Performance

Zalman ZM-DS4F headphones are intended for use with portable players such as MP3 players and CD players. To test the headphone in its native environment I hooked it up to my Creative Muvo 2 4 GB. Even though this is a relatively old MP3-player its sound quality is still on pair with most new MP3-players such as the iPod and most small Creative players. In order to put the headset through its paces I decided to listen to a lot of different types of music from Pop / Rock to Techno and House.

One of the things I noticed right from the start of my testing was that the tweeter was able to reproduce most high tones with extreme precision, which surprised me a bit because I didn't expect this type of headset to be able to do just that. Even compared to a full size headset like the Sennheiser HD595 the difference is minimal. The only area where the ZM-DS4F struggles a bit is when it has to reproduce really deep tones and bass intensity jumps, here it has a tendency to sound a little muffled, but I would still regard the bass reproduction performance of this headset as way above average. Of course if you are a bass freak this headset probably isn't for you, but to the average listener this is one of the best affordable headsets out there.

Besides being able to hit incredibly high tones this headset surprised me with its very balanced sound. This is maintained through all volume levels and is something that even many high-end headsets have trouble coping with. To test the audio performance at different volume levels I made a couple of runs where I started off both high and low volume wise. I found that the sound distortion even at insane volume levels was really small (good) and I was surprised to see that the bass still sounded clear even at the maximum volume.

Overall the ZM-DS4F is right at the top compared of the compact headphone market and I can definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a headset that can provide a good balanced sound scape along with really good treble performance.

I also tested this headset with my Creative X-FI XtremeMusic card. Here the sound quality was even better and proved once again that the Zalman ZM-DS4F is a well constructed pair of headphones. I tried listening to the same tunes as on my portable player and the superior audio quality that the Creative X-FI can produce was noticeable with these headphones.

I didn't intend on trying these headphones in games because they are made for use with a portable player (1.5 m cord length), but I did test it briefly in CounterStrike: Source. To my surprise these headphones where quite good. I was able to pinpoint from where other players was shooting from and hear footsteps and so on, but I wasn't exactly impressed with the how the effects sounded. This is what I would expect since the ZM-DS4F are optimized for reproducing music and not playing games with.

The cord length was somewhat of a problem I had to turn my case around on my table in order for me to be able to wear the headset while playing. The ZM-DS4Fs are not intended as a gaming headphones that's for sure, but they do perform almost well as for example SteelSeries 3H, in my opinion, and are substantially better at reproducing music.

Comfort

The ZM-DS4F is a real comfy design because of the way the ear cups are mounted on the headband. The fact that they allow a bit of a toe in makes them align perfectly with your ear making them extremely comfortable to wear even over an extended period of time. Of course there are certain downsides to the design, for example the lack of vents tends to make your ears feel hot after longer use.

There are also some problems due to the size of the ear cups. Because they are so small, the ear cups rest on your ears instead of your skull which has a negative impact on comfort while wearing them, but Zalman has done their best to combat this problem by adding their ingenious toe in ear cup mounting design. I think that the ZM-DS4F is a medium comfortable pair of headphones, however, I would have preferred if they had made some vents on the side of the ear cups allowing for warm air to escape the ear cups. Of course this would have a slightly negative impact on their sound insulation capabilities, but still I think it would have been worth it.

Another negative aspect of the headphones design is that you can't get a comfortable fit if you have a really small head. This is because the size adjusters on both sides of the headband can't move in enough to make the headphones fit a small head. I noticed this problem with my sister who has a small head for a 24 year-old. So these headphones are definitely not for some one who is young and or with a small head.

Durability

Since the headset is constructed so that it can be folded, the real problematic areas of the construction are of course the joints where two pieces of plastic are bonded together via metal or with a fork plastic joint. Generally the joints on the ZM-DS4F look good and seem really durable. I tried overbending the joints and nothing gave way which is good since it means that the joints are solid enough to withstand excessive force.

The ear cups themselves are made from white plastic with a clear plastic top which seems to be scratch proof to some extent. Of course you can scratch it if you take a screwdriver or something made of metal to it, but it seems durable enough not to wear down or get scratched by normal daily use.