ZMF Atrium Headphone Review and Measurements

If you use the autuer pads, there's zero issue with GS treble. Even using radial mesh, Yggdrasil GS is far and away my favorite dac with Atrium, and I have a fair amount of treble sensitivity. I use a Studio B as my primary amp, and it being darkish helps treble zings down. The only time I experienced some peaky crap is listening when the GS was still cold.

 

Auteur pads for the win.

 

It's looking like I'm probably (finally) getting the Atrium later this year. Big part of the delay was just waiting to see how different meshes and woods would play out over time. Does anyone have feedback or experience hearing the Atrium with more different woods and mesh combos?

So far I've heard the stock cherry one a few times, a blackwood (I think, not 100% sure) one, and chacha's mango wood one. Although it's not available anymore, I suspect I'd like the macassar ebony too. I did prefer the blackwood and mango to the cherry. Most likely use the "new mesh" but open to getting a piece of solid mesh and cutting it myself + overlaying other materials on top of it to fit my preferences as well.

Roughly, in this order, looking to do the following. I realize a wood and mesh changes isn't going to cover all of these bases, just trying to hit as many as I can:

Slightly decrease "perceived sound" around 5-5.5k.
A little less bass slam without reduction of heft.
Even out the upper treble region (I know the mesh took care of most of this, but am curious if this has been more figured out now)
Slightly less congestion in the bass regions with busy music
A little more of the "euphoric sound" that the Atrium has.
Maybe a little less of the "wall of sound / all at once in your face presentation" style of sound / presentation - maybe because having a little more helps my preferences when I'm using the Holo DAC, but nice to reduce with the Yggdrasil A2.

my initial guess is a med-hard to hard wood with med-small to small pore sizes??? (IIRC cherry wood is med pore and med-soft hardness while mango is only slightly harder with large pores and blackwood is hard with small pores).

edit: not mentioned earlier but I should have - I am guessing that pore density and distribution of different woods matters too... comment if anyone has been able to correlate anything here.

 

My pair are maple, using radial mesh and Auteur pads. So it's pretty middle of the road for wood hardness with small pores. It's got plenty of heft and texture, and just the right amount of slam (using Yggdrasil A1). I haven't noticed any bass congestion even with complex EBM and growly heavy metal passages.

 

I’ve always been kind of on the fence about ZMF - admittedly the feel and looks are premium - handsome though heavy. Mainly it seemed to me not one ZMF could be better than 6xx - aside from some sort-of-useful sub-bass extension, some density and richness coming from the wood cups and generally-even-darker tuning. I’m somewhat opposed to exploring non-stock woods for slight alterations in sound and beautiful, heavier catch-a-Pokemon stabilized releases with bonus placebo factor and rarity. I’m also not disposed to the possible nervosa of pad and mesh rolling but I recognize that has its merits.

The issue for me was can I find a ZMF that is actually preferable to 6xx? For example, in the case of owning an Atticus for a year and a half - that answer was no - the Atticus was quite inferior to 6xx for my tastes - although it provided a weighty, euphonic sound, but it was hollowed-out and with a pesky, seemingly compensating-for-the-darkness treble spike. Trying to mitigate the Atticus’ tuning via synergy was not entirely possible. I tried Caldera and it was a bit more of the same, as far as I’m concerned - better off with 6xx on a synergistic amp + source pairing.

Maybe I should find find safety in the growing chorus that source + amps are basically irrelevant and that once you have effectively volume-matched and blind-listened it is just simple differences between amps like output impedance and frequency response idiosyncrasies and nothing more to account for the differences in subjective appreciation and synergy - with frequency response defining and ruling above all and that careful EQ can overcome pretty much anything (and that audiophiles fool themselves by cranking the volume, being blinded by the expense of gear). Or maybe I need to join the growing chorus of ZMF supporters who either represent the easy way to get out of the craziness of the hobby or another way in to the craziness of the hobby.

In any case, I enjoy Atrium more than 6xx. Is it 2000$ better than 6xx - I’m not sure. But I'm enjoying it more and I’m glad I own mine. Basically, Atrium's improvements in depth, dynamics, bass, and fun - account for enough of an improvement to overcome the slightly superior upper midrange and treble of the 6xx. I certainly wouldn’t say Atrium is more resolving but the tuning really works in an un-bloated but dense, explosive, ZMF-neutral-plus-smart-treble-peak (done less effectively on Atticus) kind of way. It’s a close fight, Atrium has been a nice upgrade for me. When you add in the lovely feel and build - the value of ZMF is undeniable.

Overall - Atrium makes my HD6xx unnecessary, and I’m thankful to betray my 6xx at last. Feliks gouged me with the cost of their Envy and mediocre, rolled transformers that require significant expense of 300B and exotic driver tubes to overcome, but such as it is, I am generally pleased enough with its 300B sound and Atrium. I'm definitely on-board with ZMF and would like to buy a Verité Closed next November.

