[shafat777]

Honestly, I am leaning more towards the empyreans myself. Ive never had great luck with Hifiman porducts anyways. Went through 2 sundara and 1 other aryas and they all had channel imbalance issues. Kinda terrified to get a 3.4k hifiman headphone only to find out taht it also has balance issues. More over, I cant run my arya from my Feliks Audio Elise either due to being an OTL amp. Hopefully the Empy will give me a little bit more flexibility in that regard despite also being a planar headphone. I ll most likely pull the trigger tomorrow.

 

[Slim1970]

I liked the Empyrean a lot more than the Hifimans, they were more of a comfy couch you can lean back into and listen for hours, I found the Hifimans a bit more fatiguing. As for the Dianas, I've never heard them but I head other people say that Abyss Headphones in that range have pretty crazy microdetail which can be fatiguing. I'd take the Empyreans, as they're 2k cheaper than the Dianas anyway and were so good they got me very emotional, I can't imagine the Dianas would beat them by much.

The Diana Phi’s are more resolving, transparent, airy. They can match the Empyrean’s bass output on the right system. The one thing the Empyrean’s beat the Diana’s on is body and fullness of sound. The midrange on the Empyrean’s easily best the Diana’s in my opinion. The Diana Phi’s can sound thin if not properly driven. That’s the one thing the Empyrean’s will never be.

 

[kkugel]

Honestly, I am leaning more towards the empyreans myself. Ive never had great luck with Hifiman porducts anyways. Went through 2 sundara and 1 other aryas and they all had channel imbalance issues. Kinda terrified to get a 3.4k hifiman headphone only to find out taht it also has balance issues. More over, I cant run my arya from my Feliks Audio Elise either due to being an OTL amp. Hopefully the Empy will give me a little bit more flexibility in that regard despite also being a planar headphone. I ll most likely pull the trigger tomorrow.

If you want to rule out Hifimans, I can say the Empyreans leave even the Susvaras completely in the dust in terms of listening satisfaction. Sure the Susvaras may be a bit more detailed, but the Empyreans are so. much. more. fun.

 

[shafat777]

I honestly would have bought the Empy a while ago had i not bought the Aryas on an impulse. Not that i regret it, its just not my type of sound. Now My mint condition arya is just collecting just and i wanna get rid of it asap. Where would you guys recommend buying the empys from? I live is USA

 

[LCMusicLover]

I liked the Empyrean a lot more than the Hifimans, they were more of a comfy couch you can lean back into and listen for hours, I found the Hifimans a bit more fatiguing ...

Your ‘fatiguing’ is my ‘more technical/analytical’ I think. So I think that, discounting our personal preferences, we’re in violent agreement

For sure the Empy sound is lush & enveloping, a cup of hot cocoa and a warm towel just out of the dryer when you come in from shoveling snow.

Super comfy on your head and in your ears!

 

[LCMusicLover]

Honestly, I am leaning more towards the empyreans myself. Ive never had great luck with Hifiman porducts anyways. Went through 2 sundara and 1 other aryas and they all had channel imbalance issues. Kinda terrified to get a 3.4k hifiman headphone only to find out taht it also has balance issues. More over, I cant run my arya from my Feliks Audio Elise either due to being an OTL amp. Hopefully the Empy will give me a little bit more flexibility in that regard despite also being a planar headphone. I ll most likely pull the trigger tomorrow.

Interesting — actually there’s a lot of ‘Hifiman QC-issues’ out there. Same for Audeze.

Luckily, I’ve not run into issues with any of my Hifiman cans (HE-560, HE-1000v2, HE-6se, HE-1000se).

I do wonder if you’ll have similar problems driving most any planar out of your Elise due to impedance issues.

But back to your original request: assuming your chain has good synergy with them, Empyrean will definitely be the furthest from your current stable, with Diana (v2, not Phi) a somewhat close second. Diana Phi would veer closer to Arya.

 

[shafat777]

I wish my aryas would run with my elise. Its a under-powered, bloaty mess due to the impedance mismatch. I i had my sundaras back when i owned a THX 887 and now i run my 1st Arya with my GSX- mini and all of them had lower volume on the left channel. ALL THREE !!! the 2nd arya, that i own currently is still not perfect but i can mange to overlook a slight imbalance. Hence I am super nervous to purchase anything to hifiman. Be in from amazon, hifiman store or from here. Too risky. I was hoping to buy the empys while also swapping out the aryas for a Sony Z1R or something equivalent. What are your thoughts?

