For me; my Auteur sounds good as is. I’m liking it especially after burn in. Unless there is a big reason to upgrade then I will stick with it as is. I also have a Verite Closed so the added resolution of a new driver would not be as big a selling point.
I would like to hear comparisons with Auteur, Atrium and Verite (not necessarily all of them ). I’m also curious to hear if the driver is the same as from one of their top of line models like the Atrium or if there are any differences in it. I always saw ZMF having three driver lineups with a closed and open back in each one (Atticus and Aeolus, Eikon and Auteur). This time I wonder are they changing that to bring an Atrium driver down to a lower cost model.
It’s my understanding that it is a new driver for the Classic. I’m almost positive it’s not the Atrium driver. I’m interested to see if an Eikon Classic may be released at some point using the same driver as the Auteur Classic and the new Atrium damping system.
Zach just released a video talking about the Auteur Classic, as well as the upgrade path:
He describes it as being a similar sound, but more spacious with tighter bass, and it’s also flattened a peak in the FR.
(Also, my understanding is that ZMF’s existing driver warranty is only free for the first owner, so it’s not especially unusual for ZMF to favor first owners for driver replacements?)
Hello,
No, you misunderstood.
It doesn’t matter whether you are the first or second owner.
You have the warranty in both cases.
As the second owner, you also pay for the conversion.
What I don’t quite understand is why second owners should pay more, even though Zach explained it.
I wouldn’t put too much stock in the warranty.
Assuming the Auteur Classic didn’t exist, you would have had to pay for the drivers and the work.
The amount would probably have been similar.
It will depend on how the whole thing is implemented.
First and foremost, the price stability of the Og Auteur.
You might be able to get a bargain now, but I don’t think you’ll be able to get it for 500$, more like 800-1000$.
Then there will certainly be two sides saying that the old one is better than the new one and vice versa.
And then the price of the Og Auteur will also rise slightly again as a second-hand model.
That’s how I would personally assess the situation now.
But there is no need to upgrade if you like the Og Auteur so much.
Just an option.
Warranty or not, if you notice that one of the drivers is starting to rattle, you can always upgrade, regardless of whether you are the first or second owner.
I think Zmf will only repair it in that form or offer it that way.
Even if you don’t want to upgrade it.
But you would have to check with Zmf support.
It would not necessarily be reprehensible to reuse used working drivers as a repair as an upgrade opponent or at the request of the owner.
The question is whether to offer it or not.
If you are still unsure about the upgrade, then wait and see what those who were brave say.
Otherwise I find it a nice and open gesture from Zmf.
Even if you pay $600 and still have a warranty, I think it’s fair for a second owner.
But it really depends on how the OG Auteur is doing
holds up on the second hand market.
Even the Eikon is quite stable in price when it is in good condition, despite the fact that it is no longer being built.
I decided to go for the upgrade after much deliberation. I really like my Manchurian Ash Auteur, but my new Meze Elite has been getting a lot of head time recently. I briefly contemplated selling my Auteur but decided I couldn’t let them go. After deciding to keep them, I just couldn’t resist the upgrade.
I am the third owner of a 4-year-old set of headphones, so the opportunity to get a lifetime warranty on the drivers was a big selling point for me. I’m also taking this opportunity to get the new Crescent Strap installed while the headphones are at ZMF for the upgrade.
Who knows, but I may soon be the proud owner of the only Manchurian Ash Auteur Classic in the world!
Yes, that is certainly an argument.
I wouldn’t want to disagree with you there.
Congratulations if you made it to the first 20 people .
It might be worth it for you, since the driver already has good hours on it.
But that shouldn’t matter either.
The biocellulose drivers are still good after 10 years if they have been treated properly.
For me, it’s not necessarily profitable at the moment because mine is still new.
More I hear it, more I like it as it is, the auteur.
If then i find a used one with an upgrade if then could be make sense.
I also noticed that the Zmf headphones sound fantastic even at low volume.
Even the Aeolus I had there the other day sounded amazing at less than 9 o’clock.
When zmf first started doing the colored zmf thing I thought most of them were fairly hideous and yes essentially sacrilegious too lol. But I will say that after a while they really got the process down because many of the ones I see now actually look awesome love the blue one right there.
IMO the reason the ZMF cans existed was because of the beauty of the wood, and the craftsmanship to show that wood off at its best.
