ZMF New Headphones: Vérité and Aeolus

You should start with the BF2 and the LP, but KEEP your Aeolus. The Aeolus have more potential than what you think, trust me.

 

(what he said!)

The Aeolus sounds so "fun" that people fail to realize it's capable of lots of resolution. Especially w/the Verite pads on, this headphone is well above average in that respect.

 

Alright, considering you've tried both with reasonably priced setups Ill probably forego the VC and stay with the Aeolus for a few years.

 

If you cannot find a good deal for the Liquid Platinum, I'm pretty sure that the Jot 2 + Bifrost 2 combo would be a great setup for the Aeolus.

 

As far a I recall, @Vtory did the most exhaustive pad-rolling experimentation with the ZMFs.

 

Time to return! Well have moved this year. I am recovering from a divorce and recovered from what may have been covid. Aquired from dealing with too many Chinesse vendors at last year's CES show in Vegas!

Some highlights of last year. Modded my Auteurs with second skin isodamp pro and felt diffraction pads and closed a few of the front baffle ports and oh my! Noticeable improvements.

Found out Cuinas Audio Super Cap Iso outperforms the LPS 1.2.

JCat USB femto firmware upgrade was a big deal.

Mad Scientist Black Nano Doughnuts attached to inputs of Auteurs make them sing!

Putting a Carbon Fiber Nomex shelf into my Isolation platform really improved low frequency definition, dynamics and tonal and harmonic weight!

And the most significant thing!
Got a bonus at work and ordered dark stained Leopard wood Verite Closed today. Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous,. been trying to figure the budget since those first became available. Had a chat via text with Zach and ordered a pair!
Can't wait. I even love just looking at the photos of them.

Zach is the best! Hopefully Can Jam will at some point be at a location near Salt Lake so I can really chat with him!
Anyhow look forward to getting back into it on this site.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and some Happy New Gear!

jgwtriode

 

edit: sorry!

 

I just realized the ZMF Verite is tuned opposite to the Harman curve. My EQ curve looks identical to the harman's 2018 curve. (Verite lambskin pads).

It was unintentional as I find the Harman curve 'too much' while also lacking air.

 

I wanted to thank everyone who posted their impressions on both headphones, it was very helpful. I’m looking to get an open back headphone. I recently bought a house, so I have an “office” now lol. My favorite closed back I owned was an Atticus so honestly the only two headphones I was considering were the Aeolus and Vertie open. I think after reading here my best bet is to get the Aeolus and spend the rest of that money on a big boy amp and DAC and try to build a system around the Aeolus. I’ll bring out the true potential.


Who knows, maybe after I get the headphones and new source gear, I’ll write a impressions to hopefully help other lurkers who are on the fence. I feel like this is the place to do it because no one will tell me my impressions are great even if they suck haha.

 

Hard to imagine you going wrong w/the Aeolus. Don't forget how you can change the sound (always in good ways) by swapping ZMF pads. My favorites are the perforated Universe suedes; 2nd fave is Verite pads (yes, on the Aeolus). Verite pads make Aeolus sound more "neutral," though it never sounds dry, sterile, edgy/bright, any of that. Never!

Re big boy amp, one terrific thing about the Aeolus is that it's not amp picky at all (at least not IMS). I've tried it on 6-7 different amps here, and it always sound good, though it does scale somewhat w/bigger, more powerful SS and transformer-coupled tube amps.

Though it obviously never hurts to have a big boy amp & DAC in the general sense. Hard to go wrong there.

 

Or you could always get the intermediate system: SW51+ and ZMF Aeolus.

Full disclosure: Haven't heard either yet but I have ordered both since Jan 2021 based on my sound preferences and the impressions on this forum for that pairing. Still waiting on them to arrive.

Plan to use my current Eitr + Modi MB as DAC for now until I can get familiar with the whole setup and triangulate on what I'd want from a future DAC upgrade.

 

I'm not in dire need of a better amp. I bought the MCTH when it first came out. I was first getting into the hobby and thought it look "cool" and got that along with the TR-X00 PH. They have treated me well over the years.

My Modi 2 could use some updating though..

When I read the thread of the SW51+ it peaked my interest. I might have to wait until the next round is being made. Seems incredible for $400.