 

[Arcayne]

Honestly, I am leaning more towards the empyreans myself. Ive never had great luck with Hifiman porducts anyways. Went through 2 sundara and 1 other aryas and they all had channel imbalance issues. Kinda terrified to get a 3.4k hifiman headphone only to find out taht it also has balance issues. More over, I cant run my arya from my Feliks Audio Elise either due to being an OTL amp. Hopefully the Empy will give me a little bit more flexibility in that regard despite also being a planar headphone. I ll most likely pull the trigger tomorrow.

I found the Elise to not be a great pairing with the Empyrean, it just wasn't quite capable of maintaining sufficient control of the bass at higher (but still safe) listening levels. Also I found the Elise's signature to be a bit too warm/soft, especially in contrast to the Euforia which I had right besides it and even turned out to be the single best pairing for the Empyrean that I've come across, it was hard to deny that the Elise just wasn't quite up to spec for doing the Empyrean proper justice. It was still an enjoyable listening experience, but with volume constraints and less than ideal synergy. But again, that's just what I experienced within that context. Elise + Empyrean resulted in a sound leaning a bit more towards how I recall hearing the Audeze LCD-2F.

But instead of swapping the Arya for a Z1R, I would actually suggest to consider swapping out the Arya + Elise for a Euforia.

 

[shafat777]

@Arcayne

My VC and Auteur are in perfect harmony with the Elise. So just for the sake of the Zmfs, I think i m gonna keep the Elise. As for the Empys, i do have my always dependable GSX-mini handy at all times and I know just how great the Empys sound with that amp. I also have some tubes coming in for the Elise that will help with the low end situation that you mentioned. I just bought the Elise and it cost me a pretty penny. I m happy with my amps at the moment. Down the road, when i m finally settled with my hp collection, i might swap it out for a Euforia.

 

[Frankie D]

Honestly, I am leaning more towards the empyreans myself. Ive never had great luck with Hifiman porducts anyways. Went through 2 sundara and 1 other aryas and they all had channel imbalance issues. Kinda terrified to get a 3.4k hifiman headphone only to find out taht it also has balance issues. More over, I cant run my arya from my Feliks Audio Elise either due to being an OTL amp. Hopefully the Empy will give me a little bit more flexibility in that regard despite also being a planar headphone. I ll most likely pull the trigger tomorrow.

The Empys are easy to drive. They even work fine on my Cayin N8 Dap.

 

[Arcayne]

@Arcayne

My VC and Auteur are in perfect harmony with the Elise. So just for the sake of the Zmfs, I think i m gonna keep the Elise. As for the Empys, i do have my always dependable GSX-mini handy at all times and I know just how great the Empys sound with that amp. I also have some tubes coming in for the Elise that will help with the low end situation that you mentioned. I just bought the Elise and it cost me a pretty penny. I m happy with my amps at the moment. Down the road, when i m finally settled with my hp collection, i might swap it out for a Euforia.

Ah, gotcha. Would for sure be ideal to find a chance to listen to the Euforia before deciding if you want to upgrade from the Elise to the Euforia, they both have great synergy with ZMF cans so it would be something worth considering for later down the road indeed. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with taking a break from focusing on the next purchase and instead just focusing on enjoying what you have. The GS-X Mini will do them justice, for sure. What you could try, is use the Elise as a preamp into the Mini and see what happens. Using my Euforia as preamp into my Asgard 3 actually turned out to be surprisingly beneficial. Still not on par with when driven straight from the Euforia, but preferable over the Asgard 3 on its own.

 

[Arcayne]

The Empys are easy to drive. They even work fine on my Cayin N8 Dap.

The problem with the Empyrean on the Elise is sub-optimal impedance matching, and running into current deficiency a bit too early, within safe listening levels. Those things become more serious once you're looking to pair a low impedance planar with an OTL tube amp.

 

[shafat777]

The problem with the Empyrean on the Elise is sub-optimal impedance matching, and running into current deficiency a bit too early, within safe listening levels. Those things become more serious once you're looking to pair a low impedance planar with an OTL tube amp.

I hope my GSX-mini wont run into the same issue. If not, then i ll fall back to my ever faithful, always reliable, cap modded LIQUID PLATINUM.

 

[incredulousity]

I hope my GSX-mini wont run into the same issue. If not, then i ll fall back to my ever faithful, always reliable, cap modded LIQUID PLATINUM.

GSX Mini is brilliant with Empyrean.

 

[shafat777]

GSX Mini is brilliant with Empyrean.

Thats what i keep reading. I cant wait to find out.