"Forced" Impulse buy of Meze Empyrean, now what?

[AuburnM5]

Short Version: I was "forced" to get the Meze Empyrean for 200 dollars in 2023 money.
Do I need a better amp/dac for them? I am using my old Meridian Prime Headphone Amp/Dac & Power Supply
I like how the cans are neutral, but I find them lacking in the upper mids and highs and have a very laid back sound. I would love to get a a little more dynamic sound from them.

Long Version:

Sorry for the strange thread title, but it's pretty spot on. Nearly a decade ago i used Cable Co lending library to find and purchase headphones as our fist little one was on the way, I my listening habits needed to change. For those not familiar with the lending library, you could put a !0% deposit down of how much that gear retails for and if you buy whatever it is from them, you are able to use the deposits you have accumulated towards the purchase. and get up to 3 pairs of headphones, 2 headphone amps, cables etc. Pretty damn good business model IMO. Anyway, my wife got me a pair of Audeze LCD-3. I sold them last year as the kids were older now.

Well, my "friend" at Cable Co called last week and told me they are ending the lending library because the market has changed so much and they can't afford to buy all of the new headphones that seem to come out weekly. 10 years ago you had Audeze, Senn, Hifiman, AKG, etc Now, it's crazy the amount of companies. He proceeds to ask me what do you want to do about the 1850 credit you have with us? I said just me a USB adaptor or something. He laughed and said, bro, what about the other 1830? Then it clicked, he was saying i had 1,850 in credit! I told hime that can't be right because my wife got me the LCD-3. "Not from us, she didn't." Alrighty then!

Well, they have sold almost all of their headphones (their site is wrong). I asked what was left and the list was meh. The two that he said were
'world class" were the Foal Clear MG and Meze Empyrean. I wasn't going to spend another 1200 on this crazy situation, until he said I can let you have the Meze for 2000 free shipping. I jumped on it (mainly because their cheap Classic 99) are my travel cans and I love them.

The only headphone anything I have is my Meridian Prime Headphone Amp/DAC and the Meridian Power Supply. I have used them for about 5 days.
I find them neutral, which I like, but I find them almost too reserved in the upper mid range and their highs are a good ways off from where I like certainly don't like jump out and grab your face highs but I also don't like having the impression they builder just cut all highs off after "X frequency."

I think I am getting at would an amp change add som dynamics to these cans?

 

[nyxnyxnyx]

try EQ first, then some physical reversible mods if possible, something like a pad swap perhaps?
you could try different amplifiers too although I don't remember the Empyrean to be an absolute hard-to-drive beast like HE6, and from my past experiences the sound has always been neutral, albeit a bit bland or uneventful, if I may.

if those solutions still don't work then maybe it's time to consider getting another headphones.... or wait for your ears to get used to them.

 

[Galliardist]

You probably need to work in some EQ.

There are a range of measurements out there and they all show dips in the upper midrange at around 7kHz. The older LCD3 had a sharp dip lower down, followed by a rising response where the Empyrean dips. I'm guessing that that is what you are hearing, but there's more to take into account, like fit.

The Empyrean is an easy to drive headphone and the Meridian should be up to the job, so I wouldn't change until after trying EQ. You can test your amp by plugging your 99s into them - they are less sensitive, so if the Meridian copes with them it's most likely not your problem with the Empyreans.

Anyway, I'm sure a real expert will be along soon enough to contradict me...

 

[ZolaIII]

Try a high self filter @ 1500 Hz +4 dB Q 1.5 regarding EQ. And that's about it.

 

[AuburnM5]

Try a high self filter @ 1500 Hz +4 dB Q 1.5 regarding EQ. And that's about it.

I am using the Prime in Roon (along with Topping 90se, Luxman D03x, and Rotel 1592 MkII. Roon the best place to adjust that?

 

[ZolaIII]

@AuburnM5 yes from what you mentioned.

 

[LearningToSmile]

Did you get them with both sets of pads? Empyrean comes with both leather and alcantra pads, so if you have both swapping them would be my first step. From the graphs leather looks better to me but doesn't hurt to try alcantra if you already have leather on.

 

[AuburnM5]

@AuburnM5 yes from what you mentioned.

This look right?

 

[ZolaIII]

That's it, now enjoy and tell impressions after some time. I did calculate filter hastily (based on two Crinacle measurements) before I told you to try it.

 

[AuburnM5]

That's it, now enjoy and tell impressions after some time. I did calculate filter hastily (based on two Crinacle measurements) before I told you to try it.

Just to be sure, it's the parametric and NOT the procedural EQ, right? I had it backwards on the screen shot

 

[ZolaIII]

It's high self filter and no need to discuss semantics.
Other than that lower the output level for 4 dB (that much should be understood when ever you boost something) should be available in filter section. I use JRiver.

 

[staticV3]

@AuburnM5 here are EQ settings for both the Leather and Alcantara ear pads:

Meze Empyrean (Alcantara earpads).pdf

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Meze Empyrean (Leather earpads).pdf

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[AuburnM5]

It's high self filter and no need to discuss semantics.
Other than that lower the output level for 4 dB (that much should be understood when even you boost something) should be available in filter section. I use JRiver.

I wasn't being a smart ass. I don't the difference between procedural and parametric EQ and if those settings were supposed to go on a specific one or both?

 

[ZolaIII]

It's parametric (F, G, Q), didn't say you where.

 

[AuburnM5]

It's high self filter and no need to discuss semantics.
Other than that lower the output level for 4 dB (that much should be understood when even you boost something) should be available in filter section. I use JRiver.

This is the first time I have eally done a deep dive into streaming and or playing from my network. I have seen J River mentioned a lot in other threads and pretty much every audio forum I hae been on. Over the years i have ripped right around 6k songs into itunes/ Apple Music. I have a Mac now, so I haven't ripped a CD in 7 years and I have aded A LOT since then. Looking up J River got me thiinking
.....1. What's the most economical but quality way to to riup the newer CD's into mt library? Drag my old ass Dell tower (with Vista!) and rip into an external HD?
2. Buy Apple USB SuperDrive for 80 bucks

 

[ZolaIII]

@AuburnM5 I use old Windows laptop that I had and works fanles for local DLNA streaming to my Yamaha Musicast amp trough JRiver which can apply it's DSP chain (which in some aspects is ahead of Roon's one) and interface. JRiver is not even close to Roon regarding supported online streaming services but it has WDM driver support on Windows so you can use native apps (or browser) and put system output to JRiver WDM which works good for not latency sensitive content while need sync adjustment for those that are latency sensitive. It work's for me. Whose tempted to get MiniDSP Flex to future simplify it but not so much anymore in the lights of recent determined signal degradation from filters implementation.

 

[AuburnM5]

THanks fof all the advicel. The EQ change was a massive improvement! I my nearly 20 year old desktop isnt able to do much of anthig, so I jutst ordered that CD ripper from Apple that I can rip the rest of y CD'into muy exnternal music hard drive and let Roon pull them out of it. .

 

[Chester]

Seriously, has everyone on this thread forgotten how to type. Just spend 15 seconds re-reading before you post, it makes the readers experience so much easier.

 

[threni]

Seriously, has everyone on this thread forgotten how to type. Just spend 15 seconds re-reading before you post, it makes the readers experience so much easier.

When I type with my nose at least I make sure the browser has a spell-checker enabled...

 

[Bow_Wazoo]

Be sure to use Oratorys settings.
For me, that was from the crucial difference.
Out of the box completely unusable.
After Harman, I had many months of fun with these headphones!