ZMF New Headphones: Vérité and Aeolus

Discussion in 'Headphones' started by purr1n, Oct 3, 2018.

  1. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Zach, any chance of money shot pictures of the new drivers and baffles? I looked but couldn't find any.
     
  2. zach915m

    zach915m MOT: ZMF Headphones

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    Oh - yeah I am doing a new photo shoot when the final parts are done in a week or two. I'll post a full spread!!!
     
  3. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    Make it a foldout. ;)
     
  4. lcmusiclover

    lcmusiclover Friend

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  5. novisnick

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    How does a guy get two dislikes for posting a complement?
     
  6. Vtory

    Vtory Audiophile™

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    @novisnick

    Caring one's dislikes is an easy reason to be banned -- maybe by @zerodeefex

    I also think your previous post was disliked because it was noise rather than signal.
     
  7. friedrice83

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    ZMF Verité Impressions Part 1 – General


    I was fortunate enough to somehow convince Zach into letting me check out the Verité and Aeolus. So even though much has been said about the two headphones already, here are my impressions on the Verité specifically. You can see my impressions on the Aeolus further below.


    General Background
    A little background on me, since I’ve been more of a lurker than an active poster on this forum. I prefer a mostly neutral signature, with a slight warmth. I think I can also say that I prefer noticeably brighter signatures than some of the posters on SBAF. I also highly value soundstage size and imaging/layering. The ZMF Auteur teak is what I mostly listen to now – hopefully that gives you a better idea of what I like. Other headphones that I own or have owned can be found in my profile page.

    I don’t have the best setup for driving the Verité and the Aelous, but the following is what I used for my impressions for both of those headphones:

    DAC: NuForce UDH-100 (pretty unknown, basically it’s a USB-only version of the DAC-80, which uses an AKM AK4390 chip)

    Amp: Cavalli Liquid Carbon v1, Massdrop CTH


    Overall Sound Signature
    Overall, I would say that the Verité is a darker-leaning headphone. It’s not totally dark, because the mids are definitely very present and lively, even with the strong bass. However, to me it seems that the lower treble is somewhat relaxed, so that there is less sense of “airiness” compared to the likes of the Auteur, the HE1000, etc.

    A simple text chart, ranking the 3 ZMF open headphones from darkest to brightest in my opinion, would be this:

    Verité with Universe pads < Verité with Verité pads < Aeolus with Universe pads < Aeolus with Verité pads < Auteur with Eikon pads < Auteur with Auteur pads

    I’ll go into more detail for my rankings in the comparisons section next post.


    Pad Comparison – Universe vs. Verité
    Universe pads: have more of a bass and mids emphasis, and less of a treble emphasis. This makes it sound less “airy” and darker than the Verité pads. Also, I thought the soundstage width was about the same between the two pads, but the universe pads had a very slightly deeper stage which gave it a bit more of a 3D feeling. Also, since these are the thicker pads, they were more comfortable to me than the Verité pads.

    Verité pads: they’re more neutral than the Universe pads, mainly because I think the mids are less present so that the treble relatively comes up a bit. While I did say that the Universe pads were more comfortable, the Verité pads are still pretty good in this area and definitely aren’t lacking.


    Noteworthy aspects of the Verité
    Speed and detail – On the Verité, this is easily better than that of Auteur and Aeolus (which are no slouches themselves). I think the Verité is actually competitive with good planars in this aspect.

    Very good imaging and layering – I think the Verité is a noticeable step up in precision of its soundstage compared to Auteur and Aeolus. The Verité has a very coherent and very 3D soundstage.

    Sounds very open – I think it sounds more open than Auteur, though I don’t think the soundstage is actually that much larger than the Auteur’s.

    Bass quality – is excellent. It’s extremely well controlled, while being very punchy and extended at the same time.

    Dynamics - are outstanding. The Verité effortlessly nails macro and micro-dynamics without ever sounding out of control. It really made me realize how dynamic some of my music really was. Also, the crazy good dynamics actually makes the Verité good for classical music, despite its darker nature. Imagine the great dynamics of like the TH-X00, but with even more precision, control, and even more dynamic range on the Verité. This is absolutely one of the highlights of the ZMF flagship.

