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 
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
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
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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Great review. My experience was similar. The Empyrean soars with great recordings and maybe sinks with bad ones.
Glad you got the chance to experience these!
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Cracking review @domi.
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Has anyone had a amp dac pairing that has a good synergy with the meze empyreans. I recently got to demo them on a spl phonitor x but found them to sound quite dull, lifeless and the bass was kind of slow and soft which I didn’t really enjoy. Maybe it was a bad amp pairing?. I tried the focal clear mg professional on the same amp and much prefered the focal clears.
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Welcome to the forum. If you search Empyrean posts from @Jsim and @lost33, you’ll find what you’re looking for.
We all hear differently…and the sound of the Empyreans may just not be to your liking…I have the Clears and the Empys…very different.
The Empys are warmer, more full bodied in the bass department…but have other very positive attributes.
The soundstage IMO is excellent and holographic…wonderful with live performances…
Several folks like to use the Empys with a Feliks Euphoria. I use them with a Neve RHNP, Schiit Jot 2, and a Passlabs HPA1 and Whammy (DIY)…
All the best
Alex
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Any particularly good tube amps for the Empyrean? Nothing too pricey, spent all my money on an Empyrean. And by my money I mean the banks money.
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What is your limits for a tube amp
Interesting choice to price it 1k higher than their standard Empy. They do look pretty cool, I am probably still more drawn to the copper however for 1k less 
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I’m more drawn to the copper even if they were the same price.
I think the red ones look cool in low lighting (in the first photo I saw of them, the red looked really dark) but when they are in brighter lighting, the red is too, errm, red(?) for my personal tastes.
My limits;
- Half the price of the Empy
- I can only feed it 240V, 10A max
- RCA input only
- Must have a headphone output
I want something not savagely clean to the point it’s not much different to the SS. So aiming for more tubey than not.