Interesting. I do have a tendency to (slowly) crush the pads toward my ears when I first put them on. A habit I picked up from my Eikon.
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ugh that picture makes me wanna listen to them again. so pretty!
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It’s definitely worth a try. I get these may not be everyone’s jam but it’s always good to try things again as our chain changes as well as our ears. And definitely on your own chain in your own environment.
I’m going to get the dt1990 again or a Beyerdynamic that’s similar just to try on my current chain as the one I had previously didn’t do them any favors. And I may pick up a HD800S again as well. I enjoyed them but I’m just curious to see how they respond to my chain now and how my ears have changed…
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I have the Empyrean in hand now… for a few days. Let’s see what the fuss is about 
I will be trying them mostly on Topping A90 and Feliks Elise MK2 with PSVANE CV181T-II tubes.
Initial squiggles:
My first impressions yesterday were that it sounded better than my first impressions at Torq’s meet-up last year. It didn’t sound as muddy and weird. I dont remember which pads were used then but I’ve mostly listened to the suede (?) pads thus far.
I had been listening to the new Gold Planar GL2000 just prior to this, and so these were a marked improvement over those. Then I swapped back and forth with the Hifiman Arya, and some of the little things I didn’t like about the Meze came out – that said, I don’t think it is nearly as bad as I recall, so I think I’ll continue to listen to these more and try both pads and give it a proper fair shake.
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I ran some weird experiements with the pads, and umm even took the pads off and used these as Ear Speakers. haha for some reason, I kinda liked it without pads when listening to some acoustic rock music. That said, they sounded terrible with anything with deep bass hits.
Anyway, these are pretty warmer than what I normally like. The mid-bass bump sure is overpowering. There’s also a peak in the treble/upper treble that really rings on cymbal hits that bothers me a lot. It seems more so on the leather pads than the suedes.
Made a quick EQ and I feel like this smooths it out and its a little more in-line with what I like, and its buttery smooth too.
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Meze Empyrean Review.
The Meze Empyrean has the looks and build quality to compete with anything in the headphone market, but what about the sound? I took a brief listen to these over a year ago when they first came out and was left pretty unimpressed and somewhat disgusted by the sound. It’s been a while since then, but I requested an opportunity to give these $3000 planar magnetic headphones another listen – a much fairer, and lengthier listening at home and not in meet-up conditions and people staring at my first impressions.
This headphone was on kind loan from the folks at headphones.com and I am using these with a variety of gear:
DAC: Schiit Bifrost 2
Amps: Topping A90, Feliks Elise OTL, and the combination of both (OTL as a preamp tube buffer)
When I first listened to this set, I was mostly listening to it on the RME ADI-2 DAC, so there’s a bit more amp power going to the Topping A90.
Anyway, let’s start with the build and accessories…
The Meze Empyrean is a stunning unit. It has exquisite build with machined metal cups, an intricately designed grill, and real leather pads and headband. The comfort is among the best I’ve ever worn, and it feels like wearing pillows on your head and ears.
The cable included terminates in mini-xlr and 1/4 inch on the amp side, and is solid and usability is good. It may be a tad stiff, but no where as uncomfortable to use as competitor’s included cables, and this has a lot to do with the upper portion above the split being very lightweight and supple.
The pad options include real leather pads as well as an alcantara suede pad. These pads are easily removed and replaced using magnetic attachments and both provide slightly different tuning variations. For the most part, I preferred the leather pads, and I’ll be doing my review mainly with those.
Sound Impressions
The Meze Empyrean is a warm-tuned planar magnetic headphone that has some sort of middle ground between the typical Hifiman and the typical Audeze sound. For the most part, I found that there was a slight mid-bass bump and a smooth and laid-back midrange and a slight sharpness in treble somewhere that seemed to pop up in cymbals and hi-hats splashes. I wouldn’t call this a V-shaped headphone by any means, even if that description can resemble it to an extent.
On this second go-around with the Empy, I had just put on an hour of listening with the new Gold Planar GL2000 oval-shaped headphone and then swapped to the Empy. In this contrast, I found the Empy to sound a lot better than what I had remembered. It was more dynamic and more open, and had a more powerful low-end and a lush atmosphere around it, especially when compared to the less expensive GL2000.
It was when I started to A-B with the Hifiman Arya that I started to pick apart the areas that I didn’t like about the Empyrean when I first listened to it in mid-2019. It was the over-emphasis in the mid-bass and the splashy treble attack that really struck out. Now mind you, the Arya is a referencey-tuning with a brighter low-treble region and some may find that a bit sharp, and so these two don’t share a lot in tuning.
But preferences lie where they do, and for me, the mid-bass presentation is just a little too much that I found it can muddy up the midrange and give a blunted and overly lush/wet sound that I am not too fond of. Its probably not on the same level of disgust that I originally could not contain within in 2019, but its still a bit there.
While this does not affect every song I listened to, there are other issues that I did not like.
As mentioned already, the mid-range and lower treble is quite nice. Its bold and has a thick juiciness to it that gives much of my rock and jazz music a glowing ember feel, where I’m relaxing by a fire. It’s warm. Maybe too much though, but I am one to like a leaner presentation, generally.
And all the same, leaner presentations generally mean a slightly brighter one. While I don’t consider the Empyrean bright by any means, it has one or two treble peaks that jolt me often. It’s when I hear a crash of cymbals in Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” or ringing sounds in the beginning of “Fear Innoculum” from Tool. This could be attributed to the rise past 10KHz and later in the upper treble range that is shown in FR Plots. Its audibly present to me, and not the presents I enjoy, even at low volume listening.
So, despite Hifiman Arya’s brighter presentation overall, it was the Empyrean’s general warm and laid-back nature that cause me more treble heartache. Strange how that is.
I decided to take a chance on trying Empyrean with an EQ more catered to my tastes. Essentially, I got rid of the mid-bass bump, and increased the upper-midrange and treble, and reduced the upper treble and this Empyrean modification seemed to really improve my enjoyment of this headphone.
Wrap-Up
I really do think that the majority of my issues with the Empy revolves around the bass presentation. Its not to my liking, and overly warm, and just gives this too cozy of a sound and I feel ruins a little bit of the magic of a planar driver. Maybe I just have pre-assumptions of how this driver should sound. Heck, Meze did a commendable job going outside the box on this unit with their unique trace design.
That aside, for me, this isn’t the one, as much as I like a lot of other parts about it.
One more thing, I did find there was a lot of pressure when wearing these in my ears. I don’t know exactly what or why, but it just felt a little strange wearing these headphones. It kind of reminded me of the same ear effect I had while wearing HEDDPhone in some sense.
Anyway, Meze is stylish and quite a looker and comfortable thing, but its not the sound for me, at least not at this price point anyway.
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Great review @antdroid send them my way!! 
@taronlissimore !!? 
@TylersEclectic I got a royal rumble in mind if you will!
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I assume this isn’t clamp force but rather the sensation of sound pressure when listening? If so was this mainly on the tube amps or all? That sensation I noticed after getting a Euforia and especially after upgrading the power tubes. I hadn’t noticed it with a Lyr3 or A90.
IN your ears? I think I know what you’re doing wrong.
Medic!!
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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?
- Meze’s own copper cables.
- Meze’s own silver plated copper cables.
- Black Dragon cables for Meze Empyrean
- Silver Dragon cables for Meze Empyrean
- 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
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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