ZMF Headphones - Vérité Closed

Interesting question because I would consider $1-2k about the same in terms of performance class. Not an exact science, of course, but here’s how I break out price ranges by performance class (and I have stuff at every level): <$300 = budget / economical $300-$500 = entry level $500-$1000 = mid range $1000 - $3000 = premium +$3000 = flagship / exotic So I’m going to answer with respect to upper mid range into premium territory : Meze 109 Pro - excellent “all rounder” for multiple genres and excellent value for money. Easy to drive and versatile. Big stage like listening in IMAX. More artisan than neutral sound - warm and sparkly. Physically unique design (may or may not be your taste). Sennheiser HD660S2 - standout technical performer, also good all rounder, though slightly lean on sub bass and requires some power, as it’s a high impedance headphone. Smaller stage as is typical for Sennheiser, right in your face, but with excellent imaging. Slightly technical sound while still being musical. Sennheiser HD800S - very big and wide stage, excellent for symphonic and natural instrumentation. Excellent imaging. IMO less good as an “all around” headphone. Lacks bass definition and overly analytical for many modern genres. Also requires a bit of power as it’s high impedance. LCD-X - only recommend if you’re willing to EQ. Can be an absolute bass cannon, and responds exceptionally well to EQ, so you can make the frequency response fit your liking. Excellent presentation that is wide and puts you right in the middle of the stage. Focal Clear MG - similar to the Meze but with less brightness, a bit smoother and a bit more of a dynamic thump in the bass. 109 is the better value IMO. ZMF Verite closed - outstanding staging and technical performance for a closed back headphone, rivals some opens. Holographic imaging. Wonderful lush vocals and excellent detail retrieval, very energetic, gorgeous design. Great all around genre performer. Ever so slightly light on bass for some genres but not enough to be a deal breaker, plus can be EQ’d. Needs a bit of power to shine. Tube amp kicks is up a couple notches, near god-tier IMO for a closed. Customizable in terms of pads to tweak the sound to your liking ZMF Atrium - slightly above your range but all of the excellence of the Verite but even better staging and holographic imaging because it is open, darker tune - more bass, more relaxed treble. Slower speed in exchange for lushness and tonal richness. Often considered a direct upgrade from the Sennheiser 6X0 line. Also tweak-able with pads. Absolute God tier on a tube. Artisan design. Sennheiser IE900 IEM - great all around IEM with a very balanced tonal response. Neutral - musical. Everything you’d expect from Sennheiser in terms of technical performance. Most comfortable IEM I’ve ever owned. Single dynamic driver shines and brings a very high quality analog sound. Audeze Euclid IEM - similar to the IE900, in terms of versatility and tonal balance (slightly more neutral) but it is a planar IEM, so a more planar sound - smoother, faster, plus a wider stage. Still excellent Audeze imaging. Great for gaming and movies. Biggest stage I’ve experienced on an IEM except for the Campfire Trifecta (above your price range). Me personally, I’m a collector, currently own 20+ pairs and have owned more. All of the above I have owned personally (most still do). I am an all genre guy, biggest being electric/EDM, R&B, pop, hip-hop, classic rock, alternative, symphonic, jazz - so I like headphones that can serve many purposes. Happy to answer any questions. Good luck!

Nice, very similar approach, bathys for the go, hd800s for critical, zmf verite closed for fun.  Enjoy!

I've owned a bunch over the years. Loved my verite closed, but they were so lacking in the low end that it kind of ruined the rest for me a bit. I actually thought the hd820 was decent, but a little thin sounding for my tastes and had some wonkiness to it. Hated the audio technica awkt, which really wasn't for me. And i love the th900, best subbass rumble I've heard with a headphone, hot fun treble. I regret selling that headphone (anniversary tuning). Currently, I have a jm audio NRG, and I think it might be the best all-around closed back I've heard and a steal for 1k. Definitely leans darker sounding with the bliss + tuning, but imaging, layering, soundstage, tonality, and clarity all blended really well for an enjoyable headphone. Not for treble heads, but if you like darker sounding headphones, this is a winner for sure.

