[gLer]

Maybe the Verite will set a new standard for dynamics if it can give you all the imaging and detail of the Utopia but without the harshness and mediocre soundstage.

I think it already has, even before shipping! I can’t think of one other dynamic that can do what these reviews and impressions tell us the Verites can do. The only two ‘cons’ I can see coming from die-hard ‘audiophiles’ is 1) the need for a high-end tube amp to really make the Verite hit the heights it’s hitting in these reviews, and 2) that it strays a bit too far from neutral for the ‘purists’. Both of these will be regarded as positives by many, of course. Either way, this is THE dynamic to own if you’re going straight for Summit-Fi.

 

[Luxifer]

Great job on the review!

Thanks a bunch! I'm excited to read your thoughts on the Verite soon.

 

[gLer]

Finally got to spend some quality time with the Vertie over the last several days. Just for clarity purposes, the pair I have are Pheasantwood and they have the new Magnesium chassis. The weight (or lack thereof) is quite impressive and these are around 50 grams heavier than the Silkwood's! I've also been mostly listening with a Michanikos cable, although I did do a comparison with the Atmos/2K cables (more on that later). My chain is FLAC/TIDAL>Singxer SU-1>Yggdrasil A1>Various Amps.

Amp Pairings w/Verite: I ran the Verite off 8 different amps: Woo WA2, THX AAA 789, Wells Audio Milo, MCTH, Cavalli Liquid Gold, Liquid Carbon v1, Liquid Platinum and Liquid Spark. I didn't find the Vertie to be that amp dependent, or at least not nearly as much as say the Atticus. I actually found the Vertie enjoyable on pretty much everything I tried it with, although the Spark and stock MCTH clearly showed their limitations. They are however $100 and $200 respectively, so I doubt too many people would pair their Vertie with them. The newly released THX AAA 789 is a very uncolored amp as advertised. I used this for a lot of testing and it’s power/neutrality let the Vertie’s technical abilities shine through. Personally I probably wouldn’t use it all that much with the Vertie though. The Liquid Carbon and Liquid Platinum both add some Cavalli magic, which helps fill out the midrange while retaining most of the Vertie’s attributes. I just got the Platinum in today, so it hasn’t been broken in as well as the stock tubes. The WA2 was a favorite pairing of mine, especially when I rolled out the sweeter and warmer GEC 6080WA tubes for classic Tung Sol 5998’s. The later tubes really let the Vertie’s dynamics shine, while providing some blissed out tube sound and increased soundstage. Finally the last two would be the Milo and LAu. Both are powerful reference solid state amps that really let the Vertie let loose. For my tastes, I really want to bring the speed and dynamics out of the Vertie as much as possible, and both these amps do just that. So really depending on what sound you’re looking for, you can easily pair the Vertie up with an amp that will highlight it’s unique qualities.

Cable pairing: I’ve had a chance to compare Zach’s upgraded cable offerings (Michanikos, Atmos and 2K) with the Verite. Over the past several years, I’ve found that cables can certainly yield sonic improvements, but feel they should still be the last thing you upgrade in your chain. That being said, first up is the Michanikos, which I personally thought paired best with the Verite. The pure silver seemed to help accentuate the blazing fast drivers of the Verite and help retain it’s crisp transient attack. The Michanikos also helped highlight the exceptional detail levels of the Verite, while giving it a little extra spark. The 2K was quite impressive and kept the detail levels of the Michanikos, but provided a smoother, slightly warmer sound. I could see depending on your musical tastes or gear chain, the 2K might be a better match. It’s also a beautiful, beefy cable that feels extra premium. Lastly, the Atmos was no slouch and rightfully met somewhere in the middle between the other two cables. I’ve always been a fan of quality copper/spc cables, not only for their sonic attributes, but for their ergonomics. Out of the three, the Atmos is certainly the lightest and flexible offering. All in all, I don’t really think you can go wrong with either of these cables from ZMF.

Vertie and Auteur comparison: This was a very interesting comparison and really shed some light on the enigmatic Vertie. For the comparison I used the THX AAA 789 Amp, Michanikos cable and Vertie pads on the Verite and Auteur Pads on the Auteur. My Auteur is Blackwood and as I mentioned earlier, the Verite is Pheasantwood.

