Verum Audio - Exciting high performance DIY planar

Discussion in 'Headphone Measurements' started by cskippy, May 24, 2018.

  1. richiep

    richiep New

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    Hi - Does anyone know if the seller of these Verum 1s still read this thread?

    I ask because of been trying to contact him for a few days via his website. I tried to order a pair, the payment went through but then the website gave a 403 error so I have no order confirmation. I realize that there's a lead time for delivery but I am looking for some confidence that the order was received and he's not just sitting on my money.
     
  2. Sqveak

    Sqveak Friend

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    @richiep
    There's no real way of knowing if he still reads here.
    He got banned from this forum for being hateful. And for denying it when caught. Mostly because he didn't own up to it.

    It's normal for him to go radio silent and not provide tracking.
    The headphones should eventually turn up. They usually take over a month. Likely longer due to covid.
    Please note that he makes them in batches. They may not be 'in stock' when you order.
     
  3. florilège

    florilège New

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    can someone tell me what is the improvement with equalization?
     
  4. richiep

    richiep New

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    Thanks for the info - I have now thankfully had a reply that he does have my order so now I just need to be patient!
     
  5. florilège

    florilège New

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    I hope you will give us your impressions of this good little verum one...\/
     
  6. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    Well, it's taken a long a convoluted path to get here, but I'm finally posting my impressions. This Verum Mk1 passed through several pairs of SBAF hands before ending up in mine. They sounded pretty good stock after applying EQ cuts at around 3kHz and 6kHz based on what I saw in measurements here. But they had what has been referred to as "floppy" underdamped behaviour. The grills are really hard to get off, so I tried some make up removal foam pads stuck to the outside and this tightened up the sound quite a bit.

    1630154644634.jpg


    I opened them up to see how difficult it would be to swap out the 2.5mm connectors for 3.5mm (which most of my cables use). This is what they look like inside.

    [​IMG]


    Being an idiot and totally inexperienced in the reassembly of ortho/planar headphones, a magneto-apocalypse occurred when I tried to put the inner magnet array back on. Some of the magnets, which are just kind of friction-fit into slots in the cup and baffle, flew off and a couple broke through the diaphragm. I don't recommend taking these (or any other planars) apart unless you know what you're doing.

    [​IMG]


    It turns out I wasn't the only one to make this mistake, as that very same week another SBAFer had his own magneto-apocalypse, an even worse one than mine (name withheld to protect the innocent). Unfortunately, both of us borked the left diaphragm, so a simple swap to salvage one functioning headphone wasn't possible.

    [​IMG]
    (note the resistor used to "match" the diaphragms)


    This is where @dBel84's Home for Wayward and Dysfunctional Planars comes in. Both pairs were sent and Dr. Fixit was able to flip and transplant the good diaphragm from the other pair into mine. Once operational his first impressions were:
    He then worked his magic on them, using standoffs instead of the nuts holding the cups together, thus providing more space to work with behind driver. Sandwiched on the inside of the stock layer of felt were another layer of felt, some arctic fleece, and a rectangle of dense open cell foam. Custom back plates were crafted from wood and metal screen replaced the original gaudy "V" grill. The connectors were also swapped to match my cables. This is what was eventually returned to me.

    VdB.jpg


    And they sound great!!! The floppiness is gone and much less EQ required to match my preferences. There's a clarity and delineation to the sound, and amazing blackground. Transients (as much I understand this term) and microdynamics are impressive (things like guitar picking and vocal breathiness) and reverb trails are really easy to hear. Bass is punchy and controlled, though maybe lacking a bit of texture compared to my dynamics. Upper treble is sometimes a touch "plasticky"(?).

    All listening up to this point had been with SW51+ low Zout (which is more than double the impedance of the headphones). When I tried my Liquid Carbon v1, there was significant channel imbalance to the left, only with Verum (mine have no resistors, L=7Ω, R=9.5Ω) and only out of LCv1. I used the DEQ2496 to take the L channel down by 2dB and that brought it back to center. With the imbalance fixed I could listen properly, and WOW! It was like a (not unpleasant) ethereal haze was lifted from the SW51, and everything tightened up across all frequencies. Low gain is a bit thin in the mids and less impactful down low, but on high gain it's a super clear, dynamic and immersive listen. Quite a contrast to the difference between LC and SW51 with my other (dynamic) headphones, where I find the LC to be warm and less dynamic sounding, more suited to a relaxed listening session. The LC really wakes the Verums up.
    (LC is fed by SFD-1's balanced outs, whereas SW51 by SE. I don't think there's supposed to be much difference between them, so I'm putting it down to Cavalli/Verum synergy.)

    What was originally a disaster has turned into a windfall for me. I'm so grateful to @dBel84 for repairing and improving the "Voldemort", making them an excellent compliment to my headphone collection. It's really unfortunate about the stigma attached to this unique and otherwise excellent headphone, but it is what it is.
     
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    Last edited: Aug 28, 2021
  7. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    @dBel84 does amazing work with orthos and amplifiers and speakers. You’re very lucky to have a Don modded original.

    I’m trying to figure out how to get the grills off a recently purchased Verum to mod them now. I think anyway I do it they will bend. Despite them just being held on by double sided tape. I wish Verum used screws ala Audeze. I’ll probably end up ripping them off and making replacements too.
     
  8. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    It's pretty much impossible to get the grills off without bending them beyond repair. The 3M double-sided tape is ridiculously strong. It took forever to get them off.

