After allowing some time for burn-in I finally had a chance to compare my new pair of Verum One Mk2's against Audioquest Nighthwke Carbons.
The Verums are my first pair of Magnetic Planer headphones,I had to take some time in finding the best adjustments on the headband for comfort. Once this was found, they became comfortable to wear and did create good seal that noticeably imporved the impressive bass responce.
Using Mojo2&Poly combination.
Nighthawkes sound very good in this pairing. Soundtage is wide and voices are clear and well centred.
Verum's did not sound as wide, the sound-stage is smaller and more intimate. Bass-weight is more apparent compared to the Nightkawkes, and as such create a greater sense of drama in the music with fast percussive music. Voices sometimes sounded as they had a little grain, not quite as clear. I really wanted the Verums to sound better than the nighthakes, but my own conclusions had to concede that with the Mojo2/poly, the nightkawkes were the better pairing. Better soundstage, instrument seperation and vocal clarity, more air and more enjoyable to listen to.
Using Hugo2&To-go
This time the tables were turned. The Verum's ability to scale with the equipment was suprising. The Verums now sounded clearer, more natural with a decent soundstage. The Bass-wight was even more impressive, voices were very clear and voice inflections became far more noticable. It was hard to beleive that these were the same head-phones i had tried with the Mojo2.
The Nighthawkes did sound a littlel better with the Hugo2/To-go combination, but could not match the sonic leap of the Verums.
My conclusions
To my ears the Verums are a high quality set of headphones, and paring with better gear brings out the best in them.
If you already have good quality gear, then the Verum's are a true audiophile bargin at less than £300, punching well above their weight in price/quality terms. I feel that i am not loosing out on sound quality cmpared to other sub £1000 headphones that I have previously tried. A friend of mine has recently purchased a pair of Hifiman Arya Organics, i am tempted to try a side by side comparison, but whilst the Aryas's may sound slightly better, the Verum's at £1000 less are still gvining me a state of audio bliss that keeps me listening to music well into the night.
If you already have a Mojo2 and a pair of Nighthawkes, then the Verum's will not give you a sonic jump, unless you have other alternative higher quality gear in your line-up.
There are already many reviews online about the Verum Ones, and to my ears, i can confirm that they do live up to the hype. They are a true audiophile bargin and are easy to drive, but their true talents are unlocked with high quality equipment.