ZMF Atrium Closed. ZMF Verite Open (just ordered)

If you can listen to them you should do so but that’s not always the case.

I can help a tiny bit with the sound of the elac’s. I have the debut reference 62. I had initially bought them for my bedroom system and in a medium/small bedroom they were quite nice. I’ve sinced moved to a house and a bedroom system no longer flys with the wife. I did try them in my theatre area (maybe 8’x 20’ but it’s just a guess) they felt too small for the space. I didn’t have a sub with them though.

As for their sound, for their size they have great bass and timing (or cohesion between the drivers). I thought their soundstage was their next best attribute but nothing like a giant killer. As for the negatives, or things that werent to my taste, they are a dark speaker. After some listening and considering I did most of my listening on this system at night I got used to it or appreciated it but I wouldn’t say it’s the best for tv useage. If you love highs these also aren’t the best, but I’m not a lover myself so I was happy with them. I never felt fatigued. I loved the front port design and their build quality was excellent for their price.

ZMF still do recommend JDS, well they did earlier this year when I bought a pair of atrium closed. They said that they had a collab in the works but couldn’t say when that would be released other than Q4 2023 or later.

I don’t think this is a good option imo. If I were just getting into this and wanted to know what I liked I’d buy a modest DAC/amp, a pair of 6xx and a pair of iems that are completely different to the 6xx. You could opt to not do either the 6xx or the iems but not both.

For me I came into headphones the opposite way most ppl on this sub did it seems, I am a 2 channel person first and foremost and didn’t pay too much attention to headphones. Well I was gifted a pair of Denon D2000 as a graduating gift from high school. Me being the picky person I am, I asked to go into the store with my mom to listen to the other options. I narrowed it down to the Denon and the Sennheiser hd599 (was comparable in price), and walked away with the Denon’s. I used those cans for nearly a decade and didn’t think of another pair until I dropped the headphone jack on them and bent it so I was without until I repaired them.

After reading/watching numerous reviews they all said essentially the same thing. Everyone should try a pair of 6xx (or similar Sennheisers) to get a feeling for what they liked. Even though at this point I had experimented with 2 channel setups fairly extensively (for a broke student putting too much into audio) I still thought I needed another reference point within headphones before I ventured into the deep end. The Denon’s and Sennheisers are vastly different headphones in most ways.

Since moving and having no option to demo things anymore It was through this journey that I found that ZMF headphones were likely my endgame.

One last thing, unless you just have money to burn and this is a really minor purchase for you, than without being able to KNOW (not just regurgitate) what soundstage, width, sub bass vs mid bass, sibilance, warm vs dark vs bright, etc is I think you’re setting yourself up for failure. I guess anyone is different but I personally find it enjoyable to be on a journey and I’ll get there when I get there.