I had just got back from CanJam London in July before I started writing this review, and the ZMF room was always full of people. In fact, I watched firsthand how many came just to say hi to the ZMF team and try out various headphones and sources there, even if they could not afford them or had no plans to do so in the first place. There's something about going to a room full of pretty looking headphones of different colors which reminds me of a kid in a candy store. Being able to back that with actually good sound is not easy, and then you see these are made by a small artisan team in the USA to where the prices suddenly start to make sense. The stars at the show were the Atriums, the Verites, the Calderas—all costing significantly more than the BOKEH which feels somewhat humble in this lineup. Yet I saw a lot more people prefer the BOKEH to even the Caldera Closed, and no doubt many left happy with a show-discounted unit to take back home. Knowing there is a stabilized set release of the BOKEH on August 16, which is over two weeks from the time I write this review, makes the BOKEH quite possibly a real steal for any ZMF fan. You will get pretty much everything ZMF is known for, but at a significantly lower price.

Indeed, the innovative and clearly successful Atrium damping system is now in its least expensive implementation to date. The Caldera pads are also used here by default, and the BOKEH also gets an optional tuning system with replacement pads and meshes to try out. I will also say the 4.4 mm stock cables are arguably the best looking stock cable for any ZMF headphones as well, and I much prefer the optional carry case over the Seahorse hard case to the point where I want to see ZMF make those cases for their larger headphones too. The wooden ear cups are no less fancy than on the more expensive models either, getting the same 5-axis CNC machining treatment. The stock wood currently used also offers a good amount of variation to suit your preferences of a lighter vs darker wood, as well as different graining/patterns/unique wood features too. The stabilized versions are the icing on this cake, and the cake happens to produce a warm and relaxed sound which will please many. You will get one of the best bass reproductions from the BOKEH, and this is even before you consider it is "affordable" compared to so many premium headphones in the market today. It's engaging and dynamic, fun and yet resolving enough to not be a bottleneck anywhere. This is achieved without compromising on the mids either, which are often recessed in a closed-back set, and this shows with a fairly natural timbre.

I do wish the treble was slightly more emphasized, but it was nothing I could not fix with EQ. There are other compromises made to get the BOKEH at this price point, and I should point out that ZMF originally planned to have this be a $599 set when it was first conceptualized over five years ago. Obviously a lot has changed since then with everything getting expensive, but $1099 still feels correct for what you get. The drivers are not made in-house but are clearly obtained from a reliable supplier which manufacturers them to ZMF's design. The chassis and headband assembly are pre-assembled elsewhere too, making it easy for the ZMF team to quickly put everything together before going through a rigorous QC process. The unboxing experience is not as fancy, but I'd argue it actually has more space for the various items to not be packed in a cramped manner at times. The tuning kit can add $150-200 to the asking price, and yet all I really see as a must-have is the case which is $50 on top of the BOKEH. This also helps evade the pad rolling frustrations one will inevitably have initially, before they come up with a system that works for them. ZMF is going to have some interface rings coming up sooner than later which will make this process much smoother though. In the absence of relevant competition, at least in my collection here and also among those I tried at the show recently, I can't help but say the BOKEH feels like the best overall closed-back kilobuck set I've tested!