[jaaibananzu]

There are for professionals and music lovers (and audiophiles ).
Personally, I've not listened to any headphone in the > 1000 € price range, the usual ones which the majority on this website talks about, which combine these attributes and sound characteristic as good as the heddphone. Especially not for 1700 €, which is a bargain, compared to the usual 3 - 5 k € flaghships.

Listening to the netflix witcher soundtrack and oh my, this definitely, especially the sound stage and realistic & natural presentation, sounds differently compared to the ones I listened some time ago when I wrote my review.

 

[wojpol]

The Headphones are audiophile grade, that's for sure.
With the UPOCC cable upgrade, they sound genuinely top tier, getting most of my head time.
The affordable price is just more icing on "your cake and eat it too."

What is the name of your upgrade cable and where did you get it? Thanks.

 

[pataburd]

Am currently using the HeadphoneLounge UPOCC 4-cores 24AWG [stranded] silver cable and the teknorob23 8-cores: 4x 28AWG Neotech solid silver and 4x 24AWG Neotech solid copper with the HEDD, with 3.5mm mini female to 4-pin mini XLR female adapters.

 

[pataburd]

Listening to the netflix witcher soundtrack and oh my, this definitely, especially the sound stage and realistic & natural presentation, sounds differently compared to the ones I listened some time ago when I wrote my review.

I also liked the Focal Clear for home theater, too, but think the HEDD convey a more "natural" sounding sense of air and space.

 

[jaaibananzu]

Really, the Focal clear? For the more enjoying-like music and movie presentation I guess?
I personally like the rumbling bass of the planar and the amt transducer more for movies^^ Though I haven't listened to the zmf lineup yet.
It is different from the heddphone, Clear compared to the Utopia a noticeably more compressed sound stage with an emphasis more on bass, also less accentuated in the higher range.

 

[pataburd]

Just sold the Meze Empyrean. A short-lived tenure. A bit too much bass emphasis and not enough high frequency extension/articulation for my tastes. I prefer the even, top-to-bottom extension, neutral balance and detail resolution of the HEDDphone.

The $1100 savings in MSRP helps, too.

 

[alexl993]

I was seriously thinking of buying your Meze based on all the amazing reviews on them but decided on a 'gut feeling' to go for the HEDD's instead. I just got them less than a week ago (so they still need to break-in). Great to hear about you're experiences.

 

[pataburd]

Don't understand the Empyrean mania myself.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Don't understand the Empyrean mania myself.

There is a trend towards slightly warmish signatures that are forgiving and yet engaging and from what I read the Empyrean is an excellent example of a headphone with those characteristics.

 

[mixman]

Don't understand the Empyrean mania myself.

The Empy has great tonal balance, they are also light and comfortable. They are not for everybody and neither is the HEDD.

 

[alexl993]

I'm really enjoying the sound of my new HEDD's but still trying to get used to the size and weight. It's definitely a compromise, even compared to my LCD-X. I replaced the cable with ALO Reference 16 and the improvement was dramatic. Anyone else notice the stock cables are just mediocre and have another cable recommendation?

 

[pataburd]

The stock cable does not do the HEDDphone justice. But this can be said for most stock headphone cables. Look at the thriving [and for the most part overpriced] after market cable industry. Not sure why more manufacturers don't go to UPOCC cables.

 

[paulybatz]

You know a great set of cans...you put them on and just don’t want to do anything else...these are just perfect balanced..all kinds of music.
TIDAL HIFI minimal...Gots to be high thick quality source material.

 

[JaZZ]

Last Saturday I got an e-mail from my dealer saying that he has received a Heddphone as a test sample, which was quite unexpected. I told them to break it in before I went to the audition today – that was half an hour ago.

I really didn't know what to expect. I had my FiiO M11 Pro with me and attached it to a DAVE. Well, it only took me 10 minutes to decide that I want a pair. The sound is extremely clear and detailed, imaging and the projection of spatial depth are exceptionally good. The tonal balance seemed neutral and flat, in the short time I couldn't detect any flaws, but with my own pair at home I will certainly find some ways to improve it via equalizing.

I would have liked to listen longer, but the store still has some Corona restrictions (just 4 persons at once), so I didn't want to use too much space and time, the more so as I was already convinced. The heavy weight didn't bother me, BTW, the headphone felt quite comfortable on my head.

No idea how long my order will take. After all Germany isn't far from Switzerland.

 

[pataburd]

The Empy has great tonal balance, they are also light and comfortable. They are not for everybody and neither is the HEDD.

Agreed.
For planars, the Empyrean do offer meatier textures and denser hues.

However, for my individual tastes (emphasis on "my"), they are too compromised [for a TOTL offering] with respect to high frequency extension/articulation and ultimate detail retrieval. For me, for example, the HE-1000se, as planars, better hit those aforementioned "sweeter" spots [admittedly, at the expense of thinner textures and drier tones] .

While the Meze show us more of what planars could do, my current biases still tend to lie with HifiMAN and what planars should do. [And, since HifiMAN has been at the planar forefront for the past several years, it is very likely that "ordering bias" is affecting my response, too.]

For me, the HEDDphone [which I would unequivocally judge as "TOTL"] seem to strike a more preferable overall balance: tonally, dynamically, spatially, frequency-wise and detail retrieval-wise than either the Empyrean or the HE-1000se, although HEDD may concede to either planar in any one or two of those facets.

The listener subjectivity disclaimer is, of course, implied: "YMMV".