ZMF Auteur - An open back ZMF

Thank you for your kind words. it probably took more than a year of saving to get to this point. I think I started from HD6xx + Schiit magni/modi 2 and slowly built my way up. Crazy how much you can save from not buying stuff out of impulse. It also helps that a lot of audio gears have good resale value. Paypal credit is a great resource if you just use it wisely

yeah I totally understand how you feel. I first purchased the Verite in Silkwood and ended up ordering another pair in harder wood/Ziricote (and selling the Silk Verite) I think it hits slightly harder and a more immediate sound. I also prefer the look of aesthetics of darker wood as well. Regardless, Auteur is a great headphone and glad you're enjoying it!

 

"I have a hard-on for zach's hardwood"

I'd wear that.

 

A ZMF flannel would be perfect! Every time I see @zach915m he's wearing flannel.

 

Hi, the ZMF Auteur is mentioned to me at Head-fi.org as a great match with Feliks Audio. I have a Feliks audio Euforia. Maybe the ZMF is a better match than the Hifiman Arya, and not built out of plastics. The Auteur costs 1800 euro in Germany. I live in Amsterdam. I listen mostly to classical music, “world music” and Jazz. I cannot listen to it in Amsterdam, so spending 1800 euro on the reputation of a great match is risky. Here too the synergy is praised with the Euforia: https://headfonics.com/2018/02/zmf-auteur-review/2/ I understand that the Arya sounds like 3000 euro headphones, but 1600 euro for a plastic headphone does not feel right. (I have also a somewhat broken Stax L700 mk 1 built with plastics and its yoke broke twice, whereas repairing costs 55 euro each time.) At the moment I listen to the T1.2. People say the Auteur could be their only set of headphones, but is that too the case for classical music? Kind regards Yoram

 

When I owned Auteur I also listened to a ton of classical and it was good enough for me to keep it as my only headphone.
Only reason I sold it was because the HD800 (which I owned prior) has a bit better resolution but I believe that was was a mistake. Auteur more than makes up for it by having a virtually perfect tone that the HD800 can never match. And I also feel the Auteur had better microdynamics, which is better for classical.

Auteur is the only headphone I've heard that I would recommend without reservation. It is worth the money. But it is not an immediate "wow" experience... it grows on you and reveals it's nature over time... but once it does you will likely fall in love.

Worst case scenario you can always sell it for little loss, as they are very much in demand.

 

Yoram - My impressions with Auteur and Euforia are buried in my 2nd post here: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...feliks-audio-euforia-headphone-amplifier.8065

In short, I think Auteur with Euforia is dependent on the earpad being used given the Euforia is so colored and euphoric sounding. IMO if you want to listen to classic music critically with Auteur and Euforia, it will probably never work out unless you switch to Focal or similar headphones. If you just enjoy listening to classical to relax the Auteur/Euforia combo might work. Others here disagreed with me and thought Euforia and Auteur had a little better than neutral synergy but still not ideal/perfect.

 

Let me preface the following by admitting to the fact that I've never heard the Auteur.

That said, judging by reviews the Auteur are the least wrong sounding 1.5k+ headphone. Importantly, their timbre isn't f#cked unlike many TOTL HPs. The tradeoff is that they don't have the technicalities that you might expect in headphone in that price bracket.

Is this a fair summary?

I've been close to pulling the trigger a couple of times with them but worried that they wouldn't seem like worthy enough upgrade over the HD6XX i.e. they wouldn't floor me and I'd risk buyers remorse.

 

Based on experience with my Eikon (same driver Auteur in closed back) I would say that is not only fair but a good summary. The correlation(s) with the HD6xx is obvious. Is it a worthy upgrade? I don't have the same love for the HD6xx as many. Without going into its well understood strengths, I don't think it scales as well as most believe, and I don't like it's treble (which is more midfi and "tinny" and even "grainy" to my ears at times). So for me the ZMF's present a "worthy" and perhaps even value based upgrade. Yet...I was not "floored" by the Eikon at first (or even second) either as I wanted more speed and microdetail. Over time however, it really grew on me.

All that said, I now spend more time with my Verita Closed than the Eikon...

 

I’ve gone up and down the headphone treadmill, sold the Auteurs, and have circled right back to them. They have some of the best tone and timbre imo to most other headphones. They don’t resolve as well as the Verite and the driver may not be as fast but the Auteurs have had the most head time in my stable. They sound...right.