1. ZMF Vèrite Closed. Wonderful noise isolation, widest soundstage I've ever experienced on headphones (more than even HD800S and Atrium Open, though admittedly still very little compared to speakers). Nicely forward vocals with decent timbre (huge for CBs), deep low-end and a good amount of high-end clarity. I really liked the Auteur solid hybrid earpads on these. My pair had stabilized wood, and were therefore too heavy for me, so I got rid of them relucantly, despite VC being my favorite sounding CBs ever. I like the comfort on ZMFs when the weight is closer to 500g however. 2. ZMF Atrium Closed. A very different presentation to the VC, isolated a lot less noise, has the best low-end I've ever heard from headphones (great quality, and just about the limit for how emphasized the mid-bass should ever be), less forward male and female vocals than the VC but still adequate. A bit less detailed low-end. I haven't experimented enough with earpads, thus far stock sounds better than Auteur Solid Hybrid , but isolates even less outside noise than those, I need to try some suede options as I'vd heard they bring up the vocals further. 3. Capra Audio Ouroboros. These have insane noise isolation, better than the passive isolation on any other headphone, including ANC ones. Too strong low-end for my tastes but still quite good vocals and treble. But a drawback is that they isolate noise so much that I experience discomfort from the cabin pressure sensation they give me. If you need to quieten outside noise, these are great for the budget you can make then at. 4. Focal Azurys. I only had these for a week, but my impressions were mostly positive. Take my audio impressions with a grain of salt from here on since I will be detailing headphones from memory. I found their sound to be good for a CB, slightly wonky upper mids (possibly because of the early ear-gaim elevation), but great highs and a punchy low-end. Comfort sucks without a capra strap, but great with them, ans very comfortable earpads. Questionable longevity given Focal's hinge problems with the new design (at least the headband doesn't snap in half). 5. Denon D7200. Needs some EQ to tame the treble, otherwise very good for a fun tuning, lovely low-end, decently forward female vocals. A bit too unnatural timbre for my tastes. 6. Denon D5200. 7200 with a more muffled sound, arguably better stock tuning but too much low-end and not enough high-end. Drivers seem worse and therefore EQ's poorer than 7200. 7. Focal Elegia. Trainwreck stock, but a great EQ platform. Focals old drivers have great dynamics and with heavy EQ you can get these to sound wonderful (so long as you don't like too much bass, since those drivers distort somewhat fast in the low end). Poor build quality as with all last-gen Focal headphones. Honorable mention: Sennheiser Momentum 2. I recall liking them when I got them, but tastes have changed significantly since then. I honestly don't know if I'd find them awful or not now, but they get an honorable mention as being my first pair of non-gaming closed backs. ANC speedround (I ultimately dislike all the ANC headphones I've owned, be it comfort, poor ANC or abyssmal sound). PX7 S3>XM6>Bathys>QCUltra>XM3>QC45>XM4>XM5. PX7 S3 wins in comfort paired with sound (with some EQ) but poor ANC compared to Sony & Bose. XM6 dominates in ANC and EQ's well but has poor comfort for me. Bathys has great sound, crap ANC (waste of money as travel headphones). QCU has great ANC, pretty good sound with EQ but annoyingly high ANC noise floor with no means to turn ANC/pass-through completely off. The rest are completely irrelevant. Sorry for the crap formating! I don't know why Reddit's mobile app is so bad for text formating.

One particular problem is that there are various degrees of closedness, some closed backs sound good because they have loads of venting, while some have minimal venting and therefore isolate better. Then there are earpad materials, perforations, and their overall shape affecting the seal against your particular head, which also have an effect on sound isolation. So it depends how much you listen to Closed Backs for the sound (usually low-end) benefit, versus how much you value isolating outside noise. My favorite sounding, well-isolating closed back is the ZMF Veritè Closed. With the Capra Audio Ouroboros coming shockingly close (with even better noise isolation).

For sound, the focal bathys seem hard to beat to my ear, especially in DAC mode.  My wired ZMFs are better of course but the Bathys are surprising close while having the ability to switch BT to go wireless.  With that, for travel, the Bose are hard to beat for portability, comfort & ANC, and the Gen 2 adding charging while listening completed the package. Just for the heck though I may try a pair of the Ankers