What is the “OG Empy?” Were there 2 versions of the Empyrean?
OG Empyrean is just Empyrean. Elite is Empyrean Elite which is actually just “Elite” even though the box says “Empyrean Elite”.
Thanks! Nice review!
Taron: Quick bathroom break
Andrew: Opens window and steals case
Taron: It’s gone!!!
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You have one of the best jobs in the world! 
I look forward to your impressions, and Andrew’s, when he inevitably steals it!
Feel like people haven’t been blown away from what I’ve seen so far, very curious to see more impressions come out - I’m begging for a reason to get a pair given their design and supposed comfort haha
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ELITE pads are half the size of the Empyrean pads. Going to be fun finding out the effects that has on the sound.
We also have our Empy tour unit in the office that will be tested to see if there are any differences there.
All the pads, all the headphones!
Immediate first impression off ELITE with Alcantara pads is bass is definitely quite a bit tamer on ELITE.
Hanz Zimmer’s 2049 doesn’t have nearly as much rumble in the intro as it does with Empyrean.
Swapping to Empyrean Alcantara pads, there’s a bit more rumble but still not as much as the Empyrean. For those that really enjoy the Empyrean’s low-end, you’ll definitely miss that a little bit here. Pads also have a farther away feeling from the sound which shouldn’t come as a surprise since they are 2x the size.
No comments on anything else yet as I’ve on listened to 2049 twice with the pad swaps so far.
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Ya I heard from others the bass got nerfed (quantity wise at least). Really unfortuante… if they could preserve the bass impact and fun aspects of the headphone but just boost the resolution I think they would have had a real winner. But still looking forward to hearing it.
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Very Exciting stuff. First the STEALTH and now the ELITE.
I imagine that the improvements in sound are minor to the Empyrean and same with the aesthetics.
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They may be great and best around 4000.00 but I doubt they can touch my Susvara. Have yet to hear anything better. Looks like someone did comparison above and Meze fell short. Not surprised. 6K is lot coin for Sus but worth it if you can afford! I push them on the go with IFI Diablo and at home with Burson Audio Solist 3. I use Black Dragon balanced on both amps. Sound Sublime either way. Yes they take gobs of power but nothing compares that I’ve heard anyways. I ditched my Audeze LCD-4Z with black dragon cables after got the Sus.
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looks like a $1500 headphone and a $2500 case… can we order without the case ??
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Mr. Bond, your Walther and vodka have arrived.
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Just posting the measurements and some impressions here. I spent the afternoon with the Meze Elite yesterday and took them with me to the interior for the weekend. This way not only do I get to have a more thorough evaluation over a longer period of time, I also get to deprive @taronlissimore of being able to listen to them. Such joy is this feeling.
I should preface this by saying I fall into the camp of those who did not enjoy the original Empyrean’s sound all that much - both for its sound signature and its technical performance. While I know a lot of people love that headphone, and there were some things I enjoyed about it, I found it to be too muddy/soupy in the upper bass and lower mids, as well as too piercing and shimmery in the upper treble, with too much contrast between ear gain and upper treble. Moreover, I didn’t find it to be particularly competitive for its detail at that price point either. So I’ve been curious if the Elite improves on those aspects that I wasn’t a big fan of.
Amps used for the initial evaluation:
Vioelectric HPA V550
Cayin IHA-6
iBasso DX220 (balanced out).
Frequency response:
At first glance this looks a bit strange in the bass and lower mids. In particular, the sub-bass appears to have some strange behavior. The on-head measurement, however shows that this feature is smoothed out a bit, so that abrupt dropoff might not be realistic. Additionally, there’s some really strange stuff going on around 350hz. I’m told this is likely a particular driver mode, and curiously this doesn’t show up on the regular Empyrean. Nonetheless, the bass is a bit less… bloated and boomy than the original, even though I do hear the lower registers of piano tones kind of getting lost down there still.
For the rest of its tuning, however, in my opinion the Elite is a marginal if not significant improvement over the original. Specifically, when it comes to the treble, the Elite has a much more even presentation, without that shimmery boost around 11khz. More importantly, the treble harmonics are all well balanced with one another, so you don’t get as significant of a contrast between lower/mid treble and the upper treble.
So in my opinion, apart from the… esoteric bass and lower mids, the Elite has a generally pleasant, balanced, albeit somewhat relaxed presentation overall that I quite enjoy.
