[David A Silva]

Thanks to @DimitriSF I now own a fine set of verite closed stabilised blue maple burl! Listening to SD Gaucho now, digging the tonal balance and staging. Thanks to members here who put the idea in my head!

 

[AudioDuck]

Thanks to @DimitriSF I now own a fine set of verite closed stabilised blue maple burl! Listening to SD Gaucho now, digging the tonal balance and staging. Thanks to members here who put the idea in my head!

Those are lovely- congratulations!

 

[9bphillips]

Can anyone tell me is there a way to make the cups tighter as far as swiveling in and out? I dont mean the side to side swivel that the rods do but the in and out swivel of the gimbal. I'm just curious. I was looking at my Zmf cans and got to wondering.

 

[whirlwind]

Happy Thanksgiving to all

 

[Wes S]

Happy Thanksgiving to all

Right back at ya brother and to all as well!

 

[wkesquire]

Kingwood Caldera on the way, but I’ll never let these go!

 

[sp33ls]

Kingwood Caldera on the way, but I’ll never let these go!

Beautiful. I feel like the Caldera launch has drawn some attention away from some of the other ZMF's, particularly the two beryllium models. And, rightfully so -- when Zach drops a new model, everyone takes notice.

But, here I am with my VC plugged into my OTL just admiring Zach's genius with these cans. They're not the phones that immediately and bombastically wow the listener at Canjam, but rather, subtly and consistently impresses the owner over time.

Or maybe it's just that my Blackwoods are aging like a Stradivarius...

 

[David A Silva]

Kingwood Caldera on the way, but I’ll never let these go!

The grain on these olive VCs is to die for! Beautiful!

 

[jgwtriode]

Beautiful. I feel like the Caldera launch has drawn some attention away from some of the other ZMF's, particularly the two beryllium models. And, rightfully so -- when Zach drops a new model, everyone takes notice.

But, here I am with my VC plugged into my OTL just admiring Zach's genius with these cans. They're not the phones that immediately and bombastically wow the listener at Canjam, but rather, subtly and consistently impresses the owner over time.

Or maybe it's just that my Blackwoods are aging like a Stradivarius...

Absolutely agreed! Love my leopardwood VC's and with changes to the DAC and running a DDC to convert input to I2S instead of USB input, they have drastically improved. The leopardwoods grow on you and then just when you think you know them a few well considered upgrades they scale with abandon!

My Airmid sings far more splendidly now with the VC's then it used to even a month ago and strategic tuning and rf filtering in both the headphone itself, internally, and RJ45 Rf common mode filtering have demonstrated that a significant portion of any hardness or brightness to the Be driver is not; in fact, the beryllium.

Also some strategic improved placement of footers under the amp and the DDC have also improved things along with some fuse changes.

The VC's are more detailed, musical, layered, spacious and airy extended sweet and dare I say it! ! Liquid and smooth! And there is more to be extracted with some extra attention to streaming improvement and better power supply filtering and grounding.

My new years resolution, already planned, and where tax dollars will probably go. Goldwerger's comments regarding the VC possibly being the best all around
ZMF option if you could only keep one., squarely in between the Atrium and the Caldera, have caused me to rethink my first of the year planned purchases. Atrium Closed is the most likely later next year I would suspect.

But hot damn I love the sound I have right now!

Happy listening,

jgwtriode

 

[jgwtriode]

Currently obsessed with optimizing everything I can in my system to improve my streaming. In prep for going HQplayer next year unless Marcin at Jplay/Jcat releases their IOS interface and I decide to take a bite of the Apple. Sorting that out bit by bit as I try to get a handle on how to implement HQplayer with Qobuz. I do have it sounding quite ridiculous considering I have no Roon or HQplayer working with it right now. Fidelizer 9.8, Audiophile Optimizer 3, Process Lasso latest beta, Trusted Installer, Majiority Clean 299, Lemonade Elite 61(those last three for memory jitter reduction). And finally ThrottleStop 9.5 for underclocking and undervolting. Already mentioned a few other things.

So what more? Tweaking under the computer to stabilize and isolate the tower. Layers of complication and tweakieness, not to belabor all that lets talk about the last layer directly under the tower. A porcelain plate about 3/8" inches thick and Mad Sci Audio Blackpod Nano feet. my favorite. Fiddling with the DDC, DAC and Airmid and footer position of same feet had me rethinking my footer arrangement.

