[Blackbriar0216]

I tried Auteur Solid / Auteur Hybrid / Universe Solid / Verite BE2, and although Universe Solid is less bright, unfortunately I like Auteur Hybrid the most. Problem is... the mid-high still annoys me. Now the headphone has around 115-120 Hrs and this issue doesn't seem to subside. Believe it or not... my Utopia with Dana Reference has less fatiguing mid-high than the VC! It's "NOT" unbearable, but this freq sticks out so much that it ruins my listening enjoyment (may be it's just me).

I know many people said headphones cable doesn't make any difference and AudioScienceReview even measured this, but for me, it's not the case at all... I tried the VC with my Cardas Clear SE (copper), and immediately, the mid-high is tamed down, but the Cardas Clear cannot compete in all other areas against my Lavri Silver Grand XLR. As I heard some praise of WyWires Platinum (copper-based), I will order it soon and see if it helps.

If WyWires doesn't help, it's a good time to sell my VC Stab and re-purchase the VO (I had VO Silkwood and loved it with my Lavri cable). I "upgrade" (can we say upgrade?) to VC merely for the look. Hopefully Zach releases VO Stab soon! I'd be first in line!

How do you find the sound quality with Lavri Silver Grand XLR ? As much as I want to have openback headphone, I cant as my partner gets annoyed by sound. I cant think of any other Closed back headphones which does equally or better than VC but with much less mid high.

 

[DougD]

I tried Auteur Solid / Auteur Hybrid / Universe Solid / Verite BE2, and although Universe Solid is less bright, unfortunately I like Auteur Hybrid the most. Problem is... the mid-high still annoys me. Now the headphone has around 115-120 Hrs and this issue doesn't seem to subside. Believe it or not... my Utopia with Dana Reference has less fatiguing mid-high than the VC! It's "NOT" unbearable, but this freq sticks out so much that it ruins my listening enjoyment (may be it's just me).

Selling a VC so quickly seems like such a drastic step.

You might want to try a Schiit Loki (single-ended, $149 USD) or Lokius (Balanced, $299 USD), especially if you have a tendency to hear things as shrill. I use a Loki to dial in a bit of high-end moderation with some of my old Stax h/p that lean towards edgy, and it's a great tool for doing that. And it has an In/Out switch to bypass that circuitry when you are using any other phones that don't need any little tweaks.

 

[Busyman201]

I tried Auteur Solid / Auteur Hybrid / Universe Solid / Verite BE2, and although Universe Solid is less bright, unfortunately I like Auteur Hybrid the most. Problem is... the mid-high still annoys me. Now the headphone has around 115-120 Hrs and this issue doesn't seem to subside. Believe it or not... my Utopia with Dana Reference has less fatiguing mid-high than the VC! It's "NOT" unbearable, but this freq sticks out so much that it ruins my listening enjoyment (may be it's just me).

I know many people said headphones cable doesn't make any difference and AudioScienceReview even measured this, but for me, it's not the case at all... I tried the VC with my Cardas Clear SE (copper), and immediately, the mid-high is tamed down, but the Cardas Clear cannot compete in all other areas against my Lavri Silver Grand XLR. As I heard some praise of WyWires Platinum (copper-based), I will order it soon and see if it helps.

If WyWires doesn't help, it's a good time to sell my VC Stab and re-purchase the VO (I had VO Silkwood and loved it with my Lavri cable). I "upgrade" (can we say upgrade?) to VC merely for the look. Hopefully Zach releases VO Stab soon! I'd be first in line!

have you tried eqing the treble peak of the VC? that would make much more of a difference then swapping cable imo

 

[MatW]

have you tried eqing the treble peak of the VC? that would make much more of a difference then swapping cable imo

That's what I do. A 3-4 dB dip at 5.5 kHz, and I sometimes add a bass shelf, depending on the music.

 

[PrTv]

Probably it is really down to different preference, just like how I tried out the VO and find that it is not my cup of tea. I wouldn't put either one on top of another (VC and VO) and they should be in the same tier, just that it is interesting how a closed and open can using same driver can sound so much different!

Different preference... sure I agree. Initially, I thought VC should basically be the VO "with narrower soundstage" and a bit tighter bass/a bit more energetic treble... It seemed the difference is more drastic than I initially thought. It seems driver tuning and damping can make such a huge change to the sound.

How do you find the sound quality with Lavri Silver Grand XLR ? As much as I want to have openback headphone, I cant as my partner gets annoyed by sound. I cant think of any other Closed back headphones which does equally or better than VC but with much less mid high.

The cable sounds very good with the VC. However, I think it can be a bit on a bright side. I didn't have this issue with the VO, Empyrean or LCD-X with the Lavri Grand though. In my case, this is not too bright or unbearable, and I can still say I like the combo (that mid-high thingy aside!).

[ WARNING for people who think these things make no difference... I respect your opinion and please don't attack me on what I will say here...] However, you should bear in mind that I deliberately tuned my system for the Utopia, from the wall plug, AC cable, USB cable and XLR to my amp, all have "warmer" sound signature (even my music server and DAC are not known to be on the bright side). I can imagine this combo (Lavri + VC) sounds too bright/harsh on other setup.

