ZMF Auteur Impressions and Measurements

I'd love to see measurements from the different pads.

 

I found these quite interesting.

Waterfall plots for Teak Auteur (Eikon Lambskin), Blackwood Auteur (Eikon Lambskin), and Blackwood Auteur (Universe Suede).







Assuming no significant difference in damping stuffs between Teak and ABW models, the difference would be largely attributed to wood (hardness, density, and other characters). Also note suede pads equated decay in a more linear way.

 

For convenience, I'm pasting from what I posted in other threads.

Comparison conditioned by same pads, similar-ish hard woods, but different housing/drivers:







Thoughts

• Auteur behaves well not only in frequency domain but in time domain -- very linear! (I remember @zach915m emphasized this word over and over in describing auteur lol)
• Verite shows the fastest initial decay (down to 10-15 db off from t=0), attributable to tighter controls (due to magnet, be, etc etc) and more open earcup designs. By contrast, it has the most lasting release.
• Aeolus is close to auteur but not as linear as its brother.

 

Suddenly, and kinda on a whim, I measured how external sound was attenuated by headphones. While detailed methods and rigs are different, this approach would conceptually resemble (Tyll-era) Inner Fidelity(IF)'s isolation test and Rting's noise isolation test.



Log-sweep signal played by speakers (L+R) was used as external sound.
Three curves above were obtained by taking relative gains between baseline EARS (left-ear) response and attenuated one (1/3 oct).

No wonder, among these three headphones, ether 2 is the most open. 1000XM3 (anc off) is the most closed. Auteur is closer to ether 2, but not as open as ether 2.

Below is Rting's WH-1000XM3 result. Interesting to see a good consistency despite of overly simplified my method.



It also seems that IF and Rting's results are fairly consistent. See below (both HD650):




So, from these (very rough) indirect comparisons, my isolation result would be pretty similar with IF, which is 5db less reduced than Rtings.

That said, it will be interesting compare my Auteur result with IF's Eikon result (see below).



Auteur is way opener than Eikon, which mirrors my experience.

PS. Eikon Suede pads equipped on Auteur

 

I had just received a loan of Auteur and Atticus from the local dealer.
The thread https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?posts/299093/ made me very curious on trying it out for monitoring purpose.
The Auteur's pad was the perforated lambskin (Eikon pads)
The Atticus' pad was the leather (not sure if it's protein or genuine).

I am more interested in the Auteur. My other headphone is Neumann NDH 20 and LCD4.

The Auteur sounded so organic and natural on the mids. I checked my current work with it and was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the mid frequency.

While the treble sounded very natural and smooth, it lacks a little excitement in comparison to the NDH20 and LCD4.

The bass is tight and natural but for my purpose, it lacks the density and dynamic movement.

I am on the verge of returning the demo units back but just read about the different qualities of the pads. I would like to try the Auteur again but with the U pads. I hope it would help the dynamic low end and the treble qualities.

The content on SBAF is so helpful since there are measurements, and the right helpful information.

 

This Autuer thread seems to have been dormant for quite a while. I suppose the addition of the Verite and Verite Closed killed a lot of the excitement for these ZMFs. I admit I overlooked the Auteur in favor of the Aeolus, my first ZMF purchase. Then I decided I’d jump up a price bracket and sold my Aeolus to fund a Verite Closed last year. I thoroughly enjoyed the VC for almost a year. I paired it with my first two tube amps, the SW51+ and Quicksilver HPA. Only reason I sold it was in anticipation of the soon to be released LTD Blackwood VC. I have always liked the Blackwood releases from ZMF, aesthetically and from the descriptions of the impact this ultra-dense wood makes on the sound. You may be thinking, “Isn’t this post in the Auteur impressions thread?” I’m getting to that.

I made a dangerous mistake and starting getting email alerts from the Classifieds section over on the other headphone audio forum, you know the one. Now I get to see what pops up for sale all throughout the day. Dangerous, like I said. Last week an immaculate Manchurian Ash Auteur popped up for sale. It even came with a ZMF 2K Copper cable at no extra cost. I made the impulse buy.

For like 2 days, I owned a Manchurian Ash VC and Auteur simultaneously. I got to compare them a little bit before my VC sold. The Auteur could definitely hang with its more expensive sibling. Besides speed of the driver and bass impact, I’d say the Auteur might be as good or better than VC for my preferences. I was surprised at this. I didn’t see it coming.

These initial comparisons were with the stock Auteur perforated lambskin pads. Imagine my further surprise when I reluctantly swapped to the Eikon suedes and found the sound even more to my preference. It warmed up the FR and gave a fuller low end, which seems closer to the VC sound signature. I didn’t get to compare the Auteurs with the Eikon suede pads to the my VC before they sold, but these headphones sound phenomenal with both my amps. I might even prefer the high-Z output of the SW51+ to the Quicksilver with the Auteur. I felt the opposite with the VC. Synergy matters folks.

I’m currently wondering if I can convince myself to buy another VC when these Auteurs sound so good! I’m even tempted to buy the Blackwood Auteur currently for sale here to see if it might exceed my Ash set somehow, but I’m hoping someone with no Auteur snatches those up so I can’t!

And because I can’t resist showing off my new beauties:

 

Those things are stunning.

 

I love that ash. It's amazing.

 

The symmetrical swirling of the grain really is striking. Now you can understand why I couldn’t resist buying this particular set. I loved the grain on my Ash VC, but I think Ash cups look better with a grill in them. The swirling grain really frames the grills and makes for a handsome look. They have an almost honey color to them in hand that I find impossible to capture with my iPhone camera, but they look nicer in person than the picture can depict. This is often the case with ZMF’s.

 

Dude I totally agree, even my stock sapelle Aeolus wood looks much better in person.

 

I find the 6xx gets much closer with better amplification.