[Wildcatsare1]

Hi Franz,

The Vérité has a huge stage, much bigger than the Utopia or anything 6XX, I wouldn’t get too hung up on one review. It does go down to personal taste, but as a lousy, frustrated guitar player, and someone who attends a ton of concerts, classical, jazz, and rock, the intonation and timbre on the Vérité is the best I’ve heard. Though my caveat, is I despise the HD800 (SDR Mod), as being hollow, artificial, and quite unnatural.

I just put a new set off 300b in my WA5, playing Mehta’s Holst “Planets” and the soundstage is way outside of the phones, both in depth and width.

 

[Velozity]

I think it's great that you can invest in one open headphone and have three totally different frequency responses based on your pad choice. Maybe Zach should just increase the cost of the Aeolus by $100 and throw in all three sets of pads. One and done!

 

[Hansotek]

Honestly, if you guys don't have the Suede Pads for the Aeolus GET THEM!!!! I LOVE THESE THINGS!

Quick notes:
1. Basically gives you two headphones for the price of one here. The Suede Pads make the Aeolus tuning pretty flat. I'd call it nu-neutral. Slightly less energy around 2khz or so relative to HD600, but much, MUCH more extended bass. Sweeter sound than the Senns too, IMHO.

2. These are actually flat enough to mix audio on with the Suedes. I use the HD600 at work, and these are close enough in the realm of neutral that I can get accurate results with the suedes. I had to finish some work last night and the mix translated well to everything else when I tested it out. That little bit of energy off the upper mid is something most audiophiles are used to.

3. They are comfortable as hell.

4. THEY SOUND SO DAMN GOOD! After I got done with my work I popped on some tunes and just relaxed for a bit. I really love this tuning, even better than the stock pads. It's just a different sound that is more flat frequency-wise, but not dull. All the sweetness and emotional engagement is still there from the Atticus/Aeolus driver.

5. I feel like the little bit of extra neutrality and treble air you get on these pads makes the Aeolus sound more transparent overall. Really, unless your goal is more bass, I feel like this is the best pad. Also, if you've already got a little collection of ZMF headphones going like I do, I feel like these pads give it a sound that is significantly different from the others but still has that trademark ZMF sound overall.

I feel like I could do a full review just on this pad roll. It's like a different headphone!

 

[Wildcatsare1]

Honestly, if you guys don't have the Suede Pads for the Aeolus GET THEM!!!! I LOVE THESE THINGS!

Quick notes:
1. Basically gives you two headphones for the price of one here. The Suede Pads make the Aeolus tuning pretty flat. I'd call it nu-neutral. Slightly less energy around 2khz or so relative to HD600, but much, MUCH more extended bass. Sweeter sound than the Senns too, IMHO.

2. These are actually flat enough to mix audio on with the Suedes. I use the HD600 at work, and these are close enough in the realm of neutral that I can get accurate results with the suedes. I had to finish some work last night and the mix translated well to everything else when I tested it out. That little bit of energy off the upper mid is something most audiophiles are used to.

3. They are comfortable as hell.

4. THEY SOUND SO DAMN GOOD! After I got done with my work I popped on some tunes and just relaxed for a bit. I really love this tuning, even better than the stock pads. It's just a different sound that is more flat frequency-wise, but not dull. All the sweetness and emotional engagement is still there from the Atticus/Aeolus driver.

5. I feel like the little bit of extra neutrality and treble air you get on these pads makes the Aeolus sound more transparent overall. Really, unless your goal is more bass, I feel like this is the best pad. Also, if you've already got a little collection of ZMF headphones going like I do, I feel like these pads give it a sound that is significantly different from the others but still has that trademark ZMF sound overall.

I feel like I could do a full review just on this pad roll. It's like a different headphone!

Amen, oh and the Milo is the best SS Amp I’ve heard with ZMF Cans, it’s on my list!

 

[itsikhefez]

Thanks for your feedback , and sorry that we are in the same boat , i will contact Zach after the bur-in for 150hr and i will ask him about your pair if it is defective or not , hopefully he get them ASAP,
truly i don't think cheaper headphones should have better detail retrieval than the Aeolus, am sure there is something wrong , but that will not be confirmed until he takes a look at your pair, which will save me the shipping cost and the new pads.

