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Meze EMPYREAN - the First Isodynamic Hybrid Array Headphone
Apr 15, 2018 at 6:30 PM Post #422 of 12,974
Bastianpp said:
First one, do you have the utopias?, if you said "through memory " i think no.. and make a comparasion by a short listening in the past ( with the exception if you have both headphone in that moment of comparasion) its really hard to make a good comparasion in that way

And i can't see the impressive technical abilities of this headphone ( like the speed and details of utopia ) in this thread by opinions of the people here.

This is a 3500 usd headphone, it has to sound like a legend.
Best regards:floatsmile:
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I do not currently own the Focal Utopia. Do you? (I do not see it currently listed in your profile). The Source AV not too far from me has a Utopia for audition as well, and I can listen to them both back to back, volume-matched then. You are more than free to judge the Empyrean (and any other headphone) based on your pricing reason(s).

Take care. :smile:
 
Apr 15, 2018 at 7:17 PM Post #423 of 12,974
ToroFiestaSol said:
@Bastianpp It depends on what do you consider a legend, if that is the bright, closed in, plastic Focal house sound...then give me ordinary headphones! :)
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i don't like the '' little bright '' headphone, i never heared it , but many people said is very impresive in technnical abilitys of speed and detail, i'm talking about the technnical abilitys no the FR :floatsmile:

moedawg140 said:
I do not currently own the Focal Utopia. Do you? (I do not see it currently listed in your profile). The Source AV not too far from me has a Utopia for audition as well, and I can listen to them both back to back, volume-matched then. You are more than free to judge the Empyrean (and any other headphone) based on your pricing reason(s).

Take care. :smile:
Click to expand...
sadly no, my gear are: Ether flow open, beyerdynamic t5p mk2, burson cv2+ and iBasso dx200.
i will wait for comparison... i think is the best way and meze has 2 prototypes..


But it's a little sad when many brands put every headphone in this crazy range.
 
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Apr 15, 2018 at 7:52 PM Post #424 of 12,974
Bastianpp said:
i don't like the '' little bright '' headphone, i never heared it , but many people said is very impresive in technnical abilitys of speed and detail, i'm talking about the technnical abilitys no the FR :floatsmile:
Click to expand...

What is speed and detail to you? If the erroneus frequency response of the transducer makes, for example, a piano sound like a guitar, then we have a serious problem with the transducer...the Utopia has a very uneven treble and a upper midrange bump, plus an extremely uneven impedance. Honestly, I think that you confuse treble peaks with speed and detail. If you want to play the "many people said" game, then let me tell you something, the impedance of the Utopia is so uneven that many people use it with tube amps with a high output impedance, which results in a severe change in the frequency response of the Utopia, raising the bass by several db...it's so incorrect and claustrophic sounding that people prefers to hear it that way instead of how the designer intended it to be used (0 ohms output impedance amplifier), because the added distortion and the bass bump hides (but does not eliminate, let's say it makes it less obvious) the plastic sounding character of the headphone and widens up the claustrophic soundstage a bit.
Here you have a graph showing you how much it changes with an amplifier with an output impedance higher than 0 ohms.
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/focal/utopia/

fr-utopia-r120.png


If that's your concept of legendary headphone (so legendary that you don't have one), then, let me repeat, give me an ordinary headphone! :)
 
Apr 15, 2018 at 11:08 PM Post #425 of 12,974
Apr 15, 2018 at 11:27 PM Post #426 of 12,974
ToroFiestaSol said:
What is speed and detail to you? If the erroneus frequency response of the transducer makes, for example, a piano sound like a guitar, then we have a serious problem with the transducer...the Utopia has a very uneven treble and a upper midrange bump, plus an extremely uneven impedance. Honestly, I think that you confuse treble peaks with speed and detail. If you want to play the "many people said" game, then let me tell you something, the impedance of the Utopia is so uneven that many people use it with tube amps with a high output impedance, which results in a severe change in the frequency response of the Utopia, raising the bass by several db...it's so incorrect and claustrophic sounding that people prefers to hear it that way instead of how the designer intended it to be used (0 ohms output impedance amplifier), because the added distortion and the bass bump hides (but does not eliminate, let's say it makes it less obvious) the plastic sounding character of the headphone and widens up the claustrophic soundstage a bit.
Here you have a graph showing you how much it changes with an amplifier with an output impedance higher than 0 ohms.
https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/focal/utopia/

fr-utopia-r120.png


If that's your concept of legendary headphone (so legendary that you don't have one), then, let me repeat, give me an ordinary headphone! :)
Click to expand...
as i said '' i'm talking about the technnical abilitys no the FR '', the graph of focal clear is more interesting to me, but again FR =/= technnical ability, the technnical abilities are the diference between 2 headphones with similar FR but different price, like 100 usd and 4000 usd.
Obviously boost in treble can show more the detail, but it's artificial.
---------
Beagle said:
Or a Stax.
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people said the stax Sound light in body and lack impact... there is a problem with '' the people said '' i know, but not all live en USA.

sadly again, i can't tested the headphone, the only way is buy it an see comment/graph.

Regards.-
 
Apr 16, 2018 at 8:28 AM Post #427 of 12,974
Bastianpp said:
as i said '' i'm talking about the technnical abilitys no the FR '', the graph of focal clear is more interesting to me, but again FR =/= technnical ability, the technnical abilities are the diference between 2 headphones with similar FR but different price, like 100 usd and 4000 usd.
Obviously boost in treble can show more the detail, but it's artificial.
---------

people said the stax Sound light in body and lack impact... there is a problem with '' the people said '' i know, but not all live en USA.

sadly again, i can't tested the headphone, the only way is buy it an see comment/graph.

Regards.-
Click to expand...

The Stax SR-007, if correctly amplified and with a good source, sounds anything but lacking body and impact, that's a huge misconception.
It took me a lot of time to understand you, because your writing is really vague, poorly worded and not concise...of course, with a beryllium driver and a carbon fiber frame, the Utopia has better technicalities than the Clear, the problem is that the less technically capable headphone, while full of problems too, has a much more agreeable frequency response...which is what really matters in first place, technicalities go after that. A headphone that costs 3500$ has to have both tonal balance and technicalities of the highest order, coupled to great build quality, looks, unit to unit consistency and near perfect measurements. Both the Utopia and Clear do not have all of those qualities at the same time, they just give up in one or another.

Let's wait for the Empyrean, at the moment all this thread is speculation, I'll listen to one once it's released.
 
Apr 16, 2018 at 6:06 PM Post #430 of 12,974
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