Meze Empyrean over-ear Headphones - Official Thread

Yes this is just a sensation of pressure. Not sure. Feels like the effect I get while wearing certain ANC closed backs too. I think @TylersEclectic also mentioned this to me as well.

I don’t think it mattered if it was out of the Elise or A90.

It didn’t always happen either, but I think on more bassier tracks,so maybe more air movement.

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What do you think of the different upgrade cables?

  1. Meze’s own copper cables.
  2. Meze’s own silver plated copper cables.
  3. Black Dragon cables for Meze Empyrean
  4. Silver Dragon cables for Meze Empyrean
  5. Others?

IMO, the dragon cables don’t flex enough. They feel weird. If I had to buy more premade cables, I probably go with the Meze cables (of the ones you listed), but honestly the ZMF Silver cable I have are excellent as are all of the Forza cables I own.

ZMF now has cable kits you can solder up yourself, if you want to save a little $.

Forza (Matt) makes cables that are excellent values.

Lots of people here recommend Hart cables as well.

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Ears on the Empys :wink:

Qobuz->D90->Pendant->Empyrean

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Jsim what source are you using with the Euforia to drive the Empys? I’m so tempted to upgrade to a Euforia but wondering if I’d need to upgrade the source to get the most from it? I have a Bifrost2 → Lyr3 today. Review | Ayre Acoustics QB-9 Twenty - Reviews - Audiophile Style

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Not intending to answering for @Jsim but per this initial review of the Euforia a Bifrost2 was in use as a source at the time.

I have an Euforia AE and a Bifrost2 as a source. I also had a Lyr3 before upgrading. The Lyr3 was great but I couldn’t be happier with the Bifrost2 → Euforia AE → Empy chain. The Euforia, for me, shifted the Empy just slightly cooler that it was with the Lyr3 while improving, detail, soundstage and imaging. This gave me the sonics I was looking for.

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sign up for demo tour is live… please read the rules regarding qualifications and what is needed for signing up for the demo tour!

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Thanks for sharing this. I’m actually one of the people baffled at why these headphones are so polarizing and I’m left wondering if whole subsets of people are just so genetically different as to hear completely different things. As an artist myself (I’ve been in a band, played the sax and keys, been a vocalist in a group of other vocalists to sing complex SSAATTBB arrangements and helped arrange songs with musicians) I wonder if some of the reviewers know what actual instruments sound like in person, or have a great vocalist sing live in close proximity? I don’t expect everyone to have similar Friday nights spent singing or listening to singers in a friend’s living room while someone played the piano. And in today’s weird world of quarantine and social distancing, the Empyreans take me back to real and experienced music.

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Oh, I don’t know … I’m not sure it really goes much beyond the usual “personal preferences”, which are typically the dominating aspect of why headphones find favor or not with any individual.

As for live music in person, in addition to playing myself, having had my own studio for a while, and pre-pandemic being someone that was at a live (Seattle primarily, for the last few years, but not exclusively, and pretty much globally over time) venue maybe three times a week (between the opera, symphony, myriad live clubs etc.), I’m very familiar with how live music sounds.

Listening to them, vs. live music, resulted in an effect where it seemed the bass player had snuck off onto an upper landing behind me and the lead singer had had a bad night the night before and then gotten entirely too close and was hollering, overly enthusiastically, directly into my ear through a paper cone.

Changing the position of the headphones, within the realm of them still being comfortable, didn’t fix the beaming treble effect, nor the impression that everything else was coming from above or behind me.

More time with them may have resulted in that lack of coherence being something I adjusted to (I did with the tia Fourté, though it was a different type of coherence issue). There’s a lot I like about the Empyrean, I can see why other’s like them, but there wasn’t enough there to compel me to persevere and try and adjust to them - particularly compared to the stable of cans I have that don’t need such accommodations to sound correct/excellent.


My hearing is in very good shape, also, and I have it tested and profiled regularly. I have pretty even response, in both ears, to a rather higher level than is typical for my age, which might make me more sensitive to the treble-beaming thing vs. my direct peers.

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Ah yes, definitely genetic differences within population subsets then; experiencing the same things but have completely different brain responses since out of all the headphones I’ve tried, my ears rank the Empyreans around the top for the most realistic sized soundstage and musicality. Your descriptions above actually apply to the Focal Utopia and HD800/s for me. Funny thing.

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I totally agree with your experience with the Meze Emperyeans…when a recording is done well the experience is indeed “spectacular” for me and it takes me back to real and experienced music as well.

I never had a beaming issue…and I dont look at graphs to try to explain why stuff is the way it is…

Some folks come from a different type of experience and when listening to these it can be a very startling difference and the bias can creep in one way or another…

IMO its your personal experience and if these make you smile then thats awesome!! Enjoy the music.

They may not be technically “perfect” for some but in the many “other” reviews from all over the world/place…many folks like what they hear when they listen to the Empyreans.

I dont like these cans for what they “arent…” but for what they “are”…and if you have to learn to like these then IMO they are just not for you and best indeed to just move on to something that will suite your ear/brain experience…to some they may not sound “correct” for them and thats ok but this doesnt invalidate your experience or opinion.

So many great choices out there and the Empyreans for me are one of them!

Alex

Oh!! and WELCOME !!!

