So, today I finally had the opportunity to hold the Empyrean in my hands and listen to it for around 30min in a peaceful environment (connected a DAP with the 3.5mm jack and Meze cable ). First of all - the Empyrean is much lighter than I had imagined. Handling is great, it makes a solid impression without feeling massive. The comfort was also fantastic. My reference here is the Sennheiser HD800, and I found the Meze on my head more comfortable, the weight is well distributed and the headphones fit exactly - clamp is not too strong, not too weak. The Sennheiser, on the other hand (there was one which I grapped), seems now a bit too far stretching out and overly loose.
So far, so good. Now to my listening experience. On the player were some songs / excerpts of various genres. In summary, I found the meze very balanced, clearly on the dark, bass-heavy side without going into extremes. A solo piano sounds powerful, you feel the keys and the depth,akk sounds balanced and consistent. The selection of classical concerts on the player was rather limited, so I could not mciome to definite conclusion here. But from what I heard, I found the sound stage appropriate for a headphone of this price but not outstanding.
Overall, my impressed of the Empyrean is very positive, but it is also a pricey piece of gear. Actually, I was discussing with myself to sell my HD800s to (partly) finance the Meze. But since I got my ifi Pro iCan, my HD800S is impressing me again with the ifi’s XBass giving it the much-needed lower heft and the tube amp adding some warmth. I once more consider the HD800s to be the master headphone for great piano concertos with its huge sound stage, instrument separation and transparency.
As things stand after this first listening test, the Empyrean is currently for me not worth giving up the HD800s and spending an excess of 2k. But if I had only a mobile DAP player without any amp etc., then I would go for the Empyrean for sure.
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