speaker. So I guess each line item needs to be quantified.

 

[pkcpga]

This

1. Heaphones/Speakers
2. Amp
3. DAC
4. Earpads/tubes
5. A good bottle of Scotch instead of the cable kool-aid

Another big difference is source, record player, Apple Music(mp3 level), flac high res.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

Another big difference is source, record player, Apple Music(mp3 level), flac high res.

And smoke signals.

 

[YtseJamer]

Waaaa no way, earpads make a way bigger difference than amps, especially with ZMF!

 

[Vangelis]

I put this out on the Abyss Diana thread and did not get much feed back, hence it is appearing here. I have a pair of ZMF Vibro II which I enjoy the tonal balance and layered presentation of. Now I want a big jump in headphone performance and the Abyss Diana Phi is on the short list. Any comparisons out there between the ZMF VC and the Diana Phi. I am wondering if the Diana Phi is in another league or generally considered a clear step above the VC. I would imagine that the VC is warmer (in the ZMF house sound) but could still be very detaile. Are there areas of performance where the ZMF is more compelling or engaging? A year ago I would’ve thought, wait till the next show and listen then. It might be sometime before we can return to headphone meets and trade shows like Axpona where we can hear all the phones under one roof. For now I have to make purchase on a leap of faith and in the case of ZMF there is no return policy, so, I’m trying to determine if I should listen to the Diana Phi first where I might have returned privileges.