Let’s take a look at how it compares against the original. sorry for the lower res, I’m on my laptop and it’s does weird scaling things at 4k. I’ll update this with high res when I get a chance:
So, there’s a similarity, but the original Empyrean is bassier, with more upper bass bleed into the lower mids. While the 43AG isn’t rated for accuracy in the upper treble frequencies the way it is for the rest of the FR, you can still see there’s more energy around 12-13khz on the original, and this is what caused it to be a bit fatiguing for me.
Here’s the on-head response:
You can see that the bass roll below 60hz is not as abrupt on my head - so this is likely smoothed out by the pads conforming to the side of my head (which is… shockingly not an ear and cheek simulator).
Here’s the air gap behavior:
You can see that the driver resonance frequency is decently low - slightly below 100hz. It’s unlikely you’ll hear it like this but this does give an indication for what the driver damping is like. Here I’d say… nothing particularly noteworthy jumps out at me.
Now let’s do the harmonic distortion (remember this does not have anything to do with detail):
It all seems well-controlled - a good result in my books and all far below audibility. You do see the rise there where that ‘feature’ is around 350hz, but again well below being audible even at dangerous volumes.
Now let’s do some pad comparisons. One thing to note is that the original Empyrean and the Elite both have leather pads, but the Elite’s leather pads are around half as thick. They both also come with suede/velour material (I’m not sure what it’s called on these, someone can let me know) pads as well.
I recommend sticking with the leather pads on the Elite. The Suedes drop off in the bass a bit too much and also bring back the upper treble shimmer.
Here’s the Elite with the original Empyrean leather pads (thicker):
For those wanting to see the regular Empyrean with the suede pads vs the Elite with default, here you go:
A few other thing to note:
Detail - The Elite does sound a bit more incisive than the original to my ear, but while I did hear a difference there, the bigger difference was that the Elite was generally more pleasant and more clear due to its tonal balance changes.
*Edit - listening more off the DX220, it almost sounds like the relaxed presentation for ear gain is a minor impediment to detail, but it was kind of like that on the original too. This may be responsible for the perception. I’ll need to EQ that up and see.
Soundstage - Really nice on this one. It’s relaxed, open and spacious sounding presentation. Nothing is too intense or in your face.
Macro contrast (dynamics) - This is actually not that bad (most planars struggle with this). It’s not going to take your head off like the HE-6 or Abyss, some of the few that are excellent here, so the Elite still has a somewhat ‘softer’ presentation rather than the aggressive and intense kind of thing that those headphones have, but it’s not too compressed in the fashion that detracts from the music like certain other planars can sometimes be. The overall bass presentation is still a bit ‘flubby’ at times, but this is the consequence of not having a particularly distinct sub-bass shelf and the upper bass level being a bit too strong.
Overall, my take so far is that while the original Empyrean wasn’t my cup of tea, the Elite improves on the aspects that were my primary concern, namely the upper treble contrast, and the upper bass and lower midrange bloat - even if it didn’t quite fix all of the issues I had with it. For my taste, they should’ve aimed for a more linear bass response, although this is all stuff that I’d probably EQ anyway, since normally you can’t get an ideal bass shelf with an open-back planar anyway (unless you do some… trickery).
Here’s my EQ for the Elite for anyone wanting it:
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How would you compare Elite with other headphones in it’s price range (i.e. Utopia, Diana Phi, HeKse, etc)?
Could you also post what gear you used to test the Elite during your listening impressions?
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Oh, yeah I’ll add those to the post.
Compared to some other $4000 headphones like the Utopia, D8K Pro, HEKse, LCD4… yeah there’s still some distance for technical performance, but it’s made up some ground over the original, and in my opinion is superior than some of those other ones for its tuning. But as always, the build and comfort on the Empyrean Elite is second to none. That’s still the reason someone would buy this over something else in my opinion. Like… if you just care about sound quality for the money, I’ll keep saying it, you get an OG HE-6, add Sundara 2020 pads and add a bass shelf to it with EQ haha. I guess you also have to drop some money on a good amp for that but… you get the idea.
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Cool, thanks for the impressions! Maybe I need to try out the leather pads for my next listen. I used leather when doing most of my listening with OG Empyrean but my friend who lent me the Elite said he preferred the alcantara pads since it sucks up some of the treble so thought I’d use those.
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I’d say, stick with the Elite’s default pads on the Elite, not the OG Empyrean leather pads.
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Thanks for the early impressions!
Wondering if you tried what happens when you use the Elite pads on the OG Empyrean?
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Not yet. I’ll try that next week.
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