Well, I think I've had enough time with it already, so I'll write a bit about my experience. The timber on the Aeolus is the best I've ever heard on a full size headphone. On IEMs, the best timber for me was on the HA-FX750 Kenwood series (that I also happen to own), which weirdly enough also has wood on the body. Maybe the wood is what's behind the organic timber sound.
Most of my time with the Aeolus was spent with the suede perforated pads, which I ended up liking more. After breaking in the headphones, the bass with the suede pads now sound considerably more impactful, similar to what I got right after I started listening to the cans new out of the box with the leather pads. The suede pads considerably add clarity to the treble, a bit more soundstage, as well as gives a more airy presentation to the sound. It is still not crazy resolving, for that you should be looking at the Auteur. This headphone is really a chilling can in the end. But a freaking good one at that.
The HD6XX has more spark on the treble. It loses on mids (yes, hard to believe, I know), and loses hard on lows. But if I was someone that spends a lot of time listening to classical music, orchestra, etc, the HD6XX would be better for that specifically. A Hifiman Arya would be the perfect complement to these cans. I also had an HD700 for the span of 5 or so years, used it heavily equalized, and orchestras on that one used to give me goosebumps. With the Aeolus? Nope, not a thing. I don't like bright headphones though, and the only pair of cans I've heard that resolves very well and is not bright is the Focal Stellia. If my income was considerably higher, I'd consider having Stellias as my go to closed back cans. I love the looks, and I loved the sound.
The Aeolus is really all about the mids and lows, with enough resolution on highs that will give you most of the information behind the scenes without really having to look for it. Not a hint of sibilance. Not from a mile distance away. It's hard to describe how organic this thing sounds. I really, really like it.
It's interesting to note that I started the ZMF game with a Dan Clark Audio 2 Closed Back. I couldn't bring myself to like it (even though I did want to like it), sent it back 5 months later (
headphones.com or
headphones.ca allows you to do that for a full refund within a year of purchase, given you treated the product well), went on a store with full intention to purchase an Audeze LCD2, but again really didn't like what I was hearing. I then tried two LCD-X in two stores, and both sounded weirdly different from one another (same year of production, so yeah, go figure), but none of them was for me. One was extremely neutral, the other kinda bright, so a no go for me. After all that, I ended up at the end of a line that made me wait almost 4 months before putting my hands (and head) on a ZMF headphone.
It's worth it. Really. Worth. It. It sounds what I expected the LCD2 to sound (this has already been said by another reviewer in the past somewhere in the Internet, which I fully heartily agree). The LCD2 would had cost me considerably less than the Aeolus because the former I could get at a really awesome discount, while the latter could only be bought in USD at full price, while my currency is the Canadian dollar. Now, after finally having experienced both, I can say with confidence that the Aeolus was the right pick, no matter how much more I ended up paying.
