Meze Empyrean over-ear Headphones - Official Thread

I spent a few days on the EMPY headphone tour. Thank you @TylersEclectic!
I’m currently writing up the Empyrean vs Vérité death match! Stay tuned…

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Just some quick snapshots of this loaner Empyrean alongside my rig. Thanks to the organizers of the Empyrean Tour who made this happen. :headphones:


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Spent a few days with the Empyreans listening side by side with my own VCs on my main rig and I managed to capture a few notes. First, i thought the Empyreans sounded great; very clean, great bass and overall very… civilized… in a good way! No harshness or brightness here. The Meze’s bass is addicting; had me checking if I accidentally had enabled EQ by accident at least once! A few tracks I listened to:

I’m Coming Out - Diana Ross

  • I always love the drums and cymbals in this piece. On the Meze, the initial hits with the drums were satisfying with great impact. The only thing missing to my ears were the organic texture to the drums that I’m used to. Still sounded great but missing just that last ~5% that I’m used to here.

enternmt A COLORs ENCORE - Oklou

  • i love the tone of the singer’s voice here. With the VC, the impression I have is the vocal performance is the shining star with everything as supporting cast. Not to say there’s imbalance but rather the presentation is as you’d expect with the singer slightly in front and the instruments slightly back. Everything is in musical harmony here. In contrast, the Meze seems to present everything on the same plane but does a good job keeping them distinct. There were a few points where i did feel like they were competing a bit which did distract from my experience listening to this track in particular.

Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5) (2019 remix[Live]) - Pink Floyd

  • trying out some live music (found this gem in Mrphotography Gear Review playlist in Amazon music. Shout out to @MRHifiReviews for sharing this!). Both headphones stage differently here. The Meze gave me a sense of being a few rows back… not far but not front row. Both sound great here.

Who Am I - Saje

  • there’s a sequence near the beginning where the sound of breathing oscillates left to right and back. The center imagine was a hair recessed (softer) to my ears here. Otherwise, sound separation of instruments on either side was great.

Those were some of the notable impressions I had with my limited time with the Empyreans. Overall, I felt the Empyreans were good at everything and great with bass but to me, the civility of the approach brings too much uniformity (for lack of a better word) for my preference.

Only had the chance to test on a single chain:
USB → Denafrips Ares 2 → Mogwai SE w/Jupiters (5U4, 6SL7, 6384) → Low Z (32)

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With the Zane Deux!!! Nice man, such a cool looking amp and bummed they don’t make it anymore.

Glad you enjoyed it @johnccl196 !!

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Thank you to the organizers of the tour. The build quality, design, aesthetic with visible drivers, comfort, and light weight are quickly apparent. The ease of changing the pads is revolutionary. Metal briefcase is a nice touch.

Qutest 3V white incisive filter > LTA MZ2 with more detailed/neutral tube roll (NOS Sylvania 6SN7 brown base and Telefunken 12AT7 diamond mark).

On initial listen, I much prefer the Alcantara suede pads over the leather pads, a larger variance than I’m used to. I usually prefer lambskins sonics with my ZMFs.

Of those being compared, they sound most similar to the HD6XX. That’s all for now.

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Thank you to headphones.com for the opportunity to participate in the Empyrean tour, and to Tyler for organizing and running a good show!

To cut straight to the chase, these were the best headphones I have ever experienced for any satisfactory length of time under ideal conditions. In my collection I have the likes of the LCD-2 (2020 Fazor), the HD6XX, and the Elegia, along with the respectable cans like the HE400i, HD560S, and the M1070. The Empyreans were at another level entirely. I found them to be highly dynamic and detailed, but never fatiguing. It will be hard to un-hear these.

Those who have previously testified to the luxurious build, light weight, and comfort were not exaggerating. The fully swiveling and spacious cups, the form-fitting head strap, and the quiet and secure friction height bars, were the best designed and implemented system I have yet encountered.

I tested these phones on two listening stations. The first was my desktop system, consisting of a Mac connected to an iFi iDSD Black Label DAC/Amp at 24-bit, 96KHz. Software used included Rogue Amoeba SoundSource with its parametric EQ and abundance of presets from the AutoEQ project. I listened to local files anywhere from hi-resolution FLAC, to maxed out MP3s at 256-320 kilobits/sec. I settled on the PEQ setting based on Crinacle’s measurements, and disabled xBass and 3D+ on the Black Label.

The second was my bedside rig. Here I used the line out from my DAPs such as the Shanling Q1 and ZiShan DSDs, connected to a Schiit Loki Mini+ tone control like to a Schiit Vali 2 tube amp. I added something like 3dB of bass using the Loki. I actually found that little-to-no EQ was actually necessary. Just a little seasoning to taste with the bass knob.

In my opinion, both systems provided ample power to drive the headphones to loud volumes without ever having to exceed twelve o’clock on the knob at normal (iFi) or high (Vali) gain settings.

