While perusing various forum Classified/For sale sections I seen to see a lot of ZMF sets for sale…why is this? they have solid audiophile credentials and are beautifully made in the US…so is it just buy before you try fallout 
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I mean, you could ask the same question for almost any headphone/iem/source/what have you
It’s likely a combination of either people not liking them or preferring something else, some might just want a change of pace, I’ve even seen some sell their zmf for another zmf with a more desirable wood or ltd, could be upgrading, might be forced to sell for external reasons or potentially downscaling, might not have a good source for them, etc etc etc
There’s a decent amount of zmf out their given their popularity, so I don’t think it’s all that surprising to see them often on the used market. And they tend to hold their value decently well (well known, generally well liked, each piece is unique ish)
Most people can’t really try before they buy with things like this unless they have a dealer that has headphones for demo like zmf (fairly uncommon assuming there’s even a dealer near you) or visit shows. Goes for most headphones, ideally trying before you buy is ideal, but for most people that’s really not possible (if we all could try before we buy, there would be a lot less activity on forums, reviews, and whatnot lol)
Personal note
I’m not really the biggest fan of zmf, I don’t really appreciate the build, sound wise they typically aren’t a good value within the tier they compete in at least price for sound wise, they tend not to scale, and are too hyped to where used prices aren’t reasonable on some models. But there’s plenty of other people that like them
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I get all those points but the % of re-sales seems quite high compared to other mass produced “audiophile” set’s maybe excepting TOTL new sets…DC, Hifiman and Audeze etc which folks with 
will jump on to be first then decide they either don’t like them or they don’t work with their chain
Hhhhmmmm maybe it’s a way to subsidize a higher teir or the new ZMF planar.
sparkle. that is what most people look for in high end audio. a common reason i see people selling zmf, is to buy something that has better top end and technical performance. people like shiny things.
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Yeah I wouldn’t read much into that. As others pointed out though, ZMF has a new planar coming out. The Atriums are new. Other companies have new things on the horizon…its just like any other hobby. Look at the new RTX 4090 launch and check ebay for all the 30 series cards now being sold. It’s all par for the course.
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I think it’s really about similar to other high end cans (look at hifiman and focal for example, those always pop up), they do stand out more in listings though. But I haven’t really looked enough to say if there’s a lot more of them on the market because people don’t like them, or just because there’s a lot of them out there and it’s somewhat similar level to other prominent cans.
Don’t really think it’s that, I would just say the zmf aren’t the most technical options for the price point, and there’s better both above and at a similar price point, don’t really know if it’s purely a sparkle thing, but I do think it’s heavily to do with technical performance (and potentially lack thereof)
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I think the ZMF phenomena goes in waves. They release a new limited edition or a new wood / stabilized and a bunch of people dip their toes in the Verite waters. Then decide to move on to something else. The VO seem to really tank in value on the used mkt followed by VC then atrium.
I’m more surprised at the # of LCD5 that have been hitting the market so quickly after the person just got it new. Almost seems like they are in a hurry to get rid of them.
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Yeah seen that too…are these buy ’n sell trends a heads up
Gonna add Meze Empy’s to the flip ‘em quick list, always loads on the s/h market they also seem easy to fall out of love with
Gotta add Campfire Trifecta to this thread…more flips than pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.
ZMFs are super hyped, which causes people just have way too high expectations, IMO. Most audiogear improvements are always some degree of marginal. I saw someone on Reddit get ZMFs and say they were disappointed they didn’t sound much better than their ATH-m40s without EQ… which honestly is a fair statement to make (especially if general tuning is the only thing you’re listening for). It’s also why I always tell people not to make such massive jumps early on in terms of pricing, even if they can afford it. You get WAY more out of this hobby slowly working your way up, IMO. You just learn more about what you like and what to look for. Get used to certain things like “burn in” phycological or otherwise. The type of differences to expect when moving from one tier of product to the next, etc.
It’s like someone experiencing a really good ending to a movie and loving it, then showing someone the ending without any of the context or build-up that led up to it and it not having nearly the same impact on them. So much of this hobby is about the journey and learning to appreciate the marginal improvements and other characteristics aside from straight raw frequency response, such as timbre, decay, and even distortion/saturation characteristics. It takes time, experience, and practice like so many other things.
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Well said! I am on my 4th year of my mid to high end Audio journey myself. A lot of trial and error happened along the way to find out where my preferences fall. Going from a Asgard 3 & Modi to the pile of Schiit I have on my desk today (went full circle on that one). After that time and a lot of research I finally jumped in to the waters of TOTL with my ZMF Atrium purchase this year. Even at this stage I still have a lot to learn and experience, but just like before others in the Hifiguides/Head-fi community help me along the way.
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Adding Dita Project M’s