ZMF EIKON & ZMF ATTICUS

I can definitely agree that the Eikons sound great with higher output resistance. I just got my Garage1217 Project Horizon III in the mail today. I've got them on 35 ohm output and I'm using the stock 12AU7. I was previously using a Vali 2 and I felt some of the highs were a little harsh at time. The Horizon III tamed the highs, without losing them, and gave a little bit a of bump to the bass and lower mids. I feel like this helped the upper mids come out a bit more and gave the Eikons an overall more neutral/slightly warm tone. A very noticeable improvement

 

Sounds familiar, are you Cute on Head-Fi?

If so I hope you have better luck with the Atticus, I genuinely didn't look to see the grain it wasn't something I would think about.

If you aren't Cute, well shoot him a PM, you're very like minded!

My impressions of Atticus were that it was very impressive for a closed back. The bass was honestly a little over the top with my warm and amp It was a great change of pace in sound signature compared to my HD800s. However, they really seemed to fatigue my ears. Perhaps because I'm so used to open backed everything. I was forced to sell them anyway so hopefully their new owner digs 'em.

I was also surprised at how much the Atticus seemed to burn in over the course of the week. They were constantly improving each time I listened.

 

What amp did you use? and what source?
You've got me curious here. This is the first mention of fatigue I've read regarding the Atticus.

 

WA7 Fireflies due 2nd gen with CBS Hytron tubes and a Cayin iDac-6 mostly in SS mode. Fed Tidal via USB.

My friend had them for several hours and said he noticed the same thing.

I'd describe it as like a dulling of my hearing, basically the same as having the volume too loud, except it wasn't. My hypothesis was just that it's because the thing is closed back and I (as well as my friend) haven't used closed over ears in a long time.

My other gripe is for my head I felt the sound quality changed significantly depending on how it sat on my head. If it wasn't tight enough it sounded muddy especially on the low end, but when I pressed it harder it would clear right up. This was my first time using such large pads though. (and they were comfortable)

Edit: So this is different than the fatigue that HD800's at stock would give me to be clear. Those the treble was just piercing and made my ears feel "tired".

 

sadly @Galm I can't understand where your coming from. I don't find either headphone to be fatiguing... especially when I volume match to my open backs. Though what I do notice, is the... clean sound compared with a darker top end to give me some freedom is cranking up the volume. I'm listening to "So What" at right around 93dBs, which is quite loud. At those levels, yea I do have a small head ache... but I did just finish with some Metal at that exact volume level. I might be approaching my 54/55th minute at 90+ dbS... so a break is needed. But overall, the only fatigue I get is from how loudly I can listen to them...

With regards to the fit, your 100% right. I pulled the eCups a little bit away from my ears and it was horrid sounding. But I have a pretty big head for better or worse so I've only ever had fit problems with the AKG K550, but you can play around with the sliders to get a better fit, an actually I always have to put my right cup a bit further down than the left... it would seem I have a big slightly lop-sided head

Back to the sound, I'm pumping some dirty dub step tonight, an sadly without EQ these don't quite do it for me... my HE 4 also needs some EQ to get it to filthy... compared to the TH X00, the Eikon has better texture for sure, it's... well very sqaure! It's actually a bit too resolving for some of my oldest Dub Step downloads, and it's really too well defined, though it doesn't distort as quickly as the TH X00 does, I can push that up pretty loud [I EQ down, never up] an you can hear it loose a little control

still at the end of the Day the TH X00 is better for filthy dub step, with the same level of EQ [or none] a softer less defined bass works well for my tastes, though keep in mind I started with a Sony XB 700... which are more or less all sub bass and nothing... else

So guys like Benga, Rusko, some Skream, Caspa, Coki, Loefah, L-Wiz ect... they sound better with the TH X00, how ever some of the more complex and musical Dub Step like Silkie, Culprate and surprisingly Liquid Stranger benefit from the better texture of the Eikon, I actually heard some new details tonight in some of my old dubstep

 

Yeah sorry I don't know either. My buddy described it as feeling tired from the pressure and I agree that sounds like how it felt. I'm almost positive it had to do with how they were sealed. And it was definitely from the bass, lighter tracks didnt do it as much.

It's just my personal experience it clearly doesnt happen to everyone. (And again I liked them a lot, I just prefer open backed)

 

Closed back headphones can fatigue due to excess pressure. I had this with the Alpha Dogs and a little bit with the TH-X00. I vastly prefer open back headphones for long term listening.

 

Yea that's a very good way to put it @Galm, the pressure of a closed back is noticeable when changing from open back to a closed back

 

I'll be honest with you, I haven't even noticed if the grain on the earcups of my Eikon are going in the same direction or not. It doesn't matter to me in the least. The cups themselves are finished beautifully and the fit for my smallish head is excellent. But I guess we all have different priorities, right?

In terms of fatigue I have only noticed it if I am running at a loud volume for more than an hour at a time. If I back the volume down to reasonable levels I have no issues with fatigue with the Eikon. I don't think this is necessarily headphone dependent but is more of a function of time and volume level versus ear sensitivity which varies from person to person.

