ZMF OMNI and BLACKWOOD Impressions and Comparisons



Here are the impressions! Sorry for the wait and the length. Hope this is helpful for at least a few folks!



I’ll start off by saying I got to the meet just after 10 o’clock, and most everyone was still setting up. Once everything was settled, and my own rig was in place, I grabbed my CD’s and I was headed to Zach’s table! I’ve always been a huge fan of Zach’s work, and will echo the statements others have made: he’s exceptionally down to earth, and fun to chat with!

I’ve been looking for a closed-back headphone recently, although I do enjoy the sonic benefits of open backs, as well as the convenience of awareness of surroundings and not having to take them off for quick conversations. My current headphone, the Beyerdynamic DT880 is pretty much an open headphone. In the library at school, or through thin dorm walls, it doesn’t really do much for sound isolation, plus, it’s a little cold. I use it mostly for monitoring, and mixing/mastering, though also for critical listening. But I’ve been on a mission to find an unabashedly fun (but still accurate) headphone with better isolation. Zach’s Blackwood was top on my list.

For those who care, a few words on my background: I grew up listening on a pretty nice speaker rig (Vandersteens, Mcormack amps) and have been a musician most of my life. I now go to school at Oberlin Conservatory and College where I major in music (concentration in entrepreneurship/business, recording/production, and world music) and Writing (focus in translation, and fiction) I play piano, sing both classically (and some jazz, and pop/broadway/soul/etc.) French Horn, and am currently teaching myself classical guitar. I work a lot not only performing but also recording, so I’m familiar with both sides of the recording booth. Alright, enough introduction, on to the fun bit!



I will preface this by saying that I listened to the Omnis/Blackwood on my setup for nearly 3 hours, and as a result, this comparison will be rather long.



I sat down at Zach’s Dacware/Theta Gen V setup and popped one of my cd’s in. Wow. That little Dacware ROCKS OUT! The sound is very dynamic, and while it does have a little of the “tube-richness” to it, I though the implementation was dynamic and aggressive in the best way possible. You could almost hear the Amp’s throaty growl coming through, but it was never harsh. Spunky without being spitty. A very natural and engaging sound, very well matched with the more relaxed Theta DAC. I listened to this setup for almost twenty minutes and the sense of engagement didn’t wear off. It was never a falsely exciting sound, or overly edgy sound. This is a setup that thrashes with pinpoint precision! Theta is still a super punchy sound, very reminiscent of the Bifrost Uber in many ways, though perhaps with less overt treble sparkle, and a relaxed air around it. Tried out the Blackwood and Omni on the Violectric setup next. SS is usually the flavor I prefer more, and I think I liked the Violectric for more genres of music, and it’s a more relaxed presentation with more precise soundstaging, but man that Dacware had an addictive sound. I may be a Solid State guy, but tubes done right can be awfully spectacular!

Now for the real challenge: how does it sound in my system? My personal opinion is that the ultimate litmus test for a product is testing it on the comfort of your own rig, with familiar music. If these headphones are coming home they have to be at least competent with my humble schiit stack. Well, let me just say I have a new found appreciation for what Schiit did with the Magni/Modi 2 Uber. I have had the chance to directly compare the Bifrost Uber against the Modi 2 Uber, and boy is that little DAC a marvel. Same goes for the amp. I plugged in the Blackwoods first. Passive isolation was good, I’d say 7-8 out of 10. I’ve heard a few closed cans that do it a tad better, but often for significant tradeoffs in comfort and clamping force. The Blackwoods with the leather strap and lambskin pads just about melted into my head. Didn’t notice the weight much if at all. They didn’t really leak sound at any volume I would want to listen at either. Nice. I’m almost sold on these already. Cue up some of my test tracks (listed at bottom of review) Dang. I’ve read most of the reviews of these things, but the first thing that strikes is just how easy they sound. I would find myself trying to pick apart the sound, and just falling into the music, forgetting to listen for whatever I was looking for. It was very coherent sound, mids that simply sounded and felt right, treble with a sweet and fairly extended sound, and sub-bass that can only be described as utterly addictive. My brain was perceiving a visceral quality to the sub-bass that mimicked (as closely as I’ve heard on headphones) the “speaker shaking the floor” effect. Below 100 hertz was certainly boosted (all three ports were open, and I hadn’t asked Zach for plugs) now this was FUN! Still, on some music, especially orchestral and soundtrack pieces, the sub-bass started to draw some attention to itself. I still enjoyed the presentation, but without some plugs, the Blackwoods would not be the most even-handed bass presentation. I didn’t really care though. The presentation was so simultaneously relaxed and engaging, and the bass presentation so clean, I enjoyed it. Sound stage was a little upfront but not as upfront as some open headphones I’ve heard. It could certainly pass for an open headphone. Depth was great, as was imaging, width was neither cavernous nor sucked into my head. Very pleasantly wide.