    Scaling – The Verité definitely can scale. It sounded much better on the CTH than on the built-in headphone amp of my UDH-100 with better dynamics, less mushy bass, more 3D soundstage, better detail retrieval, etc. The Verité also clearly illustrated the tonality differences between CTH and Liquid Carbon (more neutral for the former, warmer for the latter). I don’t have better amps than the LC, but I could easily imagine it scaling very well for those amps (and based on skimming through what others have written, this seems to be the case).

    Darker tone – While the Verité does not have my most preferred tonality (even with my preferred setup with the Verité pads), I am still extremely impressed by the gobs of detail and the driver's speed, as well as just music sounding really clean in general. And it’s not like the frequency response is bad, it’s quite coherent, and I can see a lot of other people enjoying the Verité’s sound signature a lot.


    Overall, I can’t help but be really impressed by the Verité. It has a darker tone than what I would prefer no matter which pads I use, but it’s still really a great headphone to listen to due to its world-class technical abilities. I think it might actually be good that Zach tuned the Verité like this, as I think it fills a spot in the headphone world that really isn’t contested right now.

    A flagship capable of competing with the best but with a darker tone? The Verité is probably going to be one of the few choices available if you want something like that.


    Part 2 of my Verité impressions continues below, where I do multiple comparisons.
     
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2018
  8. friedrice83

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    ZMF Verité Impressions Part 2 – Comparisons

    At least for me, the most useful headphone impressions are the ones in which different models are being compared. So, after a lot of pad swapping, here are my comparisons between the Verité some of the headphones I had access to.


    Verité vs. Auteur, with both pads
    Verité (which either set of pads) is darker than Auteur no matter which pads are used on the Auteur, mainly because the treble is noticeably lower than on the latter headphone. In other words, the Verité definitely feels less “airy” than the Auteur.

    Speed, detail, and refinement are a noticeable step up compared to the Auteur. Bass seems to be slightly flatter than in the Auteur (which I think has a very slight mid-bass hump), with better texture and quality. Speed of bass seems to be about the same to me.

    Dynamics are definitely better than in Auteur, which was already pretty decent itself. Again, I have to note how amazing the Verité is when it comes to this aspect.

    The Verité’s soundstage width is about the same compared to the Auteur. Verité seems to have a slightly deeper stage though. However, I felt that the imaging and layering were noticeably more precise on the Verité, which has a more coherent and 3D soundstage. I believe a part of this has to do with the blacker background on the Verité.


    Verité vs. Aeolus, with both pads
    Verité (with either set of pads) is darker in a sense than Aeolus with either pads despite the latter's bass boost, mainly because the lower treble is noticeably lower on Verité. Speed, detail, and refinement are noticeably up compared to Aeolus. Also, the Verité sounds a lot more open than the Aeolus.

    Verité has a noticeably deeper soundstage then Aeolus, but the width is only slightly more than that of the Aeolus with Verité pads. The Verité seems to have a somewhat wider soundstage than the Aeolus with Universe pads, though I think that might be somewhat due to the bigger bass emphasis on those pads.

    More sub-bass extension on the Verité, for an overall flatter bass. However, Verité slams (at least nearly) as hard as the Aeolus, with better speed and texture.


    Verité vs. HE1000 v1 and v2
    Verité frequency response-wise sounds kind of like the HE1000 v1 but with less treble. Verité just sounds darker than the HE1000 v2.

    Soundstage is definitely wider on either HE1000, and slightly deeper on either HE1000. However, the HE1000 has more "separation" of sounds because images are smaller, at least to me. Imaging-wise, the placement of instruments is perhaps slightly less precise on Verité, if not on par with HE1000 v1 and v2.

    Verité is the only dynamic I've heard, besides Utopia, where I feel that its speed is not really less than that of HE1000. That’s saying a lot to what I think about the Verité’s speed.

    Finally, I actually like bass on Verité better - extends as deep as the HE1000 and overall is kind of like that headphone's bass, but with more slam and slightly more control. The distortion measurements (at least the ones I’ve seen) don’t seem to match up with my impressions, but hey that’s how I hear it.


    Hopefully these impressions will be of use to somebody. All-in-all, the Verité is a damn fine headphone worthy of being the ZMF flagship.
     
