Verum Audio Verum 2 Headphone Review

[Curupira]

Great to see more and more competetive headphones in this price range, but not exactly what I wanted to see while my para 2s are being delivered.

Para 2 has same levels of non distortion and a similar "neutral" FR. No need to worry.

 

[Yevhen]

Suppose I go for Verum 2 and listen to them during my evening walks. What USB-C dac / poweramp would you suggest? The impedance is so low.

 

[Yevhen]

No you haven't read what he wrote to me personally.

BTW, if that private 'explanation letter' or whatever it was worked out for Amir, it would probably make sense for Verum to publish something for the ASR society. The guy is definitely talented/gifted from a technical point of view. It's a pity for such a good product to be abandoned. I really want to buy it, but still hesitate because of the reputation, as many do here on ASR.

 

[RogerSmith]

Im not sure if I'm a fan if its eclectic look... but seems like a very good headphone overall.

In the kickstarter campain you could chose your color.

 

[amirm]

BTW, if that private 'explanation letter' or whatever it was worked out for Amir, it would probably make sense for Verum to publish something for the ASR society.

Sure. I leave it up to him to decide to do that.

 

[amirm]

Suppose I go for Verum 2 and listen to them during my evening walks. What USB-C dac / poweramp would you suggest? The impedance is so low.

Any headphone amp/dac combo that I recommend will be able to drive it quite loud.

 

[dark132]

You only have half the story. When we heard of his original statement, we immediately banned him with strongest condemnation. A good while later, he approached me and profusely repented those statements and i believed him. And hence, reviewed the Verum 1. And now this.

You all are welcome to judge him as you like but please don't question me.

I support Amirm. As long as you know the manufacturer's political leanings, whether or not to buy it is up to you.

 

[LuckyNat]

I was about to write a positive comment about the Verum 2, since it seems to be a good Para II contender with proper case and higher build quality / better design for better price.
But now looking at the guy behind this company makes me think otherwise. Its like buying straight from Hitler himself. Just a NoGo!

Having all the politics and pure racism and hate against people who differ involved while trying to sell your products to them is the dumbest idea you can have.

And this type of behaviour should also not be tolerated and promoted in addition by ASR, especially when it was sent directly from the company.

I personally think the reference to Hitler here is unreasonable and kind of insulting to past victims of Hitler .. to downplay Hitler as someone who just typed out some nasty things online once?!

Please just think a bit about that for a moment.

 

[LuckyNat]

So .... what is it about the Verum 2s that are helping with the ultra low distortion ??

This is essentially a one-man-band making a product on their own (maybe not literally on their own now) .. and yet big companies with decades of experience and all the manufacturing facilities at their disposal .. are not managing to achieve it ?

Is it simply a factor of profit margin with dealerships and importers (and Amazon) to take their big cuts, large overheads etc combined with a need to generate endless sales by choosing a deliberately slow evolution path of their headphones .. such that they're all using cheaper materials than the Verum 2 (e.g. aluminium elements vs silver elements, weaker magnets, less element coverage etc etc ) ?

Just seems so odd a situation !

 

[dark132]

So .... what is it about the Verum 2s that are helping with the ultra low distortion ??

This is essentially a one-man-band making a product on their own (maybe not literally on their own now) .. and yet big companies with decades of experience and all the manufacturing facilities at their disposal .. are not managing to achieve it ?

Is it simply a factor of profit margin with dealerships and importers (and Amazon) to take their big cuts, large overheads etc combined with a need to generate endless sales by choosing a deliberately slow evolution path of their headphones .. such that they're all using cheaper materials than the Verum 2 (e.g. aluminium elements vs silver elements, weaker magnets, less element coverage etc etc ) ?

Just seems so odd a situation !

This is not surprising. Planar magnetic or electrostatic headphones exhibit lower distortion, but dynamic headphones offer superior longevity. The reason planar or electrostatic models haven't gained popularity in the mainstream monitoring market is their fragility and inherent sensitivity to humidity. Without meticulous care, they are prone to natural deterioration and cannot match the environmental tolerance of dynamic headphones.

 

[LuckyNat]

This makes it a perfect canvas to paint your favorite EQ on top of it.

.. and of course a perfect candidate for room virtualisation software if using it for audio production .

 

[Hemi-Demon]

The distortion measurements are to be applauded. The post 3Khz output is a bit raggedy. The abhorrent opinions of the creator are basically what comes out of the mouth of current US President and Vice President, at least once a month.

I certainly won't ever buy anything from this manufacturer but I won't fault anyone who chooses engineering over morality. I mean Torvalds and Gates visited that infamous island.

ASR has a tendency to lock down threads discussing tariffs, politics, links to Youtube videos, and forbidden language/words used to ignorantly mock the Chinese audio industry and the ever improving prowess of their engineers.

I probably would not have allowed this particular manufacturer the space for marketing, but the mods have made a choice.

Either be more flexible in allowing some of the other bigotry, less favorable language, and linked corporate relationships to even out the censorship, or consider being consistent about this manufacturer. At least warn buyers of how bad the reliability and customer service was reported in the history of version 1 of this headphone.

 

[LuckyNat]

This is not surprising. Planar magnetic or electrostatic headphones exhibit lower distortion, but dynamic headphones offer superior longevity. The reason planar or electrostatic models haven't gained popularity in the mainstream monitoring market is their fragility and inherent sensitivity to humidity. Without meticulous care, they are prone to natural deterioration and cannot match the environmental tolerance of dynamic headphones.

