Verum Audio - Exciting high performance DIY planar

Backers like frequent updates with photos. It's reassuring for them to see that their money is in good hands. Therefore I recommend to publish those pictures on Kickstarter (too).

 

No doubts I'll post updates on KS, cause it'll be the platform where I need to show progress.

 

Hell yeah! Make it personal too, just set up a camera and talk to the backers while showing us how you put things together. That's what we want! Also, introduce yourself and tell us about how you ended up making planar headphones etc.

 

I'd definitely find it interesting to have the updates and see videos detailing the building process. Also it'd be cool to know how the Kickstarter campaign helped to streamline the processes.

 

@Garuspik

When do you expect to make the final decision on earpads? Earpads can make or break headphones. Their influence on sound as well as comfort is so large that I unfortunately cannot join the Kickstarter as of yet.

All the reviews posted so far provide some insight into how Verum 1 might sound. Unless there are impressions available with the final set of earpads though, the level of uncertainty is just too high. Thanks to measurements from @Hands we can at least imagine a bit how tonal characteristics may shift with pad rolling. Any further efforts to have Verum 1 measured once you get closer to mass production would be greatly appreciated!

I still wish success for Verum 1 as it has potential "to move stones" on market flooded by overpriced crap from Hifiman, Audeze and many other companies.

 

@MF_Kitten - i have terrible russian accent ))
@Magnetostatic_Tubephile - I certainly disagree that "Earpads can make or break headphones.". They can fine tune headphones. I want to make earpads a bit softer for comfort and maybe to reduce HF around 7khz a little bit. Unfortunately, before the end of KS campaign it won't happen, that's why I can't provide such measurements.

By the way, @Hands and Zeos from Z reviews received Verum 1 with absolutely different earpads. And soon @cskippy will receive that sample. Sure they sound different, but not dramatically and I still can't decide what is better. Anyway, with such amount of variations of 105 mm earpads on market I don't think it's a major problem.

 

How much does velour pads affect the FR? If it requires that seal to have enough bass, then of course that's not the best idea.

If you have a cloth wall on the inside where your ear goes instead of leather/pleather, you might get a smoother treble range response (since it absorbs reflections inside), but looking at the measurements, you don't need that at all. Considering the flatness of the response, you probably don't need to bother with specific material combinations and stuff.

Edit: I'm just speculating and musing about ideas, as I always am. Don't trust me.

 

There was a 3rd update on the Kickstarter regarding warranty of the Verums:

"Hi. Recently I've got numerous questions about warranty.

As you understand, with a probability of 99,999% I don't have a service center in your city but as a responsible creator I need to explain how warranty service will be performed:

• Warranty on every part of headphones except pleather headband and earpads: 2 years
• Warranty on headband and earpads: 1 year
• To perform service headphones need to be shipped to Ukraine at the expense of the buyer
• If problem occurred because of manufacturing problems unit will be sent back at the expense of the manufacturer.
• If problem occurred not throught the fault of the manufacturer - repairs won't be free and shipping back will be at the expense of the buyer.
• If unit will arrive with physical damage buyer should notify manufacturer within 1 week from the date of delivery. I take full responsibility for good packaging.
• If unit has physical damage and manufacturer wasn't notified within 1 week from the date of delivery this is not considered to be a warranty case."

 

Does it respond nicely to eq, the slope seems kinda regular could Schiit loki improve it significantly ?

(I've only tried dynamics so i'm a bit clueless about planar)

 

Planars are especially good at taking EQ since they have lower bass distortion and usually a lower fundamental frequency compared to dynamics.

 

Thank you for explaining why EQ works so well for my planars. I use a parametric EQ with my planars to boost the bass and carve out frequencies over 10,000 Hz that bother my tinnitus.

I plan to apply a similar curve to what I posted here for my Verums when they arrive.

 

Looking at amount of backers I have just wanted to say the best of luck, Garuspik, not just for manufacturing, but interacting with backers too as I noticed there is a looooooot of questions and attention some may require.

 

Let's hope he haven't planned to do anything else in the next few months. His dream is just becoming reality, and it can be really energizing. I envy him in a way. A period of life worth living.

 

As far as I can see, he's been answering questions all along

I'm personally interested in what the QC process will look like. Checking the construction all the way around to see that everything is on tight and solid, and then doing measurements to confirm that there's nothing wrong with either driver, and confirming that the drivers aren't different?

 

Oh, it will be looking really hi-end! Imagine a piece of plywood with 20 shitty chineze amplifiers that are all powered from one big transformer.


And 20 Verums that're plugged into that hi-end rig. On each cable a piece of paper is attached with date and time. After headphones survived one day i'll listen to them briefly to inspect whether they have problems or not.
Matching of channels or individual measurements will not be performed. As I've previously explained left&right channels are manufactured at the same time. And they're tensioned at the same time. So they will not have any channel dis-balance.

p.s. I was making orders entire last week. Next week I should receive metal sheets for headbands, in a week - pleather sheets for headbands. I'll show some manufacturing progress on KS before the end of campaign.

 

But what if there's an air leak because of a gap in the cup or baffle, and the lowest sub bass is deopped away because of that? It's really hard to tell without listening to sine waves down to looooow frequencies, and even then it's hard to really tell for sure what the balance is.

You have to trust your design 100% for this to work.
You could measure one headphone for every group of 20 after they've played for a day. Just pick a random one. This is a method many companies use to make sure every "batch" is good. If all products in a batch are made identically, and you test a random one and it's fine, chances are they're all fine.

 

I'll have my Verum 1 on Tuesday, I will compare to the original unit I received. Only issue is if the pads are different. @Garuspik is my Veurm 1 using the same pads as the proto sample?

 

Lucky. Be sure to post some pics.

 

Pads are completely different cause you wanted another type of stereo scene. Tension is higher. So we'll discuss which variant you like more. Still in quest for perfect shape and comfort of earpads Now you understand why I made that magnetic lock for easy pad rolling?

 

Honestly a genious solution.

What I want to see, and I think many others too, is an angled ear pad (so the driver plays towards the surface of the outer ear) that is big enough inside to not touch your ears, and can hold up against the clamp well enough so your ears don't touch the magnets or the mesh that covers it. Brainwavz oval HM5 pads are deep, but too narrow inside, so while my ear doesn't touch the driver, but it does touch the inside of the pad, which is uncomfortable. From the pics, your pads look pretty big, but I can't tell at all how big they actually are. I would expect something similar to ZMF lambskin pads, which are like 1.5" thick on the back of the ear.

I do not have a peoblem with my ears getting hot with pleather/leather pads, but I hear people make that complaint a lot. Having enough space in the pads would help that as well.

Can you share pictures of the pads you have been using currently, so we can get a good look at them?