“Cool,” I thought, as I unplugged the double helix cable from the Blackwoods, and popped them into the Omni, “I’m totally sold.” I popped the Omni on my head, but couldn’t quite get the fit right. The left earpad, had a slight floppiness to it. I asked Zach about it, and he said that this model had the pre-production cowhide on the right ear, and one of the prototypes on the left. He’d tried to match them as closely as possible. The cowhide felt great, but I decided to grab another pair with the lambskins and pilot pad on them. Now, I’m accustomed to a fairly high level of comfort with my Beyerdynamics, and while I’ve lived with grados in the past, great comfort really gives a far superior experience. These Omnis fit like a memory pillow around my head. The additional cup articulation was great. The lambskin pads, and soft protein membrane and foam headband is nearly unequaled in fit and finish. I could wear these longer than probably any other headphone (possible exception with the HD800s) I have a big head and medium-smallish ears though, so YMMV. I popped the Omni’s on my head, and was very surprised by the isolation! If the Blackwood is a 7-8 I would say the Omni is a 5.5 – 6.5. Not at all what I was expecting! A big plus though, as the headphone leaks less sound than I thought it would. More than the Blackwood, but really not bad. Good enough to fulfill my requirements for a “closed” headphone. And now, the part you’ve all been waiting for: the sound!

After I got a pair that sealed properly on my head (as a result of the finished, production pads) I must again echo Warren Chi’s statement. Wow. The Omni does not have the massive sub-bass boost of the Blackwoods with all ports open, but they are more even throughout the bass region, more precise but no less rich in the mids, and more extended and more airy in the treble region. What strikes me most about the Omni though besides the obvious increase in openness is the imaging. The soundstage acquires a more “open” headphone sound, less upfront, less compressed and self-contained, and yes a wider and deeper. The fascinating thing about it though, was the imaging. While the Omni is deeper, and wider, it’s soundstage seems proportioned very carefully. What I mean by that is that the width and depth seem to work together to create the sound space. I have heard some headphones (and speakers) which have width and space that feel unrealistic in relation to the depth. With the Omni, the depth is excellent (better even than the Blackwood) and the width is perfectly proportioned. It is neither small, nor huge, it is simply just right. People who have heard the Ether and HE-1000 (both of which I think have very different presentations from the ZMF) will notice it isn’t as upfront as the Ether, nor as distant as the HE-1000. It takes Zach’s stage monitor tuning to the next level, retaining the bass impact, and also perfecting the imaging with a huge leap forward in the treble and midrange openness. Details aside, what is the result of this properly “proportioned” soundstage? The image is not only startlingly lifelike, 3D, holographic, etc. but also solid and impactful. Some headphones throw a large soundstage in an effort to get the sound out-of-head. The downside to this is that when a song calls for visceral impact, the soundstage sometimes collapses, and the sound is felt from the location of the transducer: next to the ear. The ZMFs with rare exception made me feel as if the tactile, visceral feel of the sound was emanating from a space directly in front of me. It was both horizontal, and also vertical. The bass still slammed and the sound had a gratifying immediacy and closeness to it, but it also managed to get the sound out of my head and make it sound easy. Cans that get the sound out of my head and also give me all the impact I could wish for? If you can’t tell by now, I’m pretty stoked about how the Omnis sound. They are not as immediately gratifying as something like an Ether, or a Blackwood, yet, at the end of the day, I felt I could live with the Omni as my endgame can. This might be the only headphone that has approached the musical feeling I had listening to the STAX SR-009. Please don’t confuse this headphone for a STAX-killer, or anything like that, I’m not comparing the two. But the way that the STAX headphone simply lets you drift away with serene music, and makes you want to get up and dance with groovy tunes is something I’ve seldom experienced with other headphones, and never to that degree. With the Omni I found myself almost falling asleep on peaceful tunes, and getting some good head-banging in there with some of up-tempo music.

