ZMF Auteur Thread

[zach915m]

How would someone go about making their own wooden cups for ZMF headphones, mainly worried about the Auteur due to the grill. Just asking because I like the look of Ziricote.

For those interested in alternate wood, my goal is to make as many types of wood available over the course of each year as possible. To do that we are going to cut down on inventory, have only one stock wood available for each cup type, and run limited editions like we are with the blackwood auteur. These limited runs will last until the batch of wood we bought for that limited is out, it may vary in the size of the run based on how much wood we are able to get for each one.

Zitricote is a great wood, I hope to be able to do a limited run at some point, it is expensive though and would likely be the same price as the African blackwood sets depending on how we're able to get the wood.

 

[Daemon Ursus]

How would someone go about making their own wooden cups for ZMF headphones, mainly worried about the Auteur due to the grill. Just asking because I like the look of Ziricote.

Uh, that would be quite difficult. To say nothing at all of voided warranties on very expensive headphones, I know these are precision milled. I'm sure you could hand make your own cups, but I doubt they are going to sound as good, and it is going to be a huge amount of work. I think a better option would be to let Zach know you are interested in a pair made out of that wood type and see if he has any interest in doing one of the limited runs in that wood.

 

[Daemon Ursus]

Uh, that would be quite difficult. To say nothing at all of voided warranties on very expensive headphones, I know these are precision milled. I'm sure you could hand make your own cups, but I doubt they are going to sound as good, and it is going to be a huge amount of work. I think a better option would be to let Zach know you are interested in a pair made out of that wood type and see if he has any interest in doing one of the limited runs in that wood.

Zach, you are too fast, beat me to the punch.

 

[AppleheadMay]

@givemetacos

Ah, I wasn't looking for that color. Don't like purpleheart or something that looks like it.
I love the blackwood and camphor though.
I wonder what the teak will be like, probably very nice from what I know from teak. No pics here yet as far as I can remember?

 

[PacoTaco]

@givemetacos

Ah, I wasn't looking for that color. Don't like purpleheart or something that looks like it.
I love the blackwood and camphor though.
I wonder what the teak will be like, probably very nice from what I know from teak. No pics here yet as far as I can remember?

Depends on the purple heart honestly. An aged one looks pretty tasteful. (Here's the link since it's not letting me add in the image for whatever reason: https://imgur.com/BMP6lH0

 

[humzebra]

How is the mids balance taco? I could use a little more with the eikon, but highs and lows I prefer to atticus where atticus has nice warm midrange, very nice for vocals. Your photo with the auteur above the atticus makes them look huge!

 

[givemetacos]

How is the mids balance taco? I could use a little more with the eikon, but highs and lows I prefer to atticus where atticus has nice warm midrange, very nice for vocals. Your photo with the auteur above the atticus makes them look huge!

Haha that photo was supposed to show how much narrower the cups are in the Auteur vs Atticus, but yeah the perspective angle does make the Auteur look massive.

The mids are very very good. Honestly, they might be my favorite mids on any can. I would compare them to HD650, pretty much the same way I also hear Atticus mids. That same warm lushness. I only heard the Eikon a few weeks back at a meet, so I can't do a direct comparison, but I do remember preferring Atticus mids to Eikon at the time. I think I remember feeling the upper mids of lower treble on Eikon could sound slightly off. The Auteur doesn't have that at all. They are also quite forward, similar to how HD600/650 is. And like I said before, one of my complaints about HD800 is that the mids and the presence region feel a tad recessed to me and I missed that vocal weight in the mix. The Auteur really hits that perfectly for me. I find one of the best strengths of Auteur is tonal balance. Even though I use EQ on some of my headphones, I just don't see a reason for it on Auteur. Especially with the 2 pad options you even have that added flexibility. I just wouldn't recommend the Auteur if you tend to favor brighter cans like the Beyer house sound.

 

[endgame]

Haha that photo was supposed to show how much narrower the cups are in the Auteur vs Atticus, but yeah the perspective angle does make the Auteur look massive.

The mids are very very good. Honestly, they might be my favorite mids on any can. I would compare them to HD650, pretty much the same way I also hear Atticus mids. That same warm lushness. I only heard the Eikon a few weeks back at a meet, so I can't do a direct comparison, but I do remember preferring Atticus mids to Eikon at the time. I think I remember feeling the upper mids of lower treble on Eikon could sound slightly off. The Auteur doesn't have that at all. They are also quite forward, similar to how HD600/650 is. And like I said before, one of my complaints about HD800 is that the mids and the presence region feel a tad recessed to me and I missed that vocal weight in the mix. The Auteur really hits that perfectly for me. I find one of the best strengths of Auteur is tonal balance. Even though I use EQ on some of my headphones, I just don't see a reason for it on Auteur. Especially with the 2 pad options you even have that added flexibility. I just wouldn't recommend the Auteur if you tend to favor brighter cans like the Beyer house sound.

