Meze Audio, the decade-old dedicated headphone outfit based in Baia Mare, Romania, has just announced the release of Liric – its first closed-back planar magnetic headphones powered by Rinaro’s Isodynamic Hybrid Array Driver. These are the same units from the Meze Audio Elite proposition, now re-engineered for portable use.
Meze Audio's Liric headphones combine high-grade magnesium, leather and aluminium in an all-new ergonomic design. The sleek, modern finish was designed to reference the textures found on magnesium parts of professional photography cameras.
“We’ve been wanting to do a portable planar for a while, and following two successful collaborations with Rinaro, it was a natural next step," said Meze Audio founder Antonio Meze, adding, "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.”
Created exclusively for Meze Audio, Liric’s MZ4 driver was purposefully scaled down and tuned to deliver a similar audio experience to its larger counterpart, found in the top-range Empyrean, then combined with a closed-back design.
To do this, Meze Audio partner Rinaro created the Phase-XTM system, a patent-pending technology promising improved spatial imaging accuracy, in line with its open-back counterparts (especially noticeable on binaural recordings).
Meze Audio Liric headphones are hand-assembled in Baia Mare, Romania, and they are available now for pre-order worldwide, priced £1850 / $2000 / €2000 (roughly AU$3395).
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Read our recent Meze Audio 99 Classics review
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