I own the Meier Opera, Aria, and Move. I asked Jan Meier if he would be willing to send me a Cantate to compare to the Aria. He volunteered to also loan me an Arietta so that I could do a comprehensive review of his entire product line, of course I agreed. This is a very complex review to set up, and to write, since it involves 5 amps! There is no way I can compare every single potential performance parameter, but I did my best. This review will not give ultra-detailed descriptions of the sound of each amp, but is more designed to compare the relative performance of the 5 amps to each other.
I broke the new amps in for 200 hours before doing the review listening. I use mostly the Denon D5000 for the review. I used my SPL meter to match levels within 1db. I listened to a wide variety of music. Source was the iMod iPod.
First and foremost, all of these Meier amps sound excellent. Meier enjoys a strong reputation for designing good sounding amps, and his use of Shanling for manufacturing them to keep costs down means that all Meier amps provide a very good value for the money. There isn’t a single one of these amps that doesn’t immediately impress as sounding very, very good. Second, and not surprising, the amps performance does indeed vary with its price. One would assume this to be the case, and indeed, it is. From an overall performance perspective, Opera > Cantate > Arietta > Move. Three main points to bring up right away:
1. The Arietta does sound better, to me, than the MOVE, although they are the same price. The Arietta, the home amp, does outperform the Move, slightly, but meaningfully.
2. The Cantate does meaningfully outperform the Aria, which it replaces. More on that below.
3. Exactly how MUCH difference there is in the models, and from which to which, contained a couple of surprises.
Pictures:
Cantate vs. Aria: This was actually the only original intent of my review, to see how much of an improvement there was here. It’s clear to me that the Aria, which is an older Meier amp and is being phased out, is lacking the improvement that the new Meier amps have in terms of providing a warmer but just as detailed sound (if not a little more!). I guess this is due to the R&D he did around balanced ground, but I am sure there are other changes that contribute. Compared to the Cantate, the Aria sounds a little thin. The Aria sounds very good when taken on its own, but when compared to the Cantate, the Aria lacks a little warmth, and yet provides a little less detail. The Aria is also a little grainy and less transparent than the Cantate is. Would I, an Aria owner, sell the Aria and buy a Cantate? Probably not. But the Cantate is meaningfully better than the Aria. Treble is more detailed but sweeter and less edgy; bass is fuller and weightier, and the midrange is a little lusher. Soundstaging, I felt, was basically a wash.
Opera versus Cantate: This was a bit of a surprise. The Opera, to me, was a SIGNIFICANT step up over the Cantate, to a higher degree than I expected. As good as the Cantate is, the Opera is the king, and it betters the Cantate in every possible performance parameter. Soundstaging especially is improved, but here again, you get a step up in treble detail and sweetness, midrange clarity and tone, and bass definition. I did not (and will not, so please do not ask) compare the DACs, but the Opera has a MUCH more advanced DAC than the Cantate, and when combined with its additional pre-amp features and multiple headphone outputs, I would strongly encourage people who can afford it to stretch and reach for the Opera if they can. The Cantate is a very good amp, but Opera really does outperform it in easily detectable ways.
Cantate versus Arietta: Well, this was also a bit of a surprise. I originally asked Jan just to borrow a Cantate. He offered to loan me a Arietta as well, and of course I accepted. Jan is probably never going to loan me anything again after he reads this, but I felt that the Arietta was really quite close to the Cantate in terms of performance – closer than I expected. That’s why I actually do some serious listening in these reviews – there are almost always surprises. I went back and forth many times, and I found that the Arietta comes close enough to the Cantate’s performance that unless you need the USB DAC that the Cantate offers, my recommendation to someone looking at Meier amps will be that you should either stretch your budget and go for the Opera, or save some dough and go for the Arietta.
The Cantate is certainly a fine-sounding amp, but the Arietta sounds SO good for the money, and so close to the Cantate, that it makes it a little tougher for the Cantate, given its price, although this is really due to the over-achieving Arietta than the Cantate lacking in any way. Given how I felt about the Cantate’s performance versus the Opera and the Arietta, people might assume there is an issue with the Cantate, but I think it’s more an issue of relative positioning. This is the challenge with having the broad product line. If Meier offered only the Cantate, I would give it an enthusiastic recommendation. But in the context of Meier’s whole line, its in a bit of a quandary. Maybe Meier should have charged more for the Arietta, but I don’t think he will…
Arietta versus Move: The Move is a truly excellent portable amp. But the Arietta is notably better. The Arietta has more treble extension and detail, and the Move sounds closed in by direct comparison. The Arietta’s bass is also notably better defined, although the MOVE has a slightly warmer overall tone. There is just no doubt though, that when you compare the two, that if you don’t need a portable amp, you should get the Arietta, and if you need both a portable and a home amp and are on a limited budget, get the Move and the Arietta. Especially based on what I said above about the Arietta versus Cantate.
This of course led me to compare the Arietta to the Aria. And I have to say that I slightly preferred the sound of the Arietta over the Aria. Very slightly, but I did, nonetheless. The Aria is being phased out of course, and it does have a sonic signature that some will prefer – some people don’t actually LIKE the slight warmth that the rest of the Meier amps provide. But for those who do like the new Meier “house sound”, which is a slightly warm but still transparent and detailed sound, the Arietta has more of this sound than the Aria does.
So there you have it. Meier has a very broad line of excellent headphone amps, and all of them are contenders in their price class versus other amps. What I learned most from this exercise is that while trickle-down of technology does apply, the Opera reigns supreme, The Arietta is the amp that truly punches above its weight class, and if what you need is a home amp, then buy a home amp, not a portable.
As usual, just my opinion. Comments welcome.
Review: Entire Meier Audio Headphone Amp Line Compared