  9. friedrice83

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    ZMF Aeolus Impressions Part 1 – General


    Even though much has been said about the two headphones already, here are my impressions on the Aeolus specifically. You can see my impressions on the Verité several posts above.


    Overall Sound Signature
    The Aeolus has a sound signature that I would call definitely fun, but also relatively well-balanced. While the Aeolus definitely has a lot of bass, with a definite mid-bass emphasis, the mids never get lost in the mix. And there’s a surprisingly present treble – it’s not grating on the ears, but there was definitely much more treble than I was expecting based on what I remember the Atticus sounding like. So overall, it’s still a warmer-sounding headphone, but I don’t think many are going to complain about a lack of treble, especially with the Verité pads.

    A simple text chart, ranking the 3 ZMF open headphones from darkest to brightest in my opinion, would be this:

    Verité with Universe pads < Verité with Verité pads < Aeolus with Universe pads < Aeolus with Verité pads < Auteur with Eikon pads < Auteur with Auteur pads

    I’ll go into more detail for my rankings in the comparisons section next post.


    Pad Comparison – Universe vs. Verité
    Both sets of pads work really well on the Aeolus, for me. You can’t go wrong with either of them. But for more specifics:

    Universe pads: Go for these if you want more bass and a bit less mids. These have a slightly deeper soundstage than with the Verité pads. Also, these are somewhat more comfortable for me due to them being physically thicker.

    Verité pads: Go for these for a more neutral sound signature. Kind of like an Auteur but with somewhat more bass than the Auteur with the Eikon pads. These also make for a slightly wider soundstage than with the Universe pads. Also, when compared to the Universe pads, the “images” of the instruments in the music are smaller, and thus result in less congestion.


    Noteworthy aspects of the Aeolus
    Smooth, easy to listen to - even with Verité pads, I felt the Aeolus' notes sounded smoother than the Auteur (though not necessarily more detailed). And again, there’s that bass boost but with just enough treble that makes for a sound signature that I think many will be able to listen to for hours without fatigue.

    Well-done bass boost - no matter which pads, there's a noticeable bass presence but it's always well-controlled, never creeping into the mids. And the bass is of very good quality, never really sloppy (well, maybe except when compared to the Verité).

    Dynamics - not as great as the Verité, but still pretty dang good.

    Scaling - definitely can scale. It sounded much better on the CTH than on the built-in headphone amp of my UDH-100 with better dynamics, less mushy bass, etc. Also clearly illustrated the tonality differences between CTH and LC (more neutral for the former, warmer for the latter).

    Really comfortable - for me, even more so than Verité for some reason, especially when using the Aeolus with Verité pads. I’m not really sure why…


    Overall, the Aeolus is a pretty good headphone that doesn’t try to be really neutral, although it gets closer than you would think with the Verité pads. I really, really liked the Aeolus, even though I usually don’t go for the more colored headphones – and that’s saying something.


    Part 2 of my Aeolus impressions continues below, where I do multiple comparisons.
     
  10. friedrice83

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    ZMF Aeolus Impressions Part 2 – Comparisons

    Here are my comparisons between the Aeolus and some of the headphones I had access to.


    Aeolus vs. Auteur, with both pads
    Aeolus with Univ. pads has noticeably more bass than Auteur with either of its two pads. However, Aeolus with Verité pads actually sounds like an Auteur with Eikon pads with slightly more bass and less mids. And the Aeolus with Verité pads works because the Aeolus actually has decent detail retrieval and speed.

    Soundstage width is about the same as on Auteur when using the Verité pads (slightly narrower with Universe pads), but Auteur has a deeper stage. I think some saying that the soundstage is a good deal smaller than on Auteur may be because the images on the Aeolus are really large compared to Auteur, leading it to feel somewhat more congested.

    Imaging and layering are about as good as on the Auteur, if you can hear past the somewhat more congested stage of the Aeolus. Overall, Auteur simply sounds more open than Aeolus.


    Aeolus vs. TH-X00 mahogany
    Overall, the Aeolus is smoother and more refined than TH-X00. Dynamics are slightly worse than TH-X00. And the Aeolus has slightly wider and noticeably deeper soundstage than the TH-X00, which is no surprise since one is an open headphone and the other is closed.

    With Universe pads: The Atticus is warmer than TH-X00. Both have elevated bass, but Aeolus seems to have more mid-bass. There are also less mids (vocals not as prominent), and a more relaxed treble on the Aeolus compared to the TH-X00.

