Loaner: ZMF Auteur

Shipped to @PTS. Should arrive within 2 days!

 

Received, will post my thoughts soon and ship on in five days.

 

Sending to famish99 tomorrow via FedEx. Will update him with tracking.

 

Received

 

My thoughts posted here:

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...eur-an-open-back-zmf.5088/page-13#post-231681

 

Thoughts posted here: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...eur-an-open-back-zmf.5088/page-13#post-231807

Will be shipping to @Vtory sometime tomorrow via FedEx.

 

Received.

 

After listening a couple of tracks, I felt left and right channels were slightly off.
Unfortunately my measurement supported this subjective experience.


(SBAF-compensated, No smoothing)

For a reference, I also attach my measurements of Elex with the same condition:


Below is LR channel tracking:


These data are already adjusted against measuring sound card (Fulla 2) LR imbalance (0.6 db).

I don't know what happened. Possibly one of the followings, or combination:

• Something went wrong during shipping
• Inherent product issue
• LR pads asymmetry -- but AFAIK this hardly affects low-freq
• Cable problem?

This is not extremely serious.. but. I decided it better to report quickly to let @captkirk and @zach915m know this. Please let me know what to do. Worst case, I will manually compensate this LR discrepancy via eq during my evaluation period.

Will test Auteur pads soon if I get a chance, maybe tomorrow, or slightly later.

PS. My other reference headphones (hd600 and hd800) showed a similar accuracy with Elex.

 

There's a number of things it could be, things to check:

Try switching the earpads from left to right.

Has either pad developed a wrinkle from someone wearing glasses?

Make sure it's not one auteur pad and one eikon pad.

Has the headband been bent so it's not congruent anymore?

Are the notches on the odds in the same position?

Has the headphone been opened? Is the baffle flush on both sides?

Was the grille pushed in when pad changing?

There's 100 things that can happen on a tour when it goes through a bunch of hands, and sees more than typical use, I'd be happy to check out the headphone if need be!

 

Message received @Vtory. Thanks for the heads-up.

Thanks for the feedback @zach915m.

Vtory if you don't mind a little troubleshooting, I'd greatly appreciate it.

If the channel variance is not found in relation to what Zach advised then we may have to put the loaner on pause (@Vansen). Letting others continue to hear the pair if something's not right doesn't sit well with me. It wouldn't be a fair example of the gear.

 

Checked

• Has either pad developed a wrinkle from someone wearing glasses?
• Make sure it's not one auteur pad and one eikon pad.
• Has the headband been bent so it's not congruent anymore?
• Are the notches on the odds in the same position?
• Has the headphone been opened? Is the baffle flush on both sides?
• Was the grille pushed in when pad changing?

Will check later

• Try switching the earpads from left to right.

Some photos


Pads were nicely isolated in separate vinyl packs. I assume this Auteur currently equips eikon pads by seeing the empty bag.



To my eyes, equipped pads had clearly smaller opening than Auteur pads. 90% sure that two kinds of pads were not mixed.



Are these "the notches" you mentioned? Headband also looks ok to my eyes.

I am currently teaching myself by watching this video haha (because of zero experience to replace zmf pads):

 

Thanks for the pics!!!! See below - there's an Eikon pad on one side and auteur pad on the other!



Here's a pic for reference to tell the difference, I know it's tough!



The auteur pad has a 7mm larger opening than the Eikon pad, it can definitely be hard to spot if you don't know what to look for.

Definitely let me know if you guys have any other issues, I'd be happy to look at the headphone or help in any way.

 

Thanks much for detail info!

In my photo, I was holding Auteur pad (on left) by my hand for comparison. Looks a bit unclear though.. So what you said confirmed both sides of Auteur currently with Eikon pads.

 

Ah ok! The only other thing I can see is in this pic is that the pad looks pretty worn and some air might be getting through those cracks on this pad, is this the pad that has the lower reading?



One thing you could do is measure each pad by switching sides with the pads and see if the channels of each side match with the respective pads on them. Then I can just get you new pads if needed.

Anyways - send me an email with what you guys want to do whenever you're ready!

[email protected]

 

^This

Issue resolved.



Remaining difference is very explainable with measurement errors and repeatability.

Thanks @zach915m and @cskippy for the informative advice!

Take-home messages

1. Left and right pads must be carefully identified regardless of seemingly symmetrical appearance.
2. EARS can make issue-detection and resolution much easier..

 

Yeah - the last step I go through before sending a headphone out is pad matching via measurements, we match the drivers before production begins, but the biggest variance aside from human assembly factors is the earpads. Our pads have gotten quite a bit better through time as we've identified different variance factors and amended them, but they are all hand stitched pads, not electronically pressed as you can't do that with natural materials like lambskin. So I gots to match them!

Anyways sounds good, glad that all helped!

PS - I bought one of the EARS but haven't used it much because I haven't had time to do the compensation curve. Where can I get this SBAF approved compensation curve?

 

Rad.

@Vtory Thanks for the help with resolving this. Now have fun.

@zach915m Kudos for showing up super-quick with eager desire to make things right. Kudos bro-Friend.

@cskippy Hugs.

 

You should check this out:
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...ng-sbaf-compensations-from-minidsp-files.7067

 

I'd be super cool with ending this early, that's my vote anyways. I was worried the jumbling around with the postman would lead to something. I'm over worried because its a personal item...