ZMF New Headphones: Vérité and Aeolus

I believe the wood is sapele on the verte open. It may be that on a solid state amp the bass wood tighten up, im not sure since I only have the EC Studio B which is on the warm side. The verte open is very seductive and if it had better bass I would buy it or the closed version asap.

 

I'd also be curious which pads you're using, they can definitely impact the sound in not so subtle ways. IIRC the Verite pads have the most linear/tightest bass to be had from the Verite.

It could also be that you just prefer the Focal presentation, which is perfectly plausible as well.

 

(insert emoji for stunned amazement)

 

im not sure about the pads they are leather with perforations. I would buy them if the bass was better.

 

I'm not really sure if this is a manner of pads or sources. I read your description of the bass on the Verite Open @Josh Schor and say yep, that's what I heard and have seen other people say similar things. And it's a preference thing too, some people prefer the bass on the Verite over Utopia for those reasons, some don't.

 

¿Por qué no los dos?

 

Hey Josh - not sure you got my email reply to you earlier on this topic but it might be helpful here too -

The suede Be2 or hybrid Be2 pads would give you more controlled bass and a more linear downslope response.

Bringing the driver closer to the ear always helps and suede will dampen the bass more and the entire response.

The closed version is a little more damped as well being a closed headphone, you also may like woods that are harder, like blackwood etc.

But in general yes they are a bit different to any focals.

 

I just wanted to give an example of how SBAF things went together piece after piece. I'll be brief:
I bought a VO, blackwood.
Univ pads --> Too midcentric, especially coming from VC (autuer pads) or Aeolus (aeolus pads). It's like bass wasn't there.
Be2 pads --> Oooh, much better. This is my liking, with the mids downsloping, more present bass... but a bit too heavy treble. Sigh, it was almost there.
Now SBAF inputs:
1) Vtory with LCD-X measurements vs VO Be2 actually showing the highs
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?attachments/lcdx2021_vs_vobe2-jpg.25850/
2) Zach saying somewhere that when highs (I guess 6~8khz) are above 1khz level, then things starts getting hot (the word was different, maybe sizzle... anyway that's the case for be2 , not for univ, and that's exactly my perception also. Wow)
3) All the new Atrium thread, with the measurement of the different titan meshes, so I know where they act...

DINDIN

I removed the "full" mesh from the Aeolus and put them on the VO! And now I'm there!!! With all the frequencies where I like them to be, still fast, even more clear (I felt like being overloaded before). OFC I am now wondering if the holed mesh can be the sweet spot... but that's the mindset. Point is just to say how much SBAF (and Zach) helped me out with all their consistent observations, measurements. I posted this here just because I guess it's a new "take" on the VO

 

Now with the Burmese Padauk being offered as the Verite Open LTD wood, I can finally post mine.

 

Back in December I posted about finding the Vérité Open fatiguing (a couple of pages back). It would be wrong of me not to follow up that post: I’ve since found that the fatigue was a result of fairly poor amp pairings, and that I’ve now found a setup that works wonderfully with the Vérité. More on that in a second. I'd just like to set the record straight and allay any concerns prospective Vérité owners might have.

First, I should note that I never figured out precisely what accounted for the fatigue - whether it was anything to do with the slight 8 kHz peak, or something else, or some combination of factors. The key point is that the fatigue was not inherent to the headphones. After all, I’d not experienced any when auditioning the Vérité out of an Yggdrasil and such amps as the Big Ben and Pendant. For reference, my comments about fatigue were when my chain consisted of a Bifrost 2 -> MCTH / ZDT Jr. / SW51+ / or Mjolnir 1.

I ended my previous post by wondering out loud about whether a Starlett might be the right amp for me to pair with the Vérité, given my preferences and the impressions of others. In the end, good timing, even better luck, and a rare, favorable circumstance - a generous honorarium and some overtime work landing in my lap - meant that I was fortunate enough to be able to buy a Friend's Stratus.

I no longer experience any fatigue whatsoever, even after many hours of happy listening. I'm in a lucky, great place; this pairing is outstanding and ideally suited to my tastes.

 

FYI Bifrost 2 can be a bit fatiguing in the treble over spdif.

EDIT: Depending on amp... on Starlett it wasn't a problem, but was more noticeable on EC 445.