That’s guaranteed. The full measure of this wait will finally come to light when I get to post the great reveal, lol.
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What’s your wood called?
My left cup is James Westfall and my right one is Dr. Kenneth Noisewater.
Seriously, though, this is stabilized maple. Stabilized woods are thoroughly dried and then injected with epoxies or other “stabilizing” agents that can give them exotic colors. Combined with burl woods and other interesting grain patterns they can make for incredibly unique and exotic headphones.
Zach has publicly discussed the arrival of stabilized wood in recent live streams as well as some older threads on Head-Fi, but they’re finally arriving. Keep an eye out for official announcements. If I hear anything I’ll definitely pass it on here.
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Can’t say it’s for me (the stabilization process) but I can certainly appreciate the additional craftsmanship and consistency that you can get out of the end result (from a density standpoint) and the outcome is truly unique. The stand is no slouch either.
Can you hear the voice of god with them? 
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Pretty much, yes. Tonight has been another absolute treat of a listening experience.
I had previously heard V open briefly at CANJAM, but never V Closed. Expectations were already high, of course, but I’m pretty much blown away. Seriously–anyone–are there any other closed headphones that can compete with these?
I’d heard they have an open stage, but they’re a very convincing out-of-head experience. Like, if I didn’t put these on my own head I’d have a hard time believing they’re closed, except, oh yeah, I can’t hear anything but the music so there’s some serious isolation happening.
The signature ZMF warmth is there, and a richness to the mids that’s intoxicating. I’m not sure how much of that (and the amazing 3D staging) is coming from my Pendant, but I haven’t felt any need or desire to change a single thing to find out.
Meanwhile, they have absolutely razor sharp detail, but without a hint of aggression. Yet, they did a fine job of rendering Korn and maintaining their intensity while separating and enunciating all the various busy elements of the track I sampled. Unlike the Eikons, which I’ve always felt were a specialist heapdhone that elevate vocals and acoustic tracks to a new level, VCs seem to be deftly handling whatever I throw at them.
It’s going on irresponsibly late o’clock, but I keep finding just one more track to add to the queue. I’m going to have to wrap this up and try to go to bed, feeling like a kid at Christmas who gets to open the same present again tomorrow.
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they look wicked with the bocote salire, what pads are you using with those?
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Well, I was pretty sure they’re the standard Verite pads–whatever came preinstalled. There’s an extra set of pads in the wood box that I’m pretty sure are the Universe. And the other pads I was expecting are all wrapped and labeled … including one that says “Verite,” which means the ones on the headphones are a bit of a mystery unless I accidentally got a second set of Verite pads.
So I may have to ask, lol. I’m not too worried about the pads just yet since I’ve heard plenty of reports that significant amounts of burnin are needed, so I’m going to stick with the defaults for a spell then try rolling pads down the road.
Nice, I think the default pads are the auteur lambskin pads. I opted for auteur hybrid and eikon suede along with the defauly. Hopefully I’m not missing out too much without the universals. Just can’t justify having 4 set of pads I guess… Now is the painful 5 to 10 weeks of wait for me…
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The Verite C usually ships with Auteur Lambskin pads installed, and an extra set of Universe.
If I remember rightly, plus what you order.
The Auteur Are angled.
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Damn those are pretty, finally some real competition to the Russian made Kennertons… GO 'Murica! @Zachary_Mehrbach 
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Thank you, yes–that’s exactly right. Says so on the VC LTD page, what’s included. I should have checked there first, lol. Instead I was combing through old emails to recall which pads I had ordered and then attempting process of elimination vs pictures on the ZMF pads page to figure out what was left. And what was left was the one pad I hadn’t explicitly asked for, lol:
https://www.zmfheadphones.com/pads-and-cables
“Is this oval centered? How ovally is it? If I hold it sideways, how’s the angle?” Lol.
That Auteur and Verite pads look identical at a glance; the ear cavity dimensions only vary by a couple mm (Auteur being 3mm taller and 1mm narrower). The crucial difference is rake angle, with the Verite pad being flatter overall.
Anyway, mystery solved and I can stop scratching my head about why I thought I had 2 sets of Verite pads!
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I’ve seen pictures of labels on the inside of the edge that goes in the slot on some ZMF pads.
None of mine have them, so I don’t know if they were a small run with them, or my orders were filled from stock without them.
What amp are you guys pairing them with. My current amps are the 887s and darkvoice 336se. Thinking of spending sub 1k on it, and feels like a better tube amp is called for, any thoughts?
You could get something around the 1k mark used to drive them well, but imo something around the 2k mark for an amp and 1k ish for the dac might be a nice performance sweet spot
I run mine off a Lampizator Amber 3 into a DNA Stratus, but while I love how that sounds, you really don’t need to spend that.
They sound pretty phenomenal from a Bifrost 2 into a ZMF Pendant, which is closer to the price point @M0N mentioned.
Bifrost2 into a Haggerman Tuba (if you replace the stock tubes) also sound pretty damn good if the Pendant is too much of a stretch.
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That is a very good pick for something warmer, spacious, and pretty enjoyable. If you wanted to go for something more neutral and clean but still a tube amp, something like a lta mz2 with lps and a bf2 is a great combo imo.
This would be very nice. And if you have to go even lower lol, the cheapest tube I would go would be a bottlehead crack + speedball and an allo revolution dac. But imo you are rewarded if you give the headphones a better signal chain
Personally myself I tended to run the vc off a waversa wvdac mk2 and a allnic hpa 5000 xl for something very fun and energetic and impressive, or like a mola mola tambaqui with an eddie current studio t for a more analytical experience (and all other types of amps and dacs in-between lol)
I would also say that if you don’t want to go with tubes, a pass hpa-1 is a solid pick if you want a very nice solid state amp with these
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I’ve been meaning to ask about the Pass HPA-1 I dont really see a lot of reviews for it and was wondering if it was any good for a single ended amp (Also Is it Class A?)
It’s an excellent amp, it’s one of the only amps I’ve sold and then re-bought multiple times because I missed it so much. It’s not the most detail for the price, or it’s not the most soundstage for the price, etc, but it’s so masterfully tuned and voiced that it’s such an engaging listen, it’s neutral yet it sounds so well crafted. It’s just a blast to listen to, and that’s a trait of a good amp I guess lol. Also pretty sure it’s class a
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Cool. I’ll put it on my shopping list for later.
Right now focused on saving up for the niimbus
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