[betula]

Most hilarious comment I've read in a while. In the age of peak shilling, hype, snake oil like audio has never seen before, lol.

In a time when headphones is being invaded by the boutique speaker brands and pricing them similarly with the same nonsense marketing. Never have headphones become a fixture of status symbol until now. It's sad IMO.

It is difficult to judge the amount R+D behind a new headphone or a new driver structure. For sure it costs a lot. Meze driver or the Final D8000 driver are all unique to the conventional market of dynamic drivers or flat planar sheets. They must have spent a lot of money to come up with something usable and different.

A reviewer once said, buying a flagship headphone is like investing in the future of your preferred company. In a way I agree.

New flagships come at a price. We pay this price by supporting our preferred companies. In a way demand will determine the future of headphone audio. It is just the way it is. We form the future.

 

[SoundJedi]

It is difficult to judge the amount R+D behind a new headphone or a new driver structure. For sure it costs a lot. Meze driver or the Final D8000 driver are all unique to the conventional market of dynamic drivers or flat planar sheets. They must have spent a lot of money to come up with something usable and different.

A reviewer once said, buying a flagship headphone is like investing in the future of your preferred company. In a way I agree.

New flagships come at a price. We pay this price by supporting our preferred companies. In a way demand will determine the future of headphone audio. It is just the way it is. We form the future.

Flagship prices have been drifting higher and higher over the last couple of years. Its now pretty common to see 4-5k iems and HPs. Don't think it's all R&D.

Thankfully some challenger brands are putting some balance back into that. Chi-fi has been huge in iems and I am sure the revolution will reach full size HPs too.

 

[betula]

Flagship prices have been drifting higher and higher over the last couple of years. Its now pretty common to see 4-5k iems and HPs. Don't think it's all R&D.

Thankfully some challenger brands are putting some balance back into that. Chi-fi has been huge in iems and I am sure the revolution will reach full size HPs too.

This hobby has gained much more attention in the last 5 years than ever before. This means more people are willing to pay big money, so prices will only go up.
In a way this is good, as research and development has never had this much funds, but at the same time there is no control over manufacturers creating flagship prices.
I guess, as always, demand will determine prices.
As long as there are 5000 wealthy people on Earth willing to pay a fortune for newly developed headphones, prices won't really go down.

 

[flea22]

If anyone knows how well does the hugo 2 go driving the empyreans? Can it get pretty loud without distortion? I have a qutest atm so I know what the dac sounds like with the cans and I like it.

I am trying to reconsolidate my gear to one tube amp and one ss dac combo.

 

[moemoney]

If anyone knows how well does the hugo 2 go driving the empyreans? Can it get pretty loud without distortion? I have a qutest atm so I know what the dac sounds like with the cans and I like it.

I am trying to reconsolidate my gear to one tube amp and one ss dac combo.

I have, and I like how it with the H2 in fact it’s my bedroom setup

 

[ThanatosVI]

If anyone knows how well does the hugo 2 go driving the empyreans? Can it get pretty loud without distortion? I have a qutest atm so I know what the dac sounds like with the cans and I like it.

I am trying to reconsolidate my gear to one tube amp and one ss dac combo.

I don't have a Hugo but the Empyrean is so easy to drive that the Hugo will be able to drive it to crazy volume.

The Empyrean does sound better with better amplifiers but unlike the Susvara the power output is a rather unimportant spec for it.

 

[flea22]

Thanks guys, trying to decided on getting a hugo 2 or maybe the new chord anni for my qutest. Leaning towards the hugo 2 so I can go chill anywhere at home.

 

[Slim1970]

I have, and I like how it with the H2 in fact it’s my bedroom setup

Agreed, when I had the Empyrean’s in house I thought the Hugo2 was an excellent match for them. The Hugo2 injected some liveliness and detail into the Empyrean’s that counteracted their warm nature.

 

[SoundJedi]

When I had the Empys I was running them off an Xduoo Xd05 Plus with the Burseon V5i opamp and the sound was wonderful. Xd05 has good power and the V5i has a nice dark and musical sound.

The V5i might be a touch warm though.

 

[Frankie D]

If anyone knows how well does the hugo 2 go driving the empyreans? Can it get pretty loud without distortion? I have a qutest atm so I know what the dac sounds like with the cans and I like it.

I am trying to reconsolidate my gear to one tube amp and one ss dac combo.

No problem with volume at all. It will go as loud as you want. Tks.

 

[phillevy]

If anyone knows how well does the hugo 2 go driving the empyreans? Can it get pretty loud without distortion? I have a qutest atm so I know what the dac sounds like with the cans and I like it.

I am trying to reconsolidate my gear to one tube amp and one ss dac combo.

It's the basis of my system along with the 2go. I think there is a particular synergy with the Empy as others have said as it counters some of the darkness.

 

[smutnyjoe]

Both H2 and TT2 have an exceptional synergy with Empyreans, I've spent tens of hours using these setups.

This is somewhat expected if you support the idea of combining sources and speakers with a bit opposite characteristics (dark/bright, spacious/narrow, etc)

 

[Arcayne]

The position of the plane diaphragm line will affect the sound

Do you also know what the difference is in sound between the 2019 and 2021 Empyreans?

 

[YtseJamer]

Most hilarious comment I've read in a while. In the age of peak shilling, hype, snake oil like audio has never seen before, lol.

I don't see what's hilarious in a comment I made 3 years ago while nobody was aware of the final pricing of the Empyrean?

 

[realmassy]

I now spent a few days with the Manley Absolute and yesterday I also received my new digital source, the Auralic Vega G1.

All I can say the Empyrean sound great and the Manley is an absolute pleasure to use, quite fun in fact.
You can switch the topology between push pull and set, change the quantity of feedback and it has even got a simple equaliser for treble and gain. All of those ‘tweaks’ are fun to play with and have a audible impact on the sound.

I’m not gonna try to describe the music coming out from the chain…it’s just plain magical to my ears, romantic, lush, but above all, very natural and life-like.