Audiophilepure

https://www.stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-84-dcs-lina-da-processor-and-lina-master-clock

I’ve discussed a lot of piano music because the Lina DAC has a special knack for making pianos sound like large, dense structures with a tremendously powerful output, even when playing quietly. This facet of the Lina’s performance suggests it’s delivering musical information that my other DACs are not.

My listening to the Lina led me to ask, not for the first time: Why do CDs sound more there than streams? In my system, the acuter, denser presentation of CDs makes most streamed 16/44.1 files sound blurry and virtual. I’m using a $250 CD player as a transport feeding the Lina’s S/PDIF input and marveling at the obvious, qualitative difference between CD sound and streaming sound. Which one’s better? This is an aesthetic-sensibility question you must answer for yourself. What I know is, I just ordered more CDs.

What makes analog master tapes so mesmerizing is how they present recordings with what feels like complete coherence, as if every magnetic particle is being vacuumed off the surface of the tape. In a similar fashion, the Lina presented recordings with what felt like complete digital coherence. With a teaspoon of analog salt.

https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/meze-audio-empyrean-ii

If Meze aimed to make the new Empyrean II the most neutral and insightful headphones at this price then it has failed. These headphones have certainly moved in that direction but we think excellent rivals such as the aforementioned Austrian Audio The Composer do those things better. But that doesn’t mean we’re disappointed.

Regardless of music genre, we still find the Empyrean II a pleasure to listen to. They have a more overt sonic signature than the likes of The Composer, sounding richer and full-bodied and for the most part easier going once carefully partnered. You will need to feed them with a source and electronics that have a refined top end, as there is some spikiness in the lower treble region that highlights sibilances in voices a little too enthusiastically. But take care in system matching and, for most people, it won’t be an issue unless you are particularly sensitive to such things.