ZMF New Headphones: Vérité and Aeolus

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by purr1n, Oct 3, 2018.

  1. lagadu

    lagadu Facebook Friend

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    @A Child of the Jago I largely agree with you, it's just that I don't mind the downsides: the Auteur doesn't have the level of detail, headspace and incisiveness of the VO but I can't get away from the feeling that the VO brings a lot more attention to itself and doesn't pull at my hearstrings anywhere near as much. Due to my musical tastes, it does get more headtime than the Auteur, which does count for a lot.
     
  2. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    How about the Boz Scaggs test? I'm betting money that Auteur would be better on slower music while VO better on faster music. I do have a fetish for electronic music and beats and lot of stuff that could benefit with the VO sound. However, I don't want to listen to that type of sound all the freaking time.

    This is kind of reminding me of the HD600 and HD6XX. I do prefer more of the HD6XX but I can't listen to that warm tilt all the time. Most Jazz listen and other stuff I don't want the warm title, I prefer HD600. My fat gut is telling me Auteur and VO are related but behave differently.
     
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2020
  3. Elnrik

    Elnrik Super Friendly

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    I think you hit the nail on the head. I like the Auteur with Blues, jazz and acoustic music, but rock out on the E-mu Teak (was previously my Verite, which I had to sell) with electronic and metal.

    Metal and Rock are kind of the intersection in a Venn diagram of what the Auteur and Verite do well. I can do Great White and Iron Maiden on either and be quite happy.
     
  4. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    If you feel Auteur that way, VO will satisfy you at least 66% -- different type of slam (FWIW there are so many different definitions of "what is slamming to oneself" in sbaf) , more dimensional, and nicely colored tone.

    There are many genres where VO rock to me. In particular, synth pop and big band jazz are irreplaceably fantastic over any other headphones I owned or heard.
     
  5. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    Thanks for that simple comment. You know best. You know to know what I'm worried about, that beginning/end W-Sound. Ok, maybe the middle part as well, I hate peaky crap, but it depends on where it is and junk.

    I might know soon enough.....
     
  6. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    That's very valid point. Verite isn't cheap by any means. Its tonal balance is far from neutral or standard for many neutral headphones listeners. I always argue Aeolus or Auteur is way safer recommendation.

    Nevertheless, I kinda regret my curiosity a while ago that I requested a local friend @Phantaminum to loan me his verite for a few days. I literally suffered from withdrawal symptoms from Verites for months ... until I get my own pairs.
     
  7. Pharmaboy

    Pharmaboy Friend

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    I had the VO & VC in my system late last year for ~1 month. The VC is an amazing HP, but being closed back was difficult for me. The VO was exceptional IMO. It made quite an impression for its unusual combination of resolution/detail + ear-friendly, musical tuning. This is the ZMF "house sound" taken to a rather high level.

    I ended up getting an Aeolus soon thereafter. That HP is a love match for me all the way, a no brainer choice. But the VO lives on in memory. I need to hear that one again.

    I'm not even sure what a "safe choice" is in this hobby, given the usual gulf between accuracy/neutrality proponents & organic/relaxing/musical sound proponents like me. The Aeolus is certainly a safe choice for the latter camp. Actually, I don't think the Aeolus gets enough credit for its resolution, which is well above average (something you realize when comparing it to other HPs).
     
  8. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    ^ very much agreed.

    It seems that Aeolus was shadowed largely by Auteur. Maybe more so than Atticus done by Eikon. Maybe launch timing mattered.
     
  9. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    The W stuff is overblown. It's a pimple on the ass of a great headphone. I don't even hear it anymore.

    EQ or Schiit Loki if you want to get rid of it.
     
  10. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    I don't EQ line DQ. A Friend is being very wonderful in allowing me to try his VO soon. For that, I will be grateful to end the debate once and for all.
     
