Closer Examination

Zalman has done a very good job styling the ZM-DS4F headphones in my opinion. The ones I received for review are iPod white and look really good. Besides looking good this headset is constructed in a way that allows you to fold it for easy storage and transportation.


The design of the ear cups is very clean and resembles the iPod's face plate construction. The base color of the headphones is white, but there is actually a transparent acrylic cup that surrounds the ear cup. This looks a bit like the front of an iPod. It is evident that Zalman has done everything they could to make this headset comfortable to wear.
Besides the large soft ear cushions, the ear cups themselves are bolted to the headband in a rather unusual method. Instead of being in a neutral position the ear cup mounts have a slight toe in. This allows the ear cup to move along the axis of your ear making the headphones more comfortable to wear.


This headset can be folded over three joints. All of the joints seem to be quite durable and constructed in a way that makes them hard to break through normal use. When folded, this headset is extremely compact because the ear cups bend inside the headband and then you can collapse the headband in a way that makes the entire unit about the size of a fist.


The mini-jack connector on the ZM-DS4F is your standard gold plated design with plastic and rubber 90 degrees bent fitting. The fact that it's gold plated insures optimal connection to the headers inside the mini-jack plug in the audio device you connect it to. One thing you should note is that the cord is only about 1.5 m long. This is good if you plan on using this pair of headphones with a transportable audio player of some sort, but does make it harder for you to use them with you PCs audio device. Of course there are ways to combat this problem one could use an audio port located on the front of ones case or maybe even an extension cable, which will inhibit the audio performance a bit.


One of the critical points in the design of a headset when it comes to durability is the way the cable is connected to the ear cup. Here Zalman has opted for a standard wire configuration where you have one cable that splits into two and then hooks up to each ear cup. On the outside of each ear cup there is a small rubber grommet making sure that you can bend the cable over the edge of the ear cup.