[Kevintj604]

Seems like ZMF is going to release some new LTD headphones including a new LTD Aeolus. Coming on 18/3

Gonna take one hell of an Aeolus drop in order for me to consider selling my Cocobolo to upgrade. I doubt Zach would do a stabilized resin Aeolus as the price would be too high but if he does I'd be all over it.

 

[Renexx]

Gonna take one hell of an Aeolus drop in order for me to consider selling my Cocobolo to upgrade. I doubt Zach would do a stabilized resin Aeolus as the price would be too high but if he does I'd be all over it.

Not even an epoxy, stabilized or an Aeolus made of gold would get me to sell my lovely cocobolo Aeolus.

Your first ZMF will always be special.
Cruel 3 months of waiting to open the box of the Pandora. Then that glorious sight of your first own ZMF.
Finally the sound that makes everything worth it.
Later bankruptcy because ZMFs sound glorious on tubes and those lightbulbs are getting ridiculously rare and overpriced.
Totally worth it.

 

[haasaaroni]

Gonna take one hell of an Aeolus drop in order for me to consider selling my Cocobolo to upgrade. I doubt Zach would do a stabilized resin Aeolus as the price would be too high but if he does I'd be all over it.

According to the guys on the headphone.com forum it might be canarywood: https://www.wood-database.com/canarywood/

I also never thought I would consider selling my Almond Aeolus, but seeing what Zach and the ZMF team do with this wood might change my mind...

 

[Kevintj604]

According to the guys on the headphone.com forum it might be canarywood: https://www.wood-database.com/canarywood/

I also never thought I would consider selling my Almond Aeolus, but seeing what Zach and the ZMF team do with this wood might change my mind...

If that's the case I won't be upgrading. Canarywood is considerably lighter on the Janka scale especially compared to Cocobolo.

Canarywood - 1520lbf
Cocobolo - 2960lbf

The Canarywood looks very similar in color to my first set of Aeolus which was Mangowood (1070lbf) and I know that the difference in wood is mainly aesthetic but I can also hear a very distinctive difference between both side by side when it comes to speed & decay. I vastly prefer the Cocobolo sound over the Mangowood or Bubinga units that I've previously owned.

My preference leans to harder woods with darker color tones.

All that being said Zach picks some incredible looking wood blocks so I'm sure when they drop I'll be eating my words.

 

[haasaaroni]

If that's the case I won't be upgrading. Canarywood is considerably lighter on the Janka scale especially compared to Cocobolo.

Canarywood - 1520lbf
Cocobolo - 2960lbf

The Canarywood looks very similar in color to my first set of Aeolus which was Mangowood (1070lbf) and I know that the difference in wood is mainly aesthetic but I can also hear a very distinctive difference between both side by side when it comes to speed & decay. I vastly prefer the Cocobolo sound over the Mangowood or Bubinga units that I've previously owned.

My preference leans to harder woods with darker color tones.

All that being said Zach picks some incredible looking wood blocks so I'm sure when they drop I'll be eating my words.

I haven’t tried a set of dense wood Aeolus before, but yeah I’d think the higher density would really benefit the Aeolus’s midbass presentation and relaxed treble.

Still, pretty wood is pretty

 

[Kevintj604]

I haven’t tried a set of dense wood Aeolus before, but yeah I’d think the higher density would really benefit the Aeolus’s midbass presentation and relaxed treble.

Still, pretty wood is pretty

I used to think it wouldn't matter until I heard the Bubinga side by side to the Mangowood. To my ears they were noticeably different.

And now that I have a Cocobolo I've switched my preferred pad (Aeolus Perf) to the Universal Suedes and it opens up the treble substantially. With the Diablo pairing it's unbelievable.

I couldn't imagine them being much better but I haven't tried them on tubes yet.

 

[Renexx]

I used to think it wouldn't matter until I heard the Bubinga side by side to the Mangowood. To my ears they were noticeably different.

And now that I have a Cocobolo I've switched my preferred pad (Aeolus Perf) to the Universal Suedes and it opens up the treble substantially. With the Diablo pairing it's unbelievable.

I couldn't imagine them being much better but I haven't tried them on tubes yet.

Tubes will add richness, flavor and a higher output impeadance like an OTL amp has will add a softer response of the headphone driver.

It sounds like you bought a softer wood to a certain extent. It's the cherry on a cake of synergy in your system.
A very expensive and addicting cherry I might add....be careful.

 

[DenverW]

I prefer the sound of the harder woods, like cocobolo and bubinga. Also, the day I got a light scratch on my maple auteur was a sad one, so I do prefer the harder wood for that as well.

 

[Renexx]

I prefer the sound of the harder woods, like cocobolo and bubinga. Also, the day I got a light scratch on my maple auteur was a sad one, so I do prefer the harder wood for that as well.

