Torq,
I’m so sorry your Verite ended up being so ugly. If you want to trade them for my hd650 so you at least have listenable headphones, just let me know. I have attached ZMF stickers to each ear cup of the HD650 (what I affectionately call my ZMF mod), so it’s kind of like wearing a Verite, only not.
I’m not willing to do this for many in the headphone community, but for you I will. I think you should take me up on the offer.
Good luck!
Prof,
I surely appreciate the kind, and most generous offer.
I was all set, and most excited, to take you up on your offer. But just before I did so I found some blank stickers in our “junk drawer”. Those, combined with my latent lack of talent with a long-since-past-it’s-prime “Sharpie” has resulted in some “probably won’t fall off today” make-shift/hack-job “ZMF by Zach” stickers.
So … I think I’m all set …
Thanks though!
Wood is funny stuff. You can readily get color shifts and changes in density/tonality in pieces cut from the same tree…sometimes even in the same board, just a couple feet apart. Wood that’s closer to the outside of the tree often looks quite different from that cut from the core.
I’ve never seen ziricote that looks just “average.” Every sample I’ve seen looks pretty amazing, including those 2 headphones.
Verite is giving me a hard time. Every time I am wowed by SR1a, switching to Verite overrides my wow. Less detailed, more veiled, slower (by comparison) all yes. But more grandiose, more full-bodied, sweeter, wetter, and … more musical. The problem is I perceive the latter gains more critical than the former losses.
Of course it should be noted that I am driving my Verite through perhaps the most optimal amplifier specifically customized to my taste (ECP Ravenswood-3F with lower-gain amorphous core). SR1a is driven by a great value but limited JLH amp.
Now listening to Ashkenazy’s rendition of Rachmaninov piano concerto no 3 (performed with Previn and LSO) with both headphones side by side, I had to admit Verite allows me a higher order emotional connection to the music. It’s pretty much like I am sitting on the best seat in a performance hall – by contrast, SR1a feels like closely standing in an outside concert.
Anyway Vidar coming today. Hope Vidar to reduce the gap. I don’t doubt it would. The problem is to what extent it could.
The Vérité and SR1a are very different experiences. It’s a major shift going from listening to the SR1a and switching to the ZMF can. And it takes me a few minutes to adjust - as initially the difference is quite stark. Much more so than, say, going from Utopia or HD800S to the Vérité.
Once adjusted, there’s no problem. I am not focused on the differences and am just enjoying the music. But the transition back and forth has, so far, always prompted strong and immediate recognition of how very different they are in what they do and how they do it.
And … I want both … for different reasons and different times … and not just because the Vérité works with my DAPs and headphone amplifiers. I’d still want the Vérité even if it had the same requirements as the SR1a (or the SR1a could work without a speaker amp).
I’ve always needed (or at least wanted) more than one headphone. At the peak, which was just a couple of months ago, I had 25 pairs. I knew I would have to significantly rationalize that before heading off around the world, but honestly had no idea how I was going to do so and still retain the overall set of capabilities I had become accustomed to.
The path to achieving that rationalization started to become much clearer, with me having more faith that it was actually possible to do, started with the arrival of Vérité. They consumed so much of my listening time … and I really didn’t want to listen to anything else for the first month after they arrived. I was getting a very close amalgam of the best, most enjoyable, traits from my other headphones, without giving up anything significant on technicalities.
That was, and remains, a huge step forward.
That wonderful reverie was only interrupted by the Stellia showing up - sort of a forced interlude. And here I found the solution to the other big conundrum … how I was going to deal with the closed-back side of my collection, as I do need at least one closed-back can.
So between Vérité and Stellia I’d found a way to significantly reduce the number of cans I needed or wanted. The actual rationalization … not just thinking about it, could now begin.
Stellia turned out to be the first closed-back headphone that made me think it would even be possible to live with only a closed-back headphone. Right now, I wouldn’t do that unless I could literally only have one headphone, but if that were the case, and it had to be closed, the Stellia would be that choice.
Now that that “veil of belief” has been pierced, I am anxious to hear the rumored closed-back Vérité later in the year.
