ZMF EIKON & ZMF ATTICUS

I have been doing this alot lately..
Just tune them to how I would like them as most companies just never nail it.

Few come close like these Eikon.


On a surprising note, the Eikon sounds really good out of my phone! ( Galaxy Note 4)
Very surprised.

Edit:
Wood seems to have changed a bit under the gloss coating

 

I wholeheartedly agree with you there! I've finished my month with the two and I preferred the Eikon my self, has the right mix of both natural decay, fast transients and a lot of detail! Sound stage isn't as wide as my HE 4, but it's a lot blacker with better separation! As some one whose been chasing after the Lawton Modded Dennons for years, it's nice to see Zach bring out a closed back at not only a better price but also his support for the driver it self! Plus his choice of wood is just as pretty, and the sound is remarkable!

I'm curious to see what @Marvey and others think of the ZMF Pair vs Denon newest flagship

 

They actually compliment each other well.
Eikon with the larger Soundstage and Dennon with the closer one.

Those two aspects will remain regardless any changes done,
And so should be one of your determining aspects.

 

Nice to the Denon has some intimacy to it, does it have the same depth and coherence that the Eikon does?

 

Nope.

Coherence is a vague term but it does have very good clarity so coherence is there , but without the Eikon Soundstage coherence takes a hit as Eikon is better there.

As for depth Dennon has less but detailing is very good so not bad.
Real depth noticable on Eikon.

 

No you understood exactly what I meant by coherence :3

A lot of my headphones that are WIDE aren't coherent or together. It's left or right or center or... I'm used to hearing X or Y, but the Eikon gives me so many degree's of both X and Y, real is a great term! Would only want just a smidge more emphasis up top, though I'm not missing any detail on the Eikon. That extra emphasis up top would only make the detail it's pulling out more noticeable, which takes away from the music ultimately. Although, upgrading my Dac may help more than having a brighter headphone... when I get around to doing that I'll let you guys know

 

Lol ok but,
Sorry but no the Dennons go no where the Eikons can go when it comes to image placement.
Some think the th900 has a bigger Soundstage but to imaging is more vivid on Eikon and it does not cheat with a U-shape signature.

 

seriously, I'm finding that to be the case. I was really tempted to trade my three mid range closed backs for a Modded D2k this week... but realistically I doubt I would be happy with it... the vivid imaging the Eikon brings is wonderful!

Chart time



This data was compiled over my last month with the Eikon an Atticus, values were pulled from those colorful charts I posted. 6 Sections over 10 songs, points were assigned from 1-10.

that took longer than I'd like to admit... an I'm still editing the words to describe that, in short I like the Eikon. For me I found it to have better bass, better detail, a better sound stage and to be overall faster than what I own or the Atticus.

The mids are were the Eikon and Atticus are tied, better tactility on the Eikon but the Atticus is still tactile but a touch softer while also more beautiful and romantic! I'll be compiling some more smaller Charts for each of those sections and elaborating on them. I also found out... I really do NOT like the TH X00... might be the Alpha Pads... totally killing it for me but... I'm not a fan

 

Valhalla 2 + Atticus Padouk seems like a really fun combo.

 

It was very smooth. I preferred the extra energy from the Mjolnir 2, but I wouldn't kick the combination out of bed for eating crackers. Zero fatigue.

 

What tubes were you running in your Valhalla

 

Stock Russian tubes.

 

Was on the fence between Atticus and Z1R. Luckily the ZMF and the Sony booth were across from each other at LA Canjam. Switched back and forth between both of them, ended up buying the Atticus on the spot.

 

Switch into a different set of tubes and you can have better energy while keeping the smoothness! I prefer Sylvania 6sn7 GTs my self. A little bass light according to some, but with something as fun as the atticus it works out well. Especially if you want those beautiful creamy and exciting mids

 

I tried the 6CG7 tubes in the past but didn't like the unnatural sounding mids. Hard to explain. I've always liked the stock Russian tubes best with it. Not for other amps though.

