Verum Audio - Exciting high performance DIY planar

I'm surprised by this, why would it do that? Going to look after measurements and i will try it.


Edit:

I will save you guys the search about damping and pads:

From MrKittyKat - Damping

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...erformance-diy-planar.6348/page-8#post-221048

From Hands - Pads

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...erformance-diy-planar.6348/page-2#post-217962

 

New double sided tape is VERY strong so it's more likely if someone try to remove it he'll break a grill.
Peel off grills were a limited time offer

 

Haha to some that negative will turn into positive . I don't think mine are the early batch since they seem to be quite in place even though my home is warm-ish. Oh well, i will just buy new pads then.

 

Oh, you've already received your order? If so, when you have time i'll be happy to read your impressions.

 

Stop drinking vodka. I already did and you even commented on it.

Btw since the tape is not all-around i just lifted a little bit (3-4 mm maybe) and pulled the extra damping with tweezers. Now i'm going to listen to some really treble aggressive Japanese "Music" to check the new treble.

 

Nope, yours are from the first batch With new tape you'll have no opportunity to make this trick. New tape is grey, yours is white.



This piece of 3M tape costs about 20$ but.. it's certainly a TOTL product.

 

Marv, what about tube amps with output impedance of around 8-20 ohm? It is much more common for tube amps to have higher impedance.

Will it pair nicely with the Verum?

 

Let me know if I’m wrong. But, even with a high output impedance, if the amp is still capable of providing the needed current and is still stable, it could still sound great. Basically, with a planar, since it does not affect the frequency response, the output impedance is an indicator that it is not ideal, but, but if it is robust enough to still push enough current within it’s thermal limits it could still work.

I’ve noticed we mostly worry about impedance in terms of frequency response. In this case it is simply the amps ability to drive the load. There are probably a lot of amps that are technically not working optimally themselves at this load but would still be perfectly safe and sound great with this.

Ordered this, but have no idea which of my amps will work with it yet, since it is not here yet. Interestingly, one of my oldest amps is a Decware mini Torri, it has the opposite problem; drives planars very well but is only okay with high impedance dynamics because they rely more on voltage swing than current.

 

My O2 has 0.54 Output impedence, so that should be pretty good for verum one huh.

 

Will it pair nicely JDS Labs Atom with the Verum?
https://www.jdslabs.com/products/190/atom-amp/
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ents-of-new-jds-labs-atom-headphone-amp.5262/

 

If you are watching this thread, and don't understand much about "impedance matching" and all that stuff, you're probably new to audiophilia like myself, therefore you might want to wait a bit more before purchasing a Verum 1. At least not before you do some research on the subject beforehand, unlike I did. Why? My guess is I'm not the only one who, based on its pricepoint, thought this would be the endgame headphone for the poor aficionado; one who cannot afford a dedicated amp in the near future, let alone a TOTL headgear, but somehow still belives that the 3,5 mm output jack of his Xiaomi phone would do just fine. It always worked with my Porta Pro-s and the like, right? Well, it seems it might be a bit more complicated than that.

After reading the postings on this thread, and doing some research on my own, I got to the following (not so perfect) comparison for the laymen out there: impedance-wise, the headphone is to the amp what a lightbulb it to your house's electrical circuit. It MUST have a higher impedance than what runs through the walls, otherwise it would never light up. Manufacturers achieve that by closing the circuit with a thin wolfram spring, way thinner than your average copper cable. This way, the powerline runs the bulb, and not the other way around. Basically you´re "telling" the electricity to drive whatever you need by increasing its impedance. What are the things that influence said impedance? Gauge (cross section), lenght and materials used. For what we´re talking here, let's focus only on the first two.

Now take Verum 1's driver, and compare it with other manufacturers' designs. It has thicker aluminum traces, both wide and thick, therefore also shorter than those. If I'm not wrong, the traces go back and forth 4 times, there's only so much space on a given surface. The result: a very reliable driver, not so prone to failure due to its mechanical strenght, and easier to mass-produce. The downside: very low impedance circuitry. And there´s absolutely nothing anybody can do to circumvent that, you either have a very thin and long trace with its higher impedance (and pricepoint), or this.