Verite vs Auteur: First thing that is immediately noticeable is the Be drivers of the Verite are FAST. Way faster than the Auteur’s, which aren’t a slouch by any means. The Vertie wins in quite a few technical aspects due to its drivers. Quicker transients, micro details, superior instrument separation, bass speed and bass texture. It also has very captivating staging, that’s almost 3D sounding. The Verite overall is more dynamic, but yet at the same time has more finesse than the Auteur.

Auteur vs Verite: The Auteur has a fuller, more cohesive overall sound than the Vertie. It has slightly weightier bass with more decay and reverb. Tonality of the Auteur is smoother, but yet is a tad more extended in the highs. It also has a slightly wider soundstage, but with more traditional imaging compared to the Vertie. I found it to be also more forgiving on poorly recorded songs.

After all is said and done, I wouldn’t call either the Auteur or Vertie better than the other. In fact track after track I kept going back and forth deciding which one I liked better. Both are top notch offerings from Zach, and I feel personal preference is going to win out in the end. As mentioned before, the Vertie has some very unique attributes that very few headphones have. For that alone, it makes it worthwhile for me to add them to my stable along with the Auteur.

Feel free to ask me any additional questions in the thread or PM me. I also plan on comparing the Vertie with my Utopia soon. You can check out my gear list in my profile if you’d like to me to do any other comparisons as well. I’m exhausted trying to finish this up, so forgive me if I made any errors or didn’t make things clear enough.

I only have one question: what’s a Vertie?

Seriously though, great review. Your use of solid state amps and detailed comparisons with the Auteur are exactly the information I needed. Much appreciated!

 

[koven]

Verite seems quite Utopia-esque judging by the reviews so far.

 

[gLer]

Verite seems quite Utopia-esque judging by the reviews so far.

Only in terms of speed and shared driver material. The Verite by the sound of it is warmer, fuller, and more rolled off up top and with a much bigger stage. Time will tell when head-to-head comparisons are done, but having heard the Utopia the Verite sounds much more appealing to me personally if I was in the market for a TOTL super fast dynamic headphone.

 

[heliosphann]

I only have one question: what’s a Vertie?

Seriously though, great review. Your use of solid state amps and detailed comparisons with the Auteur are exactly the information I needed. Much appreciated!

Da fuc... That was weird. I was using a new WP app for writing most of it and it must have started auto-correcting to that after misspelling it a few times. I knew I wrote that disclaimer at the end for a good reason. LOL

 

[Musickiks]

Great job on the review!

Hell of a review!

On your post-thoughts here it’s interesting. You say the Auteur has a wider soundstage. Maybe I’ve just been comparing to the HD800s’s I have, but a smaller soundstage, even just width-wise sounds like it would be much too compressed/squished. I love the sound of my Auteurs to death coming from nearly a decade with HD600’s it’s warm lush organic yet accurate and just massively enjoyable, but my only qualm is what is no question to me a more squished soundstage than both my HD800s’s and if memory serves my HD600’s as well. (Listening with Atmos cable and Micro iFi Black Label). It’s more musical and cohesive but lacks a scale of instruments and sense of space I’m getting with my HD800’s and I think my HD600’s as well. Yet bass, slam, and fullness is much better on the Auteurs compared to the others.

 

[xenithon]

Hell of a review!
my only qualm is what is no question to me a more squished soundstage than both my HD800s’s and if memory serves my HD600’s as well. (Listening with Atmos cable and Micro iFi Black Label).

Two things to consider. Firstly I suspect the Auteur is being woefully underserviced by the Micro iFi - not that it is necessarily a bad amp or bad pairing, but I found that as good as the Auteur can sound with mid-fi gear, it starts to shine and sounds phenomenal on higher end gear. This includes, amongst others, wider and more articular soundstage, instrument nuance, vocal texture, and all round heft.

The second thing may be related to pads - which pads are you using at the moment? I noted a not-so-subtle difference in soundstage width and placement using Auteur pads over Eikon pads, as an example.

 

[Musickiks]

Two things to consider. Firstly I suspect the Auteur is being woefully underserviced by the Micro iFi - not that it is necessarily a bad amp or bad pairing, but I found that as good as the Auteur can sound with mid-fi gear, it starts to shine and sounds phenomenal on higher end gear. This includes, amongst others, wider and more articular soundstage, instrument nuance, vocal texture, and all round heft.

The second thing may be related to pads - which pads are you using at the moment? I noted a not-so-subtle difference in soundstage width and placement using Auteur pads over Eikon pads, as an example.

Thanks! Exactly why I noted I was using it just incase someone had some insight.