 

@Huntersknoll I'm not sure there will be a next round after "round 4+". You may want to message @Zampotech to make sure. Might be a now-or-never type thing.

To make this relevant to the thread, I think this amp is a really wonderful pairing for both the Aeolus and the Verite Closed.

 

This just arrived today. Wow, Ironwood looks so nice. Haven't had a chance to really listen yet, but first impressions are great. Like many have mentioned, the speed and detail are an obvious jump up compared to nips.

 

Beautiful headphone!

FWIW, based on results w/my own VO & Aeolus, these headphones benefit from burn-in. That's a controversial topic (here & elsewhere), but I've found that many headphones & electronics benefit from burn-in.

The following is taken from ZMF's website ("FAQs"):

"While I do agree part of burn in is "brain" related, there is some mechanical burn in that will help your ZMF's sound their best.

For our dynamic headphones, they use large magnets and the EIkon has a thick rubber surround. By "flexing" the driver membrane and surround you will get a more open, cohesive, and "easy" sound out of your dynamic ZMF headphone.

So for all ZMF's you can generally assume you should burn them in with pink noise and/or hardcore metal/rap/dubstep for 100-200 hours. Placing the pads together helps reduce noise leakage during this process!"​

 

I never quite understood that from an objective perspective, however, after recapping vintage stereos and trying new headphones, I've actually experienced this myself. I even noticed it a little bit with the Aeolous.

I'm pretty blown away with what I'm hearing right now, but my second thought was also "I bet these will settle in nicely after some time". With my Atticus and Aeolus, I at first had a similar reaction "wow, this almost sounds amazing!" which after several hours of playback turned into "okay, wtf happened, this sounds perfect." lol

Edit: I'm aware of brain burn-in (which is a pretty interesting topic). I've typically had these reactions after multiple power cycles and/or leaving the equipment play for extended periods and then coming into it with a "fresh" pair of ears.

Second edit: Have these on my head right now and am just super impressed by the speed and texture of the lower registers. It has substantial "slam" in the bass region, but doesn't bleed into the rest of the frequency.

 

Aeolus


Sources:

Thinkpad X260 via Roon or Foobar2000 via UPnP Output Component or BubbleUPnP > PI2AES [Toslink Output] > Massdrop x Airist R-2R DAC (RDAC) > Zampotech SW51+

Roon or UPnP > PI2AES [Coax Output] or Pioneer DV-79AVi DVD Player (CD Transport) [Toslink Output] > Schiit Bifrost 2 > DNA Starlett


Intro:

Was curious on how the Aeolus sounded for awhile. The more I look at impressions of the Aeolus, the more I thought I’ll like it. Here’s my experiences with ZMF:

• Auteur: Owned it for a bit. Most neutral ZMF that I heard on my head, which has good “air” for my jazz stuff. Not a rocking headphone by any means, and just behind one/two steps of a Verite Open on technicalities. Sold it since it was just too damn heavy on my head + anything I did to it didn’t work full time before my head hurts.
  
  
• Eikon: Owned it for a bit. Only closed back ZMF headphone that I had. Love the almost-closed nature of the headphone, so I can blast some rap/hip-hop on this. Nice and warm to me, but can be too much at time due to being a Clolsed-Back on some tracks. Sold it due to once again, weight.
  
  
• Verite Open: An excellent “butt-buddy” loaned me his pair, which was a LTD wood that I forgot what it was. Everyone will be jizzing on the TOTL technicalities, but the tone will be big make/break for listeners. As I posted here, worked great with David Sylvian vocals on his solo albums, but thought Grace Jones voices was a little too rich for my taste. Also missed the air on some of the Weather Report albums, but love the bass response on the VO for Jaco Pastorius famous bass playing. Still liked the VO and works for the most part on a lot of stuff that I throw at it. I just had to admit that on some stuff I prefer the Auteurs that I had at the time. If I wanted two different ZMF flavors, then Auteur and VO would do the trick. However, Auteur is no longer in my possession and I really can’t see the VO as being my main daily-drive dynamic driver headphone. Deserves the TOTL stuff awards, if you understand its possible flaws for some people. Also weight was not an issue on these at all.

