ZMF Auteur Thread

[TheOnetoWin]

I was 'planning' to sell my Auteurs when I bought a Caldera....a year and a half ago...
Glad to hear you're enjoying them.

Also I don't know what your chain is, but the Auteurs scale like champs. Mine have followed me from a JDS Element 3 up to my current system and have only gotten better and better.

Haha yeah. I have the Caldera, AC, and Bokeh Closed coming, so the plan was to sell one of them to keep a steady rotation of 3 headphones. I thought it'd be between the Auteur and the Bokeh, but it may come down to the Bokeh and Atrium lol.

And right now I'm using the Element 4.

 

[ch1525i]

Haha yeah. I have the Caldera, AC, and Bokeh Closed coming, so the plan was to sell one of them to keep a steady rotation of 3 headphones. I thought it'd be between the Auteur and the Bokeh, but it may come down to the Bokeh and Atrium lol.

And right now I'm using the Element 4.

i also have an element iv and use it with all my ZMFs: AuC, BO, BCx2, VO, AC. They all scale really well to my Sparkos Gemini setup

 

[LXMc]

Haha yeah. I have the Caldera, AC, and Bokeh Closed coming, so the plan was to sell one of them to keep a steady rotation of 3 headphones. I thought it'd be between the Auteur and the Bokeh, but it may come down to the Bokeh and Atrium lol.

And right now I'm using the Element 4.

I had the same 4 for a brief point. The AC replaced the Bokeh (but the Bokeh is no slouch either).

 

[TheOnetoWin]

I had the same 4 for a brief point. The AC replaced the Bokeh (but the Bokeh is no slouch either).

Yeah I have a feeling the Bokeh is what I'll end up selling too mainly because of comfort (it was pretty clampy on my head the last time I used one), but I still have a few weeks before they arrive so I'll be enjoying the Auteur in the meantime.

 

[Livnmuskoka]

My current headphones are Auteur Classic's and HD600's. But I don't use the HD600's for music anymore, they are disappointing compared to the AC's. But I'll still use them for watching movies, to keep the wear down on the AC's, and personally I don't need as much perfect sound for movies as I do music.
I'm driving the AC's from a Wiim pro plus with some mild EQ, into a fully balanced Bryston BDA-2 dac and BHA-1 headphone amp combo and it sounds amazing.
After several headphones, including planars, I find I prefer dynamic drivers. I think the Atrium open might be the only upgrade for me now.
Or maybe after owning speakers with the Raal 70-20 x-ram tweeters, I'd like to hear the new Raal Immanis headphones. But at their price it would be a hard pass for me.

 

[Nayyte]

@Livnmuskoka The HD600 is weird. I've found that it is seriously chain picky. The more sterile and neutral the dac is, the worse the HD600 sounds; and the bryston dacs are like this. Not saying they are bad, but headphones are nutorious on their chain preference. I've had great results with my HD600 driven from R2R dacs of any variety, and with either tube amps or vintage stereos. I had a Nakamichi Receiver-2 and it's headphone stage was very simple and strong. My suspicion is that the HD600, unlike the HD650, sounds far more pleasing with low gain/high current amplifiers and that when you plug it into something with excessive power output, it sounds uncontrolled and fatiguing.

 

[Livnmuskoka]

@Livnmuskoka The HD600 is weird. I've found that it is seriously chain picky. The more sterile and neutral the dac is, the worse the HD600 sounds; and the bryston dacs are like this. Not saying they are bad, but headphones are nutorious on their chain preference. I've had great results with my HD600 driven from R2R dacs of any variety, and with either tube amps or vintage stereos. I had a Nakamichi Receiver-2 and it's headphone stage was very simple and strong. My suspicion is that the HD600, unlike the HD650, sounds far more pleasing with low gain/high current amplifiers and that when you plug it into something with excessive power output, it sounds uncontrolled and fatiguing.

I think the HD600's sound great with the Bryston combo and scale up pretty high, just not as good as the Auteur.
Not night and day, especially when EQ'd to a similar response, but I find the Auteur's are a little better in every way.

 

[Livnmuskoka]

Just bought a used Benchmark Dac3 B to try with the Bryston bha-1 and AC's.
The Bryston Bda-2 is already an excellent DAC, so I don't think the Benchmark is going to be much of an upgrade, if any.
But I've been wanting to try a Dac3 for awhile.

 

[jmanpd]

Wooo! Officially part of the Auteur club! Wonderful sounding headphone. Best among all the dynamics I've heard so far

 

[erics75]

Wooo! Officially part of the Auteur club! Wonderful sounding headphone. Best among all the dynamics I've heard so far

Amen! I adore my Auteurs. Give me them and a good tube amp, and set me on that deserted island, i'll be just fine, thank you

 

[bagwell359]

I think the HD600's sound great with the Bryston combo and scale up pretty high, just not as good as the Auteur.
Not night and day, especially when EQ'd to a similar response, but I find the Auteur's are a little better in every way.

