Verum Audio - Exciting high performance DIY planar

Discussion in 'Headphone Measurements' started by cskippy, May 24, 2018.

  1. Garuspik

    Garuspik Tovarisch Ukrainian Terminator MOT - Verum

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    Now I'm focused on production of Verum 1 mk2. Now i expereince delays cause all ordered earpads are stucked at customs for already several month ;( I have about 100 pcs of finishished headphones and can't ship them without pads. It's Ukraine....

    But also I have some good news about further development. Recently I've mastered technology of direct print on aluminium with a help of special paint cured by UV laser.

    Here is video:
    That opens new possibilities for me.
     
  2. Suppa92

    Suppa92 New

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    Very interesting.
    But is it ok to print traces on aluminium? doesn't it conduct electricity?
    If I'm not mistaken in Verum 1, you created traces using aluminium on some sort of non-conductive plastic/ Mylar diaphragm.
     
  3. Garuspik

    Garuspik Tovarisch Ukrainian Terminator MOT - Verum

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    This is a process of applying mask before etching. Printed traces are not conducive.
     
  4. xzackly7

    xzackly7 Guest

    What exactly does the felt mod do for this headphone? I was thinking about trying it since it seems easy, but nobody really seems to have commented on any FR changes from it.
     
  5. Paprikaspice

    Paprikaspice New

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    @Garuspik You mentioned previously in the thread that 105mm PU leather pads on aliexpress are similar to the original mk1 pads; is there a particular one that you think approximates it well?

    Waiting on my pair...anticipation is killing me, never heard a planar before. Have an ATH A1000z and HD 800s off an asgard 3
     
  6. Garuspik

    Garuspik Tovarisch Ukrainian Terminator MOT - Verum

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    Small explanation about my delays - I'm trying to make as many parts as I can by myself and don't rely 3rd party companies. I've finished manufacturing of all April, May and June orders. All headphones are assembled and tersted
    (photo proof. one of of the tables fully occupied by headphones)

    [​IMG]


    but.. huge parcel with earpads stucked at customs. 3 month ago I've ordered big amount of premium leather earpads with memory foam inside and can't receive them because of customs delays. Instead of just waiting I'm trying to produce them locally with the same quality and hope next week I'll receive first hundred. Then I immediately will ship headphones cause everything is ready.
    Sorry, I don't reply to individual questions like "give me eta on my order".
    Once I'll ship your unit I'll give you tracking number.
     
  7. Pankaj2672

    Pankaj2672 New

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    @Garuspik have you ever shipped verum1 to india and if yes then which shipping company you prefer
     
  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Best to contact Verum Audio through their website. The account has been banned here.
     
  9. Mithrandir41

    Mithrandir41 Friend

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    You're welcome here, but introduce yourself first, and read through the thread. This prevents insta-dislikes ( which aren't really that serious).
     
  10. insidious meme

    insidious meme Ambivalent Kumquat

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    He's permanently banned on here (and on Head fi). If anyone needs to contact him, go to this page https://www.verum-audio.com/contacts
     
  11. Lilithnova

    Lilithnova New

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    What happened.....? Kind of surprised me to see the his account banned......
     
  12. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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  13. Garmon

    Garmon New

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    The Verum's are by far my favorite headphone out of all that I own. It's too bad he has to be such an asshat.
     
  14. Tudor

    Tudor New

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    Leaving aside the ugly situation which left me disappointed in Garuspik, I did promise to post my impressions on Verum so here they are.

    In short, I like them a lot. They work well with any music genre and have no glaring flaws, especially for the price. They are also the most neutral headphones I have heard.

    For reference, the other headphones I own at the moment are Hyperx Orbit(rebranded Audeze Mobius), Cal!, HD599.
    I also used a friend's LCD3 for more relevant comparisons.

    *Customer experience

    I bought the Verums in March, they came in June. Covid and all, understandable. Garuspik answered my e-mails and provided tracking. No complaints.

