You need a nice FM tuner to go with your rig(s) for late night jazz listening on WRTI, 90.1 out of TempleU. Great way to find music & artists you would not have thought of or are aware of. Their DJs are very knowledgeable.

Glen, if I ever bought a tuner it would be for nostalgic purposes at this point. I have access to thousands of radio stations at my fingertips from the computer when I am listening to headphones. I can listen to virtually anything out there including WRTI which is a good station indeed. My computer feeds my DAC so anything on the PC is accessible to my headphones.

I have greatly enjoyed reading all your posts throughout your headphone journey. I never could get into the ZMF Auteurs myself. Just not my cup of tea. I will have to give the Audeze LCD3s a more serious demo in comparison to the LCD4. I'm glad you love Fostex for the same reasons that I do. Their bass performance is simply unmatched by any other company. I also can't part with my Sennheisers. There is just something truly magical about them. I'd say they are masters at midrange and comfort. I've never even heard of the E-MU Teak. I will have to check them out!

Did you ever get a chance to try out headphone cables from Wireworld?

Where did you listen to the ZMF Auteurs in African Blackwood if there is only 100 pairs "scheduled" to be made and I have one of the first few? :scratch2:

By the way, the Auteur is only getting better and better with break in time. There is something about Biocellulose drivers that I find incredibly "right" and "wholesome". A very addicting and musical pair of headphones with Tubes especially.

Yes, give the LCD3 a listen, very romantic and musical cans.

Oops, my mistake. It is actually the ZMF Atticus that I have heard not the Auteur. I will have to give them a listen if the opportunity ever presents itself.

There is at least one review already out of the early Auteur Blackwood that I have seen. Definitely give them a listen if you come across them. :music: I really think Zach Mehrbach of ZMF hit it out of the ballpark with this one. He is one serious headphone enthusiast!

Auteurs
 

Hi Serge,
Congratulations on finding your endgame headphones! Which of your amps do you like best with the Auteurs and what is your source and DAC for headphone listening?

They sound great with all the amps but my preference is for tubes with the Auteurs. The 300 ohm impedance lends itself very well to tubes. PrimaLuna is magic but I have to sit next to my rack so I don't indulge in that very often. Most of the time it is my Woo WA6 on my desktop. The WA6 is driven by the Audeze Deckard Class A variable output stage and the internal DAC. Two factors here, the built in Audeze DAC is very smooth and musical and the Class A variable output allows me to fine tune the input voltage to the Woo amp and adjust the gain on both amps for a better match.

On some recordings it sounds noticeably better being able to lower the input and use more gain from the Woo volume pot, on some it is the other way around. The output impedance of the Woo amp as the volume pot is turned interacts with the impedance of the Auteurs and often if I just tweak it back and forth between the two amps, it sounds phenomenal. I learned that trick from playing around with the "pre-gain" settings of my German built Violectric headphone amp. :music:

Serge,
Is the PrimaLuna better than the WA6/Deckard? If so, you could get a quality extension cable custom made to the desired length with minimal loss due to the longer cable. I had Wireworld make a custom cable for me because I have the same problem where my HP amp is in the same rack as my speaker based components. My extension cable is made from Wireworld Eclipse 7 interconnect cable that was custom made by Wireworld. I can't hear any signal loss with this extension cable. Just a thought.

PrimaLuna is an absolute tone and timbre beast. Very colorful, expressive, harmonically rich yet resolving and dynamic. The Woo is more lush and laid back. Chances are, the PrimaLuna may be joining my other room with another pair of speakers and then I will return my desk to that room and will be within reach of the PrimaLuna on the rack next to the computer table. If not, a longer cable may indeed be a good addition for those PrimaLuna listening sessions. :yes: