I think if the reaction to the VC seems at all tempered, it’s because most of the people who have heard the open Vérité and/or much of ZMF’s lineup already are listening to it, so we already know what to expect. Standards are already really high for ZMF’s stuff, and there’s been a ramping up in...

For what it’s worth, I use the LP with the Vérité and rather like it. It has better synergy with my Auteur, but it’s still great with the Vérité.

I’m the exact same way- I don’t dislike the universe pads, the soundstage is nice and big on them after all, but they definitely diminish all the technicalities you listed, and it’s super apparent when you swap from them to the V pads- they’re also a touch warmer at that, and the Vérité is...

Those are one of the absolute handsomest ZMF headphones I've ever seen, and I'm very much more a fan of the darker woods in general- just crazy good grain pattern and color contrast. Stunning job, ZMF folks, super jealous.

I genuinely prefer the monkeypod to the ironwood aesthetically, just based on the pictures. That purple ashwood is something else, really neat and unique- nice call! Every purpleheart ZMF product I've seen has looked awesome, and the color is even more vivid on that VC.

The VO is likely my favorite headphone I’ve heard thus far for hip-hop, so I imagine the VC probably has the edge over it thanks to being closed. Would anyone be able to comment on how the VC with the Auteur pads compares to the VO with the Verite pads? Specifically the soundstage and overall...

I think it’s more a matter of dialing in the headband- they’re heavy headphones to be sure, but it’s less the weight that winds up bothering me than if the headband doesn’t contour correctly. Plus, it’s worth it for how damn great they look.

Analytical pads. HEX V2 has an even wider soundstage than the Arya? Wow. The Arya sounded rather wide already.

I honestly felt like the Arya was the opposite of intimate. The combination of the spaciousness of the soundstage, the clarity and separation of the instruments/vocals, the pitch black air of the background, and the neutral and balanced frequency range gave me the impression of a very backed off...

Ah, I had presumed that damping might be used to compensate for other perceived issues with the sound, like a treble peak as an example, at the cost of marginal clarity reduction. Beats me, then.

Ah, if it’s driver dampening then that would make total sense.

I posted about it more in the DT1990 thread when someone was asking for comparisons, and I found his video to align very closely with my own impressions of the two. Can’t speak to the whole “Elex is an Elear with different pads” rumor, but I have the Auteur as well and having had the chance to...

I never had the opportunity to A/B my old HD600 with the Elex, but my gut would say they were in the same ballpark clarity and detail-wise, but I couldn’t qualitatively say one was better than the other. The Elex did scale well on balanced, higher-end chains, but the detail still fell short of...

I wouldn’t necessarily hold the Elex up to the same standard as the LCD-X, but the Elex didn’t meet the same level of detail as my DT1990, either. I think that’s just how the Elex sounds.

I’m guessing they only could accommodate around 500 pre-orders, but I don’t believe that was explicitly stated anywhere on the page, which is a shame.