 

Some one did a review of the ValHalla on /r/ and mentioned a preference for the stock tubes as well. I wonder what would an upgrade be, though I suppose if there isn't one that's not too terribly bad either

 

The Valhalla is not as responsive to tube rolling as other amps, but the most popular replacement input tubes on this forum are probably the 6CG7.

 

Yea, well there's nothing wrong with that, Honestly I'd really love to hear it. The Ember II I have is VERY tube dependent. I finally settled on a $60 tube which brought the overall cost up to $410, so I'm curious to see how the Valhalla sounds in comparison to the Ember II... especially with the Eikon

 

Well... the Eikons are ludicrously huge- you can just about see them in your peripheral vision sometimes, against a bright window. They are quite heavy- I don't mind that, but the pressure on my cheekbones is a little uncomfortable. The mass and width means that they're skating close to Auzdeze LCD territory, but the nicely-designed suspension headband really saves the day. It does a great job distributing the weight. Build quality overall is really nice- I didn't dismantle them to peer in the cups (as this is a loaner), but all the exterior signs are great. Solid, smart, well-machined parts.

They can be a little uncomfortable in hot weather.

Ok, so that was a lot about everything but the sound- mostly because others have pretty much covered what I wanted to know. That said, it's great to hear them for myself.

They don't sound bad for closed cans, but they definitely have that "boxy" sound. The highs lack sparkle, and seem distant, somehow. Bass is taunt and exciting. They don't pass the Bruckner test, but come quite close, which is very good going- that hardly ever happens.

I found the highs a bit lacking in punch, detail, maybe presence? It's hard to say. As I already mentioned, they sometimes sound distant. One of my stock test tracks, "Waitress" by Tori Amos, is one that I usually break out to check for shrillness- the Eikons aren't at all shrill, but seemed to take all the "oomph" out of the chorus, especially the instruments.

Bass was generally enjoyable, a little phat, but not distractingly so. However, my go-to test track for dubby phatness ("Towers Of Dub", the version from the original non-remaster CD release of "U F Orb") wasn't quite as tooth-looseningly skanking as I expected. I'm not sure what to make of that- but it's not a problem, just a point.

Transient response seemed reasonable. You could hear the leading percussive edge of guitar strings being picked nice and clearly. Combined with the polite highs, they're just wonderful as a way to listen to Rodrigo Y Gabriela, weirdly. Seriously, try it. They could have been made for that task.

You have to dial your brain in to stop hearing the "boxy" closedness and not mind the lack of scale in soundstage (the best I could get out of it was "thick crash helmet"). However, that's always the case with closed cans. I felt like everything was a little veiled, even compared to my HD650M, weirdly. I also find that perceived deficiencies in the sound were of a sort that caused me to keep turning up the volume, which is always dangerous.

Sooo... did I like them? Yes, I think I did. They sound smooth, and most of their sins are sins of omission. They're pretty easy to get on with.

Would I pay $1200 for a pair? Not so much. I know the build quality is lovely, the cable supplied was great, even the case is sound. I can see how much care has gone into making these things, but they don't sound like $1200 to me. The same money could get you much better sound in a pair of IEMs, for example.

They're really nice, though- and if a mysterious benefactor gave me a pair, they'd get plenty of use when I wanted some isolation or the world needed not to hear my music. There probably aren't many closed-backed cans this good, just you need to have a fairly liberal budget or a really definite use case beyond "oh, it'd be cool to have some closed-backed headphones that don't sound like ass".

They're not perfect, but most of their sonic flaws aren't irritating to me. Tonality is always acceptable, via tubes or solid state. Maybe if they were a little less clampy on the face so it was easy to forget they're there, they'd be better, but I'm nitpicking now. I like them enough that I'd be sorely tempted by a tidy used pair.

Not the second coming, but certainly some very competent-sounding headphones with a very nice tuning. Seriously, feed them the album "11:11" and sit back.