Auteur (og) has been a great starting point- where to now?
I've had the ZMF Auteur og for a couple months at this point. I decided to go with the auteur mostly because it seemed like the safest option and if I wanted different, I could use it as a reference since it's so neutral. Well after messing with 3 different damping meshes, 3 different pairs of pads and a good amount of listening, I know what I want. Let me preface by saying I listen to a lot of extreme music consisting of blackened death metal and industrial rock. My source is a bryston bcd 1 cd player going through a bottlehead mainline. At first I listened with the stock pads but thought they were a bit fatiguing so I put on the eikon perforated lambskin ones. I enjoyed the sound of those more, as they were a bit warmer and easier to listen to. but the bass was too much and the soundstage became really in my face so it was the same amount of fatigue, really. I tried the suede eikon pads and didn't really like the sound of those, sounded over damped. Basically what I want going forward is a really smooth and warm sound without the awful soundstage of the eikon pads. Looking around the other (cheaper) zmf options, I think aeolus would be a much better fit for my tastes and system. Don't get me wrong, the auteur was absolutely amazing for my classical and orchestral but I really liked the sound of the eikon pads' tuning and the lack of fatigue when I tried to ignore the claustrophobic space. Do you guys think aeolus would be a better fit? I am in need of wisdom. thanks!