It’s purple/pink stained camphor burl!
3 Likes
I’ve now heard my silkwood VO w/stock Universe pads on 4 or 5 amps at length, including V281, Liquid Carbon v2, xDuoo TA-20, and the Woo WA3/OTL. I can’t get this headphone to sound bad, much less just “average.” It sounds a bit more precise & controlled on the OTL & the hybrid TA-20, but that lovely purity of tone (voices & instruments) is always present.
The sound on the WA3 was so good 1-2 wks ago that I was inspired to get a big-time NOS power tube to replace the stock tube with (Tung Sol 4998). Put that in the other day, tried it out, and that calm, precise sound got a little richer and the soundstage got bigger.
The WA3 doesn’t get a lot of love–it’s a compact, budget tube amp, and who cares when you can go for the big tube amps? I got mine w/the 2 stock 6922 driver tubes upgraded to NOS Amperex Bugle Boys, and the amp sounded better than I could expect from day-1. All the high-impedance headphones I’ve tried on it sound very good, so the VO is no exception.
The VO is so good that it’s stealing head-time from my “love” headphone, the blackwood Aeolus. And that’s something I never expected…
6 Likes
@Pharmaboy awesome to hear some WA3 love with the VO. I picked this gem of an OTL as a holdover amp until my DNA amp is built, and once I got the right power tubes it does not disappoint.
I got some bum driver tubes and power tube from the seller, so was disappointed until I found a Chatham 6080, and Tung-sol 7236. Added a pair Amperex 6922 PQ and it was just right with my Verite. Thought about getting the 5998, and maybe will add it later.
6 Likes
(screwed up first reply–let’s try again)
I speculate that the WA3, using just 2 drivers & 1 power tube for all the heavy iifting, can be more readily improved or degraded sonically by specific sets of tubes. So far that is proving out for mine.
That NOS power tube is now burning in. When I first heard it early yesterday (cold, right out of the box), I heard fairly significant, non-subtle sonic changes (bigger bass top to bottom, also bigger soundstage). Some of the drama has lessened since then.
I’ll do some more listening tomorrow night after ~25 hrs of burn-in. I’ll use the silkwood VO (from which no sonic nuance can hide) and expect to hear more subtle overall changes in sound vs the stock power tube.
5 Likes
and so 20 months late…
This review has been in my queue for about 20 months or so now, and every time I think about writing a review of my own ZMF Verite open-back, I get side-tracked on a different new flavor of the month, or the next best thing, and then I kind of put this to the back of the queue again. There’s not a whole lot to say about this that I don’t think I’ve covered elsewhere if you have read some of my other reviews, my initial impressions from 2019, listened to my discussions of it on various forums or on YouTube, but I figure I’ll take some time to put down my thoughts into some thing coherent, or at least try to…
…as a retrospective.
I’ve always had a curiosity for the Zach Mehrbach Films (ZMF) headphones; created by a audiophile hobbyist making modded Fostex T50RP headphones. I never have tried one of ZMF’s planar mods, but some of the wood models do look quite nice. My real interest peaked when I saw the release of his open-back headphones: the Aeolus, Auteur and later the Verite.
These sets brought the weights down, especially the Verite, to levels I could handle. I just didn’t have the opportunity to demo one of these out until I stopped by community extraordinaire Torq’s home for a headphone hangout session with a few others. It was there that I was able to take a listen with his Verite open-back in a heavier pheasantwood and TylersEclectic’s ziricote Aeolus. Both were very pleasing to me, but the Verite was the one I really had stuck in my head.
The Verite had the looks, the weight, and a fast punchy and neutral-ish sound that I found very pleasing and good to listen to. So I went out and stared at ZMF photos for the next few weeks, over and over again. I probably memorized the Look Book on the ZMF site and looked at the bundles of photos online. And then, one by one, people started getting their Verite headphones shipped and delivered and more photos were posted of the actual sets I wanted.
I eventually broke down and emailed Zach to see about ordering one. And to my surprise, he said he had some limited edition Mahogany woods available. These were lighter than most of the other wood options and so it fit my need for a lighter-weight headphone for my dear neck. I was sent a couple pictures to choose from and picked out my set, chose some pads, including the super-secret BE2 pads (at the time, anyway), and paid and patiently (ok - impatiently…) waited.