Can you talk about the soundstage? How does it compare to the he1000 for example?

 

[Gym_Turtle]

Uh, that would be quite difficult. To say nothing at all of voided warranties on very expensive headphones, I know these are precision milled. I'm sure you could hand make your own cups, but I doubt they are going to sound as good, and it is going to be a huge amount of work. I think a better option would be to let Zach know you are interested in a pair made out of that wood type and see if he has any interest in doing one of the limited runs in that wood.

Yea, I’m aware of that. Really just asked the question for the sake of asking the question, as I really want to get the Auteurs at the pre-order discount and I don’t know if I can wait for a Ziricote limited run.

 

[Daemon Ursus]

Yea, I’m aware of that. Really just asked the question for the sake of asking the question, as I really want to get the Auteurs at the pre-order discount and I don’t know if I can wait for a Ziricote limited run.

Your best option in that case imo would be to just buy the Teak and when/if he does a run of Ziricote, list your teaks for sale and buy the new ones. You will lose a little bit of money doing that, but because of the pre-order discount, I doubt it would be more than a hundred or so. If you don't wish to wait, and you really want Ziricote, I think that would be the best option for you.

 

[givemetacos]

Can you talk about the soundstage? How does it compare to the he1000 for example?

It has been a few months since I have heard the HE-1000, but I don't recall it having an amazing soundstage. At least not on the level of HD800. And even Utopia doesn't have a super wide soundstage, but I feel it does something unique in creating a 3D space. Really, those are the only cans that I immediately heard something very special and unique when first listening to them. Most other open headphones that aren't particularly warm and don't roll off treble (e.g. HD650, pre-fazor LCD-2) tend to feel about the same to me. I think Auteur sort of fits in this middle region in that it isn't notably super wide, but it doesn't feel congested in any sense. It doesn't feel like a closed can. Eikon and Atticus both feel like they have a good size soundstage, particularly for closed headphones, but they still have that closed headphone feeling. Auteur feels open as any other open headphone. There is good air in the treble and instrument separation is also good. I would probably compare it to like 2016 LCD-2, DT1990, or HE-560 if you are familiar with those cans.

 

[Erikson2k]

For those interested in alternate wood, my goal is to make as many types of wood available over the course of each year as possible. To do that we are going to cut down on inventory, have only one stock wood available for each cup type, and run limited editions like we are with the blackwood auteur. These limited runs will last until the batch of wood we bought for that limited is out, it may vary in the size of the run based on how much wood we are able to get for each one.

Zitricote is a great wood, I hope to be able to do a limited run at some point, it is expensive though and would likely be the same price as the African blackwood sets depending on how we're able to get the wood.

Wow, looking up Zitricote wood, looks fantastic.

Not sure anymore if Zach is a headphone maker first, or a carpenter.

 

[whirlwind]

For those interested in alternate wood, my goal is to make as many types of wood available over the course of each year as possible. To do that we are going to cut down on inventory, have only one stock wood available for each cup type, and run limited editions like we are with the blackwood auteur. These limited runs will last until the batch of wood we bought for that limited is out, it may vary in the size of the run based on how much wood we are able to get for each one.

Zitricote is a great wood, I hope to be able to do a limited run at some point, it is expensive though and would likely be the same price as the African blackwood sets depending on how we're able to get the wood.

What a great idea Zach, this will make each headphone more personal to the owner as there will only be so many of each wood type.

Will this also be the case for Atticus & Eikon ?

 

[Gym_Turtle]

For those interested in alternate wood, my goal is to make as many types of wood available over the course of each year as possible. To do that we are going to cut down on inventory, have only one stock wood available for each cup type, and run limited editions like we are with the blackwood auteur. These limited runs will last until the batch of wood we bought for that limited is out, it may vary in the size of the run based on how much wood we are able to get for each one.

Zitricote is a great wood, I hope to be able to do a limited run at some point, it is expensive though and would likely be the same price as the African blackwood sets depending on how we're able to get the wood.

Are you going to release the limited runs based on demand, whenever you have reasonable supply, or some other method?

 

[Netherwind]

What a great idea Zach, this will make each headphone more personal to the owner as there will only be so many of each wood type.

Will this also be the case for Atticus & Eikon ?

Not Zach, but Atticus and Eikon will be Camphor, as far as I am aware.