šŸ”¶ ZMF Headphones Atrium

Oh yeah, don’t put anything on top of the S17! Maybe you can put it in a shelf that doesn’t have a lot of space at the top for anything to get to. I will say, I have a cat and he figured out that hot things were hot pretty quick and left them alone (I also have a tube amp)

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I totally get that. There is a big difference between my Soloist 3xp and Mjolnir 3 sound signature wise, and both are class A SS amps.

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Currently have it setup like this. Seems to be working. Going to stress test it by leaving it on all day.
Probably going to get another fan pad tho. This one can’t turn off the leds for whatever reason

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I’ve had a bit of time with the Bokeh, and to be quite honest, very comparable. It has its strengths over the Atriums. In acoustic/vocal heavy tracks, the Atriums really shine, but for electronic and modern-pop music, the Bokeh are definitely the way to go, IMO. They complement each other very well. Both have very nice ZMF timbre qualities. Both are generally good at all things. The Bokeh are more forgiving of sources & mastering quality. The Atriums definitely have nicer build quality and are better at picking up details with better overall extension, but the Bokeh are no slouch. If you put a gun to my head and made me choose one, I’d honestly pick the Bokeh (probably, it may just depend on how I feel that day), but I would have a VERY hard time parting with either. For the record, I ordered both about a week apart, the Atriums just came way faster. I think ZMF is definitely my favorite headphone maker now. Lol Very happy with both purchases. My last purchase for the near term is a set of speakers I bought for the family room setup, which I will share in a new thread for them in the near future.

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Couldn’t agree more with you. I’m currently using Atrium Open and Bokeh and while they have their own strengths and weaknesses but they complement each other very well. When I switch to Bokeh from Atrium (when my wife just doesn’t want to hear any music bleed), it doesn’t feel that I’m sacrificing much. Just a different style of tuning and bokeh slightly less technical

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Are you noticing more controlled and well defined bass vs your tube amp? I have some bass heavy tracks in the mix and it is handling them very well powered by Mjolnir 3. I am curious if that is happening for your as well with the S17 pro.

Most likely, but I have them setup in different rooms and have not really A/Bed them directly. The DACs are also very different. I’ll try hooking them both up to the S9c during the week and see how it goes. :slight_smile:

Edit: So doing some quick testing both amps running out of the bifrost, currently with Amperix Orange Globe tubes in the WA7, the S17 in 100ma mode and the WA7 sound very similar. If I switch the S17 pro to it’s 50ma mode, it definitely sounds more linear/neutral.

For the WA7 itself, when I’ve done tube rolling and with the stock RCA tubes it came with, it’s definitely a bit more bloomy in the low-end. The Amperix tubes, and just about every other tubes I’ve tried, definitely tighten things up in one way or another.

But in this comparison, the WA7 currently using the Amperex tubes, actually sounds very slightly more linear than the S17 pro (100ma) to my ears. But if I switch the s17 to 50ma mode it’s reversed, the s17 sounds very linear by comparison. Maybe there is something to Aune’s advertising of the JFET transistors used in the S17 Pro giving a ā€˜tube-like’ sound.

Edit 2: They are genuinely very similar sounding to each other, tbh with very subtle differences (with the s17 in 100ma mode). Might just come down to both being class A with some light tubey characteristics.

edit 3: this changes pretty noticeably when I switched over to the Bokeh, the WA7 low-end definitely gets a bit more noticeably bloomy compared to the S17 Pro, even in 100MA mode. Could be an impedance output thing. Side Note: I love the Bokeh on the WA7. <3

edit 4: I put the s17 in 50ma and kept it there and A/Bed it against the WA7 and I definitely feel like it validates what I’ve been hearing. The S17 in 50ma mode sounds noticeably neutral and linear compared to the WA7. Though I will also note, I did compare the compare the s17 to the S9Cs built in headphone amp and the S9C sounded noticeably dryer/thinner than the s17 pro even with the s17 pro in 50ma mode by comparison, so I do feel the s17 pro still maintains some of the characteristics I’m referring to even in 50ma mode. Just not as pronounced. Also, now I feel like I understand why I like the sound of the s17 pro so much!

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Finally installed the new rods, but there was so much thread lock on the old ones that I had to use a tool to grip the old threads. In the process slight cosmetic damage was caused to the headband.



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Is it easy to get new rods from ZMF? Any idea how much they would cost?

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In my case I got them free of charge due to my pair arriving with bent rods. If you message their support on their website, they should be able to answer your question.

Thank you. I’ll email them.

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Blues listening session with my AO, and it sounds amazing! :grin:

Can’t wait until I get my Vali 3 to tube roll with the AO. :wink:

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The best Atrium experience that I’ve had was with SGP1:

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Are you connecting it directly to the taps, or are you using a box to convert the load? I have a pair of Gjallarhorns I use for planars, and I connect them directly to the speaker taps. You have me curious now. ,:thinking:

The best Atrium experience I had was with Feliks Envy. It was just outstanding.

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I happened to have a a schiit Rekkr sitting in a box. Wasn’t using it at all. Some incredible synergy here running the Mojo/Poly in Roon mode preamping through the Rekkr into the atriums. Yeah, this might definitely the best I’ve heard the Atriums sound. It’s crazy fun.

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Now you are just tempting me to hook it up to my Gjallarhorn! :crazy_face:

Do it, it’s stupid good.

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:joy:, will do later today, but the question is whether to use 1 Gjallarhorn in stereo or two as mono blocks. :thinking:

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LOL, maybe start with one. Even the Rekkr is enough to drive them really loud barely past the half way point on the mojo.

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