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Best experience with this headphone is using Manhattan 2 with Wells HeadTrip 2. It created a holographic soundstage I haven’t experienced before with the TT2. The headphone sounds bigger now. Only trade off is TT2 has more bass where Manhattan is neutral. I need to see what my Wells Cipher DAC does to these. The detail went up as there is a separation in sounds happening at the same time. So big win for me.

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Would powerful tube amps in the 1k-2k range have a significant difference from a lighter tube amp in the <1k range? I understand the Empyreans are very easy to drive hence I wonder if there would be a very significant difference in sound with these connected to a Felix Echo vs Felix Euforia. Glad to hear your insights, thanks!

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All depends on the design and the construction of the amp. A Quicksilver tube Head amp is well made, sounds great and the company has been in business for a long time, and its right at $1000 and will drive anything.

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If you want to drive planars, I suggest looking at hybrids like the Tuba / Mjolnir 2, or tube amps that have output transformers like the Pendant and Starlett, as output impedance is better suited for those.

It’s usually not a question of power (ignoring the HE-6 types) as almost all tube amps have enough, but rather ensuring that the damping isn’t fighting against you.

On a side note, I have a hard time justifying in my brain why any OTL amp would be at, or over, $2000. There are no expensive transformers in the amp, and unless they are doing something exorbitant like putting in boutique oil caps in the amp, or making the worlds prettiest chassis, the parts costs don’t justify it.

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16 posts were merged into an existing topic: The Off Topic

Thanks for the recommendations and advice!

One of the reasons why I enjoy the Empyreans is because they’re so easy to bring to any part of the house with a portable DAC/AMP and listen to the best sound untethered to a desk. For this portability I have currently paired it with the new iFi Signature and I just think the sound pairing is fantastic. I would definitely be exploring other portable dac/amp options as well and the new iFi Diablo seems on paper to be a good pairing and I don’t think one could go wrong with a Chord Hugo 2. Do you have recommendations of portable DAC/AMPs that I can add to my list to try and audition? Thanks so much :slight_smile:

As an aside, I found it fantastic that THE Zach of ZMF himself said that he loves the Empyreans: “one of my favorite headphones… truly groundbreaking in many ways - one of the few headphones I always make sure to listen to at each show because I love it so much… The Empyrean is one of the few headphones that I am looking to add to my collection - it’s simply brilliant!”

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Its really refreshing to see vendors complimenting each others products!

The Empys here are indeed “Simply Brilliant…”

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Might just be my phone not displaying it properly. Can you post your preferred EQ ?

I received the Empryean as part of the Headphones.com Meze Empyrean Tour and I can’t thank enough @TylersEclectic, @taronlissimore, and Headphones.com for setting this up!

I’m new to the hobby and this is my first time sharing my thoughts about headphones, so bear with me :slight_smile:

I currently own the Sennheiser HD6XX and the HIFIMAN Sundara. Empyrean is the first TOTL headphones I had the chance to listen for long hours, which means that I won’t be able to compare it to other TOTL headphones.

My chain was Tidal → Roon → Raspberry Pi 4B running RoPieee → Schiit Modius → Schiit Asgard 3. I used oratory1990’s settings for EQ with two minor changes (low shelf at 105Hz to +6dB and high shelf at 10000Hz to -6dB).

First of all, the build quality is fantastic. Empyrean comes in a black aluminum suitcase. After unboxing, I found myself appreciating the details of the design. The design is definitely not minimal, but the elements are blended together beautifully. I would also strongly recommend checking Meze’s website to learn about the engineering story behind the Empyrean.

The Empryean comes with two sets of pads (Alcantara and leather). I found the Alcantara pads more comfortable so I used them for the most of my listening. Alcantara pads also seem to have a slight warmer sound but I didn’t spend enough time to compare the pads to be honest. The pads are magnetically attached to the cups which makes changing them a breeze.

The Empyrean comes in at 430g but it felt much lighter and much more comfortable compared to my Sundara, which comes in at 372g. I usually need to adjust my Sundara a couple of times during listening, but with the Empyrean, they are so comfortable that I didn’t need to touch them again after the initial adjustment.

In terms of how it sounds, instrument separation was the thing that impressed me the most. I had a lot of “I didn’t know there was X in that part of this song” moments. And it’s not like the headphones were trying to drag your focus to a single instrument. For example in Opeth’s Ghost of Perdition, you can hear every single instrument individually but also all of them at the same time in harmony.

I’m probably guilty of liking the bass more than I need to in general to but still, I enjoyed the bass on the Empyrean. I wouldn’t tell that it has the slam, “tightly controlled and fuller” are the best words I can think of to describe it.

I found the highs enjoyably bright. I’m usually easily fatigued by piercing highs but the Empyrean was just right below that for me. For example, the cymbals in the intro of Gojira’s Stranded were so good that I listened to the intro only for maybe 10 times.

Mids were probably my least favorite part. They were still good, but vocals, especially female vocals like Joan Osborne’s One of Us or Draconian’s Pale Tortured Blue sort of sounded distant to me.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the Empyrean when listening to well-mixed songs, they were unforgiving of anything that didn’t have at least decent production quality. This was especially apparent on metal albums. I think this is where my HD6XX shines :slight_smile:

Overall, I think the build quality and comfort of the Empyrean impressed me more than its sonic performance but again, I don’t have the listening experience to make an apples to apples comparison.

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