    With Verité pads: Bass seems to be actually stronger on TH-X00 now, but the Aeolus still has less mids/lower treble than on the TH-X00. TH-X00 still seems to have more treble in general, but it's not by much now compared to Aeolus.


    Hopefully these impressions will be of use to somebody!
     
  11. maverickronin

    maverickronin Friend

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    I got to listen to the Verite and Aeolus and compare them to the Auteur at ZMFestivus this weekend and I was pretty damn impressed with both the new models.

    Verite

    In one word, these are smooth. They have absolutely no audible ringing or nasty peaks in the treble without being overly dark which is something precious few headphones manage. They don’t sacrifice much in the way of detail or resolution to do it either which is just as impressive.

    The soundstage is medium-large and very symmetrical with 3d imaging and great separation. It’s far above HD650 claustrophobia and Focal’s 1 dimensional points on a line but it doesn’t reach HD800 levels of space and projection.

    The Verite pads are brighter and closer to neutral. The universe pads lean darker, add noticeable bass slam, and expand the soundstage a few ticks but smooth over (or at least mask) a bit of detail as well.

    Their only sin of commission is the bass quality which is on par with a stock HD650 and not up to the standards of the Auteur’s biocellulose. That’s really the only thing which stands out because otherwise it sounds so smooth and natural.

    Going a bit against the grain here I think the Verite is a small step back from the Auteur in detail and separation/layering. OTOH the Auteur has a bit of that biocellulose treble sharpness which is at least as big a drawback.

    Overall though the Verite is an excellent set of headphones. It has the best combination of detail and smoothness I’ve ever heard in a TOTL dynamic and one of only a few I’d be content with stock.

    Aeolus

    I was very surprised by how much I liked these since the Atticus fell into OK-but-not-for-me territory.

    The Aeolus is really just a Verite-lite.

    They some more bloom in the bass, the soundstage has less projection, and the imaging is less 3D but they still have smooth and non-fatiguing treble. Unlike the Verite it actually has to pay the price for this and loses out on some detail, smoothing things over.

    There was also a pair with suede pads and I liked these much better than the stock leather. They got a few shades darker but also cleaned up some weirdness in the treble that while inoffensive, masked some minor detail.
     
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  12. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    What model suede pads on the nips?

    Gona have to ask zach to add them to my order, as I only have Ori and Eikon suede here.
     
  13. Elnrik

    Elnrik Super Friendly

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    Yeah, I'm curious too. I know the Verite pads make them more neutral, but they aren't suede.
     
  14. friedrice83

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    I think I'm going to have slightly rewrite my earlier impressions about the Verite...

    I was just recently able to borrow a Liquid Platinum amp, and it simply gels a lot better with the Verite than with the Liquid Carbon and CTH.

    Man this headphone can scale.
     
  15. maverickronin

    maverickronin Friend

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    I'm not really sure. Maybe @zach915m remembers which pair they were.

    He knows that I usually prefer suede pads to leather and grabbed them from the other end of the table for me.
     
  16. Baten

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    Suede perforated or non-perforated? I think those 2 are the only kinds Zach sells (in some different sizes).
     
  17. roscoeiii

    roscoeiii Acquaintance

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    I believe that the suedes were new prototypes, based on what I was told on Sat.
     
  18. maverickronin

    maverickronin Friend

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    Pretty sure they were perforated.
     
  19. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    @friedrice83 Can you speak more about the Verite w/ MCTH vs. Platinum? To me, that is end game for my preferences but how much of "needing" the Platinum vs. the MCTH is undetermined. There hasn't been a lot written contrasting those two amps surprisingly.

    Verite seems like a true successor to the 650 vs. the Auteur after triangulating a bunch of reviews/opinions now that these two latest ZMF headphones are out.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2018
  20. rott

    rott Secretly hates other millenials - Friend

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    I noticed this as well with the Auteur - sounds much better with Lyr 3 compared to Liquid Carbon. From what I've read, can only imagine how much more pronounced this may be with Verite. I think the LC lends itself better to planars similar to the LCD-X which is a combo that I enjoy for most of my metal listening.

    Nice impressions and comparisons! Very useful.
     

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