Reversed the bearings and placed the two ceramics under the back where there is more weight and the single tungsten carbide under the front. Faced the balls up to the porcelain plate and the carbon graphene bases down to the Mapleshade Block. Good as it previously was, it's more alive, vibrant, bouncy and musically involving. Can you say PRAT. Oh yeah! There is a bit more organic natural warmth across the frequency range. More punch and kick, but it is also more relaxing and open, detail may be better but it is definitely more even across the range and everything integrates better. The VC sounds more organic and even less like headphones per say. Thought I had it pretty well set up, but this is quite a bit better.

This from simply not having the feet ideally positioned under the computer. That made all this difference and it becomes more obvious the more I am listening.

The VC and Airmid are insanely capable!

Merry listening and hopefully some Happy new Gear, bring on the holidays!

jgwtriode

 

[Wes S]

Currently obsessed with optimizing everything I can in my system to improve my streaming. In prep for going HQplayer next year unless Marcin at Jplay/Jcat releases their IOS interface and I decide to take a bite of the Apple. Sorting that out bit by bit as I try to get a handle on how to implement HQplayer with Qobuz. I do have it sounding quite ridiculous considering I have no Roon or HQplayer working with it right now. Fidelizer 9.8, Audiophile Optimizer 3, Process Lasso latest beta, Trusted Installer, Majiority Clean 299, Lemonade Elite 61(those last three for memory jitter reduction). And finally ThrottleStop 9.5 for underclocking and undervolting. Already mentioned a few other things.

So what more? Tweaking under the computer to stabilize and isolate the tower. Layers of complication and tweakieness, not to belabor all that lets talk about the last layer directly under the tower. A porcelain plate about 3/8" inches thick and Mad Sci Audio Blackpod Nano feet. my favorite. Fiddling with the DDC, DAC and Airmid and footer position of same feet had me rethinking my footer arrangement.

Reversed the bearings and placed the two ceramics under the back where there is more weight and the single tungsten carbide under the front. Faced the balls up to the porcelain plate and the carbon graphene bases down to the Mapleshade Block. Good as it previously was, it's more alive, vibrant, bouncy and musically involving. Can you say PRAT. Oh yeah! There is a bit more organic natural warmth across the frequency range. More punch and kick, but it is also more relaxing and open, detail may be better but it is definitely more even across the range and everything integrates better. The VC sounds more organic and even less like headphones per say. Thought I had it pretty well set up, but this is quite a bit better.

This from simply not having the feet ideally positioned under the computer. That made all this difference and it becomes more obvious the more I am listening.

The VC and Airmid are insanely capable!

Merry listening and hopefully some Happy new Gear, bring on the holidays!

jgwtriode

I love reading your post, and as a tweaker/optimizer myself I think it's totally worth the effort. The VC sound so right when everything is dialed in around them, and honestly every time I listen with them I am so satisfied that I want for nothing. I have only messed with power conditioners (Puritan PSM136), cables (Audio Envy & Norne) and fuses (Audio Magic M1) so far, of which all made a difference for the better and I plan to start trying out footers/vibration control on all my gear very soon. I still plan on getting the Caldera Closed in the future, but as it stands right now I could be totally happy forever with my VC's and current system. They truly are a very special headphone that let you hear every tweak to the system and respond so well when you get it right.

Happy tweaking/optimizing and listening!

 

[breckstar]

Had a pad listening session last night and thought I would just share some of my thoughts with some leather pads: verite, be2, auteur, universe, and aeolus.