Just my 2 cents but I'm not sure this is the best way to look at this. The HD650 are indeed cheaper but are pretty great on detail retrieval. To me, the HD6xx aren't too far behind the HD800S in this aspect. The price difference between that and the Aeolus is likely in other places, such as mass market vs. boutique/hand built, personalization (pads, wood types, grill colors), intimate customer service, lifetime warranty on drivers etc etc

 

[Hansotek]

Amen, oh and the Milo is the best SS Amp I’ve heard with ZMF Cans, it’s on my list!

Yeah, the Milo is a terrific amp, especially paired with a warm DAC. Great with the ZMFs and really incredible with planars. Oodles of power to drive that stuff.

 

[itsikhefez]

Thanks for your feedback , and sorry that we are in the same boat , i will contact Zach after the bur-in for 150hr and i will ask him about your pair if it is defective or not , hopefully he get them ASAP,
truly i don't think cheaper headphones should have better detail retrieval than the Aeolus, am sure there is something wrong , but that will not be confirmed until he takes a look at your pair, which will save me the shipping cost and the new pads.

This is a long shot but maybe this is your issue:
I bought the Aeolus with a 1/4" stock cable and the OFC cable terminated in XLR.
It turns out, the polarity was reversed on the XLR output. (Kudos to ZMF for resolving the issue immediately)

If your cable is like this as well, it will likely screw up the Aeolus sound.
If you have a multimeter, you can test to see if your cable is wired correctly.

If anyone is concerned that they also have a bad cable... well, if the Aeolus sounds awesome.. your cable is probably fine

 

[zach915m]

This is a long shot but maybe this is your issue:
I bought the Aeolus with a 1/4" stock cable and the OFC cable terminated in XLR.
It turns out, the polarity was reversed on the XLR output. (Kudos to ZMF for resolving the issue immediately)

If your cable is like this as well, it will likely screw up the Aeolus sound.
If you have a multimeter, you can test to see if your cable is wired correctly.

If anyone is concerned that they also have a bad cable... well, if the Aeolus sounds awesome.. your cable is probably fine

This was very isolated - and thankfully you caught it from one of our first shipments from this particular cable batch, the issue was amended immediately.

 

[itsikhefez]

This was very isolated - and thankfully you caught it from one of our first shipments from this particular cable batch, the issue was amended immediately.

Thanks for clarifying that!

Regarding the use of a cable with reversed polarity, that would cause degraded sound, right?
Not saying necessarily supplied by ZMF... it could be DIY or other aftermarket variety

 

[zach915m]

Thanks for clarifying that!

Regarding the use of a cable with reversed polarity, that would cause degraded sound, right?

The biggest issue is that the driver's impulse is to pull in instead of out, which hypothetically could cause an issue if the pull force is enough.

As far as degraded sound, the inverse polarity discussion is interesting, I think there's some theoretical evidence that exclaims most people can't hear it, but I know some people who claim to be able to hear the difference.

 

[Thenewbie76]

Can someone recommend me which pads should I go for? I have been reading the previous pages and from what I can tell the Universe pads non perforated offer the most warm/non neutral sound. But which material should I go for? Should I go for the Lambskin or the Suede? My Aeolus came with I think the Suede perforated pads. Edit= I am looking for a warm/ non analytical sound or non neutral sound. But from what I read from the previous pages the verite would offer the most neutral but this is a comparison between the universe Lambskin and Suede

 

[ProfFalkin]

I am looking for a warm/ non analytical sound.

Then the stock pads are fine. The suede universe pads will tilt them toward a neutral sound.

 

[Thenewbie76]

Then the stock pads are fine. The suede universe pads will tilt them toward a neutral sound.

thx for the insight, do you have any info about the lambskin pad sounds?

 

[ProfFalkin]

thx for the insight, do you have any info about the lambskin pad sounds?

Lambskin vs cowhide: they sound more Baaaaaa versus Mooooo...

(No, I have not compared them yet. Sorry.)

 

[Thenewbie76]

Lambskin vs cowhide: they sound more Baaaaaa versus Mooooo...

(No, I have not compared them yet. Sorry.)

lol, okok. Thx again for the insight