Even not having any of the ZMFs on me due to weight concerns and other things, I still want to try out other ZMFs cause you never know. Thought Aeolus would be the one for me to try out, so I made a personal loaner request and boom, a wonderful nice Friend was nice enough to let me borrow his pair. I love SBAF considering I’m a weirdo.


Design and Packaging:

Looks like any other ZMF headphone, actually if you read my Verite Open Design section of my post it is mostly the same thing I’ll say on the Aeolus. I gotten the hard case with the Aeolus, which I prefer a lot more over the wooden box that I gotten through the Verite Open personal loaner. Brass grill looks cool, but I prefer it to be black and not bling-bling. Never was into the big audio jewelry.

Headband system is still great on the ZMF headphones, easy to take apart and do adjustments if you so please. Just like the Verite Open impressions post that I made, I’m not seeing anything in the design of the Aeolus that seems to have a serious flaw. I don’t think I would get ripped off if I have a ZMF headphone and it needs repairs.

One thing I like about the Aeolus is that these don’t feel heavy on my head at all. These don’t have the MG chassis, and I like them more on my head than my Auteur. I presume if I had the MG chassis on the Auteur then with maybe getting the suede strap I could be much happier with the Auteur for another day.


Pads

LIKE ANYTHING WITH ZMF, YOU BETTER PAD SWAP THE CRAP OUT OF IT IN ORDER TO GET TO YOUR PREFERENCE. LIKE ANYTHING WITH ZMF, YOU BETTER PAD SWAP THE CRAP OUT OF IT IN ORDER TO GET TO YOUR PREFERENCE.

Aeolus loaner came with three pads:

• Verite Perforated Lambskin: Hated them on the Verite Open, and for the most part I don’t hate them on the Aeolus. It to me brings them semi-closer to neutral, but isn’t lively enough for my taste. Not bad, but not my thing.
  
  
• Aeolus Perforated Lambskin: Too warm and too mushy for my taste. Not dynamic and felt there was a “veil” on the sound, making it seems too restrained.
  
  
• Universe Perforated Suede: Some hate Suede material pads due to making the sound more brighter, and I see where people are coming from. On the Aeolus at least, I enjoy them a lot and are my preferred pad and thus any future impressions below will be based on this pad. Felt these pads give the music a little more breathing room, and get the treble to my taste with these headphones. However, there were minor moments that these pads could get treble crazy, but that was rare. I should try the Universal Perforated Lambskin (which is my favorite pad on the VO.

Sound Signature:

It’s a Super HD650/6XX to me and hits the right notes. I felt at times the Auteur is a Super HD600 without the minor HD600 brightness flaws, and Aeolus is IMO ZMF’s take on the HD600 type sound. These aren’t W-Sound at all, to me these have a minor bossed mid-bass that to me are done wonderfully, much more closer/lushness mids with maybe a minor dip that isn’t VO levels dip, and treble that has more air to me but not inflated and could be borderline rolling off depending on pad?

Aeolus sounds very livery to me, which is different than the Auteur which felt more “music stays on the stage and not leaving the stage.” However, to me the Auteur won’t BS you on what the music sounds. The Aeolus on the other hand is like drinking a few shots and let it loose. Bass is boosted in mid-bass, which while I enjoy this a lot, it can be too much in some Weather Report albums. Putting aside the TOTL stuff on the VO, I do prefer the VO bass presentation since mid-bass can be too much at times on Aeolus and I thought the VO was more honest here. However, it isn’t a big deal since honestly I’m digging the mid-bass boost on almost anything I throw at it on the Aeolus.

Mids I really prefer Aeolus over the VO by a lot. Vocals to me sound more “correct” on the Aeolus than the VO. Grace Jones albums with her vocals doesn’t have the over richness on the Aeolus, while David Sylvian vocals still sound fantastic on the Aeolus. I still feel there might be a minor upper mid dip, which I don’t mind since upper mids can drive me nuts at times. Really enjoy various instrumental stuff on my prog rock albums, classical, and other stuff. Honestly...everything I’m throwing at it sounds great and the mids don’t give me weird feelings at times like the VO. Just these aren’t TOTL quality like on other headphones that I heard over the years. At the same time, it didn’t bug me at all. I can deal with VO and Aeolus just fine with their traits. While VO isn’t my preference on everything, I can still jam it out.

