ZMF EIKON & ZMF ATTICUS

I ordered a cherry Eikon as well. Pairing it with my Burson Soloist. I'm hoping for good things.

 

I wish my personal cherry eikon was being send to me sometime this week lol

 

Ah sorry man. It looks like it really did get out of hand.

Well on topic, I'll post some info that I haven't seen covered:

-The Ceramic housing has been replaced by "heavy ABS" due to, no surprise, the ceramic breaking.
-According to Zach the Omni pads lend a bit of brightness over the new pads. You can order 2 pairs of the normal pads or one pair of each.
-Driver photos are up:

Eikon:




Atticus:


-Zach has a page up about the differences with the wood: http://www.zmfheadphones.com/wood/

 

Just a note, we actually had no issues with the ceramic breaking, at least when the drivers arrived to us, it was an issue of being able to make the drivers with a mould instead of having to 3d print the ceramic chassis every time with our MFR. The samples we used there was no difference in measurement or aural tests as the material is very close in density, I think our acoustic design with the surround/baffle plays a big part in the sonic design as well which may play a role.

 

Thanks for clarifying. I pretty much agree with your assessment in your AMA, it's a shame from a marketing standpoint but it shouldn't be any different.

I know you aren't offering customization with the Eikon and Atticus right now, and for good reason. However, would you consider personalizing customer's headphones for a price later in the future? I'd personally love to know if Padauk can stain purple, I'm sure that comes as no surprise.

 

I got them both in today. They are both quite the headphones. I'll put more impressions in tomorrow, as I don't want to go overboard in the first couple of hours.

 

I have arrived with my impressions so far. They're both in Cherry by the way.


Eikon

The very first thing that becomes very apparent when you put these headphones on is the fact that they're not the usual ZMF Headphone. They are supremely neutral. That is, nothing actually stands out in the frequency range (which will be a good thing for most people.) In fact, the only two things that seem to be emphasized is the tiny bit of darkness and the tiny bit of subbass emphasis. The best way to put it would be: "It presents music very, very well, and that's that."

The big, big thing about this headphone is the resolve and transients. It is incredibly f'ing fast, incredibly f'ing detailed, and incredibly f'ing clear. Everything this headphone does is well textured (especially the bass.) Hell, I'd say the bass outdoes the Fostex biocellulose headphones in texture and detail. Maybe not impact, but that isn't something everyone wants in the first place (as everything gets sacrificed.)

I'm keeping this short, as I'm more wanting to get my impressions in order before I say much more. But, the big take away here is that Zach took a biocellulose driver, and made it neutral without losing any of the benefits. Because of that, we end having a headphone that makes the TH900 look like a mistake. Hell, even outdoes it in soundstage (though, I still wouldn't say the Eikon has a large soundstage.)

Atticus

Did you want the Omni, but obviously heard it being held back by the T50 driver? Did you wonder where the lower mids went? Well...guess what? They went into the Atticus. (Side-note, I am going into a bit more detail with this one becuase there is a weird lack of them going around.)

Seriously though, if you wanted a headphone with the same quality as the Eikon, but with the ZMF House sound, this is the headphone for you. While the transients are slower (as the decay is a bit more natural to my ear,) the Atticus is every bit as good as the Eikon (just different.) That includes the superb resolve.

The mids and bass are very much a focus of this headphone. The vocals sound amazing and acoustic guitars sound exemplary with this bad boy. The decay and texture in this region is a bit more obvious over the Eikon (as the decay is slightly slower and the mids are a bit elevated.) This includes the upper-mids.

The bass, on the other hand, actually reminds me more of the THX00 and the Fostex stuff than the Eikon does. The Atticus has a healthy amount (not too much) of midbass and subbass that oddly stays incredibly clear and textured (meaning it lacks a lot of distortion in that area.)

