Hey, I see a Universe in your cans!!!
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Headphones dot com is way ahead of this @Lothar_Wolf. Four full years ahead of this. @taronlissimore @andrew ā are the mediocre headphones still available?
New price?
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Inflation is already severeā¦ but bananas seem to top everything ā¦ā¦
From $120000 
up to $6.2 Million in 4 years 
Letās hope that headphones donāt follow the same trend.
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Errā¦Hifimanā¦errā¦are you hiding Bitcoin codes in your driversā¦?
I was talking about headphones, not about self-destructing (unveiled models) eardrum killers 
whose fragile concept I can at least understand.
Has anyone here already invested money in this crazy project? 
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I have been listening at work . . . And I think that I donāt like that I like my ZMFs so much. I have the Auteur Classics. Everything I could want. The mango is pretty. The sound balanced, revealing clear. I canāt complain.
But this is not ZMFs end game headphone. And itās an open back. Now I need to think about what a closed back would be like. And all of the stabilized releases, What about ZMFs next tier up. They donāt claim that there really are tiers, but look at the prices, sure the Verite and Atrium are in a different tier.
I need to stop thinking this way, or I could end up like @Lothar_Wolf with headphones lining my hallways, amps filling my closets and rings of ZMFs circling a lone Bayern Munchen mug - or in my case Arsenal or Penn State mug.
This nonsense must stop.
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While I wish @Lothar_Wolf the best and want him to enjoy his collection, personal tastes vary a lot. I tried a bunch of ZMFs at CAF. Every single time: openā¦thatās niceā¦closedā¦ugg, move onā¦openā¦thatās niceā¦closedā¦ugg, move onā¦
I could indeed hear the quality differences between drivers/price tiers. Atrium Open $2.5K was quite nice and perhaps my favorite. However, I strongly preferred the Audeze LCD-5 ($4.5K) over the Caldera ($3.5K). I tried but would not pursue the Aeolus or Bokeh $1K tier myself.
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I think we share some of the same aversion to closed backs. Iād really need to spend some time with a closed back to know if it will annoy the hell out of me for longer listening. Thatās if it makes it past the hideous echo or whatever you call the effect where you can hear the boundaries of the headphone in the first place, like the Audeze LCD-2 closed did not.
I guess Iām hoping that there would be SOME pleasant closed back. I havenāt found anything better than the Sennheiser Momentum 4 with its electronic gimmickery, That doesnāt bother me for movie/TV video type use, even for a couple of hours.
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I always keep at least one closed-back in my collection out of necessity. I used to think that a closed back would always be inferior to an open back using the same driver. The Atrium Closed doesnāt feel that way to me. I think it can stand on its own as an amazing-sounding pair of headphones, without the āfor a closed-backā disclaimer.
Find a great amp/dac to pair with it, and you can have TOTL sound with all the pros that come with using a closed-back headphone. Be sure to try different pads (or meshes if available) with any ZMF headphone before passing final judgement. There are lots of tuning options that can help you dial in the sound to your individual preferences.
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My aversion to closed backs derives less from sonic tastes, than from medical necessity: closed backs tend to more quickly trigger migraines & tinnitus than do open backs. So I focus on open backs.
However, along the way Iāve learned that dynamic driver closed backs have the quickest negative effect on me, while planar driver closed backs are far less onerous. Thus, I still have and still love the sound of my ZMF Ori, my first ever planar headphone & still one of my favorites.
Which brings me to another closed back planar that IMHO is well worth seeking out: the ZMF Caldera Closed. In my review of the CC on Head-Fi, I compared it at length to my beloved Caldera Open. I was very surprised to find that the CC is, if anything, the somewhat quieter, more controlled headphone. I could live with a CC all day long. The very well-damped, controlled sound may be due to ZMFās ADS (Atrium Damping System), but whatever is responsible, the CC is pretty much free of that annoying sound-bounce and pressure buildup I feel with some closed backs.
Recommend you try the CC. It may surprise you.
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This wonāt help, but check these out:
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Thatās a good deal of the logic behind my 3.5 hour fatigue-oriented playlist. No closed back has made it through the full playlist without causing issues. My current open setup does a much better job.
Iāve never tried a closed back that sounded good for more than 2 hours. Honestly, my Bose and Sony noise canceling headphones sound the best for longest. I think itās a function of their highly processed compressed dynamics that are meant to be heard over noise.
