[musicday]

Sorry if I went too much OT

-

BTW, makes me kinda happy in a way to read that review and hear that such an interesting headphone was made by a Romanian company

Guess I was right and us Romanians can do some pretty nifty stuff, eh ?

Yes : Made in Romania is great, Meze Empyrean is great. This is the headphone, that I like the most.

 

[smodtactical]

Yes : Made in Romania is great, Meze Empyrean is great. This is the headphone, that I like the most.

Would love to hear your full impressions.

 

[Antonio Meze]

Hi, I will just drop some quick facts:

First fact is that you will find most facts on product page on manufacturer's website. Don't be shy to visit. The downside is that it is indeed less social than asking fellow head-fi'ers for those info.

Back to basics. When are the Empyreans going to be released? Late November?

They are already being sold on Meze Audio website as we speak and shipping just started for the early pre-orders. It will take a while to ship out all the pre-orders. You should soon start seeing them in local stores that usually carry our brand. Also, we are almost out on our first batch. So they might go as soon as they arrive as far as I am told by distributors. But we will build a second batch for December.

I believe the portion of the ear pad that touches your ears is genuine leather on the Stax. That is actually the reason why I can’t buy them. I don’t buy real leather products. But Antonio was kind enough to offer me an empyrean that has no real leather.

Yes, we made a small quantity of high protein super soft PU earpads to replace the lamb leather ones for those who prefer non animal products. Also leather headband comes in non animal leather. This special parts need to be ordered individually on our website trough email. PU earpar sound matches the lamb leather.

Meze, no shop in Hong Kong has this in stock, do you know when they will ?

They should have them soon in shops in HK as well. We are shipping East as we speak. Maybe ask dealers to notify you as soon as they receive it as I have the feeling that some units might have been pre-booked as people already got the chance to listen to them at HK show in August.

Interesting review, will definitely keep an eye out for the future comparison mentioned at the end.
The only thing that made me a bit sad is the lack of an XLR cable in the box. Means from stock I will have to spend money on these headphones to get the best out of my Mjolnir 2 were I to purchase the Empyrean. At $3000 already, spending more to have it function balanced amps is a big disappointment. Especially considering things like the Focal Clear at under half the price includes one.

Thanks for the update. Do you know what options there will be for termination? Hopefully not just 3.5mm and 6.3mm!

Cables:
In the box you get 1 black cable. Either 3.5mm or 6.3mm You get to choose at checkout.

We also offer as upgrade braided balanced cables: 2.5mm, 4.4mm and 4pinXLR. Curently we ofer braided copper. We will also make braided silver plated copper cables. Check our website under Accessories.

Other types of cables might be available in time.

That is even more disappointing! If you have to choose at order there is no reason there couldn't be both XLR and 4.4 as an option...
It seems incredibly surprising that a company that, not too many posts ago, offered to make custom head bands for people with big heads would offer such a limited choice in termination.

I need to be more specific about those carbon fiber headbands since I opened Pandora's box with that statement. Those custom carbon fiber headbands are possible. But they will not be easy to make. Nor fast. And definitely not to cheap. As they would have to be made separately from the current tooling/jig/fixture that we use for standard headband. Custom parts in general will not be easily available. It's like you are 2 meters tall and you want a custom Ferrari. I am sure it's possible. But not easily available.

But to be honest. I really don't see why you would need a different headband. See bellow our 3 years old fulltime Empyrean tester.

Case closed?

It's wrecking my head which color, my heart says the gold but my head is saying silver or gunmetal colour

Currently Empyrean is only available in Gun Metal color with CNC tool-path texture and black matte grill and it will stay so for a while.



In general with any product, ours or other's, please try to not make assumptions before testing. Especially regarding fit. The geometry of a headband is very hard to figure out by just looking at a picture or someone else's feedback. You really need to try it on. And even that is not enough. You need to try it on for 30minutes minimum. There are many headphones that seems super nice when you try them on just to become annoying after 20-30minutes due to pressure points, heating etc.

 

[paul2qute]

Hi, I will just drop some quick facts:

First fact is that you will find most facts on product page on manufacturer's website. Don't be shy to visit. The downside is that it is indeed less social than asking fellow head-fi'ers for those info.


They are already being sold on Meze Audio website as we speak and shipping just started for the early pre-orders. It will take a while to ship out all the pre-orders. You should soon start seeing them in local stores that usually carry our brand. Also, we are almost out on our first batch. So they might go as soon as they arrive as far as I am told by distributors. But we will build a second batch for December.



Yes, we made a small quantity of high protein super soft PU earpads to replace the lamb leather ones for those who prefer non animal products. Also leather headband comes in non animal leather. This special parts need to be ordered individually on our website trough email. PU earpar sound matches the lamb leather.


They should have them soon in shops in HK as well. We are shipping East as we speak. Maybe ask dealers to notify you as soon as they receive it as I have the feeling that some units might have been pre-booked as people already got the chance to listen to them at HK show in August.





Cables:
In the box you get 1 black cable. Either 3.5mm or 6.3mm You get to choose at checkout.

We also offer as upgrade braided balanced cables: 2.5mm, 4.4mm and 4pinXLR. Curently we ofer braided copper. We will also make braided silver plated copper cables. Check our website under Accessories.

Other types of cables might be available in time.



I need to be more specific about those carbon fiber headbands since I opened Pandora's box with that statement. Those custom carbon fiber headbands are possible. But they will not be easy to make. Nor fast. And definitely not to cheap. As they would have to be made separately from the current tooling/jig/fixture that we use for standard headband. Custom parts in general will not be easily available. It's like you are 2 meters tall and you want a custom Ferrari. I am sure it's possible. But not easily available.

