Reporting that the Burson Conductor 3X Reference pairs very well with the Eikons.
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I wear glasses and it is fine.
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I wear glasses and it is a mess. The arms on the glasses are not thin, so I get a headache by wearing them and using a HP.
Quite a bommer, so I have to use IEMs most of the time
After 8 months of Eikon ownership, I cleaned them. Yikes, how much shit accumulates on leather and wood just from it sitting there on a stand on my desk. Only moving from the stand, to my head and back to the stand. Yuck. lol
Anyway, clean you cans regularly. And while in the process of cleaning them⌠I decide hey let me try and see how the Auetur pads sound on these things. You know, since I bought them and had them sitting in the case all this time. Both pads are lambskin, very supple.
So after a couple of hours of having the Auetur pads on, wow! What a difference. Itâs exactly the direction I wanted to move in. Theyâre immediately more spacious sounding. Not that the Eikon was ever claustrophobic or too intimate. Itâs just that the Auetur pads give everything a little more room. They keep the same subwoofer like slam that the Eikons can deliver but they a a bit wider, open, and a little brighter. The only difference between these two pads is the size of the ear hole. Theyâre identical in ever other dimension. Just about a quarter of an inch longer in length and about 1/8 of an inch in width.
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Good to hear your impressions! I just received my Eikon this week and I did order some lambskin Auteur pads along with it, but Iâve been listening to it stock to get a feel for the sound first before pad-swapping.
Glad the wait is over for you if you got them new. Listen for a gooooood loooooong time to them, get used to the sound before you make the change, so get intimate with the signature and can better appreciate what changes.
EDIT: they do give up a smidge of slam on the bottom, but Iâm wondering if thatâs because theyâre new and not as supple yet as the Eikon pad that saw daily use for 8 months or so.
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Yep, I bought them new! The time from clicking purchase to having them arrive at my house was about 8 weeks. I also posted some photos in the âWhat did you buy today?â thread when the headphones arrived:
I was not prepared for the bass on these things.
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Coming back to this after a solid week with a lot of listen time. The Auetur pads on the Eikon is the way to go (for me). Id been itching for something with a hind more clarity and detail on the top. Seriously considering the VC.
Have to say for now, just the pad swap has sated my itch. They add a hint more space, the staging seems a little bigger and instruments are easier to place and separate so detail is improved. It seems just seem like the added size on the ear hole of the pads is doing something magical to the Eikons. Okay maybe magical is exaggerating a little but they push them in exactly the way I was yearning for.
The pad change is not subtle, and in my case, very welcomed. BTW, if I had to say, the bottom end slam is reduced by 10% so not just a smidge, but the Eikons have so much bottom end slam that itâs a tradeoff Iâm willing to make to effectively enjoy feels like different headphone.
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I also swapped out for the Auteur pads maybe a week or so ago, and I had basically the same experience youâre describing. Itâs funny, I listened to the Eikon stock for a while to make sure I could really hear the difference, but itâs not subtle at all, lol.
The Eikon already has more bass extension and punch than any of my other headphones, so at first, I really took to the extra brightness and space. But after living with the pad-swap for a while, I found I kinda missed the old sound, especially depending on the song.
And then just yesterday, my Quicksilver amp arrived in the mail, which totally adds back some of that bass punchiness (was listening on an RNHP before), and so the pad-swap and the tube amp might kinda perfectly balance each other out for me? Obviously, I just got the amp and Iâm still in the honeymoon phase with it, but Iâm hopeful!
EDIT:
Quick update, I love this combo with the Quicksilver, but it definitely doesnât bring the Eikonâs bass back to the boomy-ness that it had with the stock pads. Honestly though, this pairing is a pretty nice balance, the stock pads can actually be a bit much sometimes, lol. So yeah, if youâre looking to buy an Eikon, I can definitely say that itâs worth it to add in some lambskin Auteur pads⌠and while youâre at it, also upgrade the cable to at least the OFC cable, imo.
