I said above that I preferred the Empyrean to the Utopia, and was surprised to find it competitive with my HD800S. But having lived with the Empyrean for longer, I'm afraid I've got to revise that impression. While the Empyrean still seems better than the Utopia to me, I now think it suffers from some of the same low-end exaggeration and 'polite' top-end problems. And for classical music it just doesn't cut the mustard. I'm sticking with my HD800S and SR-009S.
I said above that I preferred the Empyrean to the Utopia, and was surprised to find it competitive with my HD800S. But having lived with the Empyrean for longer, I'm afraid I've got to revise that impression. While the Empyrean still seems better than the Utopia to me, I now think it suffers from some of the same low-end exaggeration and 'polite' top-end problems. And for classical music it just doesn't cut the mustard. I'm sticking with my HD800S and SR-009S.
Had the same trio( except phi cc instead of tc) and kept the Utopia. Still have the Diana and HD800S which are considerably brighter than Utopia. But of course this all is very personal and gear dependant.
The Empyreans I found very good first but at some point it dawned on me that they are actually really dull...no dynamic, doesn’t get my head nodding, feet tapping.
I started with the Utopia and sold my HD800. It was clearly better. It is still probably one of the most detailed headphones I ever heard. But, it's got a pretty poor soundstage by 2022 standards. Also planars just have that linear, flat bass that goes forever and after you get a couple good planars it's really hard to go back to enjoying dynamics. The other thing I didn't like about Utopia is that it is source picky. With the TA-ZH1ES, a laid back, darker, warmer amp with a laid back sony dac, it was pretty awesome. good pair. With the colder, brighter, more detailled Hugo 2, not as nice. Unpleasantly bright at times after I got the Empyrean. The Empy has less detail but for long sessions it's such a good headphone, it will never make you cringe from any edginess or brightness in sound.
I never really took the Empy off after I had it. Then the Utopia had a driver failure, so that was the end. After that I got another headphone the Arya Stealth. Holy crap do I love this headphone. I think I'm done with dynamics after this. Especially as I paid 2700 for a grey market Utopia and it was 5,000 retail at the time. When headphones as good as the Arya Stealth is (at least sound quality wise) come out for half that, 1300 bucks BRAND NEW... it's just hard to really justify those 2015 era Market leaders anymore.
Keep in mind that source chains are critical. Some headphones only sound good out of some chains, not others and people have different preferences. so YMMV. That's why you never make decisions based on what people report anecdotally. Find a place to listen to it with equipment close to what you have if possible or borrow one.
I started with the Utopia and sold my HD800. It was clearly better. It is still probably one of the most detailed headphones I ever heard. But, it's got a pretty poor soundstage by 2022 standards. Also planars just have that linear, flat bass that goes forever and after you get a couple good planars it's really hard to go back to enjoying dynamics. The other thing I didn't like about Utopia is that it is source picky. With the TA-ZH1ES, a laid back, darker, warmer amp with a laid back sony dac, it was pretty awesome. good pair. With the colder, brighter, more detailled Hugo 2, not as nice. Unpleasantly bright at times after I got the Empyrean. The Empy has less detail but for long sessions it's such a good headphone, it will never make you cringe from any edginess or brightness in sound.
I never really took the Empy off after I had it. Then the Utopia had a driver failure, so that was the end. After that I got another headphone the Arya Stealth. Holy crap do I love this headphone. I think I'm done with dynamics after this. Especially as I paid 2700 for a grey market Utopia and it was 5,000 retail at the time. When headphones as good as the Arya Stealth is (at least sound quality wise) come out for half that, 1300 bucks BRAND NEW... it's just hard to really justify those 2015 era Market leaders anymore.
Keep in mind that source chains are critical. Some headphones only sound good out of some chains, not others and people have different preferences. so YMMV. That's why you never make decisions based on what people report anecdotally. Find a place to listen to it with equipment close to what you have if possible or borrow one.
Took quite a bit of brain adjustment to listen to the Utopia out of the Hugo2. And filter/cable rolling. It's definitely not my first choice pairing. It is however, still a fun headphone and sometimes it's nice to appreciate the intimate, if a little closed soundstage.
I didn't think I would say it after the Utopia. It was meant to be my end-game. But I side-stepped to the LCD-5 which pairs nicely to the Hugo2. And planar are just that much better.
As for Empyreans ; I did enjoy them for a bit. But the loss of detail niggled at me. There was a subtle loss of clarity with the leather pads. And a loss of the beautiful tonality the leather imparted when you changed to the microfibre. I've not had a reason to audition the Elite.
Yeah I can imagine how good the LCD-5 is with a Hugo 2.
The empyrean has a better detail profile with the Elite Pads. It's basically because they're half width. When you think about how thick the freakin pads on the original empy where, that's where much of that came from. The drivers are thicker than other planars as well I think 0.16 vs 0.11 on the Elite. It still isn't like something like an Arya or a Utopia in terms of pure detail, it's softer. But also, no tracks ever bother me with it, something I just have't been able to say about any other headphone yet.
