Meze - Empyrean

The Empyrean is the result of two passionate companies coming together to give you an audiophile-level headphone. The powerful drivers are made by Rinaro, an audio company that has been at the forefront in the development of planar magnets since the 1980s. The drivers have been hand-assembled and tested in the Rinaro industrial facility in Ukraine. The rest of the headphone has been crafted using Meze’s gorgeous aesthetics and user-centric design.

Neodymium magnets are placed on either side of the ultralight diaphragm (Weighing only 0.16 g while having a 4650 mm² of active area). These magnets are placed in a hybrid array which creates an efficient Isodynamic magnetic field. This ensures uniform activation across the whole diaphragm surface.

To reduce the amount of pressure on your head, the Empyrean features patented suspension wings which increase the contact of the leather headband with your head. The remaining skeleton of the headphone is made of light and durable carbon fibre as well as aluminum. The chassis is sculpted from one solid piece of aluminium to look gorgeous as well as control the airflow between the chassis and driver. This gives you natural transparency in the sound.

In order to create a powerful driver while keeping the weight at a minimum, Meze has created the drivers in ovoid shape, based on the anatomy of the human ear. The Empyrean uses a unique processing method that creates an ultralight yet rigid diaphragm. A custom-developed isotropic thermally stabilized polymer is used along with a conductive layer which is then enclosed in a fibre-glass infused ABS casing.

The power output has been increased by using the magnet array design as well as two coils — Switchback and Spiral. This unique combination generates an increased exposure of direct sound wave frequencies over the 110kHz range and improves imaging and localization by reducing the impact of shortwave time delays caused by diffused field reflections.

The Switchback coil is placed on the upper part of the driver and reproduces the lower frequencies effectively while the Spiral coil is positioned on the driver directly over the ear canal and effectively avoids time delays by allowing the sound waves to directly enter into the ear. It effectively reproduces the mid and high frequencies at their best.

All drivers create a magnetic field. The Empyrean has special ferromagnetic ear pads that reduce the magnetic field while the ferromagnetic plates channel 12% of the magnetic field back into the driver improving its efficiency. It deflects an additional 95% of stray fields away from the head. An Isomagnetic® ear cup uses this magnetic field to hold the earcups in place.