[heliosphann]

Life is hard.

Wish I could dislike this post...

 

[2359glenn]

Thanks Zach
I received the Auteur's Friday.
.The Auteur phones these things sound great!!! They beat the HD-800s in everything I never thought any phone could beat the 800s
With the EL3N amp I can plug in both phones and not affect the sound and do a quick A-B and the Auteur beat the 800s with every
kind of music.

Glenn

 

[Monsterzero]

I received the Auteur's Friday.

Did Zach remember to include the memo to send them to me before you send them back?!

 

[2359glenn]

Did Zach remember to include the memo to send them to me before you send them back?!

Why would I send them back they are my best sounding headphone silly monster.

 

[felix3650]

Thanks Zach
I received the Auteur's Friday.
.The Auteur phones these things sound great!!! They beat the HD-800s in everything I never thought any phone could beat the 800s
With the EL3N amp I can plug in both phones and not affect the sound and do a quick A-B and the Auteur beat the 800s with every
kind of music.

Glenn

Come on Glenn, do your magic for the Auteurs! An amp built to bring the best out of Zach's masterpieces

 

[smodtactical]

How does the bass of the auteur compare to the LCD2 and Atticus?

 

[2359glenn]

Come on Glenn, do your magic for the Auteurs! An amp built to bring the best out of Zach's masterpieces

Plan on building a OTL with Jupiter coupling caps may change some of the bias points for the tubes.

 

[gLer]

How does the bass of the auteur compare to the LCD2 and Atticus?

More quality but less quantity in my experience with all three headphones. That said it’s not lacking bass.

 

[jgwtriode]

Well with a few hundred hours about 10 significant tweaks and 3:cable changes I feel like I have a pretty good sense of the Auteurs. I can tell you they are capable of throwing about a 30% larger and deeper stage than you might imagine. How is this possible. Tweaking and fiddling and fine tunning. No electronics changes. Feet, cabling and optimizing system isolation.

My Auteur Blackwoods are also at the same time noticeably faster, more dynamic, more revealing and just a hell of a lot more real than they were a few weeks ago! Total cost about another $800 to 1000, depending on what the new prototype cable ends up costing!

I am not going to argue, debate, or even bother to detail it other than PM if your interested. Most of the staging was accomplished with latest headphone cable. The Slam , Dynamics and noise floor reduction were accomplished by better isolating the DAC and Computer along with a host of other audible improvements.

Pixie dust, sure why not, naysayers call it what you want. I personally prefer fairy dust. And yes I quite enjoy " A Midsummer Night's Dream!". But regardless my system Kicks Ass, and takes no prisoners!

In the End the Auteurs are even better than you have imagined.

Magic yes! Magic is real, as real as you allow your imagination to create! It is that inagination which allows science to move forward! Read about Watson and Crick and DNA!

British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarkeformulated three adages that are known as Clarke's three laws, of which the third law is the best known and most widely cited:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Happy Listening;!!!

 

[commtrd]

Awesome post mate! Agree 100%. Would a Norne Audio Draug pure silver cable serve to enhance the Auteur? Note I have not auditioned Auteur so this is purely speculative for planning purposes. Here is what I am thinking: Yggy dac, Glenn OTL tube amp, Draug II pure silver litz cable, Auteur. I think that would be a fairly respectable setup right there.

 

[Gambitek]

How does the bass of the auteur compare to the LCD2 and Atticus?

Extends further, but Atticus has a very satisfying midbass thump (not a function of quantity of bass, it still thumps harder if you EQ down the midbass by like 8 DB). The Auteur has none. The Auteur's sub bass can rumble decently hard if you EQ it up, but nothing like the satisying deep rumble of the HP-3. All this said, the Auteur still the best headphone I've ever owned. It's mids/timbre/treble are so well done that I credit it as the one headphone that 'cured' me of caring about bass first and foremost. The Auteur responds well to EQ so with some mild EQ it can satisfy most audiophile basslovers (but probably not typical consumer bass lovers).

Here's what I use for my bass settings :

 

[mattkuehn]

Could someone help me understand or describe what I’m hearing -

My Setup:
Lossless FLAC (44.1 - 192k) -> Roon -> UDOO Linux i5 SBC -> Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ -> 4-pin XLR Out and/or Schiit Valhalla 2 -> ZMF Auteur / LCD-2 / Nighthawks.

