[BunnyNamedCraig]

O

Just had to dust off my neglected Ziricote VO! The Classic, AC, AO and Caldera have been hogging my head time for more than a year now.

Oh man, I've really missed it though. The VO has that rare balance of technical ability, musicality and easy listening.

Currently I've got it paired with my Glenn OTL using BE2 Lambskin pads, but the Caldera Ultra Perf pads will be going on soon. I'm excited!

Let us know your opinion of Caldera Ultra Perf pads if you will!

 

[Pharmaboy]

(how will I ever get the phrase "vibra tite"out of my mind?)

 

[heliosphann]

O

Let us know your opinion of Caldera Ultra Perf pads if you will!

For sure! I'll post it here and I'll also update my VO pad review.

 

[Nicolas Yance]

For sure! I'll post it here and I'll also update my VO pad review.

I followed your guide and also add the caldera pads. My VOs should be with me by the end of the week if fedex and customs allow it.

 

[Renexx]

VO incoming 20days from order to shipping.
If I'm lucky it arrives this week. Very excited

 

[DAPpower]

VO incoming 20days from order to shipping.
If I'm lucky it arrives this week. Very excited

Excited to see pics of it when it arrives!

I ordered a Walnut burl as well but with steel hardware but haven't gotten a shipment or production notification yet, its been 4 weeks already

 

[Renexx]

Excited to see pics of it when it arrives!

I ordered a Walnut burl as well but with steel hardware but haven't gotten a shipment or production notification yet, its been 4 weeks already

I feel you, I'm waiting over 2,5 months for my freaking AC already. Maybe Zach did rush my order because of the really bad experience (again) with the German ZMF Importeur.
Well or he just produced much more redwood cuts than walnut. For sure there is a high demand of that gorgeous wood.

 

[ARCXENOS]

VO incoming 20days from order to shipping.
If I'm lucky it arrives this week. Very excited

I have a feeling you will have great fun coming soon!

It has been a few weeks and I am still shocked at how reactive the VOs are to tube rolling, its my personal keeper for the foreseeable future

 

[Renexx]

I have a feeling you will have great fun coming soon!

It has been a few weeks and I am still shocked at how reactive the VOs are to tube rolling, its my personal keeper for the foreseeable future

All ZMFs respond well to tubes. The 300ohm drivers are a great choice. Tubes make the hobby fun
Yea the VO has a special presentation even if you own most of the other ZMFs. I'm missing that big open staging. Let's see what 450janka can do here.
I didn't plan to buy a VO again....but 400$ discount on a flaming red burly wood was hard to resist. Still need to confess to my wife

 

[goldwerger]

cross posted:

---

Hi everyone,

Since posting my review of the Decware // Reference ZMF OTL amp earlier this year, I've received a few private messages with questions from current and prospective owners. I thought it may be a good idea at this point to create a public thread, so knowledge can be captured and widely shared.

I've finally set it up, including links to ZMF product resources. I hope owners can help share their experiences here on anything from tube rolling, headphones, and chain synergies, to tips and advice, thanks..:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/decware-reference-zmf-otl.969513/

 

[Renexx]

Got surprised with a double package from ZMF on Friday. Finally my redwood VO and mango AC arrived.
Luckily the customs didn't cause any problems because I didn't expect them to ship together.

Redwood has a touch of brownish red. The grain reminds me of camphor burl but stained in red. If you look closely you see I ordered black cloth behind the grills instead of maroon.
I was waiting for a soft wood for the VO and wanted to have a natural looking red wood ZMF anyways. Burls were missing in my collection also. 400$ discount closed the deal finally. Zach take my money!

Sonically it's a really smooth sound. Very different from blackwood and camphorburl VO, which I had before. The wood provides smooth transients even with lambskin pads. It's not overly reverby with that hall effect as I expected actually. More like an Atrium with soft wood. Those are only first impressions for sure. Maybe the driver changes a little bit with burn in.
Right now I can say the influence of the wood is very prominent . With harder woods the fast Verite driver provided faster transients and a punchy bass. Bass now is fuller but less punchy. That was what I was looking for with the VO. Since my Olive VC is a harder wood it's a great opposite sound.