Starting with the desktop I dove straight into some of my favorite tracks. I went with a bunch of songs from The Alan Parsons Project first. Not only do I love this band to death, these albums contain some of the best recorded and mastered material available. The bass and drums rhythm at the start of I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You sounded pristine and tonally correct, making the LCD-2 sound somewhat smoothed over by comparison. The spooky jungle-sounding special effects at around the 2 minute mark of Games People Play were exactingly detailed and suitably atmospheric.

I delved into electric guitars with AC/DC’s Angus Young, because, who wouldn’t? The epic, bombastic Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and Problem Child were highlights. When Angus wildly descends the fret ladder to his crescendos, well, this is a reminder of why classic rock will never go out of style. Analysis went out the window soon enough listening to these guys. Bon Scott’s vocals were exactly how you’d want them, although they did seem to fade in and out ever so slightly, reminding me why the HD6XX will never depart my collection when it comes to vocals.

Speaking of vocalists, when I headed off to the bedside I decided to let some of my favorite female vocalist play. I started off with my Shanling Q1 with its ES9218P Sabre DAC and chose Jenni Vartiainen as the opening act. I got through the first album, but sensed something wasn’t quite right. I played it again using the ZiShan DSDs and its AK4497 DAC, and lever looked back. For these headphones, I decided that the AKM DAC sounded subjectively better that the ESS DAC.

Jenni’s voice usually results in multiple eargasms of delight, and these sessions did not disappoint. The very beginning of Suru on Kunniavieras is a perfect example of what she does that does it for me every time. Following her was fellow Finn Tarja Turunen. Tarja is a classical-trained opera singer turned Metal goddess. Her post Nightwish compositions such as Victim of Ritual, Lucid Dreamer , and Mystique Voyage from Colours in the Dark contain richly layered and complex passages that can bring many headphones to their knees in submission. Not these Empyreans, though. In Tarja, they found their muse. I continued on with Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks, Heart’s Wilson sisters, and a few others before finishing with the incomparable Tori Amos’ breakthrough Little Earthquakes album. Here, not only her sweet southern voice, but also her relentless rocking piano were the stars. Yeah, I could have listened to Tori’s whole discography and never once been let down by these headphones.

This is starting to turn into a novel, and since I’m not being paid by the word (or at all for that matter), I’ll bring these observations to a conclusion by once again saying thank you to headphones.com for loaning them to me, and to anyone who took the time to read this paean to the Meze Empyreans. Now about that second mortgage to fund the purchase of these for myself…

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Not being able to participate in the loaner program due to location, I had to go and buy myself a set of Empyreans.

Thanks to Headphones.com … wait up.

Anyway. Good to see people enjoying them! I certainly am too.

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I had the pleasure to demo the Meze Empyreans via the headphones.com and have to say thank you so much…for saving me over $2K on a blind purchase. I have heard these headphones hyped up over the months here and totally understand why. I can see that these without a doubt can be a lot of people’s TOTL headphones if someone is going for a certain sound and top notch quality build. I also think that if I heard these before amassing the collection that I have today, I would without a doubt buy these and I will tell you why.

Years ago I really got into 2 channel audiophile systems. I went down to a hifi shop religiously every weekend waiting for the day to be able to purchase a turntable and speakers. I had money leftover from a college account sadly I never used ( hence the reason why I have shitty grammar and love spellcheck! LOL) After awhile I bought a pair of Dynaudio Contour 30’s, as I was looking for ultimate detailed transparency, and bought a used tube amp and Linn LP12. The reason Im telling everybody this will shape my opinion on the empyreans, trust me. So after I got a killer system I was in heaven hearing gobs of new details from my favorite songs. I then went back down to the shop and heard a funny looking speaker playing a jazz song. I hated jazz but this song was Alone Together by Chet Baker. I never heard a speaker make something sound so organic and with amazing lingering atmosphere that my Dynaudio’s came nowhere near. I felt like I was in a dark seedy alley set in a Noir film. Standing under a lightpost shining a spotlight on me and as I looked at the rain coming down out in the darkness. FUCK!!! Now that was what I was looking for! Not detail, not hearing the lick of someones lips but the feeling that transforms me as a listener into another world. Where atmosphere and airy weight triumphs over all, glowing embers and a seedy filled underground.

Flashforward to me getting into headphones I initially looked for comfort as I would try out headphones and would immediately feel my heartbeat bumping in my head like it was a zit trying to pop.After trying a lot on I finally found one that was doable. My first headphone I could wear comfortably was the HD800’s. They felt amazing. Got them home and never played them past the first month. Why? I don’t know. (Id like to try again and see if I have the same response to them on a nice tube amp)

At this time of my life if I came across the Empyreans I would of grabbed them quickly due to the comfortable build but personally I think I would of done the same thing with them like the 800’s. Why couldn’t I get into them like the hd800’s? I hypothesized that it was the same situation with the dynaudio contours. They all sound amazing and all do detail amazingly but I don’t get swept up and transported into that dark seedy alleyway. I don’t hear new music and fall in love venturing down a rabbit hole of new bands within that genre like I did with jazz after hearing Chet Baker on those speakers at the hifi shop.

