Meze Audio’s first isodynamic headphones with a closed acoustic design. There are not so many closed isodynamics on the market, since this type of emitters requires rather open space for correct operation; but this is quite feasible and there are such models, despite the fact that such a form factor is associated with certain technical difficulties. The more interesting what happened with a relatively young company.
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The Romanian brand is known all over the world for its full-size planar magnet Meze Empyrean, in-ear Meze Rai Penta and closed dynamic Meze 99, but they haven’t had any closed planar magnets yet, so this model is a pioneer. Let’s look at what she is and what she can do for such an impressive amount.
Packaging and equipment
The headphones are packaged according to their high cost: a large black box in a protective cardboard casing is filled with foam rubber inside to ensure the safety of the case.
The following accessories are included:
- Branded shipping case
- 1.5 m cable to 3.5 mm jack
- 3 m cable to 3.5 mm jack
- Adapter 3.5-6.3 mm jack
- Aircraft adapter
- Cable pouch
Cables on simple connectors 2×3.5 mm jack to 3.5 mm jack, so finding a new one to replace or upgrade is not difficult. The braid is tactilely pleasant and visually looks good.
The shell-shaped flight case with lacquered brand logo on the top lid looks like an expensive accessory. The inside is lined with soft fabric, designed to protect the headphones from damage by dust and small particles that can get into the case when opened.
Design and ergonomics
The appearance of the headphones immediately indicates that this is clearly not an average or even a high price segment. Full sizes from Meze are made in a recognizable design that combines the strict appearance and gloss of a Hi-Fi device.
The ear pads are made of leather and soft foam inside, so your ears will be in comfort, which is what you would expect from a device of this level. The bowls are covered with a material that resembles leather in texture, but apparently it is artificial.
The metal part of the ear cups and fasteners are made of magnesium alloy, the headband is made of hardened steel, and the height adjustment arms are made of aluminum.
Ergonomically, the headphones are thought out as far as the design, dimensions and weight allow. And the model weighs 391 grams, which is not so much for isodynamic models, but with the wrong weight distribution, even such a weight can cause discomfort.
Meze Liric is almost not felt on the head, especially if you turn it not too actively. After 3-4 hours of listening, the head, ears and, most importantly, the neck do not get tired at all; large representatives of isodynamic models (for example, from Audeze) can make your neck ache even after an hour due to their rather big weight, reaching up to 700 grams.
The headband, although it looks flat, in practice turned out to be comfortable thanks to small soft inserts and a large enough area to help distribute the weight correctly.
The height adjustment is smooth and tenacious – the headphones will remain in the desired position, despite the lack of explicit fixation.
Dimensions and fit can be estimated from the photo below:
On the body bowl, you can see a catchy copper-colored element – this is a compensatory hole for the correct operation of the isodynamic radiator. When you press the headphones to your head, you can feel the air coming out of them. Noise isolation is at a good level, but it does not reach the fully closed models – the people around you will hear what is playing, and you will hear them, although not as much as with the completely open design of the headphones. So the model is rather half-open in terms of sound insulation.
The design of the ear pads is arranged in such a way that the air expelled by the ear from the space covered by it exits passing through the ear pad. This should provide optimal air circulation, as well as create an “air cushion” effect, further softening the landing. The cross-shaped headband is also designed to provide maximum air circulation.
By the way, a simple and open system for attaching the arms to the headband allows you to replace it yourself by simply unscrewing a few screws.
Specifications and Features
In the older full-size Meze models, Meze Audio’s proprietary isodynamic drivers are used using Rinaro technology. The manufacturer claims that these are technologically the same emitters that are installed in their flagship Meze Empyrean for just over $3,000, only modified for use in a closed design and reduced in size.
The weight of the film, which is located between two magnets and is actually the emitter that emits sound, is only 0.08 grams with a total emitter area of 3507 mm².
Naturally, only one production of such a piece of jewelry costs a very tidy sum, not to mention the cost of development, debugging, manual assembly, materials and a system of magnets that drive the membrane. So the price tag of such devices starts to go off scale even at the design stage, long before it reaches users in the form of a final product.
Also, the headphone emitters consist of two coils, which in theory should give a more focused sound directed into the auricle.
- Design type: full size
- Connection type: wired
- Emitter type: isodynamic
- Frequency range, Hz: 4-92 000
- Sensitivity, dB: 100
- Resistance value, Ohm: 30
- Weight, grams: 391
Sound
These are one of those headphones that at first cause ambiguous emotions and even rather misunderstanding, but the longer you listen to them, the more you fall in love with them. And after a few hours of use, you can no longer tear yourself away – you want to give your ears a rest and immerse yourself in the music again, looking for new details in well-known compositions. Perhaps this is the most significant moment when evaluating audio equipment – only truly high-quality devices can give a new look at well-known things, it is this technique that catches and makes you treat yourself with interest.