If you're a treblehead, you won't like this headphone. But, if you're not, the treble is very well done, and there's a surprising amount of air to it. That said, I would actually place the Eikon's treble a bit ahead of the Atticus. At the same time though, the treble is not meant to be the focus here...it does its job well and doesn't make me feel like it is lacking in anyway.

The only issue I have the Atticus is that the soundstage is incredibly wide and occasionally makes things sound distant. I have this issue more in games than actual music.

Now, I have to come clean with something...the Atticus I'm listening to is different from the rest. It actually has a slightly upgraded driver (The magnets are bigger/membrane material stiffer.) This removes the issue of muddiness that some people have heard in the bass of the Atticus. That, and it's the production driver (as in, this is what is going into the Atticus' being created.)


That all said...I'm preferring the Atticus overall at the moment. I may be in the minority, as I know most people here would love the neutrality of the Eikon.

 

Great write-up!

BTW are they review pairs or demo pairs?
I assumed that regular production units will be available next February..

 

Yep, they're review pairs. They're the ones that will be available in February.

 

That is interesting, so you are saying Atticus has a larger soundstage than Eikon?

 

I'd say the Eikon has a tiny bit more of depth, but the Atticus seems to have a lot wider soundstage...so I'd say it's larger on average.

 

Thanks for the info. Also wonder how is the isolation and sound leakage of both headphones.

 

As my wife puts it, "give it 5 stars on the "you can't hear your wife yelling at you"." Not sure about sound leakage just yet.

 

After having them a couple of days now (I think it's been four, but don't quote me on that,) I thought I'd pass some more impressions before I get the Decware tomorrow and then my review on Friday.



The Eikon has grown on me quite a bit over the last few days. I still prefer the Atticus, however. But I'd equate the differences between the two as a "HD600 vs. HD650" kind of thing.



Let me explain:



I've found the Eikon to be more neutral than any of Zach's headphones, as I've said before. It has a touch of bass, however, but said bass extends well into the subbass regions. The Atticus also extends far into the subbass regions, but it has a mid-bass/lower mids boost that makes it a lot warmer overall. Due to the lower distortion, said warmth is pulled off quite well (unlike, let's say, the unmodded HD650 at times.)



The treble also extends quite a bit further than I thought it would on the Eikon. Interestingly enough, the Atticus also extends pretty far into the higher-treble regions. The difference, however, is this: The Atticus is more immediately apparent in the lower treble, and seems to sound more energetic because of that. The Eikon, however, has more of a presence in the upper-treble.



Once you get to the mids, it seems the big thing that stands out is the added warmth on the Atticus making the rest of the region thicker and (slightly) more forward. It isn't overly warm to the point of muddy, however. The Eikon, on the other hand, has much more integrated bass and seems to sorta coast on into its mids. Quite frankly, it reminds me of the mids on the HD800 (without the thin sound due to the bit of warmth nor the dryness caused by the upper mids dip in the HD800.)



The upper-mids part is where things get interesting. The Atticus, due to how the 2-4Khz region sorta sets itself, ends up having a timbre similar (but not exactly the same...think of an "approximation" more than a mimicry) to the HD600 and HD650. You can sort of hear the same thing going on with the Eikon, but it is a lot more apparent with the Atticus. In fact, besides the added warmth (I like the combination of the mid-bass boost and low distortion,) I believe this is the reason I am so partial to the Atticus over the Eikon (I have a soft-spot for that damn Sennheiser 6x0 series.)



Luckily, a buddy (@AMW1011) on the Headphones discord chat (and here) is lending me his HD600 so I can confirm that's what I'm hearing. One of my favorite headphones was a modded HD650 for almost the timbre alone, so it is exciting to recognize the same kind of timbre in the Atticus (which does things a lot better than the HD650.)



Ah, one last thing on the sound. The speed difference between the two has become less obvious the more I've switched between them. The Eikon is still in the lead, of course, but the Atticus has less issues catching up with it than I thought it would.