Many thanks to @zach915m and @BooUrns for taking care of my order.

 

[WillieB]

I'm beginning to think that I need to try a soft(er) wood VO. I love my blackwood, but what am I missing out on? If there's ever been a headphone that I love enough to own 2 of, I reckon this is it.

 

[goldwerger]

Got surprised with a double package from ZMF on Friday. Finally my redwood VO and mango AC arrived.
Luckily the customs didn't cause any problems because I didn't expect them to ship together.


Redwood has a touch of brownish red. The grain reminds me of camphor burl but stained in red. If you look closely you see I ordered black cloth behind the grills instead of maroon.
I always wanted to have a natural looking red wood ZMF and Burls were missing in my collection also. 400$ discount closed the deal. Zach take my money!

Sonically it's a really smooth sound. Very different from blackwood and camphorburl VO, which I had before. The wood provides smooth transients even with lambskin pads. It's not overly reverby with that hall effect as I expected actually. More like an Atrium with soft wood. Those are only first impressions for sure. Maybe the driver changes a little bit with burn in.
Right now I can say the influence of the wood is very prominent . With harder woods the fast Verite driver provided faster transients and a punchy bass. Bass now is fuller but less punchy. That was what I was looking for with the VO. Since my Olive VC is a harder wood it's a great opposite sound.

Many thanks to @zach915m and @BooUrns for taking care of my order.

Love that Mango wood color!

 

[LXMc]

Got surprised with a double package from ZMF on Friday. Finally my redwood VO and mango AC arrived.
Luckily the customs didn't cause any problems because I didn't expect them to ship together.


Redwood has a touch of brownish red. The grain reminds me of camphor burl but stained in red. If you look closely you see I ordered black cloth behind the grills instead of maroon.
I always wanted to have a natural looking red wood ZMF and Burls were missing in my collection also. 400$ discount closed the deal. Zach take my money!

Sonically it's a really smooth sound. Very different from blackwood and camphorburl VO, which I had before. The wood provides smooth transients even with lambskin pads. It's not overly reverby with that hall effect as I expected actually. More like an Atrium with soft wood. Those are only first impressions for sure. Maybe the driver changes a little bit with burn in.
Right now I can say the influence of the wood is very prominent . With harder woods the fast Verite driver provided faster transients and a punchy bass. Bass now is fuller but less punchy. That was what I was looking for with the VO. Since my Olive VC is a harder wood it's a great opposite sound.

Many thanks to @zach915m and @BooUrns for taking care of my order.

That's a lovely redwood burl, a bit more subdued than some of the sets that have been posted but I really like that quality to it. Colour looks a bit closer to some of the Barn-aged Padauk sets I've seen (but obviously burl-y instead of grain-y). Congrats!

 

[Pharmaboy]

I'm beginning to think that I need to try a soft(er) wood VO. I love my blackwood, but what am I missing out on? If there's ever been a headphone that I love enough to own 2 of, I reckon this is it.

My VO is silkwood, which was the stock wood when I bought it. After burn-in was complete, the sound of that headphone was so good that I never considered a pair w/harder wood. I imagine a truly hard wood like blackwood (my Aeolus is blackwood) would shorten the reverb & decay times somewhat, and possibly make the bass pound a bit more. But it's precisely the spacious, resonant vibe of the silkwood VO that first captivated me, that + its superb rendition of tone & timbre. The slightly "wetter" bass w/silkwood is so well done in its way that I have zero motivation to change a thing. My VO has the stock pads, which I also have no impulse to change.

I've owned quite a few headphones by now. I'm overly familiar with that feeling some give: "I really like X and Z, but wish I could change G and H...then this headphone would be perfect." So when a headphone comes along & blows me away (as the VO did), leaving me w/no urge to change a single thing--that's a gift, and I'll take it.