Meze Liric sound without obvious distortions in frequency response, giving out an honest and informative musical picture. Extremely high information content and excellent construction of the scene show the smallest details of the recording, which is not beneficial for all compositions, but more on that below.
Listening to music in the Lyrics is interesting, and regardless of the genre – they do an excellent job with jazz, funk, classical, metal, rock and electronic music. With such diversity, it is difficult to single out only a few artists that are suitable for testing headphones, but I will give a couple of examples of artists on which Liric sounds the most interesting: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Charles Bredley, Foals, Nirvana, Fountains of Wayne, Spinnerette, Royal Republic , James Brown, Disturbed and Gorillaz.
The only thing that can cut your ear if you are used to a smooth sound is string and wind instruments. For example, one of my favorite bands, The Heavy, likes to pump up their records with a lot of information and often use brass, which, with a bright headphone feed, can not work for them. Most of their tracks, when used with Meze Lyric, unpleasantly cut the ear with an abundance of high frequencies, so listening to them becomes even more pleasant, especially if you know how they can sound.
The same is true for the symphony orchestra. But if a trumpet or a saxophone is used, for example, in jazz compositions, this does not hurt the ear at all, since, as a rule, the wind instruments do not come to the fore in them, which makes them not so bright and noticeable.
As for the detail – it’s incredible and allows you to decompose the track into tracks, like high-quality monitors. Accordingly, old and low-quality recordings pass by, (especially the digitization of old vinyl) it is impossible to listen to them on such headphones, unless you are one of the people who like to specifically look for flaws in the recordings.
I don’t see much point in going through each source that participated in the review separately, since Meze Liric are quite universal not only in the choice of musical genres, but also in the choice of technology. I will only note that they cope equally well with almost any amplifying path, even if it is designed more for in-channel models. For example, the portable DAC Astell & Kern USB-C Dual DAC (which will be reviewed a little later) did an excellent job with the headphones, opening them no worse than the portable, but very powerful Chord Mojo .
In conjunction with the new FiiO M17, aggressive genres of music sounded most interesting, so for connoisseurs of metal, that’s it. The player has a very impressive amplifying path, so it can be used as a kind of reference among Chinese players to test the headphones for lightness.
Most of the time I listened to Meze Liric in conjunction with an Astell&Kern SR25 player, which is inferior in amplification to the Chord Mojo and FiiO M17, but surpasses portable DACs. The Lyrics sang excellently with him, giving a lively and honest musical picture, without distortions of the frequency response. So the use of these headphones paired even with not the most powerful source is fully justified.
Cost and competitors
The retail price of Meze Liric is UAH 60,060. The number looks nice, especially in isolation from the wallet, but you have to pay for the quality of the Hi-End level. We will consider competitors only in this price range, because if you significantly reduce or increase the price tag, the review can stretch several times and not even cover half of the contenders for your hard-earned money. We will also not take into account intra-channel models, all for the same reason.
The author is a fierce fan of the full-size models of the American company Audeze, but I have to admit that this time Meze engineers did their best and Liric is not inferior to the same Audeze LCD-3 in terms of information content (which also cost UAH 60,000), but American monitors in character the sound is closer to me. And if they win slightly in terms of volume and construction of the scene, then in terms of detail Audeze still surpass Meze.
Also from the closed isodynamics there is Audeze LCD-XC for 50 thousand UAH, but they are significantly inferior in terms of convenience and this is a radically different sound. They’re built for sound, and if the Meze Lirics are just pointing out the flaws in a recording, then the LCD-XCs will throw them in your ears. The shortcomings of tracks and your musical setup, including its amplification path, which Audeze is much more demanding than the easy-going Lyricists.
For 55 thousand UAH, you should also pay attention to the Japanese Denon AH-D9200 – amazing-sounding headphones. Practically they are not inferior in scale and detail, but at the same time they do not reveal the flaws of the recording so much and do not dazzle with high wind instruments.
If you want something monitor and closed, then you should pay attention to the Sennheiser HD 820 worth 63 thousand UAH. They are a bit drier in terms of sound and this is already a classic dynamic transducer, but the model is extremely informative and honest. Or there is their open version Sennheiser HD 800 S , which will cost UAH 51,000 already.
Whether it’s worth overpaying $1,000 for the flagship Meze Empyrean or almost $2,000 for the Meze Empyrean Elite, let’s leave it up to those who were able to save at least 60 thousand on Meze Liric.
