[ThanatosVI]

Patiently waiting for headphone impressions and now everyone is talking about bloody cables

Gotta love the hobby

Well there seems to be a delay in supply... we need more patience

 

[Gizm0Guru]

I'm in the US, ordered mine on 8 Nov and received them TODAY! When I ordered, they committed to "end of November." Currently doing some initial listening (that may very well drift late into the night) and am planning to do a detailed write-up/review within the next week or two.

Initial impression (as someone that never owned the original Empyrean), absolutely amazing. You can see what gear I own in my signature, and this just MAY be my go-to answer for "which headphone would you keep if you could only keep one?" - which I have never really been able to answer. My initial sense is that it is not necessarily the "best" at every or any particular aspect that we use to judge, but it is at LEAST very good at everything, and the sum of the parts is wonderful.

I told my wife, "this one may be the one"...her response..."I feel like you say that every time you get new headphones."

So let's see how I feel after the day one giddies have worn off.

 

[bneiderman]

I'm in the US, ordered mine on 8 Nov and received them TODAY! When I ordered, they committed to "end of November." Currently doing some initial listening (that may very well drift late into the night) and am planning to do a detailed write-up/review within the next week or two.

Initial impression (as someone that never owned the original Empyrean), absolutely amazing. You can see what gear I own in my signature, and this just MAY be my go-to answer for "which headphone would you keep if you could only keep one?" - which I have never really been able to answer. My initial sense is that it is not necessarily the "best" at every or any particular aspect that we use to judge, but it is at LEAST very good at everything, and the sum of the parts is wonderful.

I told my wife, "this one may be the one"...her response..."I feel like you say that every time you get new headphones."

So let's see how I feel after the day one giddies have worn off.

Where did you order from? I ordered November 8th as well from moon-audio and have not heard anything. Also what cable did you get with them?

 

[Gizm0Guru]

Where did you order from? I ordered November 8th as well from moon-audio and have not heard anything. Also what cable did you get with them?

Direct from the Meze international store. I went with silver with the 1/4” termination.

 

[calypsocat]

People who hear cables make a difference in sound can also hear grass growing.

As someone who worked at hospital for 10 years i can tell you placebo goes way beyond that…

At least they justify their purchases this way. Much like fortnite cosmetics.

If someone can't hear any difference between copper and silver cable in a direct comparison in the same tracks I'm wondering how would an audiogram of that person look like.
If it's not caused by a hearing loss there must be some physical phenomenon we just cannot measure yet, same as we can't measure emotions... And then some just could perceive it and some couldn't. Don't know what else.

But someone was asking about how Empyrean 2 sounds. Looks like I was lucky to be able to listen to it for about a day so I might write down some impressions from the last week when that happened. Unfortunately I haven't had opportunity to listen to the Empy 1. I could listen to Elite for ~15 min, they felt a bit veiled with big but bloated sound especially at low frequencies, not to much clear. After this session I was told they weren't burned in and played 4h in total before, maybe that's why they felt worse than Empy 2 for me.
Empyrean 2 - they played for 150h continuously and I listened to them shortly at 4h and later more at the end of 150h period. Initially I didn't like them (4h) - the bass seemed too soft for me, initially there was also something veiled about them that had impact on my feeling of too little clarity for the price...
But that changed after 150h. I listened to the same tracks and then many more and I had a hard time with putting these headphones down.
The bass still wasn't the hardest I've heard (the latest LCD-2 has a harder bass - A-B'd) but it maintained a very pleasant balance between hardness and springiness. I read Empy 1 has a relaxed presentation... No idea how it sounds but here for sure it is also not straight "in your face" but neither it feels distant, it was very nice to listen in the evening. The midrange, vocals were not presented too close (again LCD-2 is 2-3 steps closer) but there was a very nice sense of clarity now, of better separation and placement in space, something I didn't feel at the very start (at 4h). High tones -as I mentioned earlier I listened with the silver Meze cable- I felt a very nice amount of energy there, often they felt shiny (eg. some tracks from Schiller), never overpowering, with a nice amount of detail.
Overall there was a sense of gentle smoothness with details, good balance in many areas, not too hard, not too soft, not too close, not too distant, even if some vocals felt a little distant still they came with clarity. They were good at many genres. And obviously super comfortable. And all in all it made me order them. I'm waiting for them now again.
For me the only thing I didn't like about them was that especially some female vocals felt 1 step more distant than I like. But not all of them.

So now the best advice from a guy in a friendly store in my neighbourhood : "You gotta listen...". All is subjective, source dependent, mood dependent, maybe brain or something else dependent. For sure there is a group of people who will notice difference with different cables-for me silver cable brought a significant amount of clarity in highs when compared to another copper cable I own.
As mentioned before I tested with Gustard A26+Oor and later mosty with Mojo 2 and it was so cool to listen in the sofa.
I hope that helps someone in some way. But please listen first, it is all so subjective. Like for me - if some reviewer says that highs are nicely smoothed out in some dac I know that for me in some of my favourite tracks they will be totally castrated. Always test first - an advice from a tester.

