[SoundSquare]

I hope the Meze Empyrian sounds as good as it's supposed to. I also hope that those at Meze are able to figure a way to let some of that Empyrian technology trickle down to a head phone I would chose to afford. That's what statement products are for, really.

I totally agree with this.
I'm listening now to a Focal Elegia, which I absolutely love, and without the work done on the Utopia the Clear and Elegia wouldn't have existed.

 

[thebkt]

I, for one, am not shocked that the newest I-Phone is US$1100. I won't be buying one, either. To me, the I-Phone is a bunch of marketing hype. There are millions that disagree with me, though.

Absolutely. I'm actually in need of a new phone and it looks like I'll be getting a LG G7 One. It's basically a stock-Android device, but with the LG quad DAC. I'm not sure on the price, but I am still running a 2014 Nexus 5 because I have zero interest in all of the more recent gimmicks on $1000 phones, but decent audio with the LG phones has caught my attention recently.

I agree with the general sentiment that if one doesn't have a problem with the likes of Apple, then it's a bit of a stretch to skewer much smaller companies trying to actually profit some from their high-end gear.

 

[Deftone]

I, for one, am not shocked that the newest I-Phone is US$1100. I won't be buying one, either. To me, the I-Phone is a bunch of marketing hype. There are millions that disagree with me, though.

I hope the Meze Empyrian sounds as good as it's supposed to. I also hope that those at Meze are able to figure a way to let some of that Empyrian technology trickle down to a head phone I would chose to afford. That's what statement products are for, really.

Something for around a 1,000 or under would be great but then is it only a side grade to your current headphones at that point...

 

[macdonjh]

Something for around a 1,000 or under would be great but then is it only a side grade to your current headphones at that point...

Perhaps, but there are several here at Head-Fi that have two or more pair of head phones because each pair they have sounds a little different from the others. I've even taken one step down that dark path: I bought a dynamic pair to compliment my long-owned planars.

 

[Joong]

“$3,000... Oh well...”

Are you serious????? 3000 bucks??? I hope you’re joking. At first glance, I thought this thing couldn’t be worth more than $600.

I wasn't expecting a brand like Meze to create something only the top 1% can afford. What next? Skullcandy and Beats coming out with $7,000 headphones? I blame Focal for mass producing mortgage- priced headphones. The French guys there are the ones to start this whole Utopia trend, and now every other company wants to follow behind.

Their technologies of the phones are sending the acoustic wave directly into the ear canal without any phase delay.
It seems to me like this technologies want to mimick IEMs which transports the sound wave through the ear canal in the most efficient way.
You might buy IEMs for 100 usd instead paying 3k USD....
Sorry 2,999.99usd, that's less expensive!

 

[Piotr Michalak]

Fig.1 Meze Audio Empyrean frequency response, compared to the Sennheiser HD800 and HD800S

Ok, I've read all of the above about compensations curves etc.
I'm doing this just for fun

That's my HD800 compensated to FLAT by the curve provided by miniDSP EARS.
Of course, I know that's not GRAS Still it often amazes me that it's measurements seem pretty accurate. Note that I have bumps at 4.5 kHz and 7.7 kHz, which is strange.
On the certificate, the measurement of my HD800 looks completely flat +/- 3dB. But I hear that they really are not. Below graph really does show how they sound. At least to some degree.


Compensated to RAW, however, looks slightly different


I think I should definitely compensate them to flat

 

[alexzogh]

Call me crazy.....

Went ahead and preordered a pair. Heard them for 10 minutes in New York and spent the rest of the show thinking about them... 10 minutes to fall in love. I’m a bit biased as I think the Meze 99’s were the best deal in headphones when they were released. My last audiophile planars were LCD3’s. I loved the sound but found the headband super uncomfortable for long term use, even after modifying them with a third party leather suspension strap. The Empyrians were much lighter, and the suspension strap was very comfortable. I’ll report back on long listening session comfort when they arrive.

Received the following email post pre-order:


Thank you for your preorder.

The Empyrean headphone will be ready to ship mid to late November.
We will process the orders according to their chronological placement.

If you require any further information, feel free to contact us.



Best regards,
Kinga Meze
Operations
contact@mezeaudio.com
www.mezeaudio.com



I own a lot of headphones, so will do a lengthy review when they arrive.

 

[alexzogh]

They're waaaay ahead of you.

Those are the low rent versions....

Here are the high end one’s: https://www.focal.com/en/partners/utopia-tournaire

“It is available on order at the price of €100,000 for the headphones alone”

With that said, I own a pair of “peasant” focal utopia’s..... love the sound.

 

[macdonjh]

I think the diamonds in the grilles will add unwanted resistance and disruption to the air flow around the back side of the driver, lowering the fidelity of the sound. I wouldn't buy a pair of those. tee hee

 

[Deftone]

I think the diamonds in the grilles will add unwanted resistance and disruption to the air flow around the back side of the driver, lowering the fidelity of the sound. I wouldn't buy a pair of those. tee hee

But how else would you get that crystalline sound...

 

[macdonjh]

But how else would you get that crystalline sound...

One man's "crystaline" sound is another man's "brittle" sound.

 

[Deftone]

i was being punny, diamonds.. crystalline..

 

[macdonjh]

I know. I was trying to circle back around to audio but didn't have a pun to use.

 

[DaYooper]

Pretty sure this is a "if you have to ask..." questions but what would be ideal to plug these $3000 headphones into?

 

[Hifiearspeakers]

Pretty sure this is a "if you have to ask..." questions but what would be ideal to plug these $3000 headphones into?

Not many have these yet, but here’s their specs.

32 ohms resistance
100 dB sensitivity

As you can see, they’re fairly easy to drive.