Greetings all, these are my impressions after spending some time with the Meze Empyrean.
Build quality and presentation is excellent! The headphones come inside an aluminium carrying case which is actually useful and totally lends itself as a proper storage for the headphones. I did not mind using it for every listening session, taking the headphones in and out did not feel like a chore and it did not have any negative impact on the overall enjoyment of having these around.
In the box along with the headphones you'll find an extra set of earpads.One pair is soft leather the other is alcantara, both are premium and very comfy. Also in the box is a detachable 1/4" cable that is almost 10 ft long which is a bit too long for my taste personally. The cable is sheathed under the Y split and the upper part of it is rubber. All around nice looking cable, all the connectors have "Meze Audio" branded on them and so is the y split. The cable does feel ok but could definitely benefit if it was softer.
The headphones themselves are superbly built. Attention to detail is obvious, from the materials that are used all the way to the balanced feel on your head and likewise the comfort. Earpads are plush and while the headphones are not necessarily light weight, they are so comfortable that weight was never an issue for me. Btw, kudos to Meze for the magnetically attached earpads, changing earpads on other cans will never be the same! Lol!
Act I:
On to the sound!
...A short disclaimer here in case you haven't noticed by now, I am not a reviewer of any sorts so I'll try and do my best to describe what I hear!
The Empyrean have a sound that's on the warmer side of neutral to me. I found the alcantara pads gave a more even sound over the leather ones but it was also a bit more boring to listen to, they smooth everything over and details are lost. Personally, I skipped on the Alcantara pads as the leather ones were a step above in my book. My guess is that these headphones were tuned with these leather pads in mind, the alcantara is just a nice bonus in case you have a thing for velvety pads. Lol. In all honesty though, I do think they would come in handy as they do offer something different sound wise especially for the long run. Hey sometimes change can be a good thing!
From my time with the Empyrean I found them to have a pretty safe sound signature. In my opinion they are definitely non fatiguing. While bass could be a bit over emphasized it wasn't to a point of fatigue or grossly overdone. For the most part I felt the bass could definitely be a bit much, I found it a bit too prominent and warm for my liking.
The highs were never piercing and I did not have any issues with sibilance which I can be very sensitive to at times. They actually had very nice definition and some air but it sort of takes a bit of back seat compared to the mid bass. They are definitely not missing but they are not as bumped up as I'd like. Overall I'd say the highs are actually very good just a bit lacking in presence.
The mids in general are also very well done, voices sound nice and full, without being chesty. I did not think the mids were recessed and are very well placed. Upper mids are a bit relaxed, rock guitars can sound a tiny bit softer than what I like. I felt I was missing some crunch and edge to guitar riffs at times.
I did feel the Empyrean was a bit lacking in transparency. For me personally I feel this is what connects me to the music the most, the Empyrean struck me as a bit veiled for my taste. The mid bass and lower mids boost is making it hard for me to get past that, otherwise everything is quite right IMO.
To be fair, I do tend to lean more towards leaner, livelier and faster sounding headphones like the Hd800 and the Jade II electrostatic rig I auditioned about a month ago so not everybody will feel as I do when it comes to this.
Soundstage width was more than adequate, short of the expansive hd800 but so is everything else as far as I know. I would have liked to hear a bit more depth to make these a bit more holographic.
For a $3k headphone quite frankly I expected a bit more resolution. Comparing it to the Hd800, the Hd800 to me has more focus, tons of separation and a good level of transparency. On the other hand, this might be the fact that the Empyrean are not sonically design to do that. Quite simply this is a bit of an apples to oranges thing. Unfortunately for the Empyrean, their price tag does come with certain level of expectancy to perform because of that high retail price.(A bit of a disclaimer here, I do EQ the hd800 and also have the SDR mod on them, otherwise I would not be able to stand them for long!). The Empyrean on the other hand doesn't need much help (if any) like I said before, it's kind of hard not to like their tuning, even though it might not be your prefered signature (it wasn't mine) they did grow on me over time and I did find them very enjoyable. The issue that I personally have with them is that I wasn't exactly blown away by them!
I don't know how good these would scale with "better" gear or perhaps I'm just drawn to headphones that do at least one thing really really well. I don't feel like the Empyrean do any one thing that is sonically above the rest. This could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on one's own personal taste and needs. It definitely doesn't have as many faults as other headphones like the HD800 do. Another big plus about the Empyrean is that it is not very difficult to drive and will not be as amp dependent as say the Hd800, then again I'm sure a totl amp should certainly bring out the most out of these headphones. (More on this later...)