What we also have to understand is this is not a design flaw, but a design choice. And that's that. Just make sure the output impedance of your amp/phone is at least 4 times lower than the headphone's, which is roughly 2 Ohms. If you can go lower, even better. Or you might want to connect the Verums directly to the amp's speaker binding posts, provided you've lowered the volume considerably. But IMHO you shouldn't expect good results if said amp's headphone output impedance is 20 Ohms, for example. Connecting the Verums this way would be like trying to plug both ends of a thick wire into the electrical socket on the wall. You´re basically shorting the amp, or at least make it clip/distort (try the wire trick at home on an outlet, and you'll blow all the fuses - just joking, please don't).

PS: Not everything is due to the lack of understanding on our part, it might have something to do also with reviews like Zeos', where he said the sample he tested and showed major distortion problems was 8 Ohms, and others who said they never experienced such things, while their sample was 12 Ohms (10 + 2 for the cable = 12). I personally pulled the trigger after watching that review in Spanish, where things looked like I could drive them even with my bluetooth adapter. Apparently, the final product is 8 Ohm, so be advised, not every chi-fi will drive them properly.

PS 2: I've never been more excited about a product, so I still believe I did the right thing by buying a pair. This is just an attempt to help people make an informed decision, I can only hope I didn't add to the noise. Take everything I said with a pinch of salt, it's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison.

 

I absolutely agree but would like to add one thing - there plenty of 3,5 mm jacks with additional impedance from 30 to 220 ohm on AliExpress. So if someone do like sound signature of Verum 1 combined with his hi impedance output amp, but gets distortion on high spl levels then such thing could be an option.
Something like that: impedance jack

 

Wait so what is the impedance of the production pairs? It still says 12 Ohms on the website.

 

8 Ohms. Updated a site.

 

Headphone impedance explained
For those who don't understand the importance of impedance and the interaction between the headphones and the amp, NwAwGuy wrote an easy to understand and detailed explanation. It can be read here.

Impedance adapter
The impedance seen by the amplifier can be increased quite easily. Those who like DIY, a detailed explanation can be found here. Those who prefer buying ready-to-use tools can acquire it there too. I presume the Chinese adapters recommended by @Garuspik contain the same circuit. Those can be found here or here.

For high output impedance amps, IFI IEMatch might be a solution. The description says that the headphone's impedance should be 12.5 Ohm minimum, so it may not fit Verum1 perfectly. Maybe someone can recommend something even better.

Devices with auto level selection
Some device have multiple output impedance and/or power level. These devices try to determine weather an IEM or headphones has been connected to them. They do it by measuring the impedance at the moment when the jack is connected. The Verum 1's impedance is so low that these devices qualify it as an IEM, and switch to a low output power amp circuit optimized to those. This is the case with my LG V10 phone, B&O mobile amp, and many other phones and portable amps. Devices sold in Europe are more affected, because of some regulation intended to protect the buyer's hearing.
Usually it cannot be overridden by software, but there's a trick to get around it. The device checks the impedance only once, when the cable is connected. So the impedance should be high only in that moment, and then the device stays in high volume mode until the jack is removed. The trick is:
1, Connect something with high impedance to the 6.35mm end of an 3.5 (male) -> 6.35 (female) adapter. I use the one Sennheiser's adapter and the HD-650. An impedance adapter is also perfect.
2, Turn the device on.
3, Connect the 3.5mm end to the phone/amp. This is when the measurement happens.
4, Remove the high impedance device from the adapter's 6.35mm end, and connect the Verum1 to it's place. New measurement doesn't happen, because the 3.5mm jack hasn't been removed.
This method is better than using a pass-through impedance adapter, because no power is wasted.

 

@Artyouth I'm taking personal offence to your saying that low impedance headphones are poor design

(Really though, it's just a matter of finding gear that complements what you have. Pointing fingers at others due to a lack of diligence is in poor taste, but I hope you find a better amplifier regardless).

Addendum in response to @purr1n below: fair enough, it can be admittedly hard to sort through a mess of posts looking for information not many consumers really give a bother about. Apologies for being snippy