I’m wearing them right now (albeit with a full Lawton mod). Why do you ask?
Edit: WOO HOO!!! 1000 posts!
I know you have had yours for a while I was just curious if you still had them, I know alot of people have sold there’s or upgraded to something more expensive. I was curious if people did upgrade what would be the next headphone. I thought about what the future would be for an upgrade. I’ve considered one-day maybe the ZMF Verite closed or something else. I don’t know if there’s anything that would be that much of an upgrade for the price to performance.
In terms of price to performance, nothing will have a good ratio after the $1000+ range. Diminishing returns and all that.
If you unconditionally love your 1 tesla foster driver (like me) you do the full Lawton treatment. Otherwise you tend to sell it to fund other purchases.
Upgrades I can think of would be the TH-900/909 if you want something brighter but with dat B A S S (Lawton mod-able as well). If you want something a bit more neutral, the ZMF eikon and Auteur (both biodynamics) are great by all accounts. Maybe the high end don’t stuff like the MDR-Z1R.
I really can’t recommend the Lawton mod enough. Get the right wood and pads and you have a headphone with a signature ranging from neutral to bass cannon that sounds at least as good as it’s cost would suggest. Plus the cups are so damn pretty.
The ZMF Auteur is closest to an overall upgrade to the TR-X00 Ebony. I got the Auteur a few weeks ago and it’s really amazing.
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I’ve been doing everything in my power not to buy a set of the Ltd wenge Auteur. They look so good to me with that antique style.
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If you happen to order Eikon pads from ZMF, be aware that they will not accept returns or refunds no matter how jacked the stitching looks. Their rep ‘Devin’ told me that if I didn’t like it, I could sell them on message forums. Paid $70 for sheepskin with poor hand stitching.
Do you have a pic of the bad stitching? I’ve gotten two different sets of Ori pads (sheepskin and hybrid) from them and bother have been fine.
Here’s what it looks like on their site.
That’s not too bad imo. It’s not flawless, but is doesn’t look like it would ruin the functionality or usability of the pad. Leather is an organic material and sometimes doesn’t act as nice as one would want during manufacturing.
Since you posted this in the 1 tesla thread, I’m assuming you have a 1 tesla variant. Do you have any thoughts on how they sound?
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I have Emu Teaks. They sound great. But the point is that they advertise it with great looking stitching on their site, then after they arrive, they tell you that’s common with hand stitched material. Plus they won’t refund your money even after they misled you. That’s not right.
I wouldn’t call it misleading. They make their product look as good as it can just like everyone else. It does suck when you buy a relatively expensive thing and it’s not quite as good as you want. I’ve gotten a fair number of leather pads and they all have some sort of minor defect like wrinkles or less than perfect stitching. Like I said, leather is organic and therefore inherently not perfect, just like wood. It’s about the look, feel, and sound of the material, not the raw precision of the manufacturing imo.
I totally understand. I’ve never questioned their materials or performance. But they intentionally leave out the picture of that side. I don’t have experience buying these things and the description doesn’t specify this, so I feel misled. I do have experience buying products from companies that value their customers. They’ve totally lost my business and anyone else I speak to. Thanks for taking the time to comment. Lesson learned for me.
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Yeah I thought about the th900, I have seen and read a lot of reviews that go both ways. Some people saying the headphone is phenomenal to people saying it’s not a huge upgrade from the X00 and way too overpriced for what it does. I think the are extremely beautiful, but idk if that justifies the price.
I was thinking about the zmf Eikon (Metal571 big praise) wasn’t sure about the Auteur. I know the headphone show guys rant and rave about the ZMF Verite Closed and how the headphones sounds more open than open backs with a 3D type sound.
I wasn’t considering Lawton, I thought the price was pretty high, I bought the driver side mod I hear no difference. I figured the lawton cups would have about the same difference as the Emu cups.
The general consensus is the tune up has no real FR change, but improves the technical performance like instrument separation and detail retrieval.
The cups are a big difference from stock. More depth to the soundstage, deeper bass, cleaner bass, more detail, smoother highs, etc. They are worth the cumulative price if about $800 to $1000 imo. Pluss they let you maybe even fix any small issues you might have with the FR like a bit too much treble or bass.
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I have a full level 2 Lawton modded (driver tune up, pads and chambers) Denon d5000 now and it is phenomenal. I like it so much that I am currently doing another one based off a fostex th610. Though I am going for a little bit of a different sound signature by using different tone wood for the chambers. Also there is a slight difference in the 610 drivers too. Should make for another pretty killer sounding set of phones.
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I have never had a bad experience with ZMF. I have bought pads, cables, shirts, and the Auteurs from them. I will say this, I have modded the crap out of my Ebonies and even with pads changes, cup changes, inserts, and Lawton mods; none of that made them sound as good as the Auteurs sound right out of the box to me.
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same, i just can’t decide between the silver and gold
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Thats really good to know thank you. So how is the bass on them and sound stage? Or really do you have a review or comparison between the two?
Does anybody have any tips or if it is possible to remove any scratches from ear cups?