Headphone Amp for Focal Utopias?

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.

I've never had a chance to audition the Empyrean, but most reviews are very positive. Do post your impressions once you've had a chance to spend some time with them.