Yes the Aeolus definitely sounds superior with harder woods. The stock wood loaner was super reverby and bloated ...but I only had it for some days, my ears were not used to wood reverbs that time. When I received my cocobolo Aeolus I was suprised how different it sounded.

Different ZMFs have different amounts of wood reverbs. For example the VC has much more than the VO. For the fast Verite driver i definitely like some amount of wood reverbs because of its fast driver decay. VO sounds very thin on harder woods.
The Aeolus has more driver decay and doesn't face that "problem" so much.

My olive VC (2700janka) and camphor burl VO(1800janka) seem to have roughly the same amount of reverbs due to open and closed design. That's my sweet spot for both I would say. I choose my ZMFs by hardness of the wood and the sound that I expect to receive by it.
I guess I'm a ZMF Enthusiast...or crazy.

Higher output impedance of your amp also plays into that since it softens the sound also.

 

[PaulProteus]

I've been enjoying a new pair of bocote Aeolus for two weeks now. Got them from Acorn Audio in the UK - ordered about 7pm and they were shipped the same day.

I'm certainly not a headphone expert but they sound really nice to me; really enjoying listening to vocals and acoustic instruments on them. Just one example which jumped out: a song I really like is The Old Shade Tree by Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau, and the muted mandolin at the beginning sounds really lifelike to me with the Aeolus (piano sounds great too).

The Aeolus are plugged into an RME ADI-2 DAC, which is plugged into an Android phone using Qobuz via USB Audio Player Pro in bit perfect mode.

 

[Arghavan]

I've been enjoying a new pair of bocote Aeolus for two weeks now. Got them from Acorn Audio in the UK - ordered about 7pm and they were shipped the same day.

I'm certainly not a headphone expert but they sound really nice to me; really enjoying listening to vocals and acoustic instruments on them. Just one example which jumped out: a song I really like is The Old Shade Tree by Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau, and the muted mandolin at the beginning sounds really lifelike to me with the Aeolus (piano sounds great too).

The Aeolus are plugged into an RME ADI-2 DAC, which is plugged into an Android phone using Qobuz via USB Audio Player Pro in bit perfect mode.

That's a really nice wood grain. definitely try out the universe perf suede pads if you haven't already.

 

[PaulProteus]

That's a really nice wood grain. definitely try out the universe perf suede pads if you haven't already.

Thanks I'll try and track some down at some point! Roughly how do they affect the sound?

 

[Arghavan]

Thanks I'll try and track some down at some point! Roughly how do they affect the sound?

They give it a bit of more spike in the treble, bit more air and detail. Also the bass becomes cleaner and the 1k peak a bit less prominent.

 

[NPWS]

A few years now that's been discontinued. But you can usually find a few per year for sale on the Classifieds. There's a really nice one now for sale in the EU. It came from the U.S., perhaps it will go back? www.head-fi.org/classifieds/woo-audio-wa3.15420/

thanks!

Yes, the WA6 can easily drive the Aeolus. The WA6 has a switch to select low- or high-impedance headphones so it can also drive planar magnetic headphones.

thanks!

I've never gotten to hear the WA6 myself, but I find ZMFs relatively easy to drive for 300ohm cans. Glad @Odin412 was able to chime in with actual experience!

thanks!

Yes, sorry to say. It was discontinued.

yeah, it's alright

Just added the crescent strap to my Aeolus, and it feels so good

is it the same design head support for meze headphones ?

I'll say that I used to own the WA6-SE with the Aeolus (so not the standard WA6) and vastly preferred the sound of the OTL Bottlehead Crack when I got one. Haven't heard a WA3, but as it's an OTL design as well, I would think you'd get a similar magic. Not saying that transformer-coupled tube amps don't pair well, but in the case of the WA6-SE I didn't think the synergy was there.

thank you for your input! I've been thinking about crack bottlehead back then, but still hard to buy this one.

The WA6 can drive them...but I find the synergy is not at peak performance...

I have a new WA6 that is custom/modified to accept 6SN7 tube types...running off a Qutest...IMHO, my Burson Soloist 3XP (MHDT Orchid DAC) does much better vs. WA6 in achieving synergy/magic with Aeolus.

The WA6 is a phenomenal AMP, with tremendous pairing potential, but I really think the Aeolus is capable of much more from OTL or great SS (like Burson, etc. ).

I intend on picking up an OTL: BHC, WA3, Pendant, or Decware.



100% Agree.

interesting, for my current setup(my amp singxer sa-1 and topping a90) still lack of warmth and more intimate vocal, and my relative telling me to get some OTL amps, and he offer to me his WA6.

 

[haasaaroni]

Wasn’t someone looking for one of these?

https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/woo-audio-wa3-otl.21329/