From what I’ve read today, I am zeroing in on the Auteur / Aeolus. I do not want a challenging headphone. Maybe later, but I have a four year old, a small business and a house remodel to challenge me.
Do you have thoughts on the Auteur vs the Aeolus?
ZMF specific questions: which headbands - leather, suede, or suede leather? And which pads? Is the consunsus still the Uni perf suede for what ever I buy?
FYI, I have a pair of Eikons I’d sell at a good deal?
Same driver as the Auteur
Auteur is a great jack of all trades, neutral enough to do everything kind of headphone. When compared to the verite, I can see why people might think it is a little boring. The flip side of that coin is that it is also smoother and easier to get along with.
Aeolus is more exciting. More bass, more mid emphasis, lots of gravy on your mashed potatoes kind of headphone. It’s because of this that it matches very well with Rock, blues, techno, classic rock, country, acoustic, etc. It’s strengths play into where that kind of music lives, bass and mids. Classical and jazz, less so.
Aeolus is also, probably, the most flexible headphone when it comes to rolling pads to adjust the sound. I have tried different pads with the Auteur, but I quickly picked the one I liked most and have stuck with it ever since. With Aeolus, I swap back and forth between the suede universe pads and the stock Aeolus pads. If I want more oomph, stock pads go on. If I want to mellow it out a bit, the suede pads go on.
Honestly, I would pick Aeolus and extra pads for fine tuning. I’m not saying that because one is cheaper than the other, but more that I think the Aeolus is more interesting. If you listen to wide range of genres like I do, Aeolus can be more exciting across the spectrum than Auteur if you don’t mind taking a few minutes to swap pads.
As far as the headband material, leather is fine. BUT… For the head suspension strap, go suede or go home. The suede strap has a tiny bit of cushion in it, and it’s so damn comfortable. I doubt I’ll buy another zmf headphone that doesn’t have a suede headstrap.
Pads are entirely dependant on which headphone you pick. For Auteur I use the Auteur perforated leather pads. For Aeolus, I swap back and forth between the stock Aeolus pads and universe perforated suede pads. I’ve heard other people prefer the Auteur perf suede pads, or BE2 hybrid pads, but I haven’t tried them. Either way, it depends more on what sound you want than it does about comfort. All of the pads are really comfortable.
Many blessings upon your house. Thank you.
Tempting. I think I want to purchase new on this one though.
Let me provide a slight counterpoint to @ProfFalkin , although on the whole I agree with him and everyone else that’s responded.
I have a Stellia, Verite Open and Aeolus and listen to all the types of music on your list except for jazz.
I tend to randomly reach for either the Stellia or the Verite when I want to listen to music, and consider them both jack of all trades, because they sound good with everything I listen to (indie/alternative, rock, classical). I don’t find the Stellia fatiguing at all and can listen to them for hours. (I also think it’s sexy, but hey, one man’s sexy is another man’s butt ugly. 
) I do agree that the Verite is a slightly less aggressive experience when I’m critically A-Bing them, but when I’m just listening to the music, I find both of them are excellent.
I bought the Aeolus as a Christmas present, and I’m still figuring out what I like or dislike about it. I agree with @ProfFalkin that it’s a magical experience when listening to rock or guitar-based indie music, because you just sink into a comfortable pillow of sound, if that makes any sense. I don’t particularly enjoy classical music on the Aeolus compared to the Stellia or Verite, but I don’t know if that’s because I have those 2 headphones as a reference point, i.e. if I only had the Aeolus, maybe I’d be happy.
So based on the list of music that you listen to, I don’t think the Aeolus is the jack of all trades that you’re looking for, but works well as a second headphone that specializes in rock/guitar music.
I haven’t listened to a Clear or Auteur, so can’t speak to them. Out of the Verite and Stellia, I use both of them a lot, but if forced to pick one “get lost in the music” headphone, I suppose I would pick the Verite. But even then, it depends on the amp. On my Lyr 3, I prefer the Stellia. On the Jot 2, Soloist and Pendant, I probably prefer the Verite.
Incredibly valuable insight. Thank you!
I do have to wonder about the value quotient. Is the Stella 3x as good for my music genre listening ratio.
The amp pairings are very valuable info for me as well. I’ve been eyeballing the burson.
Hi the community! I am thinking about buying a Topping A90 beacause i found a pretty good deal online. My problem is the D90 is almost twice the price of the A90. I get that i have to use a balanced dac with it but are there any cheaper option that might do the job?
maybe one of the Schiit DACs =) Modius maybe?
These are great points, thank you - you’ve articulated things I’d only been dimly aware of. These “use-case” considerations and preferences can be crucial. And yet aren’t mentioned often enough by people offering their impressions.
