Does somedofy had the chance to compare the Vérité with the Empyrean?
I owned the Empyrean for 7-8 months in 2019. I sold it just before getting the loaner VO and VC late in 2019, so never actually compared the Empyrean to the VO (the Verite I listened to most). Still, I have pretty good recall of how these headphones sounded. Pls take these comments w/a grain of salt for sonic recollection...
Note: The Empyrean comes with 2 sets of earpads (leather; alacantara/suede) which sound somewhat different. I spent most of my time w/the leather pads & comments below reflect that.
Both headphones are beautiful, albeit in very different ways. And both were quite comfortable for me--no problematic clamping force, headband hot-spots, etc. Pads on both are comfy. VO is somewhat heavier, though that doesn't bother me at all.
I won't attempt a comparison by frequency range. I recall these headphones as being roughly comparable in their overall voicing: neither is bright, forensic, or hard on the ears; both are firmly in the "musical sound" camp; both have a large, rich-sounding midrange; and neither is a true basshead design, though they both have satisfying, above-average bass. The VO is said to have an upper midrange recession somewhere, but I didn't hear that. To me, both headphones sounded relatively level, with no glaring frequency anomalies.
The Empyrean is a low impedance planar & the VO (the Verite I listened to the most) is a high impedance dynamic. Despite these differences, neither headphone required epic power from any of my amps. Both scaled noticeably on bigger/better amps, but neither is a torture test headphone for the amplifier.
For me, the most noticeable differences were:
- Resolution: The VO is one of the most resolving, detailed headphones I've heard. The Empyrean is moderately resolving, but really isn't in the VO's class.
- Note that the VO's detail & resolution present with none of the "brightness" price tag some detailed headphones have. All that detail is ear-friendly & musical
- Soundstage: The Empyrean has a larger soundstage (wider & somewhat deeper) than the VO, which has a moderately wide/deep soundstage. But the greater detail of the VO makes its soundstage better defined and articulated vs the somewhat diffuse soundstage of the Empyrean.
- Dynamics: I found the Empyrean to have only average "jump factor" compared to other headphones. By comparison, The VO has above average in dynamics overall...more than enough to satisfy my ears.
The net effect was more musical information & realism with the VO than the Empyrean. Beguiling as the Empyrean was sonically & physically, I found it less interesting overall than the VO....I often found myself wondering how X music (recording or genre) would sound on the VO--for me, a sign that a given headphone has lodged in my brain.
Conclusion: I admired the Empyrean a lot, but eventually sold it; I admired the VO a lot, and hope to eventually own one.
Having owned 3-6 dogs I know there's a price to pay but its totallly worth it!!!!