The Mahogany ZMF comes in at a weight of about 440 grams putting it on the lower end of the weight range for the Verite, as well as all ZMF headphones in-general. The cups are a nice looking red-stained color that is traditional and similar to many mahogany wood furniture you’d find in your home or in a catalog. These really stand out in day light at the right angle. See my cover photo above.
The headband and chassis is magnesium and is quite light and extremely comfortable. I put on the newer co-pilot pad around the suspension headband for the utmost comfort. It’s great, really great.
I ordered the set with just the Seahorse case, as well as the stock cable in 1/4 inch and I asked for the ZMF OFC cable in balanced XLR. For pad choices, my original two were the Verite BE2 leather pads, and the Universe suede leather pads. I also picked up the Universe perforated suede pads, and have since added to my collection the Verite perforated suede and BE2 hybrid pads. All of these pads come with their own little flavor and I’ll try to talk about each later on.
So putting these on and listening.
Let me quickly start by saying that my typical headphone preferences are closer to something that sounds like a Focal Utopia or a Hifiman Arya. In terms of ZMF’s lineup, curiously enough, the Auteur would probably come most in-line with my tonal preferences. But the Verite is quite a deviation from that, and I still enjoy it. Crazy but there’s many flavors to enjoy in other things, and it can be the same for headphones and musical enjoyment too.
When I put these on after I listen to practically anything else I own; whether that be one of my Hifiman planars or any of my in-ear monitors, I get an immediate, whoaaa reaction, and not necessarily in a good way.
The upper-midrange and presence region tuning is a little odd here. It’s quite a bit more recessed at 3 to 5 KHz than I would normally want, and this creates a weird suck-out in this region where female vocals and stringed instruments prevail in my musical listening. I mean, it really does sound veiled and behind a curtain in many ways.
But give me about 90 seconds or so to acclimate and it’s a new ball game. It’s crazy how the brain works and the whole psychoacoustics of this whole musical journey is. I can start by disliking the tonal balance of the Verite and less than a couple minutes later, I’m strapped and locked in for a music experience that can quickly turn into several hours.
The Verite has a full-bodied mid-range that really captures the entire essence of ZMF. It’s their house signature – a warm and pleasing, lush and vivid midrange that sounds organic and flowing. Even though my initial knee-jerk reactions of the upper mid-range are so yuckface looking, I can quickly overcome it by just listening more. It stages wider and larger than the Focal Utopia does, and only trails it in the depth/layering department slightly.
There’s a small peak at 6KHz but I don’t hear it. At least not in the sense that it’s fatiguing, bright, or harsh. I know others have mentioned this but I don’t really hear it myself. This is probably the saving grace of this ear compensating gain region keeping it from being just an overly dark headphone. It strikes the nice balance that pushes forward certain notes to counter the recession of others.
This whole thing creates a headphone that can image and layer with the best of them. It’s near Focal Utopia levels in this category, and also comes close but does fall a little behind in resolution. It’s still a major compliment, given this is a much more warm and laid-back tuning, as opposed to the very forward and leaner and bright tuning of the Utopia. The Focal flagship is a reference sound, so it’s cleaner, clearer, and things like imaging and resolution stand out more. The Verite is lush and juicy, and has to overcome the heavy, warm and steamy fog to give you the clear resolution it actually exhibits.
This is probably assisted by Zach’s choice of a beryllium-coated driver, which gives the driver more stiffness and a more controlled and faster response rate. In turn, this improves the transient response. This in-turn makes the bass response very quick and agile and does not bloat and muddy up those beautiful mids despite having a small mid-bass bump.
The bass is punchy and extends low. Bass guitars have a nice level of decay and texture, and I’d ask for anything, it might actually be a little less bass at times.
I do use the Verite mostly with the BE2 pads which are somewhere in-between the more neutral Verite and the more V-shaped Universe pads in tonal response. The BE2 pads do give a little more warmth, and perhaps I just want that over the stock tuning.
Interestingly enough, the hybrid pads, which feature microsuede liners on the top of the pads and touch your skin, actually provide quite a bass boost to the overall sound signature, and that is the warmest of all the pads I’ve listened with.
That’s because this is an intoxicating experience for me, and one that I don’t think people would think I’d like given my other sets of headphones and IEMs and my normal review preferences.
In the IEM world, this is like the Vision Ears VE8 as opposed to a more traditional Antdroid recommendation of a Hidition Viento or a Empire Ears Odin, where the Verite, like the VE8 is warmer, soothing, and relaxed, and not so forward and neutral as the latter.