But to be honest. I really don't see why you would need a different headband. See bellow our 3 years old fulltime Empyrean tester.

Case closed?




Currently Empyrean is only available in Gun Meta color with CNC tool-path texture and black matte grill.

The Black/Copper version (also referred to as gold) will be available at some point next year. Same with the silver version.

In general with any product, ours or other's, please try to not make assumptions before testing. Especially regarding fit. The geometry of a headband is very hard to figure out by just looking at a picture or someone else's feedback. You really need to try it on. And even that is not enough. You need to try it on for 30minutes minimum. There are many headphones that seems super nice when you try them on just to become annoying after 20-30minutes due to pressure points, heating etc.

Thank you for your reply, think that's all the information I need, now where's my Mrs credit card

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

@Antonio Meze Do we get the fabric pads and leather pads in the package when it ships?

 

[revand]

It's wrecking my head which colour, my heart says the gold but my head is saying silver or gunmetal colour

Giving options always cause headache
I made some pictures about the Empyrean at the Show and at home watching my photos I was thinking: the gold colour can only be seen from certain angles?
But later I learnt that there is a gunmetal version which I met.
My vote is for the gold version, simply stunning design.
I can confirm, that the Empyrean was very comfortable on my head, with ideal clamping force, but it took me 2 seconds to concentrate on comfort, after that the pure music reached my ears completely forgot me thinking about those issues like clamping force.

I do not want to insult anybody in the balanced cable conversation, BUT...something came to my mind I cannot resist to tell:
This is a similar situation where somebody is buying the Croatian electric hyper car Rimac and complaining that the company fails to provide a set of winter tires .
For me who already tried the Meze Empyrean (using the shorter Meze cable terminated with 3,5" jack) is clear that cable is not an important matter since the sound quality is phenomenal out of the box.

 

[paul2qute]

Giving options always cause headache
I made some pictures about the Empyrean at the Show and at home watching my photos I was thinking: the gold colour can only be seen from certain angles?
But later I learnt that there is a gunmetal version which I met.
My vote is for the gold version, simply stunning design.
I can confirm, that the Empyrean was very comfortable on my head, with ideal clamping force, but it took me 2 seconds to concentrate on comfort, after that the pure music reached my ears completely forgot me thinking about those issues like clamping force.

I do not want to insult anybody in the balanced cable conversation, BUT...something came to my mind I cannot resist to tell:
This is a similar situation where somebody is buying the Croatian electric hyper car Rimac and complaining that the company fails to provide a set of winter tires .
For me who already tried the Meze Empyrean (using the shorter Meze cable terminated with 3,5" jack) is clear that cable is not an important matter since the sound quality is phenomenal out of the box.

I've got a bigger headache, I could part ex my Arcam avr 850 and get the Empyrean now or get another product which isn't headphones BTW, use my hugo TT 2 to drive my speakers directly and not watch films in surround and have some super sexy Empyrean headphones,now I'm not sure if I'm wrong I hope not but it looks like nintronics sells Meze.
Just to add I've phoned Nintronics and they do sell the Meze audio Empyrean and they have a open day on the 24 th of November with a couple of pairs there for ppl to have a listen

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

I don't know if this review is posted yet, but here it is.
https://www.headfonia.com/review-meze-audio-empyrean/4/

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

I don't know if this review is posted yet, but here it is.
https://www.headfonia.com/review-meze-audio-empyrean/4/

We want to hear your review. Hurry up and buy them and post away!

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

We want to hear your review. Hurry up and buy them and post away!

I wish I had the funds, I would pull the trigger today. It's going to take a little time around the holidays.

 

[Rowethren]

Giving options always cause headache
I made some pictures about the Empyrean at the Show and at home watching my photos I was thinking: the gold colour can only be seen from certain angles?
But later I learnt that there is a gunmetal version which I met.
My vote is for the gold version, simply stunning design.
I can confirm, that the Empyrean was very comfortable on my head, with ideal clamping force, but it took me 2 seconds to concentrate on comfort, after that the pure music reached my ears completely forgot me thinking about those issues like clamping force.

I do not want to insult anybody in the balanced cable conversation, BUT...something came to my mind I cannot resist to tell:
This is a similar situation where somebody is buying the Croatian electric hyper car Rimac and complaining that the company fails to provide a set of winter tires .
For me who already tried the Meze Empyrean (using the shorter Meze cable terminated with 3,5" jack) is clear that cable is not an important matter since the sound quality is phenomenal out of the box.

I get what you mean but don't entirely agree. If you are spending 3k on a headphone you want to use it with the best amps surely? Most of the top ones are balanced these days one way or another.

Considering how easy it is to change plugs and the fact you choose on delivery it seems a missed opportunity to not have a larger range of options like for example MrSpeakers do with all their headphones. I ordered my Ether Flow with the XLR because I knew that is what works best with my amp. It isn't anywhere near the same effort or cost as including a full set of super car tires, a plug takes what 5-10 minutes to replace? I just would rather not have to modify a brand new cable and void warranty just to make it work with my amp or buy a new cable at increase expense!

I honestly don't think this is being unreasonable and it seems surprising the push back I am getting from this discussion...

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

I wish I had the funds, I would pull the trigger today. It's going to take a little time around the holidays.

My bad. I thought you already had the funds from selling your Utopia.

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

My bad. I thought you already had the funds from selling your Utopia.

I sold my Utopia for $1700 plus the Axios. I had to, had no chance to even post them up for sale.

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

...

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

I sold my Utopia for $1700 plus the Axios. I had to, had no chance to even post them up for sale.

Good Lord! Somebody made out like a thief with a Utopia.