The Euforia may not be able to run the Arya unless you really crank the volume dial. Just not enough power there but I could be wrong. I do listen to classical on my both the Oblivion and Apex Teton with the Auteurs. If you want a wide sound stage then the HD800 are great bet.

 

The Euforia I've been amazed can sound so so different with different tubes, I do think it needs somewhat bright tubes to sound best with our headphones.

Lately we've had Chatham 6as7g tubes in which are a little brighter than our tung sol 5998's and they give the most lifelike experience to me, without haze or goo, with any of our headphones. The Euforia has become a shop favorite with that driver tube.

But change it around and go back to a warmer tube set, like amperex/mullard 6080 or rca black plate 6as7's, and it quickly becomes too warm, slow.

The auteur, while maybe not gaining the same absolute wow factor that the verite can, is an easier recommendation especially for classical because of the added air, neutrality, and ability to give an even keeled response with auteur pads.

Edit - Yoram - I see you're in Amsterdam, we are starting up with "headphone auditions" there as a dealer for us, you should ask them about the auteur and see if they are getting one for audition.

 

I love my Blackwood Auteur. I've called them my 'Goldilocks' headphones. That said, I don't like them best of all my cans for orchestral music. That distinction goes to my HEKv2.

Auteur aren't 'bad' for symphonic music. Detail, tonality, dynamics (micro- and macro-) are all great. Compared to HEKv2, Auteur trades a small amount of detail and micro-dynamics for some added macro-dynamics and a 'fuller' voicing.

But the stage is too intimate for me. I'm listening to Prokofiev's Piano Concerto #2. Sounds like I'm sitting under the piano with the orchestra all around me. Not as bad as Utopia, where it sounds like I'm inside the piano, and the whole orchestra is in there with me

Amusing that I love the way Auteur puts me right on stage with the Grateful Dead, but dislike the same effect for orchestral/symphonic music.

Chain for these comparisons:

A2 Gungnir Multibit ==> Hattor passive pre ==> DSHA-3F ==> cans (both via Silver Dragon)

All analog connections are balanced.

 

My personal take on ZMF Auteur including measurements can be found HERE.

To address your post specifically:

• If you are after a combination of neutral tonality and natural timbre, Auteur should be very high on your list.
• Auteur is especially strong in terms of frequency response, very neutral with the right pads IMHO. Timbre-wise, the review linked above points out some imperfections mostly connected to the wooden nature of the ZMF's. It's still of top quality compared to the rest of the market though!
• Auteur is a clear, dynamic, and detailed sounding headphone. That being said, pure technicalities are indeed not the major selling point. The headphone will not slap you in the face with hypermicrodetails, ubercleanness, or lightning-fast transients. Auteur is simply not about flashiness but more about establishing a natural sonic equilibrium.
• Auteur is the headphone that made me restore my faith in electrodynamic drivers, and finally abandon HD6xx for good. Auteur IMHO gets close enough in what makes the Senns unique while improving upon on what they are weak at. Ultimately speaking though, nothing can FULLY make HD6xx irrelevant - they are too proven and unique for that.

NOTE: The only headphone I heard possibly rivalling Auteur in tonality+timbre would be Audio Zenith PMx2's. Unlike Auteur, PMx2's are stronger in timbre department but its frequency response is very good too given proper seal and placement on head.

 

Auteur is vastly better than 650 IMO which I currently own. As high as 650 scales with TOTL gear, the imaging still sucks, and the hazy cloud-of-vapor feel never totally goes away, even with mods. And do I even have to mention the bass?

It's no contest. I also find the Auteur has a more natural/organic tone, is faster, and has none of the 650 grain.

As good as the 650 is (and it's great), its got far more flaws than the Auteur. And the 650 is so cheap you may as well just own both if you're nervous.

YMMV.

 

Keep in mind that the schiit multbit DACs are supposed to have upfront staging.

That said, I never found the staging for classical a problem with Auteur/T3/Gungnir Multibit. And alot of it greatly depends on the recording. Large orchestral venues with proper mic placement seemed large enough to me and smaller ones seemed small. Auteur actually has a large soundstage compared to the Focals I've listened to.