Oh .. I was talking exclusively within the planar headphone market itself. I can see I didn't really make that clear.

I wonder what it is about this planar design that achieves such low distortion compared to other planars ..

 

[dark132]

Oh .. I was talking exclusively within the planar headphone market itself. I can see I didn't really make that clear.

I wonder what it is about this planar design that achieves such low distortion compared to other planars ..

When discussing Planar Magnetic Headphones themselves, the technology is mature. However, the industry pursues brand influence and status symbols. A key factor in luxury goods is storytelling, which has little to do with technical capabilities anymore.

 

[amirm]

Either be more flexible in allowing some of the other bigotry, less favorable language, and linked corporate relationships to even out the censorship, or consider being consistent about this manufacturer.

We haven't allowed this designer to post anything of that manner in this forum. So it makes no sense for you to want to jump into the pool as well. Any "flexibility" we show here will result in members getting angry and quitting the forum.

I suggest everyone moves on from this topic. You have made your points and are distracting from the technical review.

 

[amirm]

At least warn buyers of how bad the reliability and customer service was reported in the history of version 1 of this headphone.

It is not my job to warn people on things unrelated to performance of a product. Nor do I have any such knowledge. If you do, then post the specifics and don't just imply things.

At the risk of stating the obvious, a technical review is not an invitation and certainly not an order to buy things. You are getting some new data you didn't have the day before, letting you combine that with whatever other factor entices you to purchase a product.

 

[LuckyNat]

The distortion measurements are to be applauded. The post 3Khz output is a bit raggedy. The abhorrent opinions of the creator are basically what comes out of the mouth of current US President and Vice President, at least once a month.

I certainly won't ever buy anything from this manufacturer but I won't fault anyone who chooses engineering over morality. I mean Torvalds and Gates visited that infamous island.

ASR has a tendency to lock down threads discussing tariffs, politics, links to Youtube videos, and forbidden language/words used to ignorantly mock the Chinese audio industry and the ever improving prowess of their engineers.

I probably would not have allowed this particular manufacturer the space for marketing, but the mods have made a choice.

Either be more flexible in allowing some of the other bigotry, less favorable language, and linked corporate relationships to even out the censorship, or consider being consistent about this manufacturer. At least warn buyers of how bad the reliability and customer service was reported in the history of version 1 of this headphone.

I think, again, online backchat from powerless individuals is a far far different thing to the most powerful men on the earth deliberately propagandising to encourage others, to whip up new recruits for a militarised police force to act on that ideology. Not comparable ..

Instead, think of it as someone, a person, an individual you personally have the opportunity to interact with.

You can go one of two ways : One can wave their flag of identity to signal to others that you're against this kind of behaviour and show how you will treat them - refuse to do business with them, reject them socially, encourage others to do the same etc etc
Or you can interact with them, see what they're about, where it comes from and encourage them to see things differently.
When it is an individual, it's a totally different situation.

At the end of the day, it depends what one wants from a situation and how much one cares about changing the world for the better (and also how worried they are about being seen to be played for a fool - that can be a big factor).

There are scholarly papers about the endemic rise in overt racism and xenophobia after the fall of the soviet union - it is a thing and it has been influential in shaping individual's racism/xenophobia for the last 25 - 30 years now in some regions.

And yet, what changes people, what breaks that grip of what has been their personal cultural environment .. is sudden exposure to the real world outside of it, be that through travel .. or through starting a business that is having to interact with the big wide world of each and every type of person!

From what i remember reading previously, it sounds like the maker of Verum headphones is on a genuine path out of that headspace and as I see it, openness and generosity will only help that along . A focus on the headphones too .

(I also think people need to tread carefully, given the war propaganda that has tried to dehumanise and characterise all Ukrainians as nazis .. )

Anyway, I say all this in a fully calm and understanding way - we all respond differently. I won't bring it up any more..

 

[LuckyNat]

We haven't allowed this designer to post anything of that manner in this forum. So it makes no sense for you to want to jump into the pool as well. Any "flexibility" we show here will result in members getting angry and quitting the forum.

I suggest everyone moves on from this topic. You have made your points and are distracting from the technical review.

Sorry - I was writing my last post for a while and started it before Id seen you'd written that..

I agree. Let's move on.

 

[RogerSmith]

So .... what is it about the Verum 2s that are helping with the ultra low distortion ??

This is essentially a one-man-band making a product on their own (maybe not literally on their own now) .. and yet big companies with decades of experience and all the manufacturing facilities at their disposal .. are not managing to achieve it ?

Is it simply a factor of profit margin with dealerships and importers (and Amazon) to take their big cuts, large overheads etc combined with a need to generate endless sales by choosing a deliberately slow evolution path of their headphones .. such that they're all using cheaper materials than the Verum 2 (e.g. aluminium elements vs silver elements, weaker magnets, less element coverage etc etc ) ?

Just seems so odd a situation !

This is a very good question I would like to have it answered competently as well. to my knowledge, planar driver in itself already have lower distortion than dynamic ones, some Audeze heaphones measured here had also extremely low distortion. But still, it begs the question why we see such a technically well engineered product from a single-man company and big manufactures fail to do it? Why?

 

[amirm]

But still, it begs the question why we see such a technically well engineered product from a single-man company and big manufactures fail to do it? Why?

I can give you part of the reason: focus on the problem, measure and iterate. As I noted, this was one of the top stated goals of the designer in the kickstarter. If more companies did this, there would be a lot less impairments in audio devices.