Yeah I need an amp that I can take on business trips, and to listen on the couch or bed. Don’t have a nightstand in couch area to place a big nice amp so it would stay at my computer desk. Looks like the Oppo HA-1 would be a good choice for that one day, seeing it everywhere here, but if you know of a better mobile option I could save up for, please let me know!

It seems to me if the HD800’s are wide deep and spacious and even the 600’s have a wider feeling (haven’t A/B’d in weeks), that that’s still how it all might scale? Glad to know that better amps don’t just increase SQ but soundstage as well though.

Haven’t tried my Mojo on them yet, would there be any reason to? Is the Black Label not considered better overall?

So I’m not sure if they shipped with the Auteur pads or Eikon pads. I requested they ship with one but think they may have been shipped with other. Anyways, it is pretty hard to tell visually to me, but I’m pretty sure I’m currently using the Auteurs. When I changed them out and did a size comparison the ones I thought were the Auteurs had the bigger ear hole space. When I tried what I think are the Eikon pads, I felt like the sound just got noticeably duller. I know they’re supposed to be warmer but that’s just what I initially picked up on. I was too excited about how they intiallly sounded and didn’t give those pads a proper try and switched back after about maybe ten minutes!

But mannnn I hate changing pads out. I keep thinking I’m going to rip the thin leather and it’s just an excercise in mental endurance I swear! You get one side on, and then it slips off. I figured out to start in one place and slowly creep it around little by little from that spot. I wish there was a tool or something to help...anyways, lol.

 

[Phantaminum]

I've just finished my review of the Vérité, and posted it here: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/zmf-vérité.23454/reviews#review-21217

Let me know if I can answer any questions!

Great review Luxifer!

 

[Zachik]

Verite seems quite Utopia-esque judging by the reviews so far.

Only in terms of speed and shared driver material. The Verite by the sound of it is warmer, fuller, and more rolled off up top and with a much bigger stage. Time will tell when head-to-head comparisons are done, but having heard the Utopia the Verite sounds much more appealing to me personally if I was in the market for a TOTL super fast dynamic headphone.

I agree with @gLer - I have auditioned the Utopia in multiple canjams / meets, using various amps, and could never understand the hype.
Granted always auditioned in showfloor conditions (ambient noise, etc.), I could never understand why people are so excited about it. And to make it clear, it was paired with Chord Dave, Woo WA22, and many other flagship / summit-fi amps.
Now, Verite is a whole different story! To me, it was love from first note...

Bottom line:
I am not trying to say that Utopia is crap. All I am trying to say is that those 2 cans, despite similarities in spec (driver materials) - are very different sounding!

 

[jgwtriode]

I agree with @gLer - I have auditioned the Utopia in multiple canjams / meets, using various amps, and could never understand the hype.
Granted always auditioned in showfloor conditions (ambient noise, etc.), I could never understand why people are so excited about it. And to make it clear, it was paired with Chord Dave, Woo WA22, and many other flagship / summit-fi amps.
Now, Verite is a whole different story! To me, it was love from first note...

Bottom line:
I am not trying to say that Utopia is crap. All I am trying to say is that those 2 cans, despite similarities in spec (driver materials) - are very different sounding!

Wow! My Auteur Blackwoods are at least 20% larger in all dimensions. That is with a completely rebuilt oppo sonica with custom ouput stage direct driving the Auteurs through a soldered silver gold stranded cable. When I switch to graphene impreg carbon fiber it bumps the Auteurs up another 15 to 20% never ran that cable on my HD 650s, which are highly tweaked and throw quite a bit more stage than stock . I think the 650 and 600 are fairly comparable in staging . As good as the modded 650 is the Auteur at least beats it marginally to substatianly in every category except the heart of the mid-range. Their is something particularly wonderful about female vocals on the Sennies and for that reason alone I'm keeping them. Soundstage just isn't that close. The Auteur is at least substantially better when fully burned!

My two cents!

 

[Gibson59]

Either way, this is THE dynamic to own if you’re going straight for Summit-Fi.

Wow this is high praise! Which other dynamics have you compared them to? I’ve been looking at ZMF for a long time so it might be time to take the plunge.

 

[heliosphann]

Looky what I's founds... @Hansotek

http://enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/1218/ZMF_Verite_Over_Ear_Headphone_Review.htm

 

[Hansotek]

Looky what I's founds... @Hansotek

http://enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/1218/ZMF_Verite_Over_Ear_Headphone_Review.htm

You beat me to the punch! My Verite review just went live.