Meze Audio Makes Planar-Magnetic Headphones For Moveable Use

The new LIRIC headphones from Meze Audio use totally new scaled-down planar-magnetic drivers for the … [+] ultimate audiophile quality in a pair of headphones designed for portable use.

Meze Audio

Romanian manufacturer Meze Audio makes some truly great headphones. The award-winning company is based in Baia Mare, Romania, and has built a reputation for making superb headphones.

The latest pair of headphones to come out of the Meze Audio factory is the LIRIC – the first pair of closed-back, planar-magnetic headphones powered by Rinaro’s Isodynamic Hybrid Array Driver that’s been re-engineered specifically for portable use.

Meze Audio has used high-grade magnesium, leather and aluminum to create a sleek and ergonomic design. LIRIC is aimed at audiophiles who want to enjoy high-quality music at home or when they are outside or commuting.

The yoke of the Meze Audio LIRIC is made with high-grade magnesium to ensure a long life that’s … [+] resistant to wear and tear.

Meze Audio

Each of the materials used to create LIRIC has been selected to complement the other materials used to make the headphones. Magnesium mirrors the textures used on professional digital cameras and offers a wonderfully tactile experience and is incredibly resistant to wear.

When the LIRIC was on the drawing board, Meze Audio decided to create a special driver which it has called the MZ4. This driver is a scaled-down version of the drivers used in Meze’s flagship Empyrean model. The new drivers have been tuned to the closed-back design to help preserve the original clarity and emotion of music with an enhanced sound and a reduction of external noise levels. 

The new MZ4 driver uses a Phase-X system that was created by Rinaro as a way of minimizing the acoustic issues that are typically found in closed-back headphone designs. The patent-pending technology helps to improve the accuracy of spatial imaging so that the music sounds more open and spacious, much like a pair of open-back headphones. The effect is especially noticeable when listening to binaural recordings. 

LIRIC headphones are available to preorder now from Meze Audio.

Meze Audio

As well as its excellent build quality, Meze Audio claims LIRIC headphones are exceptionally comfortable to wear and deliver a lifelike and immersive sound. LIRIC blends form and function to create a new benchmark in headphones designed for high-end portable use. The product is hand-assembled at Meze Audio’s factory in Baia Mare, Romania. 

Antonio Meze is the lead designer and founder of Meze Audio: “We’ve been wanting to make a portable pair of planar magnetic headphones for a while. Following two successful collaborations with Rinaro, LIRIC was a natural next step. Naming it LIRIC was not a game of chance. It was an ideal metaphor to paint the authentic, vivid and poetic sound disguised behind its sculptural silhouette.”

Like all of Meze Audio’s headphones, LIRIC has detailing and textures that give them a truly … [+] luxurious feel.

Meze Audio

Pavlo Shymanovych is the founder of Rinaro Isodynamics and added: “It’s been a complex and challenging project to scale down our award-winning technology into a closed-back headphone design. After almost three years of intensive work alongside Meze Audio, we achieved that goal with LIRIC, the flagship sound that goes truly portable, representing a new milestone in the application of the Isodynamic Hybrid Array technology.”

Meze Audio makes some great headphones so I have no doubt LIRIC will produce a superb sound that will be a good pairing with high-end Digital Audio Players streaming hi-res music from streaming services like TIDAL and Qobuz.

Pricing & Availability: Meze Audio LIRIC is available now for pre-order worldwide and will retail for $2,000 / €2,000 / £1,850. 

More info: mezeaudio.eu