[Kokomo O]

Redwood would be way to soft to be practical.

 

[flipper2gv]

  Redwood would be way to soft to be practical.

 
True, forgot they were used only for tops on guitar for a second.

 

[zach915m]

   
Blackwood is in the rosewood family and it is tonally very similar to walnut. Claro walnut, which is the species I'm pretty sure Zack uses for the Omni prototypes, is about as expensive.

Other tonewoods that could be interesting and look good: bubinga, shedua (aka ovangkol), wenge (would be hard to finish though), ash, some types of maple burls, redwood, ebony (for treble and subbass heavy model), Koa and actual rosewood.

 
I actually haven't gotten to try Blackwood yet on the Omni's as all the proto's have been in what I believe is Black Walnut, we buy it from West Penn:  https://www.westpennhardwoods.com/catalog/Walnut-Lumber.aspx?guid=c4c199bc-8c1f-4247-9ec4-42321e6eafd4
 
It is WAY cheaper though than Blackwood.  That stuff is expensive, so when we start using it I want to make sure the design is final.   For production runs the place we have CNC the wood supplies their own stuff so the choices are slightly more limited.  They do have stock of Sapele now though, which has me interested because of it's figuring.  Problem that comes with that though is tear-outs and knots, which would lead to more B-stock cups.  It's a possibility in the future for a limited run I suppose.  They also have Cocobolo....but I'm scared I'll be allergic to the dust.  Only one way to find out I guess....!
 
I have tried to get Bubinga and Paduak BTW.  Nothing yet, but I love those reddish woods.

 

[flipper2gv]

Always thought of blackwood as a cheaper Brazilian rosewood. I just verified and it's the same price as Gabon ebony (which is a lot) . Highly figured Claro walnut is still damn expensive though.

 

[zach915m]

Always thought of blackwood as a cheaper Brazilian rosewood. I just verified and it's the same price as Gabon ebony (which is a lot) . Highly figured Claro walnut is still damn expensive though.

Yeah - I think it probably is cheaper than Brazilian, that stuff is crazy expensive! The embargo and Martin guitars have a lot to do with that though.

I don't think what we have is Claro, which you're right, isn't cheap.

 

[AustinValentine]

When I listened to them at Zach's, I thought it was somewhere in the 7k range; my subjective impressions definitely mesh there. I also didn't find the peak a problem at all while listening. 
 
The Blackwood is a damn fine headphone. I'll be picking one up myself to go with the Cavalli Liquid Carbon later in the Summer. I think they'll make a great pairing.
 
ZMF will be at ChiUniFi next weekend and I'd definitely encourage people to stop by to give his work a listen. 

 

[gixxerwimp]

I've had my Blackwood Purpleheart LTDs for a couple of weeks now and am very please. Can get them loud enough out of my phone (Note 3) and iPad2, and they sounded pretty good. Noticed a bit of resonance in the upper range of an string bass on one Alison Krauss track and Zack thought it might be due to lack of power to control the driver. Also noticed a slight lack of overall bass response than what I prefer, but after burning them in for a few days (at Zack's recommendation) and getting some ear burn-in time in, the overall low-mid-high balance sounds just right with all ports open. Sub-bass extension is amazing and I can actually feel it in the top of my chest when it kicks in.
 
Out of the iFi micro IDSD (which I got at the same time), musicality/imaging/punchiness/sparkle get taken up another notch. Power on Normal (IEMatch off, obviously) has the volume knob at 10-11 o'clock for moderate levels and 12-1 o'clock for LOUD.
 
Zach's pretty photo (they don't look as bright in real life):

My messy desk at work:

 

[bjamn]

FYI: Just lowered the price on my Blackwood Purplehearts in the classifieds...
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/770577/zmf-blackwood-le-with-warranty-price-lowered-buy-me

 

[ThePianoMan]

Impressions and some comparisons between Blackwood and Omni from this Saturday's Chicago meet posted, if anyone has been curious!

http://www.head-fi.org/t/769682/zmf-omni-upcoming-semi-open-flagship/90#post_11724605

 

[drm870]

This is going to sound a little weird, but...has anyone tried to see if ZMF's new pads would work with a pair of Alpha Dogs?