I’ve got two reasons as to why I’m not a fan of the stabilized.
it’s a way to make lemonade out of lemons. Taking wood that would have normally been useless and turning it into a can there’s no point to it other than the profit and the visual art which I’ll explain further in my second point.
this is something that baffles me a bit more. Zack goes into deep details as to the various woods having different signatures and incorporating that into the sonic signature. Adding resin and having an unknown quantify of resin to wood is a sonic crap shoot and completely invalidates the ethos of having the various woods for their sonic variety.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I’m happy that so many people love the look of the stabilized woods and the amazing visual results you can get out of them with the infused coloration. It’s just not a look that’s for me.
I totally get where you’re coming from, and I too have the possible sonic reservations you mentioned.
As someone who has done a fair amount of woodworking and furniture making, I will say using the pieces that might otherwise be “trash” isn’t just about economics. I often find wood that has incredible beauty and character, whether burls, drastically changing grain patterns, or other “defects”. The problem you run into is that the wood is incredibly difficult to work with, or is a safety risk to work as it can simply disintegrate or blow apart.
FWIW Zach has come up with a way to use and preserve the beauty of some of these pieces, and I would argue it takes even more labor time to make use of these pieces. It really would be more economical to just scrap them. Instead, you get a unique and beautiful piece.
It would be interesting to do a sonic comparison though between the solid woods and the hybrid/resin ones though
as an owner of a pair of Eikons and now a pair of VC, I think Zack’s descriptions of the headphone and pad characteristics are very honest and accurate.
Warning: unpopular opinion incoming, but I really really think zach needs to stop dicking around with every type of wood out there and focus on making his headphones actually sonically competitive with what else exists in the market. I think he’s just gotten way too comfortable selling the same damn thing with a different look to people who will eat it up regardless, why would he even bother changing when people will be willing to buy the same headphone over and over and over? The special edition prices are getting up there for something that doesn’t even have improved sound. No matter what wood you put on a verite, it’s still going to sound like a verite for the most part, and isn’t going to suddenly become competitive, it will change the sound, but imo not enough to really care.
I get it, with zmf it’s a given you are paying extra for the craftsmanship and care, looks and fit and finish are an undeniable appeal to zmf, but they keep falling behind and behind from a value perspective to where I think they really need to take a step forward in sound to remain a viable option for the price they current command. I’ve already expressed my distaste with the aeolus and atticus so no point in beating a dead horse there, the eikon (rip) and auteur fit well within their price bracket and hopefully the classic continues that, and while the verite and verite closed are good, they are at this point just a really kinda bad value if you are after sound in comparison to what else you can buy for that same money. They really need to take a stronger sound focus and actually innovate, otherwise they seemingly transition more and more into a form over function category of audio that I just think is really unfortunate.
I think it’s also partially the fault of the community as well, they’ve placed zmf on this pedestal for “oh wow look how amazing it looks and look how great of a guy zach is and look at all the pad options” etc etc etc, not even really talking (or sometimes even caring) about the sound to a significant degree. They keep buying, so he’s given no reason to stop selling and put his effort more into sound. The community will hold other brands to a much more strict sonic standard, but they don’t for zmf.
This isn’t to complain about the existence of zmf or the idea of paying more for better fit and finish and looks, but I just think it’s taken a bit too far when the actual goal of headphones, to reproduce sound, is increasingly ignored for a product aimed at those who care (or are supposed to) about sound, that’s why you are buying the damn things in the first place. Nothing against zach, zmf, or the headphones and people who enjoy them, I just really think it’s getting old at this point and something needs to happen to give a more sonically compelling reason to buy zmf. There’s such a thing as balance between beauty in looks and beauty in sound, I just think zmf continues to focus too much on the looks and neglect the sound. At the price point they sell in, it is absolutely possible to have both, but imo you aren’t getting that with most zmf at the current moment. There’s nothing dishonest or wrong that’s going on at zmf, just a lack of focus
I’m getting cold feet on doing the upgrade on my Auteur. I have already placed my order with ZMF, but I may end up cancelling. I was heavily influenced by the offer of a lifetime warranty on the drivers after completing the upgrade since I’m the third owner of a 4+ year-old pair of headphones.
After thinking about it for a while, I can always upgrade my OG Auteur down the road if I ever have a driver issue or really want to hear the difference. There’s no practical reason for me to spend the $600 at the moment because I just got a Meze Elite that is currently getting most of my head time.
That pair selling on eBay that the guy was touting having them under a sealed glass enclosure and having put 30 hours or so on them over the two years he’d had them. That was painful.
