Much later than I planned, or anticipated, I have posted my full ZMF Pendant review, including thoughts on various headphone pairings (and how that works in more general terms) and some proper tube-rolling exploration.
The Pendant is an excellent bit of kit … bringing true, high-end, pure-tube amplifier performance into the realm of more mainstream solid-state or tube-hybrid amplifiers.
Love the review - and I agree with your conclusions. I haven’t been paying enough attention to the tube world and the pendant has really opened up that perspective. It’s interesting to see your take on how it does with planars as well. I didn’t have any high end planars here to try with it really, and of the mid-level stuff I did have, I wasn’t as into them as I was with the dynamics I had available - and especially the high impedance ones.
It’s definitely on my list of stuff to get at some point.
Another excellent review, Ian. 
I generally preferred the Pendant with dynamics as well.
It fairs a lot better than most pure-tube amplifiers with lower-impedance planar cans, but that’s not the same as being the best possible match. And such planar cans tend to favor solid-state amps with ultra-low OI and tons of current capacity. The LCD-4 is a bit of an odd-duck, being very high-impedance compared to most of what’s currently shipping.
I was a bit surprised at how well the Stellia, being so low in their impedance, and dynamic (which are generally more susceptible to FR shifts with higher-OI amplifiers) fared.
I’m lucky in that I’ve had tube-amps in my stable, either for speakers or headphones, for 35 years now, so assessing them is a bit easier - especially when it comes to rolling tubes (I have boxes of the bloody things … and only the big power-tubes are really properly cataloged).
You can get a basic Glenn OTL for under $1000.00,or a fully loaded one similar to mine for under 2K…just sayin’.
Great review @Torq I have been looking forward to this!
https://www.headphones.com/blogs/news/zmf-pendant-tube-headphone-amplifier-review
Also that last photo with the sunsets skyline =Bello!
And now I want this amp even more. . .Great review man!
The sound description in the review of Penchant sounded so similar to my Almarro amp (also 12AX7 into EL84), it as rather eerie.
The spec shows 3 Watts @ 8 ohms, so could one technically jerry-rig an adapter to power some sensitive speakers?
Thanks @Monsterzero going to build a BottleHead Crack with my father in law should be a fun project!
@Torq How do you compare the Pendant with Aficionado or Liquid Crimson or your Woo amps (WA5 and 2A3)?
Quite favorably, and even more so if you consider that the Pendant, ready to run, costs half (or less) of those other amplifiers once they are equipped with suitable tubes. You have to add 2A3 tubes to the Aficionado to run it at all, and good ones (never mind the best) are not cheap. And the first thing you’ll want to do with the WA5-LE MKII is replace the stock tubes.
Being more specific is hard, having not had the Aficionado, Liquid Crimson or the WA5-LE MK2 around while I had the Pendant on loan.
I was never a big enough fan of the original Cavalli amplifiers to actually want to own one, where I am talking with Zach about doing something special for a base on a Pendant.
The Aficionado, while very engaging and enjoyable, in its stock form was not the direction I would personally want to go with a 2A3 based amplifier (later options made it more so). I’d personally have opted for the DNA Stratus at that price point. Which is still more than double the price of the Pendant by the time you include a good set of 2A3 tubes.
My WA5 was actually the WA5-LE MK2 with the optional parts upgrade package. It’s a very different presentation to the Pendant (as are most 300B amplifiers). It is also a $4,900 amplifier, which is heavily dependent on its tube complement for its performance. I wound up running a tube set that cost almost as much as the amplifier (rare NOS RCA signal tubes, and Takatsuki 274B and 300B), so I don’t really consider it a comparable piece.
Depending on the headphone in question, I would likely take the Pendant over the base-model WA5-LE MK2 with its stock tubes. You could swing that towards the Woo with the right tubes - mostly because I’m a 300B fan. The Woo does fair better with lower-impedance planar cans.
My current tube amplifier is the Woo WA234 MKII MONO. It’s my favorite tube amplifier to date. And it significantly outperforms the Pendant - and bests every other tube headphone amplifier I’ve heard as well. But … it’s a $16,000 amplifier that I am running ~$8,000 of tubes in - which makes individual tubes there MORE than the cost of the entire Pendant package. So it’s not terribly relevant as a comparison.
Very helpful comparisons. Thank you!
The Decware Tabboo MKIII and MKIV use EL84 power tubes like the Pendant. Has anyone compared one of the Decware amps to the Pendant and concluded that the Pendant has superior sound quality? If so, your observations would be appreciated.
I ran my 1266 and it sounded as good as my gsx mini with the added tube flare. All my planars sound great on the Pendant.
What DAC’s are folks using with their Pendant? Currently have the Matrix X Sabre Pro MQA and the RME ADI-2 DAC but looking at maybe adding a Bifrost 2 or something with a bit more of a natural sound.
Man, I covet that thing. That’s a next year upgrade for me! 
I bet it sounds fantastic.
Definitely had a little bit of buyers remorse at first but as soon as it was set up that all went away 
Good gear tends to do that!
Cheers.
The only way to start listening to the new rig, have to open with Rolling Stones “Paint it Black” with RAD-0
Pulled out the ZMF Verite to slide into some old school Rock and Roll.
If you have a pair of Zmf Verite, the Pendant is the missing link you have been searching for, even better with Chord Qutest.
I have to say, the Pendant in Black is quite handsome.
Ghost riding…