Treble is more to my liking here than on the VO. There is enough treble where listening to my jazz stuff gives me a sense of surroundings (which was my minor issue on the VO on some Weather Report albums). I felt that I know where things were going on a stage (where on the VO I had issues on this at times). I felt treble does have a roll-off, but not super low roll-off. It has the right amount of treble and not being too much. My impressions doesn’t mean much here but if you have a treble fetish then I don’t like you will like the Aeolus that much. You might prefer the Auteur more if that is your jam. I did notice at at some really harsh early 90s digital albums that the Aeolus treble was harsh. I presume I can reduce this effect if I was using warmer leather pads.

I noticed that Aeolus did scale a bit when playing between my two setups. With the DNA Starlett + BF2 I felt the Aeolus went up a level over my SW51+ Airist R2R DAC. Aeolus didn’t scale as much when I had the VO loaner, so VO does I guess scale a lot more over the VO.

I think there were moments that the Aeolus wasn’t the most “clearest” thing out there when playing very heavy music with tons of things happening in the background. Some instruments to me can get “lost” when things become too crazy. I say lost with “” since that music note is still there, but harder to tell at times. I thought Auteur was a more clearer than the Aeolus, but the Aeolus is a well oiled-machine and honestly this didn’t bug me at all.

Aeolus will not win the TOTL stuff against the VO at all. Yes VO does win all lover the Aeolus on technicalities and blah blah blah. Honestly...I prefer the tuning of the Aeolus over the VO.

Soundstage is closer to you than something IMO on a VO, but I felt the stage is slightly bigger over the Auteur where it stays in its same area and never floats out of the stage...if that even make sense.

Aeolus aims for the heart/soul pretty much. If you want to be serious on your music listening...get something else.


Conclusion:

The sound signature I think it will fit the bill for many people. I believe being a Super HD650/6XX would make people consider getting the Aeolus if they want an upgrade to the HD650/6XX. I think from top/bottom of its sound signature it hits the right notes. Neutral fans should avoid, including those who don’t want to deal with an elevated mid-bass.

Accept the ZMF lineup for what they bring to the table. Their lower end models doesn't suck and don't think that you must save money to get a VO or perhaps a VC just because TOTL is the best thing ever. It all comes down to what you are looking for...which I like what ZMF does on this front. Each headphone ZMF makes has a goal, and that goal is something you would either prefer or not. I prefer most things on the Aeolus over the VO, but the VO is TOTL for a reason. I still prefer how VO does its bass, but I prefer the treble and mids on the Aeolus. I guess I prefer less of the (in)famous ZMF treble/timbre presentation?

Will I get one? I dunno. I currently have HD6XX and I have a JAR650 on order. I feel the JAR650 is more/less a Super HD650/6XX. That alone kind of makes the Aeolus a hard sell for me ATM. I have the HD600 and its “Super” upgrade, which is the Focal Eclair (Elear with Clear Pads = Elex). That also ruins me ATM for even reconsider the Auteur. With the upgrades I need to do in order to make the Aeolus and the Auteur feel great on my head, I’ll be closer to the price of a VO (and I don't really need any upgrades to make VO fit great on my head). I don’t need any W-Sounding headphones right now since my bases are mostly covered. However, if I feel like that type of sound would help my musically enjoyment for the long term with some of the TOTL tech added to the mix, then I know which ZMF headphone I should really get...better start saving.

I’ll say this: I haven’t heard of a ZMF headphone that I hate. Each headphone brings something different to the table, and if it wasn’t for the weight issues then I can jam out at all of them. I have my preferences but it doesn’t kill me...if that make sense.

 

That all tracks with my experience.

I'll say this:

• The weight doesn't bother me on the neck - though people with cervical issues should avoid the Auteur.
• At the same time, while there's a way to shape the headband so that a strap or pilot pad don't hurt, copilot makes it much easier, and I feel like when @zach915m feels like he has time to sink some R&D into headbands again a strap with padded side-cushions like a co-pilot might be a stock option to look into.

 

Co-pilot fits perfectly over the headband without the strap on, I'll post a video on how to apply it soon. You also could put the co-pilot over the existing strap, but you'd lose a bit of size so may not work for those with larger heads.