Reading your review again, I found there wasn’t any description about pairing with tubes. Didn’t you have Woo WA234? I am personally curious about how verite would sound when driven by top performing 300B or 2A3-based SETs.
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I do, indeed, have a WA234 Mk.II MONO … 
My reviews, at least of late, don’t tend to focus on specific observations with amp A vs. amp B and, instead, relay my overall experience across the sources, and amps, listed here.
This is because most people won’t have the exact same equipment I do, much less the same overall configuration, and the aggregate impression is more universally applicable than the specific.
I could, for sure, describe how I found the Pheasantwood Vérité with any of the various 300B, 2A3 or 45 series tubes I have. But what I’d find with my original/NOS WE300B sets vs. someone with a pair of current production Sophia Electric Princess 300B (my favorite for pictures, if not for listening) is going to to be rather different experience.
I will say that the Vérité are fully reflective of upstream improvements. When listening for pleasure, I absolutely swap in my best tubes with them. But … the fundamental character of the Vérité themselves didn’t change, they just let the upstream changes show through.
Here’s a shot of my WA234 with the Sophia Electric tubes installed, as part of my Stellia review:
The Sophia Electric (punched-plate) are the most visibly-“glowy” and prettiest tubes I’ve found in 300B configuration. Well, short of thoriated Elrogs … but those didn’t tend to last very long.
The Takatsuki 300B and actual, original, WE300B are quite dull and boring looking in comparison, even when photographed in the dark. I’m looking forward to seeing the new-production WE300B too (pre-order in since day 1).
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…Not @Torq…but I’ve heard his setup and was blown away enough to buy the Aeolus then shortly after order the Verite…so tubes and them go very well…but @Torq will be able to give you a much more defined answer =)
and I see @Torq already responded =)
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NOS WE 300B… what a drooling name it is!
I will check our your stellia review right now. lol.
PS. Your reviewing philosophy sounds very healthy. Totally agreed.
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As promised! Better shots of the Verite! I’ll post Sibling pictures under the ZMF thread…
This one is my favorite so far and a re-creation of my Aeolus picture I took awhile ago.
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I really … really … hope mine are that pretty when they show up!
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only in a headphone forum can I get away with this statement…but they are a lovely pair of cans… lol
Also I can’t imagine your being any less amazing!
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That would be funny, but I’m the boss.
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There is a down side to everything
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My Ziricote Vérité arrived … and are the first thing to distract me from the SR1a since, well, they arrived.
Quick-and-dirty picture for now … more tomorrow when the light is a bit more diffuse (to avoid reflections):
And they sound magnificent, even without any burn-in. But they’ll get plenty of that before I do a proper comparison with the Pheasantwood.
Now we need to get @antdroid and @Resolve here to hear their Mahogany and Silkwood versions along with the Pheasantwood and Ziricote all together!
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The wood is beautiful. Your photo is just fine, and the reflections illustrate the finish.
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Oh man, Zach got you the parallel lines! That grain is outstanding!
Seriously fantastic looking pair of cans … 
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The three of us really should get together to compare (and measure … ) our respective wood-versions.
We’d have at least two different MiniDSP EARS to do that with too.
Plus I’d love to see the Mahogany Vérité in person … not just because they might the most unique and rare set in the wild!
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Yes, would love to. I am swamped right now, but maybe end of next week I’ll have more time.
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Especially since it @antdroids Verite has the ZMF logo cut out in the middle of the metal plate cover, extremely rare prototype level of Rare!
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Those Ziricote look stunning!
How does the photo compare to how they actually appear to you? I ask because all of the Ziricote I have seen are quite a bit darker and even a bit dull in comparison. There also appears to be an orange or yellowish hue in your photo.
Being that the wood is less porous, do they give the immediate impression of being faster than the Pheasantwood?
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They’re darker and shifted much more towards brown if you just look at them in normal light. Much closer, in that regard, to @TylersEclectic’s set. The orange shift is down to a combination of the lighting and tone-curve I used, since it is just a quick-and-dirty shot. I didn’t set it up with proper lighting or white-balance.
I didn’t note any difference in speed in the few minutes I listened vs. the Pheasantwood. This doesn’t say anything useful at this time, however, as these had no time on them and I’d spent the previous few hours with the SR1a … which skews any other comparison in that regard.
We’ll see how that goes over the weekend though.
I was amazed by Verite again last night. Listening to the same track first with SR1a then with Verite was insightful experience. In short, with sr1a everything sounds like 90%[1] what it SHOULD sound. By comparison, verite colored everything in a way 99% I WANT it to sound. Very philosophical contrast. I found them quite complementary rather than substitute, at the same league (to me).
But, for the last track of the day before going to bed, I’d like to listen to it via Verite over via any other things I own at the moment. That pleasing. 
Footnote
[1] It’s with sub-optimal amp and source. With my main go-to rig, I expect the percentage exceeds at least 95%!
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Looking at mine and @Torq’s and @TylersEclectic’s verites, it seems that Ziricote lumbers used for this round of limited run could be fundamentally a little darker than Ziricote used last year (for LTD aeolus): picture attached.
Oh well, it’s a shame that I don’t have any better camera than iPhone 6S…
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