To be on the safe side, I would stay away from Silver with the VC.

Selling a VC so quickly seems like such a drastic step.

You might want to try a Schiit Loki (single-ended, $149 USD) or Lokius (Balanced, $299 USD), especially if you have a tendency to hear things as shrill. I use a Loki to dial in a bit of high-end moderation with some of my old Stax h/p that lean towards edgy, and it's a great tool for doing that. And it has an In/Out switch to bypass that circuitry when you are using any other phones that don't need any little tweaks.

Thanks for the suggestion. I won't sell my VC until I'm sure that it's not my cup of tea. I still believe there might be some hope after 200-ish hour, or with the help of proper cable (Cardas Clear seemed to fix this problem but the trade off is too big, so there should be some cables out there that fit just right with my setup/sonic preference).

About the amp suggestion, my current amp is Violectric 281 which is known to be on the warmer side. I also have a 300B+274B tube headphone amp in my storage (as I don't have the desk space). Will dig it up if I can't make things work with V281.

have you tried eqing the treble peak of the VC? that would make much more of a difference then swapping cable imo

I wish I could EQ... My music server is Aurender which is connected directly to my DAC via USB. Aurender does not support any EQ or source alteration (none of Aurender model does). It also uses its own OS/ecosystem and does not fully work with Roon. Early next January, I have a plan to upgrade to N20 and even this $12K model doesn't support EQ.

 

[zach915m]

I tried Auteur Solid / Auteur Hybrid / Universe Solid / Verite BE2, and although Universe Solid is less bright, unfortunately I like Auteur Hybrid the most. Problem is... the mid-high still annoys me. Now the headphone has around 115-120 Hrs and this issue doesn't seem to subside. Believe it or not... my Utopia with Dana Reference has less fatiguing mid-high than the VC! It's "NOT" unbearable, but this freq sticks out so much that it ruins my listening enjoyment (may be it's just me).

I know many people said headphones cable doesn't make any difference and AudioScienceReview even measured this, but for me, it's not the case at all... I tried the VC with my Cardas Clear SE (copper), and immediately, the mid-high is tamed down, but the Cardas Clear cannot compete in all other areas against my Lavri Silver Grand XLR. As I heard some praise of WyWires Platinum (copper-based), I will order it soon and see if it helps.

If WyWires doesn't help, it's a good time to sell my VC Stab and re-purchase the VO (I had VO Silkwood and loved it with my Lavri cable). I "upgrade" (can we say upgrade?) to VC merely for the look. Hopefully Zach releases VO Stab soon! I'd be first in line!

1. A full burn in with the Be driver is 300 hours, Im not here to get into any arguments about burn in, but after having many well used VC either come back to the shop or stay in the shop, the difference is very noticeable. Definitely try to be patient and wait for the driver to fully burn in, but I'm not saying either that you will like them after that.

2. If your system is setup for utopia it's probably also optimized via amp for a lower impedance driver. With the damping factor so high, you may have harsher upper mids. An Amp with a higher impedance out will help.

3. Full suede pads will smooth out and further dampen any harshness, as they do make the headphone a touch less boomy but also smoother.

Hope that helps!

 

[PrTv]

1. A full burn in with the Be driver is 300 hours, Im not here to get into any arguments about burn in, but after having many well used VC either come back to the shop or stay in the shop, the difference is very noticeable. Definitely try to be patient and wait for the driver to fully burn in, but I'm not saying either that you will like them after that.

2. If your system is setup for utopia it's probably also optimized via amp for a lower impedance driver. With the damping factor so high, you may have harsher upper mids. An Amp with a higher impedance out will help.

3. Full suede pads will smooth out and further dampen any harshness, as they do make the headphone a touch less boomy but also smoother.

Hope that helps!

Thanks so much for your input Zach.

If I like the headstage/rendition of Auteur Hybrid, but I want it tame the mid-high a bit more, which way should I go? Aiming for Universe Hybrid (will order one), but would that help? I tried Universe Solid but I prefer the rendition (positioning, etc) of Auteur Solid/Hybrid more.

EDIT: Just check your website and see that there is also Auteur Full Suede option... interesting and I might give it a try.

 

[Karnicopia]

I wonder if it’s possible to build an impedance matching box (maybe amps and sound could build one and sell through ZMF website) basically it would just be a pair of resistors that could handle something like 5 watts and you could just have different selections for the input impedance so the output is set to something that works well with ZMF cans and you could select various input impedance to match your amp and it would just switch between different resistor pairs to create beneficial impedance matching for ZMF headphones. Just an idea and maybe something like this would degrade the audio or maybe it wouldn’t work but I think just a pair of resistors is usually pretty transparent (that is usually how amp designers do high vs low gain I believe) but I am pretty far from an expert just an idea.

 

[DeniPhantom]

Is the fulfillment statue on zmf site accurate? will it be updated right after shipping the product?

Mine got updated to fulfilled after shipping, the tracking number given wasn't showing up in FedEx's system but I did notice on my order note section there was another tracking number and that seemed to be the actual tracking number that was being used on my VC.

