100%. I emailed Meze to ask about Chameleon availability, and they offered to make me an Elite in Black Copper since I mentioned that’s my favorite colorway so far. Actual purchase was a new unit from Meze, and I worked the details through a Meze dealer I’ve worked with a few times.
It’s an Elite driver + packaging in an Empy chassis with Empy S/N (on an Elite owner’s card). Headband spoils the secret. 
Wow, that’s a much better situation than I thought! I was afraid you might have been scammed or something. I’m sure there will be some jealous Elite owners out there when they see this. I personally like the black and silver of the regular Elite better, but I can definitely understand others preferring the Black Copper look.
Interesting, and the chassis doesn’t change the frequency response from the regular Elite? You definitely knew what you were looking for as this would be hard to move in the second hand market imo
There isn’t a thread for the 109 pro’s so I’ll just post my impressions here. The unboxing experience is chef’s kiss.
They sound really forgiving, but not like the Meze house sound (I’ve only had the Empyrean and Elite). They sound much more neutral than the planar meze’s. I guess they sound pretty close to ZMF’s, but I’m mostly speaking out of memory.
Bass is there but it doesn’t sound boosted, it sounds where it needs to be. Overall, the bass, mids and treble is just where I like them, so no complaints there. Everything is present but nothing stands out in the FR.
In terms of detail, they don’t have much, but I wouldn’t buy these for the detail lol. The LCD-2’s and HD800’s blow these out of the water. I think even an Ananda or T1.2 would beat this out in the detail department. Not much soundstage or imaging, it also sounds fairly flat, not much dynamics, but again that didn’t bother me too much. They have enough detail, soundstage and dynamics to sound decent, but that’s about it.
The comfort is pretty damn good but the ear-cups are small, so if you have big ears or a big head then I’d stay away. If I wanted a headphone around the 600 range, I would probably heavily consider these. They don’t stand out in any category besides build and comfort, but they also don’t do anything offensively wrong.
This seems to be a pretty consistent point of feedback for Meze. I’ve only heard the Empy and Rai Penta, and both are among the most comfortable I’ve used of their respective category, and both are really enjoyably tuned, but don’t really perform at their MSRP with technicalities, imo.
In my extended audio purchase break I haven’t looked too much in potential upgrade paths but seeing some praise for the 109 pro has me curious. What’s the appeal and is it any good?
@Thibf had one for a while I believe…
oh, hi. just woke up. appeal is that it is tuned well and it is comfortable if you do not have big ears or a big head. I could see myself keeping one if I wasn’t built like megamind (for context, the radiance is also too small for me).
The 109 is not competitive when it comes to detail, dynamic range, or any of that technical stuff. With the Focal Clear, LCD-2, and HD800 being around the same price, I find it pretty hard to justify unless you really like the tuning and comfort. It is probably the best built and the best tuned at its price, but don’t quote me on that. It has been ages since I tried any headphone under $1000 so I could be wrong about how it stacks up to the competition.
Find what you want in an upgrade and base your decision off of that, there is no one right answer (besides the koss kph-30i)
Any Elite owners here? What are good pairings with it chain wise? Does it need a lot of power like other planars? Is it really picky?
I know @ValentineLuke had them for a bit. @SpeleoFool still owns them I believe.
But from what I hear they don’t need a ton of power. Your amp should be good.
Yeah, they’re efficient, but they do scale with better power.
Though I actually wasn’t too fond of them on the MZ3 which was surprising.
Oddly I really enjoyed them off of the Mojo. I feel like the MZ3 just didn’t push enough current for them.
Empyrean are awesome, IMO. They have plenty of detail for my ears, and they’re not fatiguing. They can get close with the treble, but stay just south of what I can tolerate.
They’re my second favorite headphone that I’ve heard (first being Susvara).
I believe @PaisleyUnderground owns Elites.
What do you feel was missing? My Z10e is ~10x stronger lol so that might help with the power
I’m not sure, but maybe more force, or punch?
The higher power of the z10e should definitely help with that.
I feel like they can be really fun with something like the L&P P6P…
That sounds good too.
If it has similar staging to the W2 (of course it’s much more technical, and rightfully so) then that would be fun. I like the stage height of the W2, and it would probably complement the Elite’s width.
I bet that 23RM would work like a charm with the Elite…
yeah I can see that, too bad I didn’t try that at canjam. But the value proposition of an easy to drive headphones with a R2R DAP is intriguing to me. The 23rm is great but you still need a source lol
Mojo2. 
I actually think that the Mojo’s neutrality, and quick transients would work really well with the 23RM (if it’s similar in sound to how the 23R is described).
The Elite is my main headphone these days. I think in general it is pretty hard to make sound bad. My primary amp is the Quicksilver, and it’s a great pairing in my opinion. It also sounds good with the Piety I have. The only amp I have that isn’t a good pairing is the SW51+. I think its output impedance is too high for the Elite.
Although not the most technical review, I think he does a good job summarizing the general sound of the Elite.
From what different reviewers have stated, I guess not everyone experiences the holographic imaging that the Rinaro drivers/transducers achieve (by design). Fortunately for me it’s a fantastic 3-D image. Likely the best I’ve heard via headphones.
Meze empyrean II review
