Emotive Clarity! That will probably be the title of my CC review. The emotions are visceral with the CC along with Planar clarity. The ZMF emotions of the notes comes first and foremost before the clarity.
I would agree that from memory the CC is darker than the CO. I spent many hours with my CO but had to sell my CO, Susvara and Utopia OG because I was barely getting any open back listening time due to when I listen and the need to not bleed sound or there was too much ambient noise. Even the AC going on and off bothered me with open back HPs.
I am not sure if it is burn in or brain burn but it has taken about 60 hours of burn in and 10 hours of listening for me to become buddy buddy with the CO. I am hearing it as balanced in signature. Neither the bass (AC for example) nor the treble (CO for example) are the stars. They play a great role along with the mids. I cannot handle V shaped IEMs nor HPs. I am not hearing a V shape. The vocals are present and accounted for in a great way.
I do hear an obvious difference when running the CC with Holo Bliss versus with Ferrum Oor/Hypsos stack. Oor is using Holo May L2 with a Khozmo Passive Pre and Bliss is using May KTE with Serene. Oor gives the CC more clarity and intensity. Too much intensity at first but now with burn in/brain burn is just right. Bliss provides CC with more warmth and texture (darkness).
Here is some audio porn with AC and alone:
