[ohcrapgorillas]

Just the stock tube. Honestly it sounds very very good as-is.

 

[Wes S]

Just the stock tube. Honestly it sounds very very good as-is.

Nice! Can't go wrong with the tube it was designed with.

 

[paulybatz]

you guys have been making me listen to my Blackwoods again.
i have to say, if i start the night listening to these, they get better and better as the night goes on.
i have noticed that if i start listening with other headphones, when i put on the Blackwoods i have to readjust to the sound.
isolation and overall physical presence to the music is so good though...soundstage is quite large too.
but holy crap these things need some power.

I have some blackwoods on the way!!!!

 

[paulybatz]

Hey man! I have had my Blackwoods for a couple years now, and they blow my mind, every time I use them. They have a killer mids! Welcome to the club! I personally think they are still the best closed back, under $1000, to this day! I will never sell my Blackwood, and actually just had a killer listening session, with them last night. The Liquid Platinum amp, drives them to perfection. Here is a little pic, of mine. Happy Friday fellow Blackwood fans!

More pics and thoughts

 

[paulybatz]

blackwoods kept me away from head-fi for sometime xd. Still love mine.

Still??

 

[ohcrapgorillas]

I still love mine! They were formerly dedicated to my office rig, but I've moved the whole thing to my home office during cv lockdown. I also did finally add an Airist R-2R DAC to pair with my CTH, and swapped the stock tube out for an Amperex A-frame, so the rig is effectively 'complete'. It sounds absolutely fantastic.

While the CTH and Airist RDAC are not -too- far behind my usual headphones rig (Bifrost 2 > heavily modded Crack--the sense of space is smaller and there are fewer details, spatial cues, fine textural details, but really the difference is not huge), I will say that the Atticus are on a totally different level from the Blackwood. I am switching back and forth between the two on a week by week basis, but if I listen to the Atticus then switch to Blackwood, the latter sounds a bit flat and smushed and less detailed... but just going straight for the Blackwood, it's perfectly satisfying. Clearly the T50RP driver is somewhat holding Zach's skills back, although it is very impressive what he's been able to get it to this level at all; with the Atticus, so much more detail and space and depth and emotion are available. The Atticus are truly glorious headphones worthy of end-game status.

Regardless, I am going to be listening to the Blackwood all day today! Will be a lot of coding and writing, and I've slapped a few short DIY RCA cables together that I'll be swapping out and comparing for fun. Musical selection today will be mostly pop and R&B (SZA, Purity Ring, Childish Gambino) with a smidge of metal tossed in (Heilung, Deafheaven, Abigail Williams).

 

[robo24]

Recently got the Blackwood used and coming from their TOTL models I'm surprised how excellent they are. I've ended up using them with the Eikon suede solid pads. I think for those who don't want to spend big bucks on a ZMF without having heard any of them, even these older models (at least the Blackwood anyway) have the ZMF house sound. Still may try to obtain an Ori and only keep one of them. Also surprising how well these have held their value, even after 5-6 years.