For me it was the leather because of the midbass bump. I liked the the highs where further away sounding very good detail.
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Does this come with both single ended and balanced or just single ended?
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Used the alcantara pads today while working. They warm it up a bit and present such a relaxing presentation. Used them at a lower volume and it was really enjoyable.
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Personally I don’t like to be tethered to my desk to enjoy the highest quality sound. I take music to the hammock on the balcony at 2am, or to an empty poolside after dinner. My workdesk is in a separate room and sometimes I want the best music while I’m already relaxing on my bed. So for my specific use case, as someone who enjoys and feels the music more than I analyze the music, I auditioned a whole bunch of headphones over the course of 2 weekends with my iFi iDSD Signature and these came out on top, no contest at all. I compared the 800s, Clear, Utopia, Arya, a slew of LCDs, Beyer T1.3 (unfortunately they didn’t have Hifiman HE1000SE or V2 but they would lose on build quality alone anyway). Can’t beat excellent sound, perfect comfort, and being able to just take them anywhere with a good portable dac/amp.
I got them for a pretty good deal for approx USD 2K, barely used, with upgraded copper cable and a Meze headphone couch, all fresh with Nov’20 receipt. While 2k can either be expensive or a bargain depending on how you look at it, and even at retail price I think these are still worth the price because I don’t have to spend another 2-3k on upgrading the amp/DACs that I already have now. I mean sure HD800s is excellent at half the price but then I know would feel compelled to get a better pairing amp and/or some tubes too for a good amount of money because I know what sound improvements I’d be missing otherwise.
I don’t have a big collection of HPs and amps and dacs but I feel I’m able to reach my end-game sound through a short cut. My short journey has been: Shure Aonic 50 -> Sundara -> Ananda & GL2000 -> Empyrean. All the while with a humble smsl su-9 sh-9 stack and iFi Nano BL / Hip-dac / Signature that can drive all of them to their potential just as well.
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Hello,
According to the test, it should harmonize very well with the Feliks Euforia.
Charming he is yes,But the price of 3500$ you have not just shaken out of the arm for the Meze.
Also your 800 should go very well with the Euforia.
I have him there the Euforia and still at the burn in.But the headphones not to confirm that.
But what I can say that he shows the Fostex Tr x00 Purpleheart in the first hours of burning in already where it goes in a very positive sense.
There were rumors of new pads about a year or so ago that would offer a more reference tuning with less of a laid back presentation, but I haven’t heard anything since. If they ever did release them, I would likely pick them up, but I don’t see myself using them over the leather or alcantarra. I understand the reasons people don’t love these the way I do, so those pads would be for that crowd, but I am firmly in the pro-Empyrean camp.
Empyrean holds its value. I’m on my 4th or 5th set. Sold for funding a bigger purchase but always get them again. Warning they seem to have Fcked up QC on the pads. Most recent ones look used and the suitcase egg carton foam now squash alcantara pads making them look used. I told my dealer he must have given me a used set 
. The next set had same look. At least they seemed to not have that crinkle noise when you move your head around(been good on last three).
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Not seeing it in person, the red finish looks cheap
Could go his and hers?..
I like the design but 4k for some paint. It’s never going to go up in value.
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I like the finish itself but it doesn’t mesh with the rest of the design at all imo.
Might of looked better with the copper black and not the jet black set?
In some rewievs they said it works very fine with the Feliks Euforia tube amp.
But i find 4000 bucks for a phone is crazy in my eyes 
If I was racking out that money I’d buy the D8000 over a 4k Empyrean. Empyrean is a dime a dozen. Now if it was a brand new flagship called the phoenix then I’d be all over it. I’m totally into the design.
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I’d say the regular copper/black is timeless. That “phoenix” looks like the sort of thing you’d see on MTV Cribs on a rapper’s curtains.
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I hope you enjoy my take on the Meze Empyrean!
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Just got me the Meze Empyrean Phoenix. This headphone is so much fun. I have not had this much fun listening to my electronica and EDM albums. The fact the Phoenix features red, my favorite color, is just icing bubbles ontop of the icing on the cake.
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