[Gym_Turtle]

How is the consistency of the manufacturing and tuning of the Auteur or ZMF headphones in general? Just curious.

 

[zach915m]

How is the consistency of the manufacturing and tuning of the Auteur or ZMF headphones in general? Just curious.

We driver match and throw out about 15-20% percent or so of our drivers and then they go through two more stages of testing. Every set gets listened to and measured to match our "golden" curve by me before shipment. I like it this way as it may be slightly slower, but I need to know exactly what's going out!

 

[Gym_Turtle]

We driver match and throw out about 15-20% percent or so of our drivers and then they go through two more stages of testing. Every set gets listened to and measured to match our "golden" curve by me before shipment. I like it this way as it may be slightly slower, but I need to know exactly what's going out!

Seems to have paid off, considering the amount of praise ZMF gets for and the lack of issues I’ve seen coming from people on Head-Fi.

Also, did you ever end up doing the AMA for the ZMF Auteurs on Reddit?

 

[zach915m]

Seems to have paid off, considering the amount of praise ZMF gets for and the lack of issues I’ve seen coming from people on Head-Fi.

Also, did you ever end up doing the AMA for the ZMF Auteurs on Reddit?

Yeah things have been going well! I'd rather keep us growing slowly and steadily and keep quality as high as possible.

The Reddit AMA will be tomorrow, thursday evening at 5PM CST.

 

[whirlwind]

We driver match and throw out about 15-20% percent or so of our drivers and then they go through two more stages of testing. Every set gets listened to and measured to match our "golden" curve by me before shipment. I like it this way as it may be slightly slower, but I need to know exactly what's going out!

That is awesome. I love the fact your are listening to all of the headphones, seems like a great business model to me.
i would much rather wait and know the love that actually went into them.

 

[givemetacos]

What would you say about the bass on the Auteur? I'd like to hear them at some point for sure. Are they bass lite compared to the HP-3? Not good for EDM? Do they have a high value on aesthetics? Are they a fun headphone? Are they a killer headphone? I think I would really like to hear them!

The bass on Auteur is very flat and neutral, but I wouldn't call it bass-light as I would with HD800. Think LCD-2F type of bass. Just flat, punchy, and well textured, but not particularly emphasized with a boost or extra hump. Because the sub-bass feels as well extended as planars, I think Auteur can handle every genre including EDM fine. That said, when I listen to really slamming electronic music I tend to prefer more U or V shaped headphones to overly emphasize the bass impact, which is when I typically go for my Atticus, TH-X00, or EMU Teak. The Auteur doesn't have that thick bass bloom that those headphones have, but it is still punchy and impactful down low. I find the Auteur to be aesthetically pleasing and one of the most gorgeous headphones I have seen. Because they are very neutral and more in the "reference" level category, they aren't what I would call "fun" headphones as I reserve that term for the U/V-shaped colored sound signatures. But they aren't boring at all. Auteur is very musical, dynamic, and engaging. I am going to be posting up my full review of it in the next couple days in this thread with lots of comparisons to other headphones.

I'm kind of in the same boat. I really want 2 headphones.

One fun, bassy, energetic and another more neutral, airy, smooth, and lush

The first headphone I would say can be accomplished with Atticus as that is exactly why I own it. But it isn't hot in the treble like a U/V-shaped headphone so depending if you prefer that or not will determine if that could be a good fit. If you need more sparkly treble, then go for the Fostex variants. For the second headphone choice you basically described the Auteur =)

 

[Gym_Turtle]

Yeah things have been going well! I'd rather keep us growing slowly and steadily and keep quality as high as possible.

The Reddit AMA will be tomorrow, thursday evening at 5PM CST.

That sounds great! Maybe it’s finally time for me to dust off my Reddit account!

 

[rgs9200m]

The Fostex TH900 I had for years was just too easily excitable when fed particular music tracks. This was both in the bass and treble (and in many vocals).
My Atticus and Eikon keep their cool without nasty surprises, and that's how I like it. But still, they are nice and revealing, just not ruthlessly so. Again, a Goldilocks approach, not too hot, not too cold, just right.
I hope the Auteur is in the same camp.

 

[rgs9200m]

So are there any thoughts on any possible sonic differences between the 2 wood types available for the Auteur? Or is that basically a non-issue sonically? Thanks.

 

[zach915m]

So are there any thoughts on any possible sonic differences between the 2 wood types available for the Auteur? Or is that basically a non-issue sonically? Thanks.

I find the Blackwood and harder wood a little faster and more robust sounding, it very slightly noticeable in the transients, the difference is less than in the Eikon but still noticeable. It's not better or worse than Teak just different really as teak is generally fast, smooth and coherent.

 

[heliosphann]

I've heard the Balsa wood Auteur's are the best sounding!

 

[Gym_Turtle]

Does anyone have pictures of the wood presentation case?

 

[rgs9200m]

So it sounds like the Teak is more Atticus-y and the Blackwood is more Eikon-y.

 

[zach915m]

Does anyone have pictures of the wood presentation case?

I'll have pictures of the case next week on the site. It's just being finalized now.

So it sounds like the Teak is more Atticus-y and the Blackwood is more Eikon-y.

Really neither will sound like the Eikon or Atticus, when I talk about the ever so slight variation in wood species it's the texture and timbre I'm speaking of not so much the frequency response. If I had to compare the auteur to eikon and Atticus, I'd say the most alike traits are the eikons linearity and the atticus' ease of note presentation.

 

[Hansotek]

Really neither will sound like the Eikon or Atticus, when I talk about the ever so slight variation in wood species it's the texture and timbre I'm speaking of not so much the frequency response. If I had to compare the auteur to eikon and Atticus, I'd say the most alike traits are the eikons linearity and the atticus' ease of note presentation.

I hadn't thought of it in this way before, but I think that's pretty spot-on.