    *Build&comfort

    I was really impressed with the build quality, I believe the photos do not make them justice. They really look better in real life and are sturdy.
    They're very comfy and I have no problems with their weight.

    *Pairing
    I tried the Verums with my smartphone(p20 pro), fiio e10k, topping nx4dsd, ifi micro black label.
    Although the smartphone cannot muster enough power for these headphones you can still get them to a decent volume.

    The e10k and nx4dsd were both sufficient to drive the Verums, but i got the most out of them with the micro black label. The bass in particular is noticeably
    improved, especially on turbo. But I use them with Normal mode and it's quite enough.
    Depending on the tracks I listened to, the 3d switch on the ifi micro would either make them sound more spacious or simply make them brighter.
    On normal mode, I rarely pass the 12' mark, 13' maximum. So there's plenty of room for EQ if you want to do it.

    *Sound

    The Verums are neutral and play well with all kinds of music.
    I prefer a darker sound in general so would like them just slightly less bright, but that's just me. I didn't find the frequency response tiring though.
    The bass extends really well but I wouldn't mind more of it, along the lines of LCD2C.
    The headphones seem snappy and have no problems with speedy and complex passages where several instruments come in at once. As such they do justice to metal as well as classical and jazz.

    -I added some felt stripes to the magnets, but whatever distortions Verum might have had, I couldn't tell the difference. I'm sure it would show up during measurements but to me
    they sounded the same.

    -Because I prefer a darker signature I bought the Brainwavz suede XL pads for them. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like a good fit. There is a bass increase and the tone is darker,
    but they also sounded muddy and the soundstage was reduced. The soundstage I could live with but the loss of detail was too much so the suede pads are back in a bag.
    It's a completely different headphone with those pads on so I wouldn't recommend the pairing.

    -I tried oratory1990's EQ and found the lows and highs more to my liking, but the mids are recessed and the voices sound less natural as a result. I keep switching back and forth.

    *Comparisons

    Vs LCD3: The Verums have a slightly larger soundstage and I prefer their higher end to the LCD3. They are also more comfortable.
    On the other hand, the mids have more body on the LCD3, the voices sound fuller and more satisfying.
    The bass on LCD3 is much better, in both quality and quantity in my opinion. This is the part where you really feel the Verums lacking. Then again, it is 2K vs 350$.
    LCD3 did have more detail but I didn't feel like the difference was significant.
    In the end these headphones are surprisingly close and if you prefer the frequency response of the Verums you can make a case for choosing them over LCD3, which was a surprise to me.

    Vs Mobius: The Verums beat them clean across the board in everything but bass impact from what I could tell. The only genre I could find where I prefer the Mobius is industrial rock,
    where they slam harder than the Verums and the loss of detail in comparison is not noticeable.

    *Usability points

    -The cable seems nice and sturdy at first. It drives you mad by the third day: it's so rigid you keep spinning it over and over to get it to the proper position.
    I plan to get the Meze 99 Classics standard cable which seems to fit.

    -The current design with the 3.5 connecters poking out from the front make the jacks as well as the sockets prone to damage.
    Another consequence of this is that when you move the cable sometimes the sound coming from one cup or another is briefly interrupted because there's too much strain on the connecters.


    That's about it, I'm afraid I don't have higher level gear to provide more comparisons. I think the headphones are a great deal at their current price and deserve more exposure.
    I hope Garuspik has learned an important lesson if he wants his brand to succeed. It's a real bummer because the product is great. Basically a 800$ headphone at half the price.
    Ah, a note about the price: Because they're from outside the EU, ordering them to Romania went to a total cost of about 480$.
    That's 350$+ ~25$ conversion rate to UKR currency + postal fees.


    What's left now is to find a closed back that rises to the level of Verum :) the Mobius are not quite up to scratch. Emu-Teak at some point, maybe.
     
