ZMF EIKON & ZMF ATTICUS

I talked to Zach...I'm giving into my inner basshead/Marv and switching to the Atticus. I may end up selling this NFB-11 and picking up a Valhalla 2 as well. lol

 

May I take a moment and ask what is going on with all of the rampant "dislikes" in this thread all of a sudden? I know we want to keep the signal to noise ratio high and I can completely appreciate the desire to not be a copy of Head-Fi but surely there is a comfortable middle ground where people are allowed to voice their thoughts and opinions in a fair and respectful manner while still contributing to the forum?

For the overall good of SBAF and as a contributing member, I would really like to know.

 

It's a terrible thread, people crying about reviews and jacking themselves off about their shipping dates. It's basically Head-Fi, not that you would notice the actual issue here.

 

There's a decent transition to this thread. Optimism -> "I'm getting this X date now! Woo!" -> People were asked to stop. They mostly did. -> Tyll's review coming out -> People state their disagreements, mostly founded -> trolls come in and start egging people on and bringing up the HD650 -> People start actually bitching about the reviews at this point (which included myself at some points) -> Trolls get meaner about it -> Some people try to come in with more calming opinions. This fails -> Dude gets banned for a week -> People start bitching about the thread itself -> every positive post gets disliked.

There's nothing wrong with optimism or pessimism, but there's a point where, if people get attacked for having either or just told they're plain wrong, they get a bit offended and uppity.

The entire thread it kind of a huge showdown with everyone not respecting each other's opinions, even down to the people who made good points about either side getting shut down.

Personal attacks about people's jobs giving them brain cancer didn't help either.

 

Meanwhile over at Headfi

 

Weren't you taking a break to run away from @k4rstar, the notorious Aryan brother?

 

Hold on, let me fix that image for you:

 

I was semi drunk when I said that. I woke up though and remembered that this place is too much fun to stay away from. Plus I have no beef with @k4rstar.

 

Stop whining. I don't respect your opinion and know that you're wrong as do others who you can't hope to influence by your subsequent claims to the contrary as they have heard the headphone for themselves and do not like it. Sometimes the best thing to do is keep your mouth shut and stop whining that Tyll wasn't extremely fond of an overdamped closed headphone with audibly distorted, slightly crunchy treble.

 

There's quite a bit I want to say, but I'm going to refrain from such because of the drama it caused last time since I seem to set you off with the mere mention of my opinion. Or something. I'm not sure; I couldn't figure it out in between the weird Nordic references and insults.

 

I'm going to thank you for actually taking the time to reply. You, out of all the folks who could have done so, were the only one to put words to paper, so to speak, and give a reasonable answer. I realize it's much easier just to hit a "dislike" button than it is to actually form a reasonable rebuttal about why someone's response might or might not be good SBAF material but actually taking the time to respond is far more constructive and helpful over the long term. And that's really my interest here; the long term good of SBAF.

I honestly didn't realize that being excited about a shipping date was frowned on. I'm fairly certain I've seen similar posts in other threads that didn't get disliked and didn't have invective thrown at them. As I said before I'm more interested in the common good of SBAF than my own goings on so I will keep further developments to myself.

 

Geeze, imagine if Tyll actually gave the Eikon a bad review...

 

I haven't been keeping up with this thread, but clearly everyone needs to chill out for a bit. Thread locked.

 

I've been listening to my Eikon several hours now. As previously discussed the pairing with the Schiit Jotunheim via XLR is quite good. The Eikon goes DEEEEP and the Jotunheim has the power to do this headphone great justice. Like most other headphones with the Jot, the sound is crisp and clean with great speed and imaging. Thumbs up.

Now for the bad news, the Laconic Labs Night Blues Mini just does not do the Eikon justice. I suspect it just doesn't have the juice to properly manhandle the Eikon's stiff biocellulose drivers. On the High Z output the sound is all kinds of colored. There just isn't enough electric dampening going on and the frequency response is just bad. On the Low Z output the bottom end is rolled off and the bass is boomy and uncontrolled. For personal reasons, this is the combo that I really wanted to work but it just doesn't.

 

@MattRG great impressions on the eikon. I have a Jot now and thinking planars.

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0117/ZMF_Eikon_Atticus_Headphones_Review.htm

This review suggest the Eikon is "slightly more crisp and analytical sounding" and "Eikon is hard and revealing, the Atticus is soft and sweet"

How was the treble and mids with the Eikon and Jot combo? Attributes like those mentioned remind me of HD800 territory which is reported to not be a good match with the Jot. Thoughts/comments??

 

According to the measurements over in the Night Blues Mini thread by @JimL the Low Z output is around 28 ohms and the High Z output is around 62 ohms. I was hoping the Low Z output (being well under the 1/8th rule) would work nicely with the Eikons and their 300 ohm nominal impedance but with only around 30mW of power being supplied it just isn't enough to properly handle the Eikon.

That being said, I would love to hear these on a really powerful tube amp. I suspect that would be really special.

 

Keep in mind I've only had the Eikon on my head for a couple of hours so this is a super early impression but the treble isn't bothering me with the Jot. Then again the treble hasn't bothered me with the Jot on any of my headphones and that includes the HE-400S, the Fischer Audio fa-011 and the Logitech UE6000. This may be because I am using a "sweet" sounding NOS DAC (the Metrum Musette) or I just might not be as sensitive to that particular issue.

The Eikon is analytical in the way it grabs details but it isn't boring. It reminds me of a TH-X00 that went to finishing school and got a college degree. It's still got the low end presence and power but now it's also well versed in the mids and top end also (if that analogy makes any sense).

 

I think if you get an Eikon and want a solid state amp then the Jot is a good pairing, especially for the price. I alluded to wanting the Night Blues Mini to be the better pairing and that's because it just has a sweeter, lusher sound (than the Jot) with a little bit more body and it sounds absolutely heavenly with the HE-400S. So I still think a great tube amp is going to be able to get the best possibly synergy with the Eikon but the Jot is a great starting point.