    You'll need to do something like what dB did to make enough room behind the driver for damping mods. Using standoffs is a simple and elegant solution. Glad you got another pair!
     
  9. dBel84

    dBel84 Friend

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    Glad it all worked out :cool:. This is one of those circumstances where risk paid off, it could quite easily have gone the other way. The verums are one of the more technically challenging if you need to remove the drivers. The moment those screws come off, the whole system tries to levitate and then accelerate back down when the polarity lines up.

    That back plate has to be sacrificed to remove, it can be flattened and smoothed out but without specialized tooling will always look like a slightly disheveled teenager in the morning.

    It would be possible to epoxy little tapped spacers into the back to allow for modding and attaching a removable grill, much easier than the approach I took but then the drivers had to come out. I removed both sides to change out the 2.5mm plug for a more standard 3.5mm version.

    I do think these headphones sound exceptional and very closely emulate my experience with the Abyss AB 1266.

    .. dB
     
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  10. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    A hot air gun is usually what you need to use to open up anything with adhesive. Although i don't know if the heat would negatively affect the diaphragms. If they used kapton film it should be fine
     
  11. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    It was deemed not worth taking the risk heating up the diaphragm, so lots of elbow grease was applied instead. I had some hand-me-down tools from my dentist that helped a lot in the initial stages. Once you get a lip up it's slow but steady going. Still need to be careful not to slip and spear the diaphragm though ;)
     
  12. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    Now that you have a damaged diaphragm you can probably see what effect heat has
     
  13. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Or frame it!
     
  14. Stuff Jones

    Stuff Jones Friend

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    The Verum 1 are still awesome. They're in my personal audio HOF: fairly balanced tuning, great timbre, comfortable, easy to drive, 350 bucks.
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2021
  15. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    The channel imbalance went out of whack again, needing a shift of over 10dB to bring it back to center. I remeasured the R driver and it was around 32Ω (then 24Ω the next day), L driver remains at 7Ω. Randomly thinking of non-invasive things to try, I applied some DeoxIT into the connector and it dropped to around 12Ω, but eventually creeped back up to 15Ω where it's fairly stable now, requiring 6dB of balance correction. We're not sure why cleaning the contacts had such a big impact. If it stays stable like this, they're still usable on my main rig w/ DEQ2496. I really don't want to have to open them up again unless it's absolutely necessary.

    Have some slanted Dekoni pads incoming (sheepskin and hybrid).
     
  16. Suppa92

    Suppa92 New

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    how that is even possible? maybe rust or oxidization build up increase resistance? do you have a mk2 version or very early version/ batch?
     
  17. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Oh, it can be very normal with these kinds of orthos. The traces can break slightly and then be flakey. Changes in humidity and temperature can affect the membrane, making crinkley connections better or worse.

    My Verum 1.0 developed an issue where one channel would die. The way to fix this was to shock this side with a high SPL signal until I heard something.

    @gixxerwimp: if you do take the diaphragm out, examine the traces under magnification, e.g. cheap USB microscope. I suspect a break where a trace got lifted up. Usually very hard to see.
     
    Last edited: Sep 28, 2021
  18. dBel84

    dBel84 Friend

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    This was my suspicion too. That driver is very crinkled. Pity as it sounds fantastic.
     
  19. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    It's a Verum 1 v1 with rabbit-ear headband. Third/fourth hand to me, so I have no idea which batch.

    OK, I just "shocked" the R driver with some really loud Tay-Tay and the impedance dropped to around 11Ω, with required balance compensation going down to 4dB.

    So either it's the diaphragm and my application of DeoxIT was a coincidence, or there's something weird going on in the connector.
     
  20. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    Update to my channel imbalance problem. Turns out it was kind of self-inflicted* ...

    The Dekoni pads came in and I preferred the Hybrids over the Sheepskin, latter sounding a bit too forward in the upper mids, though both had a bit of midrange suck compared to the stock non-perforated pads. (The Dekonis don't suck in this particular application.) The slant on the pads brings the 2D stage a bit more to the front and pushes the center image out slightly. They're a bit thinner than the stock pads and my ears just touch the "panty hose", so I cut donuts from 2mm craft foam and inserted them between the pads and hose.

    After I did the final pad swap and settled down for a proper listen, volume in the R channel suddenly went way down and measured 30-40Ω, and fluctuated with more "shocking", going up as high as 400Ω. It settled in the 20s and I let them run overnight. Tried some more deoxIT, no effect. I shocked them a bit more with some fluctuation in impedance, but only getting down to the 20s. Usable with -10dB on the L channel, but I figured I'd go for 1 more shock ... Well, I finally got my catastrophic failure. No sound and it measured 2-4kΩ. More shocks had no effect.

    After consultation with Dr. Playnar, I prepped for exploratory surgery to see if it was the driver or connector. Clips in place, I started removing the screws securing the front baffle, but I noticed a couple were already loose (ones that had the nuts swapped for female standoffs to hold the modified grills - *they likely backed out when I previously opened the grills). Figured WTH, tightened them up and measured one more time ... 10Ω! ... and sound! :headbang:

    So I played around with tightening and loosening all the screws and at one point with all screws loose it was 7Ω, same as the L channel. After several more rounds of tightening/loosening, the impedance of the R channel settled at 6.5Ω, requiring 1dB of balance correction in the other direction when driven with the LC (shouldn't be necessary with SW51's higher Z output). My best guess is that the slightly loose baffle resulted in something pressing or pulling on one of the leads, causing an increase the impedance. So glad I didn't have to open them up!
     

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