I intentionally logged in about 10 minutes late so all the ones I would have been tempted by would already be sold. Luckily for me, this strategy worked and I didn’t buy any more ZMF’s!
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Thanks for that comment. I ordered an ironwood VC earlier this week, and am lusting over some of those stabilized sets now. I will have to exercise some sheer willpower and stop going to the ZMF site for a while!
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wait–isn’t that like renting a porn video, then only watching the credits?
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There are credits? 
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LoL … the comment made my day.
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who owns or has had in their hands and listened to the Verite (open) in African Blackwood.
Are they gorgeous? (silly question)
Do they sound any different than any other Verite in a different wood? Or is it too subtle a difference?
I ordered some, and I’m really jazzed. Just interested in what you all might have to say though on their sonics. I did read what Zack had to say when he sent out the email announcing the blackwood for this LTD run, but I’m pretty sure he has offered them before. Thanks all!
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My African Blackwood VO arrived a few weeks ago. They are indeed beautiful - I posted some pics in the What’s in the Box and in the Vérité Open threads. They’re wonderfully dark, almost like onyx, but in the right light you can see the lovely grain.
I’d be hard pressed to describe the differences in sound between mine and other Vérités. I’ve not owned other versions. I did get to audition other ones, though. But those auditions were a long time ago, before the pandemic. So, what follows are some very tentative impressions (and all of them are with the Universe pads). I should add some further caveats: I’ve not had the VO long enough to be confident in my impressions; I’ve been trying them from the same DAC, a Bifrost 2, but different amps, so I’m still very much getting used to the VO’s sound:
- Schiit Mjolnir 1, which has a fairly neutral sound signature, with a bit of treble emphasis. It’s an aggressive amp, or, rather, it has a forward, energetic presentation, one that demands attention.
- SW51+: this is a high-performance but budget SET tube amp. It also has a fairly neutral sound profile and is wonderful for providing a rich mid-range presentation with a bit of sweetness to it, by which I mean the treble is very smooth and clean without being too forward.
- ZDT Jr., which is another affordable amp that punches well above its price; this is a transformer-coupled tube amp, one that has more of the stereotypical warmth and gooeyness of tube amps. The bass isn’t the tightest or most well controlled, it has some bloom to it, but the mids are again rich and the highs slightly soft, if not rolled off. (I got this amp for my HD 800 SDR as it takes the edge of those headphones’ treble). This amp is my favorite, thus far, for my Vérité as its warmth helps to rein in what I find to be a slightly aggressive sound to my Vérité
I suspect that a slight aggressiveness is what differentiates my VO from others with softer woods. My recollection of the VOs I auditioned a long time ago were that they had a wonderfully dark, slightly warm and fatigue-free presentation; that while the speed and resolution were outstanding, they didn’t come with the typical brightness of other headphones with similarly impressive technicalities such as the Utopia or HD 800 or some HiFiMans. There was a kind of gentle, warmth to the VO that, combined with the awesome technicalities, made the listening experience wonderfully immersive, engrossing, and relaxing.
The African Blackwood VO have the same exceptional technicalities but they’re not as dark or warm as I’d remembered. This is most likely because either my memory is lousy or the chains I heard them from were different (Yggy with Big Ben and Pendant). Another explanation is that my auditions were fairly brief. ZMF is always so popular and busy at CanJams you can’t exactly hunker down and settle in for an hour-long audition! In other words, I can’t be sure that what I’m hearing is truly down to the kinds of wood used.
With all of that being said, I find the African Blackwood VO to have a slightly hard sound to it, one that makes the high speed and strong dynamics of the driver come across as more exciting and aggressive, with almost a hardness to the sound I’d not expected. The sound is more like that of a Focal headphone. Sounds really do pop out of nowhere from these headphones. And with a faster decay to notes, I suspect, also reinforces this sense of excitement. The sound isn’t as rich, lush, or romantic as I’d expected.
I’m finding my VO to be quite fatiguing after an hour or so. This might have something to do with the VO’s slight peak (around 8 kHz). Alternatively, I wonder if there may be some forwardness or emphasis to the upper-mids and lower-treble (I need to look into this more - again, these are very early impressions). In other words, the fatiguing quality might owe something to the tuning and it may be something common to all Vérités - or, more likely, I’m just sensitive to certain frequencies or tunings.
What all this means are a few things. The sound differs somewhat - but not greatly - from what I’d expected. I’m finding the VO to be more exciting and energetic than I’d expected, and these qualities accentuate the VO’s speed and macrodynamics. The tuning isn’t as dark as I’d expected, and the sound lacks something of the immersive softness I’d heard in other VOs during earlier auditions.