YMMV

 

Perhaps I wasn’t clear in my post — Auteur stage is definitely bigger/better than Utopia stage, although Utopia imaging is very precise. That said, I prefer what I hear as the more airy/open stage of HEKv2 for classical. I want to be in front of the orchestra, not on the stage.

To my ears, the staging differences between Auteur & HEK (& Utopia) are consistent across genres & recordings. And it doesn’t change much when I switch to my Pontus or Oppo Sonica.

For me, the bottom line is that there isn’t one ‘best’ headphone for all the music I listen to. Auteur ARE the best Deadphones I’ve heard (headphones for listening to the Grateful Dead). And they’re best for anything rhythmically driven, e,g., Afro-Celt Sound System.

Really, I love my Auteur, and I could go on and on about them. So me saying that they’re not my favorite for classical shouldn’t be taken as a huge negative.

 

Word.

Also, everyone has different preferences for how they like their classical. I've seen people who like the 650 for it and I couldn't stand it. That's why I put YMMV at the end.

 

I can see the 650 working for some things, like quartets, solos and chamber music, but yeah I don't think I could ever consider it as a generic classical headphone.

It would need to be able to handle organ music, for one, and that goes way below the 50hz vanishing point on the 6-series to begin with.

Auteur is definitely a contender though.

I think Atticus with Eikon Leather pads is the closest thing I've heard to a concert hall for your head. Maybe a very soft wood Veritè C with Auteur Suede pads.

Iunno, choice of wood matters here, my Blackwood Auteur is a better all-purpose headphone for the harder wood choice, but that also makes it too clean to replicate even something like the saltzburg concert hall, which has little in the way of hall tonality compared to milan's La Scala or venice's La Fenice.

It does mean I could be perfectly happy if it was the only headphone I owned though

 

Hard to say. I viewed your profile posts about you 6xx, and your comparison w/ HD-600. Have you compared your 6xx to other TOTLish headphones?

I also read @ChaChaRealSmooth ’s response there (regarding mids) and mostly agreed. Auteur mids are richer than 6xx mids. I don’t hear 6xx ‘leans toward thick-sounding’ though. To me they sound slightly thin — not Ether 2 thin, but thinner than Auteur by a bit and perhaps a bit thinner than Utopia mids. Actually, the mids from my RAD-0 are very close to 6xx mids. Per Chacha’s comments (6xx leaning thick & Auteur richer) I would expect Auteur mids to seem overly warm/thick/full — I don’t hear that. Satisfyingly rich & full, yes — overly so, definitely not.

Backing up, let me say that, while I love my Auteur, I think the 6xx are amazingly good for 1/8 the price. When I first heard them out of my LP w/ Siemens CCa tubes, I was really surprised at how good they sounded. I can imagine some comparing them w/ Auteur and saying “Eight times as good? They aren’t even twice as good.” Obviously there are some who disagree.

That said, if you want to be blown away by Auteur on first listen start with ‘Morning Dew’ from the Dead’s ‘Two From The Vault’ or Afro-Celt Sound System’s ‘When You’re Falling’. Also, ‘Obvious Child’ from Paul Simon’s ‘Rhythm of the Saints’. To me tracks like these highlight Auteur’s strengths.

(Another tip if you want to be blown away on first listen—burn them in beforehand. Zach’s driver’s ‘move’ quite a bit over the first 100 hours or more. Of course, if they come to you used you can ignore this.)

As for the ‘technicalities’ thing, I can’t express an opinion. From all that I read, I suspect that my Blackwood Auteur are superior in this area to (say) Teak Auteur. I say this because every time someone suggests tracks to demonstrate Auteur’s supposed technical deficiencies, I don’t hear it, or at least not to any significant degree. I’ve compared my Auteur to Utopia quite a bit. While I do hear superior detail & micro-dynamics from Utopia on some tracks, it’s usually a small advantage. In addition, there’s frequently a price to be paid (certain frequencies unnaturally emphasized or timbre issues, especially w/ vocals, such as shrillness from Joni Mitchell).

Obviously this is all JMHO, ‘my ears/your ears’...etc.

 

Agreed. I think some people confuse haziness with thickness.

Auteur mids are fuller and richer. But 650 mids can be a bit more seductive, but at the expense of clarity. I love em but couldn't live with em as my only can and usually switch to HD800 after an album or two, desperate for some clarity.