Agree on the R2R DAC for any transducers. HD-600 does great on OTL tubes and SS amps that deliver lots of current at 300 ohms.

I have heard the HD-600 on the BHA-1 and the Ragnarok 1 and 2, and the HD-600 sounds better on the v-281 and even better on the BHC, BHCs, Echo 2.

That being said, I think the Auteurs are better then the HD-600 overall (for 5 x the price).

 

[Livnmuskoka]

Agree on the R2R DAC for any transducers. HD-600 does great on OTL tubes and SS amps that deliver lots of current at 300 ohms.

I have heard the HD-600 on the BHA-1 and the Ragnarok 1 and 2, and the HD-600 sounds better on the v-281 and even better on the BHC, BHCs, Echo 2.

That being said, I think the Auteurs are better then the HD-600 overall (for 5 x the price).

I honestly haven't given the HD600's that much attention in the last few years since I've owned them.
I already had a nice home theatre system to use when I bought them, and had an RME adi-2 dac and LCD-3F before that.
And now I have the AC's and an endgame stereo system, so never used them much.
I haven't owned records since I was a kid and the stereo systems I've heard with tubes never impressed me much.
I would like to hear the 600's and AC's on a tube amp someday, but not enough to buy one.
I really love the BDA-2/BHA-1/AC combo.
I've tried the AC's from my Michi X3 headphone output, and while it doesn't have a dead silent noise floor like the Bryston's, it does have a nice, warm, euphonic kinda sound to it that I'm guessing a tube amp might bring.
But having a silent noise floor and crystal clarity are things I can't give up.

 

[bagwell359]

I honestly haven't given the HD600's that much attention in the last few years since I've owned them.
I already had a nice home theatre system to use when I bought them, and had an RME adi-2 dac and LCD-3F before that.
And now I have the AC's and an endgame stereo system, so never used them much.
I haven't owned records since I was a kid and the stereo systems I've heard with tubes never impressed me much.
I would like to hear the 600's and AC's on a tube amp someday, but not enough to buy one.
I really love the BDA-2/BHA-1/AC combo.
I've tried the AC's from my Michi X3 headphone output, and while it doesn't have a dead silent noise floor like the Bryston's, it does have a nice, warm, euphonic kinda sound to it that I'm guessing a tube amp might bring.
But having a silent noise floor and crystal clarity are things I can't give up.

Try a Feliks Echo 2 - very quiet and accurate. Until I heard the 600 w/ an OTL tube I used it rarely. After I heard it I broke my 25 year no tube rule to buy one to drive it. Check out the main 600 thread on HF - there are dozens that agree its something special - the 600 paired w an OTL amp. 600 is for timbre for non amplified music, to those that don't care its nothing special for rock or pop recordings of average or lesser quality.

BTW there are a pile of people that like ZMF's on tubes better than SS. For big sound try the Aegis tube amp which ZMF recommends. Heard it last month and it blew away some very good Violectric SS amps, and was in the same class as the Stellaris.

 

[Livnmuskoka]

Try a Feliks Echo 2 - very quiet and accurate. Until I heard the 600 w/ an OTL tube I used it rarely. After I heard it I broke my 25 year no tube rule to buy one to drive it. Check out the main 600 thread on HF - there are dozens that agree its something special - the 600 paired w an OTL amp. 600 is for timbre for non amplified music, to those that don't care its nothing special for rock or pop recordings of average or lesser quality.

BTW there are a pile of people that like ZMF's on tubes better than SS. For big sound try the Aegis tube amp which ZMF recommends. Heard it last month and it blew away some very good Violectric SS amps, and was in the same class as the Stellaris.

Thanks for the recommendations. I'll have to take my headphones to a shop to try some tube amps someday.

 

[Nayyte]

My listening habbits are sometimes disappointing in hindsight. Simply because I have a bad habbit of not listening to my Auteur OG at all for months on end, because I know how good it is and I want to care about other headphones/don't want to spoil myself (?).

For months and months I have been searching for bliss with different combinations of gear, throwing every listening session into chaos when I couldn't make sense of my emotion. "I have all this stuff slapped together, so why doesn't it sound as good as I thought?"-me, the past week. "Surely this time must be different", I think to myself moments before plugging in my auteurs this evening. Nope, still amazing.

With no other headphone have I experienced such instant gratification and relief. Relief that I don't have to question my chain or my decisions in this hobby. The ability of this headphone is immaculate. No other headphone I've tried has such power over the recording than these. It can just say "Nah, screw all the little crap that was bugging this up. I'm just gonna give you the music; enjoy". The Auteur is the answer.

PS: I really wish it wasn't also so damn good at telling me my tubes are noisy xD