All things considered, it looks like I'm probably ordering a Padauk Atticus around Christmas.

 

I am finished with my Atticus review here: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/5dptbz/the_zmf_atticus_review_all_about_that_bass/

If you want me to, I can always just dump the text here if anyone has anything against reddit, haha.

 

I'm waiting for the Elear vs ZMF brothers death match. The tuning seems to be aimed at the same target audience. There can only be one!

 

Here is my Eikon review (on reddit...though I'll paste it here too)

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/5e8a73/zmf_eikon_the_bold_and_beautiful_and_organic/

Introduction
Well guys...it is time. Time for the review a lot of you have been waiting for: The ZMF Eikon. This beauty is made with a biocellulose dynamic driver covered by Cherry wood housing. The best part? It doesn't have weird tuning choices! For this review, I used a NFB-11 and a Decware OTL. Also, as a fun note, I'm keeping all Atticus vs. Eikon stuff for the end.

Build Quality and Comfort
[Word of warning: You can skip this if you've read my Atticus review. It is the same paragraph, as they use the same kind of frame to build off of.]

Much like the Omni, Vibro and Blackwood before it, the Eikon uses wood cups that provide a gorgeous aesthetic while keeping the handmade feel one comes to expect form the ZMF brand. However, the Eikon is a step up above all three of those in build quality. Since this headphone is entirely designed by ZMF, it no longer uses the stock Fostex head-band. Instead, Zach uses heavy-duty sliders connected to a headband that keeps the entire headphone sturdy and feeling solid. Zach uses a combination of a pad wrapped around the headband and a strip of leather for comfort, which keeps the weight distributed nicely on your head. The pads also nice and thick with foam that keeps the headphone from feeling like it has a large clamp around your ears.

Sound
Honestly, this is the first biocellulose tuning I've ever heard that leaned neutral and not completely weird in some way (like the TH900's...everything but bass, or the Nighthawks weird "we don't want to fatigue you...but you don't get to hear anything else either.) Let's just jump straight into the nitty gritty.

Bass
Ah, the bass. The bass of the Eikon is best described (and I'm stealing this from /u/ishca) as "integrated." It is deep, powerful, and detailed. However, it doesn't try to stand out. It just is. Much like the HE-6, in fact.

There is a bit of subbass over midbass emphasis. This leads to a powerful sound that doesn't really make itself known until it absolutely needs to. And when it does make itself known, it has a distortion free and well-texture quality to it. Unlike other dynamics, it also has a speed to it that is normally not matched by other headphones.

Because there is only a touch of warmth, the Eikon doesn't become over-bloated from a warm OTL amp either. In fact, it matches quite well with a neutral solid-state or a fun tube amp.

If I can be honest, this is the hardest part of the review. Unlike most headphones, the bass of the Eikon doesn't stand out aside from the subbass emphasis. Because of that, the Eikon is hard to describe in detail other than "what is there is excellent."

Mids
The lower mids of the Eikon are a pretty special thing. The seemless transition from the mid-bass into the lower mids adds quite a bit clarity to the bass notes, which helps establish the non-intrusive (but powerful) bass of the Eikon.

Unlike most of Zach's other headphones, the rest of the mid-range is not thick at all. They are, however, incredibly fast and shine with complex pieces of music. Vocals also stand out as particularly natural sounding. Due to this clarity, the imaging is quite spectacular.

The upper mid-range, much like the rest of the headphone, is an incredibly smooth transition. Combine that with the speed of the driver, the Eikon gains an incredibly sense of attack to the end of each note.

Despite that neutrality, the mids of the Eikon have a very unique situation applied to them: The timbre is very similar to headphones like the HD6x0. I actually had to borrow someone's HD600 to confirm that it was in fact similar to the HD6x0 series (and indeed it is.)

