I plan on attending Axpona 2024 with my gf. Was hoping to demo the new hifiman Arya organics and the HE1000 stealths but hifiman wasn’t listed as an exhibitor. At least I’ll get to try the 2 new empyreans out and see how it compares to the OG i have. Perhaps moon audio or one of the other vendors will have a pair I can demo.

The LG C3 should have Bluetooth. Why wouldn’t you just use that?

I’d be interested to know your thoughts are on the empyrean 2’s with critics raving about them

Focal elegia and quadilex 5K

Everything is a trade off, you want me detail in the treble, sure but that may make some music or audio too bright. You want more low end, sure but it may take away from the sound in another region. It’s a delicate balance of offering the most possible without going over that threshold. I bought the Meze Empyreans because they were way more detailed and clear than what I was previously using, had great build/comfort quality, sound great on everything, and nothing sounded harsh or bright. their new V2 that just came out is supposed to offer even more detail while also staying under that peaky treble. Sure they are expensive but it’s just an example. You could always get a boring, generic sounding headphone. But I’d rather have something that emphasizes certain instruments or vocals because that’s fun and exciting. It’s like discovering music all over again and hearing sounds you didn’t know that were there. There are tons of headphones out there you just need to find one that fits your use case.

The virtual surround sound is actually BS and actually makes it harder to tell where things are coming from while also distorting the sound. You only have 2 drivers, one for each ear so you should just set it as stereo. Our ears can pick up the smallest differences to tell direction and depth. Put on any headphones in stereo mode and go to YouTube and listen to the virtual barbershop. If you’re not getting the 3D sound depth or positioning you want, buy headphones that are designed to naturally offer that. You’re right that most gaming headsets are trash, they throw more money into RGB and gamer looks than they do quality of the driver, parts, and overall comfort/fit. Whenever possible it’s usually better to use headphones and a USB or mod mic, however for console gamers they don’t have that many options.

Well there are different headphones for different reasons. I very much like and daily drive my Empyreans but they aren’t good for travel, work, or quiet places. For those I use my focal elegia. I’m not going to say there isn’t better out there in each category however I could go without buying another pair of headphones.

Meze Empyrean for daily drivers at home. Use them for work, gaming, TV, movies, and surfing the web. When I’m in the office I use focal elagia because they sound really good with an EQ, are good at cutting out surrounding noise, and don’t leak audio at louder volumes. I also got them cheap at like $400 since they were being discontinued. But sometimes on the weekends I’ll use them when I want to listen to something from my phone and don’t want to be tethered to my PC. I used to use my momentum 3 for that and travel but the focal connected to my qudilex 5K sounds much better than them so they sit in a drawer most of the time. I’d like to get a new pair of headphones to compliment the Empyreans one day but everything I’m looking at is expensive.