Ahead of that, and getting back on topic …
Vérité enables a lot of consolidation in my collection, without giving much, if anything, up. Stellia enables some more. And the SR1a finishes it off. In fact the only reason I think I’ll have more than these three headphones going forward is that the SR1a does need a speaker amp, and I need something more like it, but that can run on normal sources, for the foreseeable future (probably Utopia).
Between these three, headphones I never thought I’d want, let alone be able, to give up, are already on the chopping block - either listed, or about to be, for sale - or actually gone already.
Remarkable stuff!
You’re telling me there’s an END GAME in sight?
There’s only an end game in sight until the RAAL SR2a is released next year!
It’s actually a pretty good time to be getting into headphones. Companies are being forced to re-vamp their stagnant product lines because of companies like ZMF coming along. Same thing with the lower-end IEMs.
Haha good point. 
And yea, it seems like the stagnant market has seen a lot of tech improvements and cost shifting lately. Speaking of IEMs, I was told that your package is safely signed for and waiting for me at home now. 
I like it! Also the RAALs SR1A is very compelling… I agree with what That thread has been saying so far about keeping the Verites…even the Aeolus has a place with them…I’m looking forward to seeing all the new tech trickle down to more affordable gear
I’m missing my Verite right now and slightly miffed I’m not able to get some burn in done the past couple of days.
Folks, don’t forget Closed Verite (of course it would be named differently) is coming soon, which Zach briefly mentioned in another forum a while ago.
I’ll pass it because I don’t particuarly need closed cans any more… so I confidently placed my Verite order after hearing the news 
Peeked my head into the CanJam floor after getting back from a local theme park visit with some littles and friends and their nephews. Saw Zach and Bevin setting up shop, hopefully they have the new stand on display!
Well I’m wiped, after chasing the lil all over the farm, time for a shower and probably a cocktail, then bed lol…
I’ll try and get some good pictures and post them in the CanJam thread =)
Just one headphone never was enough for me. I have 8 at this time. I will very likely soon sell the Empyrean. A pal & I are scheming to get a loaner Verite to evaluate in our respective systems.
We are both ZMF fanboys in our own way: he has a cherry wood Eikon & sapele Aeolus; I have a padauk Eikon & ormosia henryi Ori, also have heard his Aeolus on extended loan IMS. IMO ZMF nails the sound of real, live music (w/all its resonance, “wetness,” and power in the lower mids/upper bass) more consistently & to a greater degree than any other mfr.
I have more to do (other pads), but I did get through re-doing measurements for the Vérité in both Pheasantwood and Ziricote with the Universe pads installed (I said Vérité pads originally, but that’s not right … I’ll update the graph here in a minute)!
A high-level view, at 1/12th smooting, averaged over 5 positions each, calibrated to 300Hz @ 84dB (I did it at 94 dB as well, but the variations are immaterial), and aligned at 300 Hz:
Ziricote version is the black plot, Pheasantwood the Red.
Here is mine. But pheasantwood (on a loan from local friend) was measured months ago, a bit different measuring place. Also slightly different way to obtain tight binding (between headband and EARS). Pad-to-pad variance possible, too.
Nevertheless, I could see some consistent patterns. Interesting.
Similar enough that I’m putting the differences down to pad-variance (and my Pheasantwood have hundreds of hours on them, the Ziricote are under 100 - I should have moved the pads between units rather than leaving their respective sets in place) and the “usual” variables.
Other than differences in our custom compensations those are close enough that it’s just the “usual” variables at work and nothing fundamentally about the cans themselves (which is great to see).
I finally got around to measuring the ZMF Verite (mahagony limited).
Focal Elex is in gray, as that was my primary headphone previously, and I found these as an improved version of that surprisingly.
BE2 Pads: Purple
Univ Perforated Suede: Green
Univ Perforated Leather: Blue
Seems about what I measured as well. Which pads do you like the best?
I’m on team suede
I definitely enjoy them every time I try them, but for some reason it feels a bit more loose in the bass - and more relaxed overall. Maybe that’s a good thing though.
comfort trumps it all. I think i like BE2 as well.