dac: focusrite 2i4
amp: sw51+ (55 ohm output)
hp: olivewood vc

taylor swift - state of grace [taylor's version] // mainstream

verite - lightest low end, mids and highs shine on these, vocals just in your face
be2 - tight, vocals front center, stage is back, bass guitar definition is back,
auteur - toms a bit fuller, deeper sound, kick is more present, vocals not as far forward, more in line with guitars
universe - toms even more full, deeper tone, kick hits harder, stage little smaller than auteur pads
aeolus - low end just sounds constant, not a lot of clear definition on bass guitar, toms, kick doesn't sound tight like other pads


underoath - paper lung // rock

verite - low end is present just not hitting hard, everything is easy to pick out, vocals and guitar pretty balanced
be2 - just breaths enough compared to verite pads, bass is more present, guitars got a little more meat, toms are fuller
auteur - most space in stage, vocals seem most distant, bass guitar has best sound/texture
universe - low end drives through, toms attack/decay is not as defined but still very full
aeolus - just like universe but with more low end, also makes it seem like highs are recessed cymbals in particular

august burns red - white washed 2022 // metal & speed

verite - too thin sounding, bass really feels like its shelved off
be2 - for me, most balanced, i like tight bass in metal and this feels the snappiest and not over exentuated
auteur - everything is just bigger, stage is bigger, toms are bigger, guitars although not as present as the universe/aeolus occupy their space in the mix correctly
universe - tighter than auteur, bass little thicker, more aggressive
aeolus - universe on the juice, guitars just have so much more weight, most forward in the mix, toms in intro just richer

snarky puppy - flood // technical

verite - most technically captivating, slightly less kick/bass compared to be2
be2 - most technically captivating
auteur - most relaxing
universe - just okay nothing good nothing bad
aeolus - all attention is on kick and bass guitar in a good way, too much of a good thing at 5:52 starts to be overwhelming and had to turn it down, really shines in the not busy passages

stranger things - separate ways remix // emotion/hype

verite - just feels like your listening to your phone speakers, just no oomph
be2 - emotion is back over verite, but still isn't hitting like universe
auteur - vocals too distant, hits aren't has impactful as universe
universe - this pad hypes me the most
aeolus - just one ups the universe

blade runner 2049 - 2049 // bass texture

verite - similar to be2
be2 - i feel like this actually hits in my ear harder than the auteur pads, but i think it is because it is skirting the vibration line going in and out causing focus on it,
auteur - slight rumble and vibration, more spacious
universe - big, vibrates, digging deep, a touch spicy
aeolus - big, vibrates, digging deep, texture for years

I hope to be able to hear the hybrids and suedes some time and do this again. cheers and courage.

 

[Exekuhtor]

I may part ways with my VC.
It's a fantastic headphone but i realized that i enjoy a bump in the air frequencies (10k+). I A/B'ed the VC with a DT1990 (on tubes, i am not that crazy, it takes out the aggressiveness) and i prefer it versus the VC. I bought a Denon AH-D9200 and a DT1770 and may look into the LCD-XC.
I also checked the ZMF lineup and the Atticus might be interesting for me.
The VC is still a really enjoyable headphone, but it lacks that last 10% enjoyment for my personal taste that i get with my open backs.

 

[Pharmaboy]

Absolutely agreed! Love my leopardwood VC's and with changes to the DAC and running a DDC to convert input to I2S instead of USB input, they have drastically improved. The leopardwoods grow on you and then just when you think you know them a few well considered upgrades they scale with abandon!

My Airmid sings far more splendidly now with the VC's then it used to even a month ago and strategic tuning and rf filtering in both the headphone itself, internally, and RJ45 Rf common mode filtering have demonstrated that a significant portion of any hardness or brightness to the Be driver is not; in fact, the beryllium.

Also some strategic improved placement of footers under the amp and the DDC have also improved things along with some fuse changes.

The VC's are more detailed, musical, layered, spacious and airy extended sweet and dare I say it! ! Liquid and smooth! And there is more to be extracted with some extra attention to streaming improvement and better power supply filtering and grounding.

My new years resolution, already planned, and where tax dollars will probably go. Goldwerger's comments regarding the VC possibly being the best all around
ZMF option if you could only keep one., squarely in between the Atrium and the Caldera, have caused me to rethink my first of the year planned purchases. Atrium Closed is the most likely later next year I would suspect.

But hot damn I love the sound I have right now!

Happy listening,

jgwtriode

"and running a DDC to convert input to I2S instead of USB input"

which DDC are you running?

 

[jgwtriode]

Gustard U18 with an SR orange fuse. Fed by a Wywires Diamond USB from a JCAT XE USB card. Running After Dark Giseman Mk II I2S cable into a Modded Gustard X26 pro.

Quite pleased with how good its all sounding.

Happy listening,

jgwtriode