It shipped yesterday and tracking says scheduled delivery is today but I have a feeling it'll come Monday instead unless FedEx overnight also delivers on Saturdays?

Edit: Ope, it's already near me, I guess it is coming today!

 

[DougD]

Thanks for the suggestion. I won't sell my VC until I'm sure that it's not my cup of tea. I still believe there might be some hope after 200-ish hour, or with the help of proper cable (Cardas Clear seemed to fix this problem but the trade off is too big, so there should be some cables out there that fit just right with my setup/sonic preference).

About the amp suggestion, my current amp is Violectric 281 which is known to be on the warmer side. I also have a 300B+274B tube headphone amp in my storage (as I don't have the desk space). Will dig it up if I can't make things work with V281.


I wish I could EQ... My music server is Aurender which is connected directly to my DAC via USB. Aurender does not support any EQ or source alteration (none of Aurender model does). It also uses its own OS/ecosystem and does not fully work with Roon. Early next January, I have a plan to upgrade to N20 and even this $12K model doesn't support EQ.

Loki and Lokius are hardware analog EQ devices. They intercept the signal between the DAC and the amplifier.

Simple connections if you are using a DAC and a separate amp. Would be hard to use on an integrated DAC+Amp unit, unless the unit had a pre-amp OUT and aux-analog-IN connections.

 

[erics75]

I tried Auteur Solid / Auteur Hybrid / Universe Solid / Verite BE2, and although Universe Solid is less bright, unfortunately I like Auteur Hybrid the most. Problem is... the mid-high still annoys me. Now the headphone has around 115-120 Hrs and this issue doesn't seem to subside. Believe it or not... my Utopia with Dana Reference has less fatiguing mid-high than the VC! It's "NOT" unbearable, but this freq sticks out so much that it ruins my listening enjoyment (may be it's just me).

I know many people said headphones cable doesn't make any difference and AudioScienceReview even measured this, but for me, it's not the case at all... I tried the VC with my Cardas Clear SE (copper), and immediately, the mid-high is tamed down, but the Cardas Clear cannot compete in all other areas against my Lavri Silver Grand XLR. As I heard some praise of WyWires Platinum (copper-based), I will order it soon and see if it helps.

If WyWires doesn't help, it's a good time to sell my VC Stab and re-purchase the VO (I had VO Silkwood and loved it with my Lavri cable). I "upgrade" (can we say upgrade?) to VC merely for the look. Hopefully Zach releases VO Stab soon! I'd be first in line!

in my very humble opinion, try not to analyze the VC much yet as it's burning in still. you'll seriously drive yourself nuts (as i did with mine, personal experience speaking here). how the VC sounds now isn't how it will sound in a few more weeks once the hours pile up on the driver. i would avoid chasing a desired sound signature at this point as the pads/cables you decide on now will not necessarily work once the drivers are fully burned in. if it helps, just hook up a small secondary system for burn in for the VC, plug them in, and set a playlist on repeat, and let it run pretty much 24/7 for a week or two, and listen to other headphones during this period. then come back to the VC when it's fully burned in. i'd hate to see you overreact to the sound now and possibly sell the unit, as once burned in, it may be what you're looking for. and maybe it won't be, but i think it deserves a fair chance before decisions are made. just my opinion though, i understand we're all different. hope either the VC or another VO hit the sweet spot for you!

 

[PrTv]

Loki and Lokius are hardware analog EQ devices. They intercept the signal between the DAC and the amplifier.

Simple connections if you are using a DAC and a separate amp. Would be hard to use on an integrated DAC+Amp unit, unless the unit had a pre-amp OUT and aux-analog-IN connections.

Ahh I didn't know that they're EQ devices. Thanks!

in my very humble opinion, try not to analyze the VC much yet as it's burning in still. you'll seriously drive yourself nuts (as i did with mine, personal experience speaking here). how the VC sounds now isn't how it will sound in a few more weeks once the hours pile up on the driver. i would avoid chasing a desired sound signature at this point as the pads/cables you decide on now will not necessarily work once the drivers are fully burned in. if it helps, just hook up a small secondary system for burn in for the VC, plug them in, and set a playlist on repeat, and let it run pretty much 24/7 for a week or two, and listen to other headphones during this period. then come back to the VC when it's fully burned in. i'd hate to see you overreact to the sound now and possibly sell the unit, as once burned in, it may be what you're looking for. and maybe it won't be, but i think it deserves a fair chance before decisions are made. just my opinion though, i understand we're all different. hope either the VC or another VO hit the sweet spot for you!

Thanks for your sensible advice. Now, I'm still working from home, and can pretty much leave it 24/7 until it reaches 200-300 hour mark. I will see you guys again after that period to consult if the sound isn't to my liking.

 

[YtseJamer]

@PrTv, I highly recommend you to experiment with different pads. I had the same issues you described and now I'm very happy with the Universe Hybrid pads.

 

[RedSleepZZ]

My Mare Nostrum has found its way home! I am blown away with how beautiful they are. I could not be happier .

 

[duranxv]

My Mare Nostrum has found its way home! I am blown away with how beautiful they are. I could not be happier .

Nice! And here I was thinking you were joking, lol. Congrats