  11. crenca

    crenca Friend

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    I would like to see someones EQ curve who has successfully done this, if nothing else just to compare with my efforts and see if I am missing anything. In particular that "BBC dip" is associated with a blip of distortion (see measurements here at SBAF) and becomes rather audible with anything more than about 2.5 db to my ears. Compared to Focal or Sennheiser's, the two ZMF's I own, VC and Eikon, are not all that amenable to EQ.

    Of course, if all your looking for is gentle shelf to lighten up the bass or something similar then EQ works fine...
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2020
  12. Inoculator

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    I would agree but will warn that in my experience, the Verite was not super easy to love at first. I have tried almost all of the ZMFs, and the Verite was the first one to really have me worried at first. My first reaction was "oh no, what have I done selling my Auteur". A large part of that was the need to burn-in the Verite. I found it frankly to be kind of a mess/mixed bag before significant burn-in time. As I spent more time with it, did some pad rolling (as it went through burn-in I found myself liking different pads as it changed), I now can't imagine I ever had doubts. It became much more cohesive, and I found the timbre to settle into a really nice sweet spot for me. The final piece that finally pushed the Verite into "I am perfectly satisfied with this as my primary/endgame" for me was getting some silver in my headphone cable, I think the Verite really needs it. Built a 50/50 pure silver/copper litz quad-braid cable from norne wire, and I finally felt things came together for me.

    Do I still like the timbre of the Auteur more? Yes, but I think the tradeoff of the technical advantages of the Verite is worth it.
     
  13. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Same situation got me mine. Someone loaned me VO and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I don't think I've ever enjoyed music this much. Auteur was amazing but it's kind of a distant memory and I barely think about it anymore.
    Pretty much agree with all this. Silver cable came with the loaner. My pair has a silver/copper cable. The pure OFC copper smeared the transients and make it warm-poo (not sure about the pricier pure copper cables). Silver FTW. And yeah, lots of burn in before it sounded liquid.
     
  14. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    I don't recommend EQ at all, either. Actually Verite didn't respond to treble eqs well.
    If anybody want a smoother response, (universe) suede pads could be the right way to go.

    I now prefer the most colored universe lamb pads to anything else though.

    @YMO 's worry and guess reminded me of what I assumed before I gave them a shot. Measurements looked quite off, but that didn't reflect real experience at all. Like Zach mentioned a while ago, Be might fool our perception somehow.
     
  15. Phantaminum

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    From experience, the VO has that W signature before the driver has had any head time on them. Once you give them about 100-150 hours to loosen up that diaphragm then it evens out. At this point I can't hear too much of a difference between the Auteurs with the Eikon perf pads and the Verite with the Universe pads in terms of suck out in any area. Possible due to brain burn in but Zach also sells pads that did even it out before it was fully burned in (Be2, Universe Suede, Be2 Suede).

    If you only get the headphone with a specific pad and want to pad roll, I can send you the Be2 leather pads and the Universe Suede Perf to try out.
     
  16. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    @Phantaminum I might take your offer on pad rolling. This Friend was telling me about the Be2 leather. However, I checked Zach's site and I don't see the Be2 pads for sale....
     
  17. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    By the way, I remembered creating a tumblr to archive my EARS measurements roughly one year ago (for personal uses). In particular that tumblr has all the possible combination of ZMF headphones and pads (available to me that time). Interested party can feel free to visit there: https://emlab.tumblr.com/archive

    upload_2020-7-9_20-40-29.png
     
  18. dncnexus

    dncnexus Friend

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    I believe you have to write Zach directly for this pad
     
  19. Carlos CPA

    Carlos CPA Friend

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    On the ZMF website, go to the product page for Verite pads. By selecting the drop-down menu for “Selct Covering Type” you will see the option for Be2 pads.
     
  20. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    That's how it went for me for both VO and VC, and the VO had like 400hrs on the stand before I listened to them.

    Makes me think brain burn in is a big part of it.

    I keep Be2 on the VO now, it's the lesser coloured of the two and with the smaller but more defined staging of Be2 it's a slightly different - and less hallucinogenic - experience than the VC.

    Universe on VC for that full fat IMAX voyage-through-space feel.
     

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