Not yet I just asked if I could put the funds toward stabilized when it becomes available.
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Stabilized wood is super cool stuff! As I’m sure you know from your research, it’s wood that has been infused with resin in a vacuum chamber so the resin penetrates every little nook and cranny of the wood. It has the beauty of wood grain and the color, maleability, and durability of resin.
It makes for great knife and straight razor scales, handles of all sorts, and even fine pens.
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More generally, stabilized wood allows the use of otherwise unsuitable woods. There are dozens or hundreds of beautiful natural woods that are too soft, brittle, fragile, or otherwise have no utility beyond delicate decorations.
Many standard, durable, woods often look boring or are very expensive. White woods (e.g., maple, ash, hickory, birch, pine, etc.) are often technically good to superior, but very plain looking. Many naturally dark woods (e.g., walnut, mahogany, ebony) have many bidders and cost $$$$, per having both good looks and functionality.
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Are they selling stabilized MAPLE? That kind of shocks me, as maple is one the hardest @#$%#^$#$ common woods out there. It doesn’t stain well and might require a special dye process for alternative colors, but I don’t understand why good quality maple would need stabilization for headphones.
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I have no idea, but interestingly the one stabilized wood that Kenerton sells is also Maple.
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Speculating…perhaps to control brittleness with finely machined pieces, or to allow very thin pieces that resonate well?
I’ve talked to Zach and they are selling an extreme limited run of stabilized maple Verite Closed. He is building them then releasing in small batches, as most don’t make it due to it being such a hard wood to work with.
The two colorful Verite Closed that @Torq has are stabilized maples, so they should hopefully come out similar to that batch he has.
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It would be interesting to contrast ZMF stabilized wood cans’ acoustic properties (likely minimal but depends on tuning), cost of labor (stabilized more labor intensive), raw material cost (natural more expensive), and ultimate headphone selling price versus natural wood (likely similar but I haven’t tracked ZMF Ltd historical prices). While stabilized wood has utility and certain advantages over natural wood, I personally lean toward natural in the same vein as organic, biodynamic, etc.
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I talked to people/zach about the stabilized maple and they will be the most expensive lmtd run ZMF has done. $3k+ for them
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Yes, me too. I’d prefer natural if the wood is durable enough. To me, stabilizing mainly helps make the use of weak and fragile woods possible.
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Maple, ash, and hickory excel at strength: guitar necks, baseball bats, and tool handles. I hand-cut two maple necks for cigar box guitars and it was like working with stone. Probably a lot harder than soapstone even.
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Oh wow, probably due to being labor intensive and R&D/trial and error, i.e., hard wood to work with that you referenced. It will probably look stunning, with the ZMF sound that we’ve come to love and enjoy.
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I agree. You’ve identified and discussed the relevant considerations.
Stabilized Maple BURL in fact … though that’s been harder to see the burls on the only other three headphones I’ve seen in this finish so far (one of which has sold, two are still available, all are in the UK).
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That’s a world of difference, and facilitates the use of an otherwise unsuitable source.
Here’s a maple burl as cut from a tree:
Following processing and stabilization:
I think that quilt or flame maple should be strong enough for use without stabilization, as it is routinely used in high-stress applications (e.g., acoustic instrument bodies, rifle stocks):
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The appearance of a trio (now duo) of stabilized maple burl Vérité C LTD models from ZMF’s UK dealer seem to have prompted a round of unsolicited purchase offers for my two sets.
I have no plans to sell either set.
In fact, if a red set was posted, when Zach starts listing models in the US, I’d probably jump on that set too.
Thought it is interesting/amusing so see just how high some of these unsolicited offers are. Not tempting. But high enough that I’d bet Zach would still sell every model he makes available for a significantly higher price than the sets in the UK are going for.
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While the ones we’ve seen on sale so far have been great, yours are simply on another level!
I’m so glad you did. Those are beautiful!!!
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Imagine an Adirondack or an Englewood cup…
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After nearly a 4 month wait, they arrived.
As a young musician, I was fortunate to be friends with many string players. My closest friend in life often invited me to visit the top stringed instrument dealers in the US to listen and give opinions on different violins. I’ve been able to sit with my eyes closed and hear Strads, del Gesu, Bergonzi etc. Beautiful resonating instruments made of wood. As a flutist, I have owned and played on wood flutes, but also silver, platinum, gold and other exotic alloys. Wood is unique, and IMO the most homogeneous with the other instruments in the “wood” wind section. Makes sense.
Now I have an incredible wooden instrument again in these headphones! I am astonished (although obviously not speechless) at the warm timbre of ZMF VC. The only other high end headphone I have had since starting this endeavor was the Final Audio A8000 IEMs which I thought were incredible, and a window into the music I had not experienced before in reproduction. But the VCs sound so much more natural, human. Acoustic.
I do not have the benefit of headphone comparisons like many others here. I did my research and decided to shoot straight for the top, as I perceived it from the descriptions of others. As an acoustic musician earlier in life, I can only compare this experience to that of playing acoustic instruments with other musicians and hearing the way sounds and space combine, how overtones and upper partials create an environment of resonance and slow harmonious decay.
Compliments to ZMF for making these beautiful instruments.
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