Moving forward, I may invest in a Lokius to play with EQ. I may lean towards a warmer amp when I upgrade my chain - in other words, I’m leaning more towards a Starlett now than a Pendant. And I’m now keen to listen to a VO with a softer wood! I’d love to compare two different VOs side to side.
I hope this helps!
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I may be biased but I really like every blackwood set I have seen, and sometimes I get buyers remorse looking at @Tchoupitoulas 's set for not getting the stainless rods and grilles and I don’t think I can top what they have already said about the Blackwood VO. Mine have the rose gold hardware and in some light the cups look completely black and in other light you can see the grain, which is a cool effect:
@zach915m and the team make some pretty good looking (and sounding!) things IMO.
@robson Congrats on getting yourself a set- cant wait to hear what you think about them sonically and aesthetically when they arrive!
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Managed to score a set of blackwood with silver VO and a set of Ekions can’t wait till they get here…
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This works quite nicely for such touchups.
Beautiful combo, they make a great family! 
Thanks to both you and Tchoupitoulas for the in depth write up.
Mine will join my Sapele Aeolus, with a Schiit Bifrost 2 DAC and both a Lyr 3 and Jot 2 to power them. I suspect Lyr 3 will make a better combo? We’ll see.
I got mine in the copper rods/grills, that rose gold looks great!
Many thanks!
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What pads did you use the first time? Did you order the same type of pads? As ZMF has many pad options, you may find a simple non-electronic solution.
One can use pads as an aggressive treble filter, and then bring it back with EQ. Using this approach I fully tamed the piercing fatigue issues of the Beyer DT 880, whereby it now literally outperforms the Clear in some scenarios.
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I’m using the warmest of the pads, the Universe. Someone on the forum reached out to suggest using a copper cable, which I hope to try, and I’m going to experiment with a thin layer of 1-ply or 2-ply toilet paper as that’s often used as a simple but effective mod to tame the treble of headphones. I fear a loss of resolution with this latter approach, though. It’s easily reversible, of course, and it’s easy to slide the tp into the ZMF pads.
It would be fascinating to do some direct A/B comparisons of the African Blackwood Vérité, as the hardest wood in the ZMF lineup, with one of the softer ones. I might see if there are folks local to me who’d be up for a mini-meet in the new year.
That’s great to hear about the Beyer - I’m glad it’s performing so well for you now. I’d be interested in hearing more about the ways it stacks up against the Clear.
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Per my comments on Dekoni sheepskin pads, changing the thickness, construction material, and adding a mesh filter kills the treble. Without EQ (Loki) they now sound like thick mud, but with EQ they sound close to neutral. With more listening time it seems that the mesh filters block unwanted high-range noise. Increasing the treble by EQ sounds cleaner to my ears than lowering it without the mesh filters.
The Beyer DT 880 (600 ohm) surprised me, and it’s sort of a conceptual step up from the Koss Porta Pro. The mid range is creamy smooth, but with modest bass and piercing treble. I’d put the 600 ohm mid range as equal or superior to any 300 ohm product I’ve heard. The HD 800 S is easily a better overall product, but it costs 6x or 7x more. Relative to either of these, the Clear comes across as grainy and edgy – but absolutely fine if you start listening cold.
There are indeed many way to skin a cat and 50 ways to leave your lover. Sometimes you can get to a similar end point with very different hardware and at extremely different costs. Your characterization of the Vérité strikes me as how the HD 800 S or Utopia performs on a poorly matched amp/DAC.
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Yes, I’ve wondered about this. I’ve read favorable impressions of the Vérité out of both the ZDT Jr and the SW51+. Some folks whose advice I trust recommended the SW51+ to me, and part of the reason I bought one was to see how it’d pair with the Vérité. But, yes, I take your point and will explore this line of inquiry.
As it happens, I’m listening through the Massdrop Cavalli Tube Hybrid tonight and the pairing is really very good, although the MCTH doesn’t quite do it for me on a couple of fronts, for instance, when it comes to resolution. But this pairing might be working for me in taming the fatigue, which is interesting as the MCTH pairs exceptionally well with the Clear even though it adds (or reveals) a slight hardness to the Clear’s treble.
All this has got me wondering about tube hybrids more broadly. It might be worth me checking out the Lyr 3. Do folks have any experience of ZMF headphones with the Lyr 3?
Finally, I’ve not really given it much thought before but it’s interesting that, off the top of my head, I can’t really come up with any high-end tube hybrid amps. I’m not sure what the iFi iCAN is - it’s both solid state and tube amp, but I’m not clear as to whether the tube section is completely independent of the solid state section or not. Are there any fancy pants tube hybrids out there?
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Some regard the Pathos Aurium (a hybrid) as high-end. I haven’t heard it so can’t say.
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SW51+ > Lyr 3 with an Aeolus but the Lyr 3 is still very very good. I think this speaks more to the value of the SW51+.
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Copland DA-215
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