Headphone Amp for Focal Utopias?

I was curious about that also yyz.  I have the Focal Elex from Massdrop and they seem to be very well made.  I would expect the Utopia to be better.  I have a lot of headphones, so the Elex haven't been used on a regular enough basis for me to say they're "dependable" or not. 

I've heard of the Meze brand, mostly due to an offering they have on Massdrop.  The  Empyrean looks nice.  Keep in mind that an open back design may annoy others if they are nearby while you're listening.  A closed back design will keep most of the sound in your ears and not in anybody else's.  Other than that, they look light, like they should be comfortable, have a number of cable choices, and are easy to drive.  All good things.

I should not be making any comments about HP's since I am clueless.  I did own some Sienhieser (sp?) HD600 models long ago. I gave those away since I did not use them back in the day. However, now I have a family to consider and headphones make more sense than working without music late at night. 

The issue I was told with the Focal was related to the failure rate of the drivers. Like I mentioned earlier I maybe wrong since I have never owned them.

I was surprised to see how popular HP's are right now with so many owners and reviews. The general perception I got is that the Meze is one of the most comfortable (even on a big head). It is also rather coherent in sound with a nice mid range  (and some warmth). I was thinking the Focal would be better because it would be different than the speakers I expect to use in my room (variety the spice of life). However, reading comments by HP users gave me a feeling that the HPA4 and the Focal Utopia maybe a little bright. I could have overlooked that if I had not been advised to buy the lower cost Meze due to QC issues. I will likely have a lot of fun with the Meze. A few reviewers have used the HPA4 with the Meze and they loved that combo. 

A good chance I will now have a HP and a DAC from 2 Romanian companies. Never expected that.

Please share your impressions of the new headphones when you get them. Headphones are great, it's like having a bunch of different speakers to choose from.

One thing to keep in mind is that Focal sells a ton more headphones than Meze. Consequently, the higher percentage of negative reviews might just be a byproduct of higher sales numbers. The real question is which company has the bigger service footprint, and history, in case you do need repairs.

@arafiq That is something I also thought could be the case. A lot of reading on the Meze has also led me to believe that in the class of TOTL HP’s the Meze is one of the best built.

Today, I ended up buying the Benchmark DAC3B to pair with the HPA4. I owned the DAC3 HGC before and know the DAC3 sound well. It is a very good DAC but I have heard better for a lot more money. However, some reviews of the HPA4 (or LA4) are saying that that preamp makes even lower end DAC’s sound way better. The DAC3B is not a low end DAC.

I decided against the AudioByte VOX stack after doing some research. Based only on specs the DAC3B is a better match because it is much quieter and the XLR out put is at a professional-grade level of 24 dBu. The HPA4 + DACB3 + AHB2 (amp) are all running at the same professional-grade level. The AudioByte VOX stack is running at 12 dBu output level. So there is a little synergy issue that I did not want to bug me. Not saying I made the right decision but that synergy thing would have bugged me.

I buy the Meze on Tuesday. I will try to chime in with some coherent observations once I get above 200 hours on the Meze. I will actually try to avoid listening until that 200 number is passed.