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Okay, so today I swapped my Eikon to some lambskin Universe pads and again, it changes the headphone in a pretty non-subtle way. Mostly it makes it noticeably brighter than the Auteur pads, but itâs still very enjoyable to listen to. I donât think itâs actually more detailed, but the extra bit of brightness kinda feels like detail depending on what youâre listening to. Bass punchiness seems about the same as the Auteur pads.
(EDIT: Space also seems a little smaller than the Auteur pads. The Eikon also sounds a bit less unique with these pads, if that makes any sense. Itâs only been a day, but I think the Universe pads are my favorite of the three for electronic music.)
Pad-rolling this headphone continues to be so much fun. I like the Eikon pads AND I like the Auteur pads AND I like the Universe pads and theyâre all different.
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Pad rolling ZMFs is the bestâŚâŚI have like 6-7 sets for the sigle set I haveâŚâŚwith more coming from some Alpha Pros and Classic ZMFâŚâŚ.like having 7 diff sets if cans
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Out of curiosity what are you using? I was floored with how much of a difference there was going from the std. Eikon sheepskin to the Auetur sheepskin. The guide on the ZMF site was spot on with the description.
Would love to hear some of your experiences with other sets.
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I tend to like the stock pads most for most zmf headphones honestly, with the Aeolus being the exception where I like the suede uni more.
However, with my eikon and auteur, I like swapping g the pads to match with amps better. I use the eikon pads with most solid states and my tuba, but the auteur and eikon suede with my echo.
Same with the auteur. Stock with most, even the echo, but the eikon pads come out with my btr5 to add a little more bass oomph.
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Had Verite Opens and switched between Universe of different material, BE2, And I believe AuteursâŚnow running Verite Closed and I am not sure what pad is on now but have swapped 3-4 sets through and mind blown by difference each time- Auteur, Universe, Auteur Hybrid(current)
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Quick update: Okay, with more time, I think the Universe pads are probably my least favorite of the three Eikon pads Iâve tried. But I still like them, and I really like just how /different/ they sound from the Eikon/Auteur pads. I almost want to say they have a studio-neutral kind of sound.
If I could only have two pads with my Eikon, my two choices might still be the Auteur pads and the Universe pads. But yeah, the Auteur pads are still my favorite.
Since upgrading my amp, I think the Universe pads might have actually jumped up to being my favorites on the Eikon. Pad rolling is weird, lol. o.o
âŚI guess it does make some kind of sense, the better amp has better space/depth and punchier bass, which are the things that the Eikon and Autuer pads each bring to the table. So maybe it makes it easier to appreciate the more forward, detailed sound of the Universe pads since it doesnât feel as lacking in those other aspects? I dunno.
Has anyone else out there tried out the Universe pads on an Eikon?
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Be careful with the Camphor - check the review from Sharppain here: ZMFheadphones Eikon - Reviews | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org
New ZMF strap for anyone interested:
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Mine just arrived in the mail yesterday so theyâre shipping pretty quickly, will probably try to install it tonight. I donât find the Eikon especially uncomfortable unless I wear it for a lot of hours, but Iâm interested to give the new strap a try.
UPDATE EDIT:
My initial impression is that the headphone immediately feels âlighterâ than I remember. The strap is both wider than my old strap and it feels like it has some foam or something on the underside to give it some squish. I might end up needing to bend the metal a little, since Iâm also getting a smidge less clamp force than I was before, but Iâm going to try keeping it like this for a little bit first.
Anyway, first impressions are really good! I can check back in in a few days with any updated impressions, but for the moment, Iâd recommend the new strap. 
(Additional notes: My Eikon is Marblewood, so not as light as stock, but also not as heavy as Blackwood or whatnot. Installation was pretty easy, Zach uses a power tool in the video, but I just used the included hex wrench and it was totally fine.)
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Installed the Crescent strap today. It is definitely larger than the stock band. I had to drop it all the way down to the bottom rung. If my head was any smaller I wouldnât even be able to use it probably. Itâs comfy though, I like it.
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