Norway. I have good friends who can be middle men, or if I wait to buy until corona times are over I can travel to buy. But it’s not the easiest place from which to buy these things. As an example, Audeze-4z costs $6k here. So I am prepared to be patient.
That sounds promising! I have both closed and open headphones, and have found reason to shun none. As for “smoother highs”, do you mean less of them? My ears have a small recess at 8kHz, so I seem immune to feeling headphones as too sharp.
Once the sound is on board, I am a sucker for beautiful looks, and both your suggestions are beautiful! I am mainly a vocal man, but don’t shun instrumental. No surprise, perhaps, that I like instruments like cello and saxophone, which share many characteristics with the human voice. So when those instruments sound good, vocals most probably will as well.
You may want to re-consider opting out of a center channel for home theater, it is the most important speaker and the anchor of a surround system along with the sub-woofer. Not headphone, or music related but definitely the area of the 5.1 or more system you don’t want to skimp on.
Based on what I have read, the Stellia has less treble than the Utopia. They have exactly the right amount of treble for me, but I am sensitive to a very bright sound. For instance, I wouldn’t even audition the Utopia because I already know it will give me a headache. But if you’re immune to that, then Utopia should be on your list.
For the Vertie, it doesn’t look like ZMF has a dealer in Norway, but there are dealers in all the countries surrounding you. Here is their dealer list: Dealers — ZMF Headphones
I just tried listening to a couple of vocal-oriented songs on both headphones (Johnny Cash - Redemption Song and Norah Jones - Don’t Know Why) and the Verite sounds a little more magical on vocals than the Stellia. The Verite loses some of the resolution but adds more texture to the voices and strings. And we’re talking small differences here. They are both fantastic headphones in my opinion, and I regularly use both.
I regard/trust your ears so am curious about what Mogwai version/tubes you listened to. He’s made revisions to reduce the noise floor. The Mogwai OG has solid state rectification so should be less gooey/saggy. The Mogwai SE has an input transformer and upgraded caps which should improve clarity.
The Mogwais appeal to me because they can take EL34, 6L6, and KT88 power tubes, which each have their own signature.
The configurations that would likely bring the Mogwai closer to the Pendant’s neutrality is the Mogwai SE with 6L6 Sylvania or EL34 Telefunken tubes. However, the ampsandsound amp that is most similar to the Pendant’s neutrality is the Leeloo.
I’m looking for an amp that contrasts the neutrality of my LTA MZ2, thus considering the Mogwais.
I agree with this 100%. I’ve tried listening with and without a center channel speaker and that center speaker adds precision to the sound. And if you use a center, make sure it’s the same level of quality as your main speakers, because so much sound will come out of it.
This was discovered way before my time – back in the 1950s they tried 2-channel stereo movies. They sucked with extreme edge sound. Center channel invented…
Do they differ in amp requirement? For amp requirement was a topic that dominated many early responses in this thread, and that I hadn’t taken into account. What kind of amp do the ZMF and Focal headphones require to shine?
I’ve yet to hear the Susvaras, but agree with @ValentineLuke that timbre is king when it comes to vocals. For my money, I believe that ZMF’s wooden cups and biocellulose/paper drivers (as opposed to metal drivers) along with Zach’s tuning make the Auteur/Eikon ideal for vocals.
Note the fundamental frequencies for male/female: upper bass to mid range. This suggests headphones that are not bass cannons or overly bright (uber treble detail): ZMF and HD650 come to mind as thriving in this frequency range.
I am not saying that vocals don’t sound good with metal drivers. Note that the Verite is 20% Beryllium coated, not 100%.
I’m not clear on that myself. One of the Mogwai I heard, albeit for less than an hour, was Zach’s demo model at 2019 RMAF. You’d have to ask him to get the 411 on that.
I do recall we kidnapped two pair of the yet-unreleased VCs Zach had on display along with my personal pair of Auteur, and went booth to booth listening to different chains, much to Zach’s consternation I expect.
The Mogwai I experienced before that was owned by a friend for several months, and I put my fair share of hours on that one.
Thanks for the recall. 2019 RMAF sounded like a grand old time. I’m hoping the Mogwai’s improvements line up with my ears. I guess Zach just has that magic – or just the right tube selections.