So, we’ve established that the Omni has superb musicality and imaging/soundstaging. But there’s something else that makes it special, and I’ve talked with Zach a bit about this. You may have read in other reviews that Zach’s headphones make acoustic instruments, particularly wooden ones, sound particularly realistic. They do. Big Time. The Omni’s detail and micro-detail was never thrown in my face, but there was a quality to guitars and pianos that drew my attention nearly immediately. Now, I play piano nearly every day of the year, and for half of the year I get to do it on some of the most wonderful and expensive pianos that have ever existed. Some of the recordings were recordings I had played on myself, or been present for the recording of. I know the sound of those pianos inside and out down to the slightest detail. Excuse the cliché I use, but there were sounds coming out of that headphone I did not know it was possible to reproduce. I was hearing subtle reverberations and vibrations of the frame and strings that would have been difficult to notice in person. This was not the kind of fake micro-detail overly bright or falsely detailed transducers will give you, these were overtones and modes that distinguish the real thing from even the best reproduction. The Omni is, hands down, no competition, the most realistic reproduction of pianos I have heard in my time as an audio enthusiast, or as a musician. There were recordings that I thought I knew inside and out where I was hearing new details, little sounds that brought the sound to life, sounds I had not heard before. This expanded to other acoustic instruments that were well recorded: on guitars I could hear finger sliding across fretboards, even during busy orchestral passages, and I could hear deep into the overtones of the body. Strings sang, brass instruments had a brilliant richness to them. The Omni paints acoustic instruments as rich, vivid images.

I enjoy the Omni immensely, and though it represents my endgame headphone, I’m sure you’re all asking what about it I don’t think is just right. The mid-bass has a slight emphasis, though it’s nowhere near as heavy as the sub-bass emphasis of the Blackwood. The mids are more balanced and accurate than the Blackwoods. Some people like drier mids (like the HE-1000, or Ether) or more colored mids (Grado, VIbro) I personally thought the bass bled into the mids less, which was ultimately less fatiguing and more enjoyable than the Blackwoods. The treble is more than the Blackwood, but also more refined and with more space to breathe. I found the treble ever so slightly hot for my taste on the Dacware. The Violectric and Magni 2 Uber suited me much better. Some people may prefer very open/large soundstage presentations (AKG 701, HD800 or HE-1000) which the Omni doesn’t really do. Vice versa, some folks may like a more immediate sound, with even more dynamics, such as the Ether or HE-6. I can understand those preferences. To me the Omni is a very coherent, balanced sound that really works together without anything sticking out as significantly weaker or stronger than any other thing. I will reiterate though, that it is a balanced but not 100% neutral presentation. The detail is up there with top cans, but it does not throw loads of micro-detail at you, and so those looking for detail-monsters would be better served by the T1 for example. Another small niggle was that I found the powder-coated sliders a tad hard to adjust, while the unpainted sliders were smooth and easy. A very small thing.

Generally the Omni seemed pretty happy with whatever amps I threw at it, as long as they had some good clean power. I found the synergy with my Magni/Modi 2 Uber more to my tonal balance tastes than the Dacware, although I enjoyed the extra power and fluidity of the VIolectric/Theta setup even more. My Magni/Modi 2 Uber were significantly satisfying to me though that I felt absolutely no need to upgrade even after hearing the Omni on some of best gear at the meet (considering the gap in cost between them and some of the TOTL gear there)

In conclusion, the OMNI is not a perfect headphone, and there are some tremendous merits to the Audeze, Ether, HE-400i, 560, HE-1000, HD800, and other high-end headphones out there. But for me, the Omni is all the headphone I’ll ever need.



I could fill several pages with the list of tracks and music I used, so here’s just a sample of the stuff I listened to the most. Not all of it’s exactly “Hi-FI” but most of it is fairly well recorded, and in a variety of genres. Hopefully you’ve heard something on this list!

Music (16/44 CD rips to ITunes AICC, USB through Magni/Modi 2 Uber)

Melody Gardot Albums: “The Absence” and “Currency of Man”

Janelle Monae: “Q.U.E.E.N.” and “Babopbyeya”

Nick Waterhouse album: “Holly”

Robert Randolph and the Family Band: “Ain’t nothing wrong with that”

Gregory Porter: “Liquid Spirit”

Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack

Inside Out soundtrack: “The Joy of Credits”

The Cat Empire album: “Steal the Light”

Chris Isaak: “Baby did a Bad Bad Thing”

Dee Alexander: “As Long As You’re Living”

Astor Piazzola: “Libertango”

Miles Davis: “Sketches of Spain”

Various recordings by the Oberlin Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Pictures at an Exhibition, Gershwin, Mozart Concertos, etc.)

Guns and Roses: “Appetite for Destruction

Michael Franti and Spearhead Album: “The Sound of Sunshine”

Poi Dog Pondering: various tracks

Rodrigo y Gabriela album: “Rodrigo y Gabriela”

Antonio Carlos Jobim: “Samba de Uma Nota So”

Joe Satriani: “Surfing with the Alien”

Ekova album: Space Lullabies and Other Fantasmagore

Real World Gold greatest hits album (world music collection)

Lake Street Dive album: “Lake Street Dive”

John Denver album: “John Denver’s Greatest Hits”