Thatās now the Air Pods Pro for me, as itās a light travel and gym option that cuts more background noise than a standard closed back. I do have a few unused closed backs sitting around too.
Indeed. That was my motivation when getting started with headphones. Speakers bugged me more at the time. I kept upgrading until the tinnitus stopped, and havenāt spent much since.
Closed-cup air compression. It grates over time. Dynamic drivers in a small cup are horrible (Meze). Dan Clarkās planars ā and as above Bose and Sony travel headphones ā are relatively low fatigue too.
Or:
To be honest, I canāt really agree with the skeptical reviews mentioned above, at least not with the latest generation of ZMFs that use the Atrium damping system.
ā- But something like that is always individually different in personal perception. ā-
Why I recommend the Bokeh to youā¦ well, itās the very unique presentation of the musical reproduction!
Forget the usual clichƩs like stage, imaging and layering.
These headphones act completely differently, you feel a bit like youāre in this gif.
Just imagine that you are in the middle of the musical presentation, you are part of the performance, so to speak, and everything happens AROUND you, that is the magic of the Bokeh in a nutshell, and I tell you:
āāāāā
The Caldera Closed, on the other hand, is more of a āclassicā headphone model, with extraordinary capabilities, the above-mentioned properties highlighted by many reviewers, which this headphone knows how to implement outstandingly.
āāāāā
And if you want to have an
lot of funā¦ā¦ā¦
Then the Atrium Closed will give you the full blast.
Of all the headphones I have heard, the AC with a tube amplifier designed for it is the headphone with the greatest āaddictive potentialā and it is extremely difficult to remove it from your ears.
āāāāā
In my ears, both the AC and the Bokeh have that
and would be a wonderful tonal ācomplementā to your rather serious-sounding Auteur
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Interesting. Even over the Atrium open?
Iāll try to explain.
In my opinion, both the Atrium Open and the Meze Elite are among the most āsafeā headphones on the market in terms of sound.
This means that you can sit back comfortably in your chair, put on music of any genre, and just relax and enjoy without your ears being bothered in the slightest.
This doesnāt mean that these headphones sound boring, but simply balanced, open and engaging, period.
āāāāā
I would like to use music to convey what makes the Atrium Closed so addictive:
The rendition of the thunderstorm in this song sounds so realistic and rumbling that it almost makes you jump out of your seat in fear.
āāāāā
Here it is the extraordinarily deep husky voice with an extra class vibrato, and the extremely deep bass in the background, which the biocellulose drivers vibrate irresistibly into your ear, so that your brain is shaken properly.
āāāāā
With this song you can literally feel the drum skins resonating and their resonances spreading throughout the room, making you feel like youāre in the Royal Albert Hall.
Not even very good planar headphones can do this in such perfect form, as they reproduce the drums rather quickly and dryly, without this extended reverberation.
āāāāā
These headphones are also able to reproduce the wonderful, youthful-sounding voice of Kat Edmonson, for example, with crystal clarity and do not hold back in any way from revealing small details in the recordings.
āāāāā
Individually, it is these little extra qualities that inspire me, because for me music is the sonic expression of moods, feelings and experiences, and the more I can listen to it with a playback device that presents it to me in an equally atmospheric way, the more emotional the listening sessions are.
ZMFs are absolutely capable of doing this without even remotely inspiring me to want to recognize technical finesse.
The overall sound-rounded package of all ZMFs lets me just enjoy instead of analyzing.
ā¦ā¦And each of these headphones has its own sonic character and thatās a good thing, without having to judge whether one is ābetterā than the otherā¦ā¦ā¦
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They are all very tempting. But I just have trouble justifying in my head spending another big chunk now on headphones. I really like some of the more exotic woods and that purple stabilized also. The Bokeh B stock isnāt that bad, and yes, the AC is enough off that I am tempted. I have a nice OTL Tube amp at work. However there are other goals on my event horizon.
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That was a very disturbing scene in that movie, unforgettable!
Thanks for that, I think?
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That was a great summary of the qualities of the AO, I am in 100% agreement. Those are great tracks for illustration. So is the Eivor performance of Trollabundin with the DNSO you posted long ago.
I kind of wish I had AC for comparison, but I am sitting this one out. I have a Tungsten single sided coming Monday or Tuesday, which puts me over my allowance already! 
Now if I were to win the lotteryā¦ 