 

[gixxerwimp]

Impressions and some comparisons between Blackwood and Omni from this Saturday's Chicago meet posted, if anyone has been curious!

http://www.head-fi.org/t/769682/zmf-omni-upcoming-semi-open-flagship/90#post_11724605

 
That's a great impression/comparo, PianoDude. I wasn't as lucky as you and grew up listening to my dad's crappy Sansui stereo until I could afford to buy my own low/mid-fi system 

.
 
I got my Purplehearts a month ago and while very happy overall, mid-bass has occasionally been a bit lacking. Zach encouraged some strong burn-in, so after a few days more blasting out of my micro iDSD (my wife kept asking "Why did you leave the stereo on?"), everything sounds balanced. I'm sure some ear burn-in probably contributed, adjusting to the tight planar bass.
 
I tried out ButtUglyJeff's /img/forum/go_quote.gif test tracks over on the Omni thread (guitar, female vocals, percussion) and the Purplehearts sound great, passing all test with flying colours IMO.
 
I've got some AKG K7XXs coming soon, and while researching the "bass rattle" issue, I came across this "bass shaker" test (scroll down to Quality):
http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php
I get some buzzing (kind of like a "pffffft") when this sweep is cranked pretty loud, more in the R-side than the L. Don't hear anything with music, even at the burn-in volume levels I'm using which I would never listen at. Has anyone tried this with their Blackwoods/Vibros?
 
I asked Zach and he runs a "general frequency sweep and impact test and on occasion if I notice something that I can't remedy I'll scrap the driver". As I said, I can't hear anything bad playing music, just with this Bass Shaker test. As somebody wrote in one of the K7XX threads, "we listen to music, not test tones".

 

[tvnosaint]

I gotta stay outta this thread. you guys are making me want another ZMF. fortunately GrizzlyBeast hasn't been around. that dude can sell you on some gear. Also i'm still completely enamored with the Vibro and 560. great complimentary sets. When the Mrs gives me tha look... no problem the vibros are right there. They have a great seal so she doesn't know how much i'm enjoying the music aside from the goofy face. One day mayve a neighbor can show me what i'm missing. For a great music city we sure have a small community on headfi.

 

[gixxerwimp]

I've got some AKG K7XXs coming soon, and while researching the "bass rattle" issue, I came across this "bass shaker" test (scroll down to Quality): http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php
I get some buzzing (kind of like a "pffffft") when this sweep is cranked pretty loud, more in the R-side than the L. Don't hear anything with music, even at the burn-in volume levels I'm using which I would never listen at. Has anyone tried this with their Blackwoods/Vibros?

 
I played some tracks with heavy sub-bass content VERY LOUD out of my micro iDSD (power set to Turbo). I couldn't hear anything strange on Talking Body when the 40Hz bass note comes in @ 23 sec. 

 
Also played Silent Shout cranked to my pain threshold and couldn't hear anything either, even with with the bass boost turned on.

 
My ears are ringing now so I need to give them a break, but I'll try that "bass shaker" test again in a few days. When I cranked Silent Shout, it sounded strange at first and I noticed that I had the iDSD on Turbo and the iEMatch was set to High Sensitivity. iEMatch off fixed this and everything sounded fine (and LOUD).
 
Zach has offered to check out my Blackwood/Purplehearts, but I'm not concerned enough to bother, since I hear nothing but great music when I play music through them. Was just curious more than anything.

 

[RiddleyWalker]

  I've got some AKG K7XXs coming soon, and while researching the "bass rattle" issue, I came across this "bass shaker" test (scroll down to Quality):
http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php
I get some buzzing (kind of like a "pffffft") when this sweep is cranked pretty loud, more in the R-side than the L. Don't hear anything with music, even at the burn-in volume levels I'm using which I would never listen at. Has anyone tried this with their Blackwoods/Vibros?

FWIW, just ran the "Quality" test on my Blackwoods and didn't get any bass rattle or weirdness
 
Doing the "Driver Matching" test showed a little bit of panning in the upper-midrange / treble

 

[zach915m]

Hey Guys, I test all my headphones through a series of tests before they go out including bass tests - frequency response, THD and CSD's. If you think there is something wrong with your headphone please email me and I'll take care of it.

I ofcourse test music before shipment as well. =)