ZMF New Headphones: Vérité and Aeolus

Our main goal at this point on the Aeolus and Verite will be getting some final models made and getting them out. Should take about a week to two weeks, but after we get them out and into @Hands and others' home environments I'm sure it will be easier to get more specifics on the sound sig etc.

But yes Aeolus is warmer than auteur. And Verite sits between the two, but the speed of the Verite can fool you into thinking it might be brighter than it is.

 

Just speculating... but maybe the BE portion of the driver also plays some role in that? Utopia sounded unnaturally bright and metallic (maybe even too fast?) to my ears during the two encounters so far. Almost sure it wasnt just their FR that bothered me.

 

I find that a nice tube amp can help mitigate such colorations with careful matching of upstream gear.

 

@zach915m is a tube-aholic, so a tube amp with any of his headphones is a no brainer.

 

I am late chiming in, and will be extremely superficial with my comments (show conditions etc). but I will say that the ZMF Vérité were easily my favorite new headphone of the show.

I listened principally to the post-@Hands-input tweaked version (was quite entertaining watching Zach making on-the-fly changes). If that's close to how the production units will sound, then my only remaining question will be which wood to go for (assuming multiple options there).

For context, Utopia remain my single-favorite headphone (if I could have only one). And I lean Eikon over Atticus.

(Also, was a pleasure to meet @zach915m, @Hands and @Elnrik at the ZMF stand ... just sorry I didn't get to spend more time with you guys).

 

Was good meeting you as well.

As for the woods, @zach915m mentioned a few, but I'm still holding out for a ziracote wood eventually. That wood gives me wood.

 

If you were to say based on the limited impressions, are the Verite better or worse than the Utopias?

 

Hmm, I don't know, man. I'll play devil's advocate and say this isn't the same as the tonal "correction" or "tuning" where some folks will try to add a dark slant to a bright slant in an attempt to end up somewhere in the middle. The Be, diamond, etc colorations Marv mentioned manifest themselves as timbral inaccuracies in my experience. What's the opposite or negating coloration to counteract, for example, Focal Utopia's off-timbre Be color? There really isn't one. Oh and BTW, not all Be drivers sound like the Focal Utopia Be. I am not saying whether or not the ZMF drivers do, just that there is certainly audible variation out in the wild.

 

Fair enough, my only experience with Be was with some Focal Solo6's and then i never really messed with preamps or tube amps for it. My experience is more with the alu drivers in the Clear and speakers with metal dome tweeters where i find a nice tube pre or amp to work well. Turns the zing into sparkle, the weird into correct etc.

As for accuracy, first thing for me is tonality that does not annoy me, and sounds real, or at least real enough. From there i go to whatever gives me goosebumps or that weird twitch i get in my lower back when a certain frequency is hit in just the right way. Whether this is accurate or not i don't really care

 

Got to hand it to @zach915m for continuing to innovate within his own design aesthetic, as there's no doubt the Vérité is a ZMF headphone. The radial venting at the base of the cup appears ideal for what I'd assume is more air for the driver, and potentially a more open sound*; without compromising the sexy woodwork he consistently brings.

* Of the ZMF dynamics, they've all sounded fairly open to my ears with the Atticus and Eikon impressively-so for being a closed/semi-closed can. The Autuer added a bit more space but still sounded contained compared to my CodeLE.

 

Well that, and also we know for sure that the Utopia Be driver and the one ZMF is using are pretty different, and folks that heard the zmf say the timbre is not the same as utopias. So it may well be that they may sound realistic/normal out of a particular amp.
*Apologies for not having any rhetorical questions to pose to myself in constructing this post.

I'm curious how open this new design will sound compared to open cans since I agree with you that they all mostly sound semi-closed or semi-open or semi something relative to other open backs. Will be interesting to see/compare.

 

I told a couple people this at the show but I don't think it's been reiterated here -

We found solid Be material, but solid metal drivers don't have the timbre I was going for with this headphone. After hearing and comparing solid metal to the Vapor deposed material, the PEN that we're using under the Be sounds almost as fast but is much less grating on the ears (at least my ears).

 

Was the speed/transient ability of the Focals, particularly the Utopia, something that you were targeting when developing the Verite driver?

 

I spent an evening at a friends house comparing a version of the Verite to the Utopia, it was a lot of fun, the Utopia is a great headphone but I've never owned one.

Overall I just wanted to make the fastest driver possible with the heaviest magnet we could use to create a fast, weighty sound without stridency. I tried titanium drivers and Magnesium drivers but after trying Be I came to the conclusion that it's superior to the other metal materials used in drivers so off I went. So yes I wanted speed/transient quickness but not at the cost of not being able to have an enjoyable headphone to listen to.

Of note I spent some of the last couple days playing around with the exact frontal damping scheme needed to make this thing sound exactly as I'd like. I'm waiting on some material so it's likely the Aeolus will go out to reviewers first and then as soon as I get the frontal damping I want I'll send the Verite along. At RMAF we went "naked" so to speak on the front of the driver (after Hands told me it sounded dark Sat AM), as that gives a pretty clean response in the 3.5 - 9khz area, but for my ears just a tid bit of something is needed to bring it down about 1 dB. The filters also help spread the sound waves out so the head-stage is a touch rounder, less panned.

The good news is the magnesium frame came in today, the stock Verite will be between 425 - 440 grams in the Silk wood we are using. My wife said it doesn't even feel like a ZMF anymore when I forced her to wear it!

Edit: Going with Sapele as the stock wood for Aeolus. Love how it finishes and feels.

 

Oooh, sapele is a great choice! I love the ribbon figuring it has, and it has a great aroma when cut. Should make for some great cups!

 

What about Tineo?

 

Does the magnesium frame lessen the effect of the wood and/or improve consistency?