Treble
The best things I can say about the treble is that it is well extended, incredibly clear, smooth, and has a bit of energy. In fact, the air of this headphone shattered my expectations of a closed headphone. I would throw in more of description, but, like the bass, it is just well-integrated. The low distortion and extension lead to something that is quite...neutral and unexpected from both Zach and a biocellulose driver.

Overall Sound and Technicalities
The soundstage, overall, is bigger than the majority of closed-back headphones (including the TH900.) It is now, however, anywhere near a headphone like the T1 or even the HE560. That said, the detail and imagery alone make up for this difference. To top it off, the transients of this headphone are among the fastest I've ever heard out of any headphone out there.

Overall, this headphone is a smooth, powerful, detailed, quick, revealing black-backgrounded son of a bitch. There's nothing really much to this headphone: It is just fantastic.

Final notes on Atticus vs. the Eikon
You know, at first...this was an obvious choice preference and technicalities wise. My preference leaned heavily towards the Atticus, while I knew that the Eikon was just better technically. However, as time went on, the differences between the two became less obvious over time.

1. The Speed: While doing critical listening, the Eikon is always faster, if just barely. Surprisingly, the Atticus could keep up in most things, with the exception of the midbass area at times. However, during casual listening, the difference was drastically harder to notice. This TPE driver is big surprise, and the Atticus may be quite underrated in this area.
   
   
2. The resolve is a weird one. In all honestly, one is not really outdoing the other. However, the more neutral and linear sound of the Eikon, especially in the treble, allows it to exceed in making the microdetail more apparent. The Atticus, however, is too thick at times and you can miss the smaller details if you aren't paying attention for them.
   
   
3. The treble extension of both well exceeds what is usually in a closed headphone. However, the Eikon is slightly better extended in this area, while the Atticus recesses it a bit to keep the overall sound leaning towards an overall dark sound (but not overly so.)
   
   
4. The Atticus aims for a huge presence. It is big and bombastic in everything it does. The Eikon, on the other hand, is smoother and leans more towards the neutral side, giving you the music as it should be while adding only a drop of color into it.
   
   
5. Surprisingly, their tonality actually follow the same lines: a bass emphasis, into linear but amazing mids, followed by smooth treble. The difference lies in how far they go with it. The Atticus goes all the way and boosts the bass and lowers the treble, making more a downward slope. The Eikon, however, tries to keep it as even as it can.

Honestly, they're both just as good as the other. The main difference comes down to this: what is your perference? Because, as everything else in this hobby, everything comes down to what you want to hear, not what others want you to. Personally, I'm getting a Paduak Atticus, as I'd rather have a colored sound with almost all the technicalities of the Eikon. I know a lot of people who are thinking the opposite, however.

 

Nice description of the Nighthawks

Can you compare the Eikon to the Elear?

Also when do we get to see the measurements for these two?

Thanks!

 

Considering to pre-order the ZMF Eikon. I am in Europe, so I would like to be pretty sure I´m going to like these before ordering. I only have the ATH-W3000 and a few cheaper headphones which probably are not useful as a reference for comparisons, but I heard the TH-900...
@PacoTaco:
- is the Eikon much darker as the TH-900? I know this might be difficult to compare because the TH-900 is quite uneven in its treble but I am a little worried the Eikon might be just a little too laid back with the treble for my taste. So how would you describe the amount of treble in the great scale of things?
- The TH-900 is definitely too bassy for me; how much does the Eikon have less bass?
- How does soundstage compare?
- And also, I did not read much about comfort regarding clamping force yet...

 

It's not darker than the TH900. The TH900 is an odd headphone overall to really place, as everything beyond the bass is just fucked. To death. The amount of trouble is a touch towards the darker side, but more in a smooth way.

Less bass on the Eikon by quite a bit. The Atticus rivals the TH900 in quantity (while keeping the same quality like the TH900 does.) However, the Eikon has more powerful bass (due to the subbass emphasis.)

Deeper, but same width on the Eikon.

It's a non-issue. It's less clamp than a HD600, 900 or even a THX00.