I honestly feel like with something like a Hugo2 and those pads, maybe a silver cable if you believe that, you can get a great sound with enough detail to keep you happy.
Haven't had a chance to have a long session with the LCD-5 tho. And probably never will as I'm pretty happy atm. However if I could score an LCD-R....
@Tanalasta, why did you sell your TT2 ? couldn't justify the cost ? I would have thought you'd sell the Hugo2 instead over it. Was it just more flexible ?
It's a much. better technical headphone in many ways and it's more neutral than it's predecessor.
The LCD-2 was sort of a legendary headphone. I didn't get a pair until around 2015, later on their lifecycle. It was the non-fazor revised late 2013 model. I really enjoyed them, but you know, they can't hang with the headphones of today detail wise. I mean they were competing back when the top headphones were the Senn 600 and Grado Rs1, so yeah. different era. At the time I thought they had a holographic sound but in retrospect after I had the 800 I realized okay, their bass is still nice, but there's not enough detail compared to that and the sound is kind of three "blobs" left middle and right. So yeah. I don't regret having them tho, they got sold with most of my older headphones so I could buy a Utopia in the first place.
There's only one headphone I have regretted selling and that's the HD800. Just because it's soundstage still hasn't been matched yet. (IMO). Some people say it was unnaturally wide and that may be the case, but it was still cool. It's bass is not good tho, so I just couldn't justify keeping it, but kind of wish I had for those times I want a gigantic sweeping soundstage, and to be able to compare. After you hear lush bass on planars tho you're like yeah, can't really go back to something that's as thin as on the HD800. The Utopia by comparison is extremely punchy in the bass, even if it can't match planars.
The other thing about the LCD-2 is that it's very heavy. All that wood... yeah. It's still a lovely headphone tho, so enjoy it.
Wow nice! All this talk of Audeze made me order some Euclid buds. I’m intrigued by a planar IEM.
Next year I think I’m going to get a pimp pair of headphones and give the LCD-2s to my dad. I also want to get some custom IEMs as soon as I can make it to a CANJAM to audition some different ones and have impressions taken
it seems difficult to find a "better" headphone at this level, when people have widely different taste/preference, music genre they used to, wearing comfort due to different head shape/size, etc. usually here's no "bad" headphone at this TOTL price level.
i started with hd800s and then got some of those great cans mentioned in this thread (e.g. the utopia, empyrean, DCA stealh, SUS, D8000pro, LCD-5, ZMF VO . . .) I like the SUS the best amongst my collection. but for utopia vs empyrean, i think empyrean is more enjoyable in most cases. simply the best design/looking headphone bar none (i havent listen to the Elite but i personally found the extensive chrome design distasteful). it's comfortable to wear for long time and also not hard to drive. it sounds nice with most music genres and seldom sounds offensive. utopia are great at what it excels - details and good resolution but sounds slight "narrow". many have complained about reliability issues but i havent come across any problem for mine.
@Tanalasta, why did you sell your TT2 ? couldn't justify the cost ? I would have thought you'd sell the Hugo2 instead over it. Was it just more flexible ?
It was becoming redundant. I had the hugo2/2go and a Naim uniti headphone edition. Most of my cables were balanced at the time. So having to plug in a streamer (I used the SP2K via optical) for Roon and use pigtail dongles for my cables just got annoying. The detail, separation were amazing and a tier up from the Naim and a Hugo2. I just never used it.
Or one could argue - keep the TT2 v the LCD5 and I picked the headphone!
it seems difficult to find a "better" headphone at this level, when people have widely different taste/preference, music genre they used to, wearing comfort due to different head shape/size, etc. usually here's no "bad" headphone at this TOTL price level.
i started with hd800s and then got some of those great cans mentioned in this thread (e.g. the utopia, empyrean, DCA stealh, SUS, D8000pro, LCD-5, ZMF VO . . .) I like the SUS the best amongst my collection. but for utopia vs empyrean, i think empyrean is more enjoyable in most cases. simply the best design/looking headphone bar none (i havent listen to the Elite but i personally found the extensive chrome design distasteful). it's comfortable to wear for long time and also not hard to drive. it sounds nice with most music genres and seldom sounds offensive. utopia are great at what it excels - details and good resolution but sounds slight "narrow". many have complained about reliability issues but i havent come across any problem for mine.
That’s really interesting. My audio journey started out in a strange way. I went with a friend to an audio store that was setting up his media room. I was wandering around the store and saw a rack of headphones. I had a pair of Bose Quietcomfort 15s at home (no DAC/Amp) and had never listened to anything high end. Well I put the Audeze’s on and my mind was blown.
I actually listened to a few pair of much more expensive headphones but for some reason I just liked the sound of the LCD-2s the best. Walked out of the store $1,000 poorer and never looked back
I see you have Euclid. How do you like them? Mine are coming Tuesday
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