  15. Baten

    Baten Friend

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    I love my Audeze Sine, with 3D-printed earpad adapter mod to swap a pair of ATH-MSR7 pads on them. Seriously good closed planar sound. Here's an oratory1990 profile for Sine+MSR7 earpads to illustrate how decent they are https://www.dropbox.com/s/9obx02o9j8w3z9p/Audeze Sine (MSR7 earpads).pdf?dl=0
     
  16. Clemmaster

    Clemmaster Friend

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  17. Tudor

    Tudor New

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    @Clemmaster Thanks!

    @Baten I never got the chance to listen to Sine, the local showroom doesn't have them. From the graphs they look good; from the reviews I found it seemed like they are on a similar level with Mobius though, would you agree with that?

    I'm leaning towards a direct upgrade to the CALs because I like their signature a lot. Unfortunately, there aren't so many accessible biodynas in Europe if you mind the postal fees. For example, I bought a pilot pad from ZMF, awesome customer service, great pad for Mobius but the item cost was 30$, shipping was 25$ and postal fees 17$, total cost 72$.
    The Teaks would be ~550$ + ~140$ postal fees probably. And at 700$ they're already in Campfire Cascade/LCD2C Closed territory and the choices become harder, as it tends to happen in this hobby.

    But I digress. Thank you for the recommendation, I'll look up some more reviews on the Sine :)

    To also keep it slightly on topic, I'd also like to add that the ZMF pilot pad works on the Verums too, if you're not satisfied with the headband. You can remove it and apply the pad directly on the steel frame and it fits. It seemed comfy and soft but I didn't keep the headphones on for too long so I couldn't say if it gets uncomfortable over time or not.
     
  18. xzackly7

    xzackly7 Guest

    I've found no issues with comfort on my MK2's, I've worn them for many hours straight in a day and had no hotspots, and never felt the weight. Honestly the most comfortable thing I've worn yet. I have some Auteur Solid Lambskin pads coming in soon, I found that perforated pads trade off too much bass technicality to be worth it for my personal tastes. Perforated pads are really good for increasing seperation, filling in imaging gaps and overall better microdetail, but its not worth it when I enjoy the tonality of the solid pads and the bass of them so much.

    I'm hoping that the bigger earhole size of the Auteur pad will maybe give me a bit more stage/seperation than the somewhat smaller stock solid pad I have, which appears to be a sort of Eikon clone pad, with dimensions of around 30mm on the thickest side and around 17mm on the thinnest side, width of 50mm and a height of around 68-69mm. Auteur is significantly wider and a bit taller.

    As for cable, I got a custom right angle HC-9 cable from Hart Audio and it fixed all the issues that the stock cable had, namely sound cutting out in both cups occasionally and being overall way too heavy, straining the jacks on the headphone. Hart Audio cable is significantly smaller, lighter and a bit more manageable length.
     
  19. dasman66

    dasman66 Self proclaimed lazy ass - friend

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    I've actually found the ZMF lambskin Ori pad to be perfect (for my tastes) on the verum. The stock pad was too small and acted as an "on-ear" pad. The ori allowed my dumbo ears to fit without significantly changing the FR (may have increased the soundstage a little, but hard to say since the original pads never really fit me well).

    I also tried solid Eikon pads, but I thought they were physically a little too big for the verum (ie., almost 1/4" bigger diameter than the ori pads). Also have perf eikon and per auteur, but didn't try them since they are all the same "too big" size.
     
  20. Jerry

    Jerry Friend

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    ZMF perforated Ori is also my favorite pads on this as well. It keeps the clarity, but gives more dimension to the stage and inject it with more bass and warmth. This is the most balanced pads for me.

    I still love the perforated stock pads. Though head stage is more intimate and flat, it is the most neutral. When you pair the Verum with a good tube amp, the stock pads are simply just fine. There is no need to look for other pads. Using solid pads might be too much of a good thing.

    Eikon, Auteur, and Verite pads are all oversized for the Verum. Can still use it though. The perforated Verite actually sounds pretty good, like midway between the perforated Ori and stock pads.
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2020

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