Also I am very proud of my Purpleheart wood shelf I made to slot into my Ikea shelves… the picture above does it no justice. But it has the same silky smooth texture as my Aeolus Ziricote…it has a more orange color too =( but win some lose some =)
You wine folk 
I’ll have to give it a try… I just love me some good whiskey though…I have an odd aversion to wine…I don’t know why…I’m sure it is some traumatic thing from my past? As I don’t mind the actual drinking of the stuff
Not a fair comparison at this point…I meant to relax and just listen but figured I would put a quick comparison together, as I said that I would =). Now to be fair the Aeolus is only about halfway through break-in time, and really isn’t trying to compete with the Clears. I wrote this before doing the comparison !
Tracks used (Qobuz studio streaming):
Queen (acoustic): performed by Slenderbodies
Copland: Rodeo: IV. Hoe-Down: performed by Leonard Bernstein?
but seriously…Aeolus is warmer, but imaging and staging are slightly wider…but spot on with the Clears. It is a toss up with this track…I could go either way…but I will say the Clears did seem to have the edge in that they pulled me closer to the orchestra, where the Aeolus gave me the feeling of sitting center row middle to the back of the room.The Real: Performed by Busty and the Bass
Up All Night (Acoustic Live Album Music in High Places): Unwritten Law
Ok, bedtime, early morning flight =) Also these were not easy to volume match… so that probably colored some of this a/b =) But for me, at the end of the day, both headphones are worth keeping around =) they are surprisingly close… The Clears have been my go-to for a while now…and I think the Aeolus just pushed them off that pedestal.
My Dad never cared for brandies. Now at 91, it’s just a fairly weak mixed vodka drink for him. But he used to prefer scotch (Chivas, Dewar’s, bar scotch - in that order), Canadian, or occasionally a Sour Mash. He had, and still has, an aversion to anything over $20 per bottle, no matter what the spirit.
I’m currently looking at a bottle of Jefferson ocean 18 cask strength… I will probably grab a bottle for the luggage on the way home… picked up a smattering of single serve rando whiskies
Wow…Aeolus finally broke 100hrs of burn in and these have really blossomed! I really enjoyed experiencing the break-in process. It isn’t “Dramatic” levels of change but enough to be noticeable and improved, which is saying something as I thought they sounded great to begin with!!..plus I still have another 40hrs (ish) of recommended break-in.
Thoroughly enjoying these!
Thanks to my friend Anthony’s Aeolus (heard here IMS a couple times while he visited, plus one relatively long loaner period), plus exposure to it at CanJam NYC 3 months ago, I’m pretty familiar w/the Aeolus. When I first heard it, I liked the tuning but wasn’t overly impressed (I’m a ZMF fanboy, admittedly). It took me awhile to realize what a shape-shifter this headphone really is. The first sound you hear is not necessarily the only sound it has. Specifically, I’ve heard the Aeolus scale up very noticeably w/higher quality sources. Had a brief but memorable experience at CanJam where it was driven by the Cayin 300b beast/amp + a huge, mega-$$ Auris DAC, where it sounded quite amazing. And here IMS, I get good sound out of every SS amp (best being either V281 or Lake People G109-A), but then even better sound out of my OTL (Woo WA3) and transformer-coupled tube amp (WA22). If I ever upgrade DACs, I’ll have to hear the Aeolus again because it almost certainly will give me back any add’l quality the DAC brings. My favorite design is open-back planar, but Zach continues to woo me (no pun intended) w/amazing dynamics like the Eikon (I have the same padauk Eikon shown in O.P. 1st photo) and the Aeolus.
Amazing but not surprising! My set consists of the Clears and ZMF Cocobolo Auteurs! I think they are almost the perfect stable of cans if limited to two. I say almost because I haven’t listened to dozens of different sets of HP. They bring differ strengths to the table and will cover all genre of music IMO. Enjoy the music, I know that I do.
You get rid of feedback in your Cayin?
Yeah more or less, I have a lot of cables running behind everything so I usually just need to move some around or turn off something to get it to go away…it is something of a where in the world is Carmen Sandiego search for the culprit.
Also the feedback completely disappears with music playing even at extremely low volume.
Some of the best pictures you’ve taken sir.
The amazing thing is that they’re somehow even better looking in person …
Never mind how good they sound.
Or how much that particular pair wants to join my collection …
Concur they look awesome in person! It is so hard to get a picture that has all the nuance of the wood.
We shall see when my Verite comes in lol
Now i want one too. those look gorgeous.
All us Verite waiters…we’ve all been converted from Pending…to Sanding and finishing!!! “I am Excite!” lol
To all the ZMF folks out there, how comfortable are they? Does it vary by model…I probably should try some on. Fit and comfort is as important to me as sound quality. If they’re uncomfy, I can’t wear them for long.
It does depend on the models slightly. The Verite with magnesium chassis is probably the lightest. On the whole they’re reasonably comfortable because you can bend the headband to whatever shape you like, but you do notice the weight after a while of course. Overall, with the stock headband they’re slightly less comfortable than the lighter Focal models, but way better than Audeze (for weight reasons, their headband is awesome though), and there’s no clamp force if you don’t want there to be which is really nice. Also, I switched out the default strap for a wider one, which really helps with weight distribution.
Aeolus / Verite / Auteur are probably the most comfortable. Atticus & Eikon are heavier and the pads are a little smaller in the ear hole opening space. With that said, they are all extremely comfortable to me. Weight is distributed so well it makes it a non-issue. I don’t get a hotspot on the top of my head.
I haven’t met a ZMF earpad that I haven’t liked yet, in terms of comfort. Hmmm… one exception - The Eikon/Ori pads compress a bit and the leather can start to touch my ear, which is a pet peeve of mine, but it’s a small annoyance and beyond that I can’t think of any other comfort issues.
I’ll put it this way: I’d rather put the least comfortable ZMF headphone on my head than the most comfortable Audeze headphone.
Those Aeolus pix are amazing!
Re comfort: I own/owned 3 ZMFs (Ori, Eikon, Atticus [since sold]), and have heard my friend’s Aeolus at length IMS (1-2 week loaner). All 4 strike me as quite comfortable. I have a large head; some headphones that others find comfy have too much clamp for me. But all the ZMFs work well for me.
If you get an Aeolus, Eikon, any more recent ZMFs w/the strap-under-headband design, you could remove the strap and put a Pilot Pad on the headband. I have a PP on the Ori, and it’s extremely comfortable.
BTW, I own/owned a couple Audeze’s (pre-fazor LCD-2.1; pre-fazor LCD-3 [sold]), and as @ProfFalkin notes, they’re not as comfortable as any ZMF. On the other hand, I purchased one of the new carbon fiber under-straps for the 2.1, and that made it considerably more comfortable…
Thanks for the comfort feedback!