I find that only on certain tracks I’m hearing distortion(?), maybe a slight static like sound that seems to surround higher frequency guitar notes. It is really evident to me on say King Solomon’s Marbles off of the Dead’s Blues for Allah. I detect it mainly at low volume, as I bring it up it seems to lessen - maybe get covered up?

I don’t really notice it on the Nighthawks but I definitely hear it with the Auteurs and the LCD-2s. To eliminate the Linux box and the Mytek I’ve tried a DAP - the distortion(?) is still there, maybe not quite as evident. I’m wondering if it’s a setup issue on my part or poor recordings. I’m doubting poor recordings because I detect it with maybe 15% of the ‘rock’ music I listen to?

Is low volume distortion a thing? It’s not uncomfortable to bring the volume up enough that the sound goes away, I’m just curious as to what the heck I’m hearing?!

 

[LCMusicLover]

Could someone help me understand or describe what I’m hearing -

My Setup:
Lossless FLAC (44.1 - 192k) -> Roon -> UDOO Linux i5 SBC -> Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ -> 4-pin XLR Out and/or Schiit Valhalla 2 -> ZMF Auteur / LCD-2 / Nighthawks.

I find that only on certain tracks I’m hearing distortion(?), maybe a slight static like sound that seems to surround higher frequency guitar notes. It is really evident to me on say King Solomon’s Marbles off of the Dead’s Blues for Allah. I detect it mainly at low volume, as I bring it up it seems to lessen - maybe get covered up?

I don’t really notice it on the Nighthawks but I definitely hear it with the Auteurs and the LCD-2s. To eliminate the Linux box and the Mytek I’ve tried a DAP - the distortion(?) is still there, maybe not quite as evident. I’m wondering if it’s a setup issue on my part or poor recordings. I’m doubting poor recordings because I detect it with maybe 15% of the ‘rock’ music I listen to?

Is low volume distortion a thing? It’s not uncomfortable to bring the volume up enough that the sound goes away, I’m just curious as to what the heck I’m hearing?!

I can’t tell from your post, but have you listened to the headphone directly out of the Brooklyn (to eliminate Valhalla as source of distortion)? Tube issue?

Is the distortion associated with specific frequencies? Is that entire track, ‘King Solomon’s Marbles’ distorted? I have that album and haven’t noticed distortion on it.

 

[smodtactical]

Extends further, but Atticus has a very satisfying midbass thump (not a function of quantity of bass, it still thumps harder if you EQ down the midbass by like 8 DB). The Auteur has none. The Auteur's sub bass can rumble decently hard if you EQ it up, but nothing like the satisying deep rumble of the HP-3. All this said, the Auteur still the best headphone I've ever owned. It's mids/timbre/treble are so well done that I credit it as the one headphone that 'cured' me of caring about bass first and foremost. The Auteur responds well to EQ so with some mild EQ it can satisfy most audiophile basslovers (but probably not typical consumer bass lovers).

Here's what I use for my bass settings :

How does the auteur compared to the Atticus with electronic dance music / techno or jazz? What do you enjoy more ? Also include the hp3 if you would. If you listen to these genres of course.

 

[Gambitek]

How does the auteur compared to the Atticus with electronic dance music / techno or jazz? What do you enjoy more ? Also include the hp3 if you would. If you listen to these genres of course.

Auteur has the best timbre; nothing sounds 'off' with electronic music and musical instruments/vocals sound very natural. The Atticus has the best timbre for real instruments; despite the satisfying midbass thump, the timbre just seems a bit off for electronic music. The Atticus is just very organic. The HP-3 is the total opposite of the Atticus; electronic music sounds AMAAAAAAAAAAZING but I don't care for the timbre when it comes to real instruments.

HP3 and Atticus have about same soundstage width, Auteur a bit narrower. HP3 has the deepest soundstage of them all, but the Auteur's imaging is the best as well as the 'blackground'.

If you like subbass/boosted treble = HP3 (plus it actually isolates a decent chunk for an open back)
If you like midbass/mids = Atticus (the HP3 has an even bigger boosted midbass, but the Atticus does it better with a nice thump you pretty much only get with closed backs)
If you like Mids/Clarity with acceptable subbass = Auteur.

Electronic = HP3, no question
Jazz = Atticus due to sexy mids, then Auteur
Classical = Auteur/HP-3 then Atticus

Best all rounder = Auteur
Most forgiving of poorly recorded tracks = Atticus (the HP3 and Auteur will reveal crappy mastering very readily, this is kinda a drawback)

Auteur not for consumer bassheads.