 

I think I have mentioned, it, but I have settled on a solid mesh. Combined with a hard wood and Holo (I have Cyan 2 fed with content upsampled to DSD via HQPlayer) it settles that 5-8k region for me quite well. SuperNaut is in, so it is in some ways a step away (i.e. a touch more energy in 5-8k compared to Starlett) but still is quite nice...

 

Would yall say the Mjolnir 3 / Yggdrasil MiB would play nice with the Atrium Open? To me it seems like the MJ3 should be capable of driving the dynamic driver pretty well. Anyone running the AO on the MiB / MJ3 stack?

 

If you look in the Mjolnir 3 Impressions thread there are several impressions with the Atrium:

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...olnir-3-impressions.13699/page-26#post-419168
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...olnir-3-impressions.13699/page-25#post-418665
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...olnir-3-impressions.13699/page-18#post-416124
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...olnir-3-impressions.13699/page-26#post-419432
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...olnir-3-impressions.13699/page-40#post-428831
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...olnir-3-impressions.13699/page-38#post-428092

Etc

I often will use Google to search for stuff on SBAF by adding site:superbestaudiofriends.org to the search to restrict results to SBAF. That's how I found all of these posts in a few minutes.

 

Thanks! Good search tip.

 

What pad/mesh combos are people liking the most these days? I'm going to be buying an Atrium soon and need to decide what pads and mesh to get with them. Ideally I'm looking for hard-hitting dynamics and tactility and want guitars to have a nice bite. I don't care much about stage width but value depth and layering. I'm not sure if the upper mids in the stock configuration will be slightly too forward for me (for reference, 6XX upper mids are fine for me and so is Atrium Closed in its stock configuration).

I'm thinking I'll get stock mesh and Marv mesh, and get Universe and Auteur lambskin pads. I get option paralysis easily so I don't want to have to go back and forth between all these combos a bunch, hoping I can just get pointed in a direction and stick to that. Seems like Marv mesh and Auteur pads are a favorite around here?

 

Stock mesh and Caldrea Ultra Perf for me. Definitely more neutral than Universe and reveals all the nuances Atrium is capable of.

Works very well with all my amps (PiMax, MJ3 and LTA Z10 integrated).

 

Just for reference, the stock mesh is vented now and not a solid mesh like it was when this thread was first started. I grabbed a radial mesh when I bought mine not realizing that, so I honestly thought the difference between the stock (vented) mesh and the radial mesh was pretty minimal, it added maybe just a touch more treble energy but I don't think I'd be able to pick one out in a blind test. If you want something more "different" in your stable I'd consider grabbing a solid one to try out (or just get both I guess, they're pretty cheap).

I don't have mine anymore, but I had settled on auteur pads & radial mesh as what I liked on them - that was partly because the universe pads were too shallow feeling and aren't a great fit for my ears.

 

Ah- yes...stock (partially vented) mesh + Caldera Ultra Perforated Lambskin pads!
(Stock Universe pads are <just> a smidgen warm for me...)
These pads strike the right balance for me and were what I fell in love with on a local friend's pair.

Just in case, I also grabbed some Radial Titan Mesh (more venting) but I don't think I will need it...



EDIT: Yeah, the Caldera Ultra Perf are nice and clear...but I also get the seductive, easy warm qualities of the stock Universal pads. I can see enjoying both sets based on gear pairings and mood.

 

I thought this was interesting.. and a new tidbit to add to your nervosa... apparently, the newer Atriums have a different variation on the mesh (without a hole in the middle).




Zach mentioned it was due to differences in a new run of drivers:

"We just got a new batch of drivers in, as we design the drivers and buy 3000 of them for every release. As you guys know the Atrium has been quite popular. The new batch of drivers is ever so slightly more efficient and to normalize the curve to our target we got rid of the center hole.

So going forward the 2nd batch drivers will be marked by that characteristic.

The measurements are unchanged and the sonic characteristic is the same.

We've never had a headphone be this popular but I'm happy that we're able to get another very large batch in that'll enable us to keep the Atrium a core product for many years!"

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/zmf-atrium-new-open-back-co-flagship.962609/post-18590322

 

Ah yes, here is my stock mesh:

 

I have a pair of the newer Atriums - LTD Canary if it matters. I found the treble with the stock configuration to be too uneven and peaky. I was always reaching for the volume knob. I tried Auteur suede and leather pads and universe suede pads but I didn't like the results.

I switched the stock mesh out for the solid mesh and purchased Caldera ultra perf pads for kicks. IMO @zach915m should make solid mesh and ultra perf pads the stock config for the newer Atrium open. These things are absolute world beaters in this config. All of the benefits of the stock config with amazing linear treble. Treble is not soft and still super dynamic.

 

@Aklegal what dac and amp are you using with your Atrium?

 

Studio B with the Geshelli Dayzee or Mjolnir 3 with the Yggdrasil MiB.

 

IIRC the solid mesh was intended to be stock, then SBAF got ears on it. Many thought it was too dampened with the fully closed mesh. There was also a "Marv mesh" which was less perforated, don't know if that became one of the production meshes.

Either way the Atrium I have came with the full mesh and I've never changed it because I love the sound as is.