This review is of my personally purchased Meze Rai Penta IEMs and has not been solicited nor previewed by Meze. All opinions are my own. Meze offers the Rai Penta’s as a flagship IEM and their price at $1099 USD sets that expectation. The question is, do they deliver? Before starting I wanted to thank Andrew at Bloom Audio for providing excellent service in processing and shipping my order. While having been in many aspects of the audio pro/re-production as both a vocation and avocation for over 50 years, I do not cycle through audio components...

This in-ear monitors were a wonderful surprise and so I thought I would report on my first impressions after several weeks. I was looking for a more comfortable in-ear monitors that were better than my Triple-Fi 10's which were aging albeit gracefully.  I came across the deep deals for Cyber Monday and took a flyer based upon the positive reviews and pros that match my requirements.  These are startling good at presenting a musical performance with lifelike realism even when driven straight out of an iPhone 5s. I have several live performance...