Laconic Zana Deux Micro

Discussion in 'Headphone Amplifiers and Combo (DAC/Amp) Units' started by The Life, Nov 7, 2016.

  1. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

    Pyrate MZR
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    Is there ever going to be a US distributor or at least reseller for these?
     
  2. The Life

    The Life Facebook Friend

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    Are they available for "Han Solo-ing"?
     
  3. t3hwx9

    t3hwx9 Acquaintance

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    @The Life , sure. Just like any other reasonably sized and reasonably priced product available in Moscow and for some reason unavailable outside of Russia.
    (the only exception I can think of is Kennerton Odin).
     
  4. Serious

    Serious Inquisitive Frequency Response Plot

    Pyrate BWC MZR
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    ZDM impressions:

    TL;DR: Don't buy this amp

    I've had the ZDM for the better part of this year now and until today I haven't really done any critical listening. That's how bad it is.

    All listening was done with my modded HD800:
    -some hum and some noise, but not too bad overall. Pot has decent feel to it. Top of the amp gets very hot.
    -immediately apparent veil - this is very obvious. Makes HD800 sound like HD650; Very dead sounding
    -also warm tonally, but not that warm
    -this buries microdynamics and microdetail
    -macrodynamics are also pretty bad, but not as terrible as the micro stuff
    -lacks heft, bass sounds blurry, subbass is rolled off
    -soundstage is nebulous, images sort of blur together lacking defintion
    -soundstage is also surprisingly small
    -treble is actually pretty hard for some reason despite the warmth

    vs my Vali 1 that has been collecting dust:
    -riiiiing
    -hiss, the noise floor on the vali is really pretty bad
    -channel imbalance on the small pot is horrible at volumes I actually listen at - everything is shifted to the left
    -immediately more open, clearer, more resolving
    -vali actually has more bass impact hahaha, but doesn't seem to go as low; bass sucks on both
    -soundstage is more upfront with more depth and more precise imaging; more layered
    -the ZDM smears upstream differences way more than the vali. I had the vali hooked up to a shitty SPC cable and I couldn't stand it with the vali. The ZDM absorbed the sharpness as if cables made almost no difference - still I didn't like the SPC cable.
    -this also made it harder to tell the difference between 500kbit/s lossy and lossless.
    -treble delineation on the ZDM is way worse - makes cymbals sound like samples
    -still, treble on the vali was much worse than I remembered; timbre is off


    The ZDM is weird. It sounds muffled without sounding that warm tonally. Hmmm. The Vali (1st gen) or the Leckerton UHA-6s mk.II are clearly superior amps.
    I didn't open the spare tube package. It seemed like a lost cause to me.
     
  5. zfisch

    zfisch New

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    @t3hwx9 can you give any comparisons between the Laconic ZD Mini and the night blues mini? I havent found anything online (couldnt find out how to PM you) Thx
     
  6. t3hwx9

    t3hwx9 Acquaintance

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    @zfisch , ZD Micro (HA-09) is better than HA-08, but it's still overly warm, bad kind of "tubey" sound coloration. It can be a decent pairing for the bright (and Hi-Z only) headphones like Beyers DT-990 or T1 mk 1. HA-09 + stock HD800 combo sounds interesting. Far from perfect, though: not fast enough, not detailed enough.
    NBM is much more versatile in terms of potential headphone pairings and sound signature of the amp.

    PS: regarding your NBM availability request, could you please forward me the email from Laconic ( the same username at gmail )? I'll give them a call if needed.
     
  7. zfisch

    zfisch New

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    Ive been in contact over facebook. The English wasnt too clear, but the jist was there arent any available and he wasnt sure when. Something about december 15...He'd post on FB when the NBM were available. If you got a direct contact and wouldnt mind asking itd be much appreciated!
     

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