Any “good” amp should make those headphone shine. The question is what tonality pairing you get and does it meet your preferences.
DNA amps are known to work well with Focals and ZMF, ZMF Pendant is supposed to be great with ZMFs (unknown re Focals) and there is also the ECP stuff which might be unicorn status right now. Feliks Audio makes some amps that are well regarded on the forum. There are others that I am probably forgetting. SS amps like the SLP Phonitors also do well from what I recall. Also various Eddie Current offerings if you can find them used.
There are a number of folks on the forum who have these amps so it might be of use to search the forum for opinions, or any decent audio forum or website, and start asking questions. Sounds like given your geography it may be hard to sample anything before you buy. I understand that quandary.
Just adding to what @perogie said, I agree they’re all good, but I don’t know how many of these amps are easy to get in Norway, or how much value for money the US-made amps are once they’ve crossed the Atlantic and various distribution costs and taxes have been added on.
Focal uses Feliks amps for their demos, and Feliks (made in Poland) has dealers in various nearby countries, but not Norway!
A lot of people on this forum rave about Chord and they are actually available in Norway, but may be too pricey.
Yea, but my discussion in the home theater forums has brought these two points up. Maybe something to consider, first my room is small. My home theater and main tv are going in that room, theater room whatever. Less than 1500 sq ft.
Second, 90% of the time I am the only person in there. I live with a roommate and my roommate doesn’t come to my room for movies. Sometimes I have guests, but even then and never now with corona, only usually 1 person. So I am literally sitting in between all my speakers.
Their argument is the size of my room and the fact it is only me, currently doing more music than movies. That I should probably skip that now. This was based upon me mentioning the center channel is most important. And all the other overthinking I do.
A center channel, to them, is more appropriate for a living room setup and a more fanned out audience. Some what like how bass works with subwoofer and the reason people go with multiple subs.
Honestly with my 2 channel setup is already very sufficient. It gets plenty loud, I rarely ever get to 80 or 0 dB on my Marantz.
I am crossing the streams, I mean I would assume that is providing some center channel effects. My floor standing will be be toe’d in as well.
Well, your little room is about double the size of my condo so my living room is probably 300 square feet. I respectfully disagree with those recommendations, the center channel is responsible for all the dialogue while the front/rears assist with the surround audio. Toe-in all depends on seating position distance to ensure equal distance between L/R and seating position.
I don’t mean to add to your overthinking, however feel the need to provide some counterpoints on some crap recommendations in relation to a home theater set up. Yeah, I said crap recommendations.
Better you get a sound bar to use for home theater and keep your 2.0 speakers for only music if you forgo the center channel. That was me being sarcastic, don’t buy a sound bar.
Sometimes crowd-sourcing for recommendations back-fires. That is my opinion, and I stand by it.
Agreed! If you’re not sitting absolutely center with 2.1 you need/should have a center channel for a proper theater setup. And even if you’re center it’s recommended imo to have a center. Let the left and right do their thing while center handles the dialog.
If you’re to pass on anything, Imo it would be rear speakers, as they do the least in this situation.
I have two sound bars, but I retired the one on my TV as I am using 2.1 on my speaker set up. I am just waiting until Monday hoping my speakers may drop, I doubt it though. I will just buy my floors. Both of which are good, but no where as good as my speakers in many factors.
I am new to quality headphones and this is my first home theater, so you should imagine anything is going to be better. Unfortunately, home theater is a much more pricey setup in almost every aspect. So I am just trying to manage a budget I don’t even really have available at this time which is why I am trying to allocate funds.
Home theaters are usually living room setups, I know people have theater rooms. But those are legitimate theater rooms in some case with multiple seats, theater seating or sofa for 5 or more people. When everyone or even just a single person is seated directly in one position changes the scheme.
Trust me I over research everything and fully understand that a center channel is or can be the most vital part of a multichannel setup.
Now the situation that is going on is already bought the bookshelves, so they are going in regardless. You could do towers and a center 3.1, but those are the missing pieces in my set up. But I think I should be able to manage with 4.1 until I get back to work.
That sounds promising! I have both closed and open headphones, and have found reason to shun none. As for “smoother highs”, do you mean less of them? My ears have a small recess at 8kHz, so I seem immune to feeling headphones as too sharp.
