[racebit]

Thought you may be interested to know, I messed up while wrapping and the innards of the rod holder came out. The rubber rings are actually one piece of rubber tube or whatever material. When I pushed it up it made the rod sliding stiffer, but it's not something I recommend, as it was far too stiff and required some force to move. Attached this picture here for visuals:
That other tiny ring with the small gap goes at the bottom to keep it from sliding.

I apologize for only now seeing your posts, I have not followed head-fi for some weeks.
But that is great news you bring me. My goal is to actually lock the cups at an angle, because that is how I use them on the Empyrean, and plan to use the Elite, to avoid heat build-up which is a big problem for me. They generally keep the position, but I have to be careful and not move much, and even so every now and then I have to readjust. It would be perfect for me If I could just lock it in that position. You say it requires significant force to move, so that seems to be the lock I am looking for.

EDITED: After insisting I finally managed to remove the rods caps, they wouldn't budge first even using pliers.
So now I can even detach both phones for compact storage if travelling, as you suggest in one of your posts, very nice.
You mention that stiffness increased when you pushed the rubber tube up. I notice there is another plastic ring on the other end, so one plastic ring on each end of the rubber tube. Maybe the rubber tube overlaped the plastic ring on one end making it narrower and very stiff.
I was not able to replicate that exactly, but I replaced the rubber tube with a rectangular piece of rubber 25 x 12 x 1 mm, so a little thicker than the tube it self, and I got the rods much stiffer as I wanted. Because of that much increased stiffness it requires extreme force twisting left and right to insert the rods again. The new rubber itself gets destroyed in the process but stays there, so if removing the rod a new piece of ruber or the original tube must be used. Unfortunately when inserting I was not able to avoid scratching both rods a bit in the end where the cap screws on. I got a little sad about that, but I am very happy that the cups now are stiff and always keep the angle.

 

[racebit]

I have thought of doing that kind of custom work myself, however, cannot get to the grille or rod screws without disassembling the earcup where most of the pricey tech is housed. I vinyl wrap mine quite often, since the chameleon edition has been released I'm going to order that in vinyl and wrap the side clamps to give it that effect.

I would assume that if something were to happen to the actual tech, sending it for repairs won't be cheap, which is what has stopped me from going further to switch out or wrap other parts, like the grille itself. So theoretically you can customize/switch out quite a lot, but not without taking apart the earcup entirely. But it's the only way (that I know of) to truly mod it to your liking.

I was not considering changing the grills myself. I just wanted to know how possible/easy it is for Meze to assemble the Elite with a grill from the Empy. If the grills are equal apart from the color, it seems very easy. They don't even need to have the work of modifying an already assembled headphone. It is not like the Elite is a mass production item with thousands of units per day. It should be easy to tell someone assembling the headphones to just use another pair of grills on one set. I am talking when buying directly from Meze, where Meze makes a much larger margin, that I think should be enough to cover that little care to use a different grill they already have in stock for the Empy.

 

[ckhirnigs113]

I was not considering changing the grills myself. I just wanted to know how possible/easy it is for Meze to assemble the Elite with a grill from the Empy. If the grills are equal apart from the color, it seems very easy. They don't even need to have the work of modifying an already assembled headphone. It is not like the Elite is a mass production item with thousands of units per day. It should be easy to tell someone assembling the headphones to just use another pair of grills on one set. I am talking when buying directly from Meze, where Meze makes a much larger margin, that I think should be enough to cover that little care to use a different grill they already have in stock for the Empy.

I just saw a picture of an Elite that a guy had custom-made by Meze to have the Black Copper color scheme of the Empyrean. It might be worth inquiring with Meze directly. Check it out:

 

[racebit]

I just saw a picture of an Elite that a guy had custom-made by Meze to have the Black Copper color scheme of the Empyrean. It might be worth inquiring with Meze directly. Check it out:

That is g-r-e-a-t! Thank you. I will do.

 

[Toonartist]

I have to say, I rather like the silver and that's after being a copper and black Empyrean owner

 

[devilboy]

I agree.
I'd take the chameleon, though.

 

[racebit]

I also prefer silver to black, the one I like the least is the full black Empy.
I love the original Focal Clear, with its silver plus grey tones.
But I don't think the silver goes well with black, and I really don't like the black grills, it hides the beautiful patterns on the grill, as the interior beneath is also black. A non-dark grill color makes those patterns shine.
I'm thinking I would like the silver Elite with copper grills, everything else unchanged, but I´m not sure without seeing it.

 

[TheMiddleSky]

Joined the club -- thanks @llamaluv

Listening to FiiO M15 ==> Lavricables Grand (4.4 term) ==> Elite.

Same comfort as Empyrean but quite different sound. Too early to express opinions, but I will say that I'm not surprised by what I'm hearing so far.

How about early impression with TT2?

 

[LCMusicLover]

How about early impression with TT2?

Very good, although my favorite chain so far is:

mScaler ==> TT2 (DAC out) ==> DSHA-3F ==> Elite

Preferred vs:

mTT2 ==> Elite
mScaler ==> TT2 (DAC out) ==> Audio-gd Master 11 ==> Elite
mScaler ==> Audio-gd Master 11 ==> Elite

Haven't tried:

mScaler ==> TT2 (DAC out) ==> Liquid Platinum ==> Elite
mScaler ==> Audio-gd Master 11 (DAC out) ==> DSHA-3F ==> Elite
mScaler ==> Audio-gd Master 11 (DAC out) ==> Liquid Platinum==> Elite

Overall, not as bright and overly detailed as Utopia.

Very close to HEKse, although (very) slightly thicker/warmer, also slightly more musical vs analytical. Close enough that it's possible I won't keep both, but it's early days at this point.

 

[KelFab]

What cable do you use with Utopia ? I found that the Lazuli Ref changed a lot the character of my Utopia.

 

[curvz]

But I don't think the silver goes well with black, and I really don't like the black grills, it hides the beautiful patterns on the grill, as the interior beneath is also black. A non-dark grill color makes those patterns shine.
I'm thinking I would like the silver Elite with copper grills, everything else unchanged, but I´m not sure without seeing it.

Agree! I have also seen pictures around of a fully silver prototype. I think this was still an Empyrean prototype, but I really dig the all-silver look. Especially the grill. Maybe a bit much, but still.

Though I have to say, the regular silver and black look still look very nice.

 

[devilboy]

Some very good points here. I also agree that the black hides the beautiful pattern of the grill which should be shown and admired. That chameleon is something else though!

Oh well. First world problems.
I would still rather have a black and silver Meze Elite than any other headphone I've tried.

 

[curvz]

Some very good points here. I also agree that the black hides the beautiful pattern of the grill which should be shown and admired. That chameleon is something else though!

Oh well. First world problems.
I would still rather have a black and silver Meze Elite than any other headphone I've tried.

Okaaaay... fine! I was trying to listen to them, but I guess I can pause for a few pictures...

 

[devilboy]

Okaaaay... fine! I was trying to listen to them, but I guess I can pause for a few pictures...

Oh...my...dear... lord.
Simply mesmerizing.

YOU LUCKY DOG!

 

[devilboy]

Headphone pornography at its finest.