 

My actual hearing (volume wise) has always been very good. Maybe I'm just very sensitive to it?

Idk, because again, the actual sound signature was not fatigueing it was very nice.

 

This got me thinking so I pulled out my Emu Purplehearts and connected them to my Jotunheim and I have to say I do actually like them a little bit better with certain dub step / electronica albums versus the Eikon. The Fostex drivers do have some special sauce when it comes to bass!

 

Those 2 cans have different signatures but I feel they have one main thing which also zmf cans have, which is nice bass.

My only concern, which I repeat, is the fact that Tyll opened them... like, To-ta-ly....

Meaning we don't know if Zack checked them after for proper tunning.

Although Tyll dismantling was very interesting, from looking at the insides,
you can tell that the placement all damping...
From the foam in the tube and the material partially covering the driver holes, and the sequence of the damping materials....
They can all easily be altered , by mistake of course, especially on a total dismantling.

That possibility, plus the tell-tail signs of something being amisss from his review which I consider "off" and unusual for the Eikon.

It just doesn't make sense to have such different findings from everyone who has them...
After all, who here thinks the Eikon is "warm and polite" with "withdrawn presence" and "too veiled" with "dynamics good but not great"..

The cans should have sounded lively and impressive with sweet non sibilant trebles, and deep punchy bass, and also with a clear and well staged midrange of HD650 level.

So I hope zack checked out those demo sets...

 

Hey guys I found out some interesting general info about the biocellulous drivers used in the Eikon..

I was looking into biocellulose diaphragms in drivers, and found that this material is from
joint patent between Sony and two other companies, which was used in the Sony R10.

I late to the party so I didn't know that.
Sony claimed they looked into many materials before they came up with this material,

"Which provides the velocity of aluminium or titanium with the 'warm, delicate sound' of paper.."
And
"broad, deep sound of a room speaker system"

So why didn't they keep using it?
Probably when those designers left Sony it went downhill from there.

Anyways thats not my point.
I also agree that the paper cone type mini speaker looking drivers are the way to go,
as they have planar like movent for big bass and the natural paper sound of a large speaker.

I gave up on the mainstream usage of garbage see thru plastic bubble drivers with creased edge which is all we see today.

By design these plastic cones will always be a compromise,
As they introduce non-linearities, reasonance and distortion from the plastic which must bend and flex into the creased ruffled edges, as it is all one piece.

Anyways I bet many can chime in here about that, but what I was looking today at ,
Was the driver magnet sizes.
I am believe the magnetic strength is one of the most responsible factors for the resolve of the headphones.

I am assuming all these similar biocellulous drivers are all using similar best magnets available .

So I was doing a "visual" comparison of the Eikon magnet to the Dennon 7200, th900 and thx00..

Eikon:


Dennon:



TH900:


THX00:




You will notice the Eikon and Dennon having the widest and largest magnet case,
While the TH900 using a slightly tall yet smaller diameter ,
and finally the thx00 similar diameter to the th900, but thinner magnet hieght.

So it seems Eikon does have largest magnet for of all the biocellulous drivers,
with about same size as the latest dennon driver,
which is actually a carbon paper, not biocellulous paper like the others.

Also I am assuming the other variations of the thx00 are all the same type driver, which are the thinnest & smallest magnets .

The only magnets clearly larger (visually about 2X) than the Eikon is the UTOPIA driver..

 

Interesting. Dug in a bit on the joint patent point and found this site that goes into a little more detail: http://pmrreviews.com/?p=1107. Has great info on the MDR-Z1R too.

It appears the term of Japanese patents, like U.S. patents, is capped at 20 years (source), so the patent(s) are most likely expired now given the R10's release in 1989. Couldn't locate them via a quick search.

 

He did, I wondered why he took so long to send them to me,it because he was checking them over before he shipped them out. I've had no issues with either pair, I'm not finding them to be "veiled" or Warm or poliete! The dynamics... weren't any slower than the Elear was. I couldn't get why Tyll felt that it didn't resolve as well as other totls, but I disagree with him,

Hopefully once I'm finished with my review, I can get a few other closed backs to compare to the Eikon...

and yea the TH X00 and W1000X are two very different sound signitures, and honestly the Eikon does exactly what I hope'd it would, it rests right in the middle... like my old LA D5000 did, I only wish I still had that LA D5000 back to compare to the Eikon frankly,

 

Those of you with the Padauk wood, how has aged so far?

 

Not to startup that discussion again.. more of an FYI. Got my Padauk Atticus and Eikon and the wood grain was matched on both headphones.

 

Edit wrong thread

 

Is there a Schiit amp that pairs well with Eikon? They all seem to have low output impedance.

 

Just because Eikon has a high load impedance doesn't mean it should be paired with high output Z amp for best sound. HD650 is also 300 ohm but pairs splendidly with Jotunheim. Don't let your "impedance nervosa" limit your search of amps like I did when I was a noob. Just avoid using high output Z for low impedance cans which would result in severe under-dampening, otherwise focus more on matching tonal balance and power sufficiency.