 

[Dragonmilenario]

I'm in the US, ordered mine on 8 Nov and received them TODAY! When I ordered, they committed to "end of November." Currently doing some initial listening (that may very well drift late into the night) and am planning to do a detailed write-up/review within the next week or two.

Initial impression (as someone that never owned the original Empyrean), absolutely amazing. You can see what gear I own in my signature, and this just MAY be my go-to answer for "which headphone would you keep if you could only keep one?" - which I have never really been able to answer. My initial sense is that it is not necessarily the "best" at every or any particular aspect that we use to judge, but it is at LEAST very good at everything, and the sum of the parts is wonderful.

I told my wife, "this one may be the one"...her response..."I feel like you say that every time you get new headphones."

So let's see how I feel after the day one giddies have worn

I am very interested in hearing your opinions about the differences between the Meze Audio 109 PRO and the new Empys.

Thank you in advance.

 

[djentbat]

I still can’t decide between this and Diana MR…

I’m in the same spot

 

[texx2818]

I still can’t decide between this and Diana MR…

Well the MRs didn’t do much for me at CJ Dallas, so.

 

[Metalingus]

Well the MRs didn’t do much for me at CJ Dallas, so.

$3K is too crowded. Mainly the reason i like MR is style. Having something small that sounds big feels fun. But also i know they are overpriced. But so does Meze. And also there are some DCA’s, ZMF, Utopia, LCD-5, Composer… god knows what will be released next.

 

[djentbat]

$3K is too crowded. Mainly the reason i like MR is style. Having something small that sounds big feels fun. But also i know they are overpriced. But so does Meze. And also there are some DCA’s, ZMF, Utopia, LCD-5, Composer… god knows what will be released next.

For me the sub bass was so good, and something I lack in my other headphones. So it really stood out to me.

 

[Gizm0Guru]

I am very interested in hearing your opinions about the differences between the Meze Audio 109 PRO and the new Empys.

Thank you in advance.

I am working my way through sample listening and the write up. Top of my comparison list is the 109 Pro.

Early view - EmpyII could be viewed as a big [very pricey] upgrade to the 109 Pro. LOTS of similarities in the overall presentation feel with massive upgrades in resolution, stage size and depth, layering performance, and that warm and sparkly Meze tuning with WAY more refinement in the lows and highs and much better performing midrange. It grips you more.

I would definitely recommend those that enjoy the 109 Pro to consider the EmpyII. Full thoughts coming soon.

 

[Dragonmilenario]

I am working my way through sample listening and the write up. Top of my comparison list is the 109 Pro.

Early view - EmpyII could be viewed as a big [very pricey] upgrade to the 109 Pro. LOTS of similarities in the overall presentation feel with massive upgrades in resolution, stage size and depth, layering performance, and that warm and sparkly Meze tuning with WAY more refinement in the lows and highs and much better performing midrange. It grips you more.

I would definitely recommend those that enjoy the 109 Pro to consider the EmpyII. Full thoughts coming soon.

Very interested then in the new Empyrean's as the 109 pro's are my favorite headphones.

Thank you, and I’ll be eagerly awaiting your final impressions.

 

[Auricon]

Just delivered. Gorgeous I like OG Empy and Elite.

Will have initial impressions over the weekend.

Still running Empy II before critical listening – approximately 32 hours so far.

Initial impression is that Empy II with hybrid pads sounds V-shaped and pretty forward/energetic up top out of the case – definitely not laid back and relaxing like OG. There's less mid bass than OG – not cuddly thick – but good lower bass/sub-bass impact with improved definition. Hopefully the forwardness will settle in with more run in hours – II is more energetic up top compared to my 109 Pro.

Empy II is an significant improvement over OG Empy in clarity and definition though it gives up that OG relaxing, easy to listen quality. At this moment with limited run in, I'm hear Empy II suited for critical listening whereas 109Pro and Elite maintain that balanced sound signature while maintaining that Meze easy to listen magic.

Will continue to update.

 

[gammi]

Empy II is an significant improvement over OG Empy in clarity and definition though it gives up that OG relaxing, easy to listen musically quality.

This is kind of what I feared and why I suspected I may still prefer the Elite. If I want clarity/definition there are better options out there near $3k like a used Susvara/Expanse. Or even cheaper, a CA-1a for about half the price. What I want from Meze is that smooth musicality.

Another clear/defined headphone has no place in my collection, it's not going to outperform the X9000 in that regard. A headphone with the Empyrean's tonality/musicality but improved technicals would have a place in my line-up though.

 

[SolarCetacean]

This is kind of what I feared and why I suspected I may still prefer the Elite. If I want clarity/definition there are better options out there near $3k like a used Susvara/Expanse. Or even cheaper, a CA-1a for about half the price. What I want from Meze is that smooth musicality.

Another clear/defined headphone has no place in my collection, it's not going to outperform the X9000 in that regard. A headphone with the Empyrean's tonality/musicality but improved technicals would have a place in my line-up though.

I had the same impression of the Empy2 at CAF. Compared to the X9000, the Empy2 was just... meh. Softer bass impact, not as smooth in the treble, and a generally more neutral tuning that overlapped too much with the X9K's strong points. The OG Empy on the other hand had a distinct character that did what the X9K did not, and thus was more interesting to me.