Those look lush and are my next headphone upgrade once I have the funds.
Those look lovely in olive wood. Just received my ZMF Verite Closed backs in the stock Monkeypod. Really happy with them and your description is really good, even with just 30 hours ‘on the clock’ for mine. Never got around to auditioning the Stellias with no dealers near me, but great to hear your opinion.
I bought the Meze 99 Classics for £269 as a prelude to getting the ZMF Verite Closed backs. They are really great headphones. When I compare them to the ZMFs that cost much more. They are nearly as comfortable but the smaller ear pads and materials can make them a little hot on warmer days. Good sound isolation but some very slight leakage. They are warm sounding and tend towards slightly more rounded bass heavy sound, but make a great relaxed listening headphone. So your tastes will determine if they are for you. Soundstage and detail is pretty good for the price, but they’re not detail headphones.
Interestingly the Sterophile review of the Atom HE included the ZMF Verite as one of their sample headphones. The reviewer obviously liked them a lot, and the combination worked well too.
Bruce
Interesting YouTube piece on LCR mixing and headphones, search out Dan Worrall, Headphones are not stereo (the other LCR problem)
…and listen with headphones
2-part inventions no 8
Just received a pair of those and am quite surprised at the comfort and sound quality, but probably needs around 20 hours to run in.
Tim
I have a pair of those and they are a great match for my Nova
They are great headphones. What is more important for me is that it allows me to listen to music while being in the living room and continue to interact with the family. I used to listen all kind of symphonies before on the sbls and a good apotheosis could easily kill the conversation and the good mood of my wife. She’s more sensitive to music than I am.
I’ve auditioned the Mezes against the Focal headphones (celestee, estellia) and I found the celestee the most enjoyable using an Atom HE.
The Mezes are also a tad bass heavy.
Now saving pennies for the Atom HE.
Not sure whether to trade in my 72/hi/140 …
Shure SE846… absolutely love em
And they’ve been through a full 40deg washing cycle (misses didn’t check my jeans pockets lol)
And after a week in the airing cupboard work perfectly!
Current setup.
Focal Clear MG for main listening. Celestee for when I need to not leak sound like crazy.
@Kryptos how do the Clear MG’s compare to the Celestee’s? I’m in the market for a pair of headphones and I’m trying to weigh up the SQ trade-off for going for a closed back design. Thanks
I think there is a fair share of personal preference involved when choosing between open and closed back.
For me the Clear MG is the superior headphone. More open soundstage (of course) and the sound reproduction feels more natural to me.
That said the Celestee is a great headphone in itself. It costs 2/3 of the Clear MG and compares very favourably. And if you are into more punchy / bass-ey more in-your-face sound it can be a strong contender. In fact sometimes I prefer to put on the Celestee when listening to electronic music. For everything else, though, the Clear MG is the winner IMHO.
If you want to go for closed and only closed, perhaps also consider the Focal Stellia, if the price tag is not prohibitive? I was thinking about it myself but I love open backed headphones for extended use during work and such at home. So I ended up going for the pair instead as there are times I HAVE to have closed back.
At least you won’t need to clean the filters
Thanks @Kryptos - helpful insights that make sense. Will probably end up trying to hear all three to make the comparison. I suspect the vast majority of my listening will be done where it doesn’t matter if I get any sound leakage, so leaning towards to the Clear MG as the best option.
My pleasure!
Best is indeed to demo them. And as long as possible. I could take demo sets home to listen to for a week, see if you can do the same. The Celestee leaks very little but for that they press quite hard on the head. In fact I remember reading somewhere that they leak less sound than the Stellia as well. But be sure that after an extended listening session it does not cause too much discomfort before forking out the cash.
The Clear MG is simply a beautiful set of headphones. They are also quite a bit more comfortable to wear. Press less hard and softer padding. And in terms of the sound I fell in love with from my Uniti devices it seems to be perfectly balanced to reproduce and enhance just that. So for me it is a perfect match to the Atom HE and no surprise that they were developed together.
I never demoed the Stellia as it was an impractical choice for me.
If I had to choose again I would go for the Clear MG again. The Utopia is just too expensive for what I would be attaching it to in any foreseeable future.
Has anyone tried tje Beyerdynamic T5 3rd gen for closed back…fancy a pair of those!