Interesting... I've been offered the same by a french retailer. I'm not fond of that finish and am not a collector. To my knowledge, those were early units that have been used as demo on several events (canjam, ramf,...). Could be old stock, could be something else. Who knows.
I have both and I cannot say one is better. Two different sound signatures. One example is bass on the Empyrean is more.
First.....They have two different tonal balances and second......whether one is better than the other would be for you to decide.
These are first batch of the new "Black Copper" color option of Empyrean, they are newly produced from our factory floor, and they will be delivered in the regular Empyrean suitcase with all standard accessories. We are in the process of improving the exterior paper package of Empyrean, therefore all "Black Copper" Empyrean will have a new black and white carton box which is different from previous Empyrean packing, but we are going to switch the "gray" Empyrean to the same "gift box" style packing very soon. For those who are interested in the Black Copper Empyrean and happen to live in Germany, France, UK and Benelux, contact your local Empyrean dealer now, this new color is only available in limited quantity right now.
yeah, what americans not good enough for color change? This sucks I've got the old set with grey. This feels like Hifiman going from v1 to v2 in a day.
lol, let the internet freakout begin. If those black and gold look like the original prototype ones shown on review sites they’re going to become the popular ones quick, I’m certain of that.
Its funny I was thinking the other day “I would really prefer the HE1000se with the original more orange wood color”
Well their doing the upgrade right now for $1000. I thought about it but wasn't sure being two se came with out working driver.
Relax. Original release was Europe and then a couple months later the USA. I think the thinking was that they want to send out the initial units to Europe as guinea pigs, and once they perfected the headphone, they would send it to USA
I'll assume that 'perfected' was meant to be a tongue in check comment, @ken6217. Isn't this just a different frame/color combination?