I don’t know enough to say hey the highs are 3 dbs too high at 10k or the bass is to muddy under 90hz, etc. I don’t break headphones ( or speakers) down like that. I now put them on and look for that soul in a sense, the heartbeat of a tune regardless of how they are tuned. I have found that ZMF headphones for some reason bring me to that place. could I explain why or how? probably not. I could try but probably would fail miserably to put it into words well.

What did I use with the empyreans? I used the Ampsandsound Mogwai SE+ and the Holo Spring KTE DAC. The first two hours with the Empyreans I had fun. It sounded new and did have fun playing electronic music as the bass had a good thud to it, nice and tight even on the Mogwai tube amp. After a day I started reaching for my Zmf’s again. One thing I could say is that I never understood the idea with a veiled sound on certain headphones and when I switched back to my Verites for about two songs it did seem like there was a small layer in between the music in comparison to the clean Empyreans. But after half a song with the Verites I immediately got swept away into LALA Land! Goodbye! LOL

What about the build quality? Without a doubt the most comfortable headphones Ive worn next to the HD800’s. I wish I could compare the two next to each other but could not. The empyreans earpads are super soft and feel like I have two nice tempur-pedic mattresses resting on either side making me initially have a shit-eating grin on my face like I just got done laughing my ass off!

(EDIT: if you made it this far, thanks you for reading my unusually written personal review. I hope someone gets out of it some sort of enjoyment even if its a head shake and finger wag of what not to do.Haha, I understand I didn’t talk a lot about the headphones but what parts I did hopefully were built up nicely with a good backstory so I could convey my opinion in a well structured and thought out way. For fun I played the Chet Baker album ‘Chet’ over and over while typing this out. )

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Experiences that transport me to a certain time and place are what I seek also. Some gear do it better than others.

I experienced this too when going from the Empyrean to VC. I believe it’s related (at least in part) to planars generally having less distortion than dynamic drivers.

Now I need to revisit Alone Together.

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Any review that incorporates multiple eargasms is well done in my book. What was your favorite chain for the Empyrean?

Nice bedside rig.

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Thanks!

I think I have the most fun with the bedside gear. Variety of DAPs serving as DACs, plus tube rolling the Vali 2. I ended up plugging in an electro-harmonix 6CG7.

I like adjusting knobs on the Loki much more than playing with software eq settings.

It must be said, however, the iFi DAC/Amp does sound nearly perfect with just about anything it drives.

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Nice. I have an EH 6CG7 plugged into my Vali 2 now.

Likewise, although I currently have the Loki removed from my chain.

I used to have an iFi Nano BL that I enjoyed very much.

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My time with the Empyrean has exceeded expectations. My preferred chain so far is Audiolab 6000N Streamer with ESS Sabre DAC > LTA MZ2 with linear power supply. This is preferred over the Chord Qutest and A&S Mogwai SE inserted into the chain, which remains my go-to for the VC.

The presentation of notes with the Qutest is refined with polished edges (which I prefer over the sharper edges of the Bifrost 2 with the VC) that does not pair well with the Empyrean, which in its native state is already the opposite of incisive. The sharper edges with the Sabre DAC complement the Empyrean. I don’t currently have my BF2 in my possession, but I can understand how the BF2/Schiit DACs and Empyrean are often in the same chain.

The Empyrean, a planar, has an absence of distortion compared to the VC (different from detail retrieval; some distortion can be favorable). The MZ2 is a push pull amp with less harmonic distortion / tonal weight / wetness (in general, compared to single ended) that pairs well with the Empyrean. The Empyrean-Mogwai SE pairing is a very good one, but 2nd choice here. The linear power supply of the MZ2 also complements the distinct/well executed/desirable staging of the Empyrean (perhaps attributable to its planar isodynamic hybrid array design that presents like 2 or 3 way speakers, distinct from a single driver dynamic speaker/headphone).

There is likely more to follow, this post was intended to just indicate my preferred pairing to date.

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Hi everyone, im new to this forum and i want to share something important i found inside the meze empyrean.
Im always curious about the inside of all the equipment i have and what i found inside the meze really shocked me they use to small standard quality cable with normal Soldering, so i m going to change the cables to silver plated copper with pure silver soldering and share my experience and some photos with you.

Here is the before pictures

Please be careful. Personally, I wouldn’t go near a pair of $3000 planar headphones with a soldering iron.

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Me nether, i will use silver and try to do direct contact with no solding at all

Just got the tour unit in!

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This is the third time I’ve had the Empyreans to try out in my own system. My system has been different each time I’ve had them but my opinion of them hasn’t really changed much…I’ll formulate my thoughts and try to give it a few days before posting my “impressions/review”

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