Equalization & Compensation
Now, I did create an equalizer profile to compensate for the lack of pinna compensation at 3-5KHz and occasionally do use it for some listening. It looks like this:
This EQ setting has almost a night a day sonic difference when I switch it on and off and listening to various songs. Percussions sound a little more dynamic and crisps, female vocals are more forward and defined, and guitars have more zing. And while this parametric EQ setting does help bring back a lot of the vocal and guitar presence in the majority of the tracks I listen to, I actually don’t use it as often as I would have thought.
Sometimes I just want a little more laid-back tuning, so I can sit back and listen for hours. This is a nice set to do it on. Oh, and before I forget, these go well with tube amps and high impedance amplifiers in general! I highly recommend trying these with something with 25 ohm output impedance or higher. I can’t tell you what’s going on at all, but the damping factor seems to be too high on these new crop of low impedance solid-states to make the Verite sing. I even tried to measure impedance differences through FR changes, and it doesnt have any impedance swings at high output impedances. None at all.
The item that I use to compensate for the Verite’s sound the most is not an equalizer, but actually an output transformerless (OTL) tube amplifier. In my case, this is with the Feliks Audio Elise MK2 tube amplifier. While the differences are very subtle, there’s a slightly more engaging and lively sound when these two are paired together. Whether that be the higher impedance of the amplifier (somewhere between 30-50 Ohms I think), or the characteristics of the PSVane CV181-TII tubes I put in, there is a sense of a slightly more open soundstage, and more defined and deeper low-end, and a more natural presentation in general. Very subtle, but enough to make me want to listen for hours on end.
Okay, I think I’ve rambled on long enough. I think the Verite isn’t the most optimal and perfect headphone for myself. It doesn’t have the “proper” upper mid-range tuning that I like, but somehow I fall prey to its sound each time I put it on. There’s something fishy going on…
23 Likes
Fantastic write up!!! I don’t always agree with you, but when I do, it’s usually a ZMF 
6 Likes
Excellent write-up, Ant. Nice pics too. I guess that the ZMFs are somewhere in my “maybe in the future” category for me. There are so many pretty headphones that they have. I tend to like the more natural treatments like yours are. Always liked mahogany, but never thought of it as a lightweight wood.
2 Likes
Another excellent writeup Ant. Full of detail as usual.
1 Like
Nice job Ant and I also enjoy the clean pictures.
1 Like
Great review and really good pictures Antdroid, I´ve yet to see a bad picture of a Verité since their beauty always stands out and your pair is certainly pretty!
1 Like
So…
After have a love affair with the HD800s… the Verite only sounds right to me with the Verite Pads, 
my poor Be2 pads, I did love you once, I promise.
They still sound amazing, but I am enjoying that extra clarity and neutral tonality.
4 Likes
Yeah, then dont even bother with the Uni pads then, way to the other end of the spectrum. The Be2 and V pads were closer together than the Be2 pads were to the Uni IMO.
I have the uni pads as well, I got them when I got this set of cans. I liked them, but they make the Verite sound way to warm now for my liking.
I found the Be2 at the time to be happy middle ground. I love how ZMF has all these options to pad roll, its great.
1 Like
I’ll trade you 2 pairs of Verite perforated leather pads for your 1 pair of BE2 pads! Seriously!
Sorry man, I only have one set of each Be2 pads and I already have the Verite pads. I have use for the Be2 pads but wouldn’t for Vertie pads.
I still use them to compare stuff and will probably want to sue them again at some point.
If I change my mind, I will let you know, sorry again.
1 Like
No need to apologize! I also have a set of BE2 pads but just wanted another set since they’re my favorite. Enjoy the Verite! What a privilege to own this amazing headphone.
1 Like
I might take you up on that offer. let me go over what I got
1 Like
Hi all - UPS just delivered me my first pair of ZMF headphones, VO’s. I am looking forward to hearing how they match up compared to Utopia and the other cans in my stable. So in reference to that, any recommendations about how much break-in time they require before they sound their best? I’ve learned to never judge headphones, or most other audio gear, right out of the box, 'cause they won’t sound like that later (which is why I find showroom demos of almost anything to be useless unless I live in the showroom). I generally break in cans for 100 - 150 hours; I don’t know whether these would be any different.
8 Likes
The forum requires pictures!
4 Likes