One more note here, I am naturally not a very high volume listener, I found that these really do come more to life when the volume starts getting a bit higher. If you find the Empyrean lacking a bit, you might want to give them a bit more volume and see if that helps!
Note: The above impressions are from the Empyrean using the stock cable, a week later I then received the cardas clear cable straight from Cardas. Apparently the first Cardas cable sent out with the Empyrean had issues so Todd got another one and it was sent to me directly from Cardas.
Act II:
My very first impression when using the Cardas Clear cable over the stock cable was, well, "Clear". It seemed as though a thin layer of haze had been lifted from mid and high frequencies as well as having the bass a bit tighter and well at least a bit less pronounced imo. I myself took this "with a grain of salt", as I know first impressions are not always the best to go by...
Days later I decided to do a side by side comparison to see if I could still clearly hear a difference. I plugged them in straight to my RME ADI-2 dac so I can better match the volume. For this I used an spl meter app on my phone and then played white noise, being very careful to have the phone and headphones in exactly the same spot after changing out the cables. Best I could see is that the Cardas cable is about a decibel louder on the volume knob so I then had no trouble volume matching between the cables since it's a digital volume readout.
Next, I'll list a few tracks tracks and see if I hear any difference between the two cables.
Grandma's Hands - Livingston Taylor:
The Cardas cable appears to have a lower noise floor and so it has a more transparent sound over the stock cable. This track is acapella so mostly the vocals and fingersnaps of the performers are in the track. Throughout the track it is slightly easier to pick up very subtle nuances with the Cardas because of an apparent slight haze the stock cable has vs the Cardas. The Cardas just seems a bit more convincing as a whole, it feels more like you are there in the room with the performers where this track was recorded.
Vivaldi's Flute Concerto in D - The Connecticut Early Music Festival Ensemble:
Once again to me the slightly clearer sounding Cardas is what's making the difference.
Slightly lower noise seem to result in a bit more dynamic sound. When it comes to nuance, the breathing (inhaling) and then blowing into the flute is more apparent and easier to hear into. All instruments in the piece also have better focus, and a bit more air around each of them. Towards the very end of the track when the whole orchestra kicks in, the stock cable does not handle it as well as the Cardas does and it sounds more bloated and loses a bit more focus because of that bloat.
Moondance - Van Morrison:
Right off the bat, the bassline on this is a bit more taught, tighter and has better groove with the Cardas. The sound is also a bit more three dimensional as the cymbals are more clearly behind the bass. It might sound strange but the music has better flow with the Cardas. On the stock cable the bass sounds duller and definitely more rounded with softer edges. The cymbals are not as well defined and they sound smeared.
I heard this track more than a handful of times for this comparison, and every time the Cardas just simply pulls ahead. It is easier to follow each instrument, and being able to hear more clearly into each respective instrument (vocals included) just really gives me a feeling of satisfaction. In other words it's more resolving than with the stock cable.
In my opinion the Cardas really is able to squeeze just a little bit more out of the Empyrean and that little bit really does make a difference! This last paragraph pretty much sums up my overall listening experience with the Cardas cable vs stock...
Act III:
A few days before shipping out the Empyrean I bought and received a new amp (new to me anyways), which is the Violectric V200 and boy was this amp a good match for the Empyrean! Previously, I was using the Empyrean either straight from the RME Adi-2 dac or with this dac and a Schiit Mjolnir 2 with LISST tubes as my amp (keep in mind both cables on the Empyrean are single ended and the Mj2's single ended output is not all that great). Compared to the Violectric, the previous two setups were not doing the Empyrean any justice at all!
Another thing, and I almost hate to say it as I've never been much of an aftermarket cable guy, but between the two cables the Cardas is an absolute must! It is just that much better and the Empyrean was brought up to true flagship status!
My listening impressions with this new setup is just about a total 180 degree turn for the better.
I found the bass to be quite amazing and less overbearing. Mids are wonderful, vocals are fantastic! Highs are still as good as before but now are a bit more resolving of the fine details and stand at a more equal plane with the other frequencies.
The soundstage was spot on on these cans. That little bit of resolution that was missing before is now blowing my mind a bit. The positioning of the instruments and vocals on the stage is quite impressive!...
I'm glad I was able to keep the Empyrean for that extra time as it allowed me to fully appreciate what they really have to offer. My only gripe now would be the fact that one must really make the extra expense for an aftermarket cable to squeeze out the extra goodness in these wonderful cans.
Well guys, congrats to you if you managed to read this far! My "review" turned out to be more of a "stream of consciousness listening impressions" than anything else. Lol
As always, a great big thanks to Todd Green for letting me borrow these, it was a pleasure and definitely a good trip!
