ZMF Headphones
Berwyn (Chicago area), Illinois, United States · founded 2011
ZMF is one of the most respected names in the boutique/artisan headphone world, known for individually tuned, solid-hardwood over-ear headphones that pair traditional woodworking with custom-designed drivers. As an independent, family-run US maker it embodies the small-batch, craft end of high-fidelity audio.
ZMF Headphones is a boutique American maker of high-end, handcrafted over-ear headphones with wooden earcups milled from kiln-dried solid hardwoods (not veneers). Founded by Zach Mehrbach around 2011, the company began as a shop modifying Fostex T50RP planar headphones on his dining-room table while he finished a film-directing master’s degree, and grew into a full headphone brand run as a husband-and-wife business with his wife Bevin Mehrbach. Headphones are hand-assembled just outside Chicago in Berwyn, Illinois, with wood-cup CNC machining done in Collinsville, Illinois. The lineup centers on dynamic-driver models (Auteur, Atticus, Aeolus, Eikon, Verite, Atrium, Bokeh) plus the Caldera, ZMF’s first planar-magnetic headphone; the company also sells amplifiers, pads, and cables.
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At a glance
- Type
- Manufacturer
- Founder
- Zach Mehrbach
- Founded
- 2011
- Headquarters
- Berwyn (Chicago area), Illinois, United States
- Price range
- Premium
- Makes / sells
- over-ear headphones, headphone amps, cables, earpads
- Known for
- dynamic driver, planar magnetic, wood earcups, solid hardwood cups, hand-built in USA, individually tuned
- Website
- www.zmfheadphones.com
Notable products
- ZMF Atrium — Dynamic open-back flagship with patent-pending Atrium Damping System acoustic design; introduced 2022
- ZMF Verite / Verite Closed — Beryllium-coated dynamic driver flagship; open and closed variants
- ZMF Caldera — ZMF's first planar-magnetic headphone; also offered in a closed-back version
- ZMF Auteur — Reference-tuned dynamic open-back; frequently cited as an accessible entry into the lineup
- ZMF Bokeh — 80-ohm Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) dynamic driver headphone
- ZMF Atticus / Aeolus — Biodynamic-driver closed (Atticus) and open (Aeolus) models
Sources: ZMF Headphones official site · AudioHead — Interview with Zach and Bevin Mehrbach of ZMF Headphones · AudioHead — A Return to Chicago with Zach Mehrbach of ZMF Headphones · KCRW The Treatment — ZMF founder Zach Mehrbach interview · Stereophile — Gramophone Dreams #97 (CanJam NYC) · Dun & Bradstreet — ZMF, Inc. company profile (Illinois)