I’m guilty of this: I tend to listen to music for limited periods during the week, just in the evenings, during which times I reach for the Clear or HD 800 SDR. The HD 6XX are more for mellowing out.
Yes, this definitely is part of the Verite’s appeal for me, too - I found it wonderfully engrossing but mellow. The experience threw me off a bit at first.
Good evening everyone, so I just got my first dac. I hooked up everything with XLR and I am hearing this faint ticking sound coming out of both left and right channel randomly.
It’s not bad during up beat songs, but like with a quiet song or when things slow down it’s clearly audible.
Any idea what’s going on? I bought the Geshelli labs Jnog and that’s the only new piece in this puzzle. Been using the amp for a while single ended with no issue. So I have no idea where this issue is coming from.
I have two pairs of XLR’s and I tried switching the XLR but the ticking is still there
Can’t do it right now, but I will connect the dac to my speakers tomorrow to see if that ticking sound is being reproduced
Hi. Have you tried to connect the dac to the amplifier single ended way? The ticking is still there?
Ticking is generally a problem in the signal path.
Try to understand if it happens with both connections in order to understand where’s the problem.
You already swapped the balance connectors.
Check anyway their integrity and try to clean the XLR contacts with a specifically cleaning product (WD40 or similar).
I hope this can help
Had to find some rca’s found some with an old DVD player. Yes, it still has the tick. I don’t have very many interconnects. So seems to be the unit, I will contact gishelli tomorrow.
I will try to switch the usb a to b that came with Geshelli to the one I use on my printer, and I got another one which also came with my UPS. See if it’s that, I got spdif but only thing I can get sound with on that is my TV
Edit. Alright so spdif has no tick, I just put on the dark side of the moon documentary. So we have narrowed it down to the usb. Surprise surprise lol
Don’t worry, it can happen. XLR are very sensible to alimentation possible irregularities. Check that part too. If the problem persists check the assistance service.
Is your cellphone nearby? I’ve had all sorts of random clicks when a phone is placed too close to my gear.
Cell phone or other power sources can generate disturbance. It happens very often with turntable. Good point connected to the random appearing of the disturb.
I got 2 phones on my desk 
I’ll try that, spdif is working from my pc, I had enable it. But for some odd reason Quboz won’t play sound to my dac with spdif even when I’m choosing it as my output device, tried wasapi and direct sound.
Just listening to Sirius.
Will try the different usb cable tomorrow see if it’s my cable, but I doubt it. I think it’s just the USB port. I believe this is the first time they have implemented usb on their devices, so I am not shocked something like this happened
Morning.
Requesting your thoughts and advice.
The type of headphone/amp/DAC I am looking for is (Closed-back, open-back, in-ear, wireless, etc):
I’m open with open or closed. All in one amp/dac or stack. Been looking at Monoprice Desktop Balanced Headphone Amplifier and DAC. From the beat3, I’ve tried the beyerdynamic mmx 300, so I’ve had limited exposure to good/exception headphones.
My price range is: 2k to 2.5k
I like to listen to:
Wild mix. Metal when running but that could stick mostly with running. Desktop could be classic rock to pop with limited metal.
I will be using them for: (Travel, commuting, home, gym, etc…):
I know closed has some limitations, my room for listening is pretty quiet the majority of the time, so open should work for home. I’m considering a good/quality close for work for music but home is the priority. I’m coming from beats3 but that’s mostly for running and also used some work when I have to move around a lot and can’t be cabled.
@mfadio I concur with the other opinions offered here from @ProfFalkin and @PaisleyUnderground
I own both the Auteur and the Aeolus and I genuinely couldn’t choose between them - they offer different experiences. The Auteur is the more accurate and neutral headphone, it’s relaxed overall. Some might consider that a little boring, neutrality and realism may not be what you seek.
The Aeolus is a different beast compared to the Auteur, it’s immersive and very engaging but it’s not a neutral headphone, as others have said, this can be adjusted by pad rolling, something the Aoelus is very receptive to in terms of sound adjustment. After listening to many headphones, the first time I heard the Aeolus I totally fell in love with them and soon sold many other headphones that were no longer being used (Audeze LCD-X, LCD2C, Argon MKIII and several others).
At this point, I have no intention of selling either Auteur or Aeolus - for very well recorded music on a decent rig, the Auteur is a very serious headpohone. @metal571 once (in 2019) described the Auteur as the best open-back biocellulose headphone (you can buy at the monent), his YT review is very helpful (as a direct comparison to the Aeolus).
For pure sit back and get lost in the music enjoyment the Aeolus is hard to beat. I’ve also enjoyed the Aeolus across a wider range of equipment, that isn’t to suggest it doesn’t scale well with equipment, it does, it’s just far more forgiving than the Auteur in my experience.
Can I ask what amp are you utilizing , thanks