I love my VC for what it does, and the market for closed cans isn’t that broad to begin with. In the used price bracket of $2000 give or take I think they fit that price range. Having said that, comparing them to my D8KP… they are nowhere near the same league.
@M0N Have you had a chance to hear the Atrium? I’m wondering if it offers the innovation that you have found lacking in the Verite and VC. I haven’t heard the Atrium yet myself, but I’m in line to demo it on a loaner tour in a month or so. I’ll be interested to see how it compares to my Elite and Auteur. I’m in the minority that preferred the Auteur to the VC.
I am finding the Meze Elite on another level as far as technicalities are concerned vs the ZMFs I own and have owned (Aeolus, VC, Auteur). That’s not to say that technical performance is the last word in enjoyment when it comes to headphones. The Elite is winning me over because it manages to offer up subtle technical prowess wrapped in a very musical and easy-going sound signature, not to mention being the most comfortable and highest build quality headphone I’ve experienced.
I would say I love zmf as much of the next guy, but that’s not true lol, I did really enjoy the eikon and auteur when I heard them and have suggested them plenty in the past, and the verite closed fills a niche that’s really not well occupied by other options so there’s not much actual competition to compare it to, enjoyed my time owning that one too. But I think that even the zmf I actually like don’t really represent the best value, but I also don’t expect them to given what they offer in non sound aspect. The problem imo lies in that I haven’t seen much legitimate sonic innovation or steps forward since the verite. They are selling plenty well, and are putting great effort into their looks, but I’d like to see those sales and trust in the brand reinvested to produce better sounding products or take their headphones to the next sonic level, but they don’t. Instead they just release a million different wood options and then jack the price up a significant margin for limited limited versions that they pump out constantly. Is that extra cost worth it? I sure don’t think so but I also am not one to really appreciate fit and finish as much as others, but I’m sure the cost reflects the labor put into making it look that way. Just wish they would release new things where that cost is going more into sound than it currently is now.
I have not heard it yet, would be curious to if I get the chance, although not interested enough to buy one right now for myself (I also admittedly don’t have many source chains that are well suited for zmf at the current moment too). I don’t want to say anything exactly because I haven’t heard it, but I’ve heard so many mixed things about the atrium that I’m not really convinced it’s anything more than an awkward middleground between an auteur and a verite with a tuning that I’m personally not partial to. But I haven’t heard it, I can’t comment, and I’d like to go into it with an open mind if I did get to demo, I am being too pessimistic here. I do actively want it to address some of my complaints, I’m not against zmf here, I just haven’t seen enough to make me think it at the current moment.
I could see that, I actually would put meze into a similar camp as zmf in terms of value and sound, but I do think meze is putting more effort into making their products more competitive, and it’s showing more than zmf is. Haven’t heard the new elite, I’d have put the old empyrean in a similar tier to the verite admittedly, so makes sense that the new elite would be that next tier above. Actually, have you heard a utopia @ckhirnigs? It really might be worth trying considering how good of value they are used and how it’s actually pretty great synergy with the quicksilver, might give you a shock of how good it is considering it goes for “only” 2k used in comparison to other options (I’d actually also expect it to be a step above the elite as well based on what I’ve heard about the meze)
Also I do wish other mfg could make headphones as comfy and solid feeling as the meze stuff, they really nailed that. Personally I would say the best built headphones I’ve had are easily the mysphere, they have that flawless finish and attention to detail without feeling more delicate or fragile imo (utopia also really up there imo but feels fragile to me personally even if it isn’t). Comfort wise, I’d likely give it to the susvara for me personally (although build wise doesn’t feel as solid or premium as others), although the mysphere is better in summer due to no cups so that really helps heat wise (but points off for sometimes hotspots and a more slightly vice grip like fit at first), meze after the susvara, and actually dan clark ether 2 is insanely comfy for me as well (although their stock cable slightly diminished that for me so that needs to be swapped first)
Edit: I should note that alot of the zmf stuff are things I can absolutely understand people owning and enjoying, I see the appeal and respect what they go for (except the aeolus), but aren’t for me. Not bad, but I have pretty different priorities and goals
). I’m also curious to hear if the driver is the same as from one of their top of line models like the Atrium or if there are any differences in it. I always saw ZMF having three driver lineups with a closed and open back in each one (Atticus and Aeolus, Eikon and Auteur). This time I wonder are they changing that to bring an Atrium driver down to a lower cost model.
.
