Meze Audio LIRIC - The portable isodynamic hybrid array headphone

[Andykong]

Thats partly true...
It is a matter of taste.......regarding the reviewer..
But, its a stone cold fact that if you've owned or own over 200 sets of headphones, and you've been into this listening experience for 10-15yrs-20 yrs, then you have HEARD everything, and within that experience is found "a real reviewer".
Some, have not owned 30 sets of headphones, or even 20, and yet they have a high tech & glossy U-TBE invitation for you to "trust' their review....
= "enter with caution" their "take on sound".

How many reviewers out that who OWNED 200 sets of headphones? or 100 sets?
REVIEWED 200 sets of headphone is totally different from OWNED 200 sets of headphones. especially if the headphones are relevant to the DUT (device under test).

I still hold the opinion that consumer decision in high-end audio, be it speaker or headphone, is more related to subjective personal preference. Therefore when you want to shortlist a reviewer as your "relevant" reference, you should examine his review on a product that you are very familiar with. If his opinion reconcile with yours, he is relevant to you. This is, IMHO, better than counting the headphones he owned or reviewed.

In addition, reviewers who are renowned for their consistency can also be relevant even when you don't see eye-to-eye with him because you can develop a pattern from his previous reviews and translate his opinion to something that is relevant to yourselves. Again this is better than counting the headphones he owned or reviewed, IMHO.

Last but not least, even when he truly owned 200 sets of headphones, if he has "a high tech & glossy U-TBE invitation for you to "trust' their review....", I still feel skeptical.

 

[Andykong]

I've been listening Liric for about week now. No need to boost up. As the former Owls. I'm drummer, and it's beautiful how Liric emboses all the notes.

If anyone interested

Liric just shines over this!

Glad to run into a drummer because I have a personal question that is in the back of my mind for a while already.

I am not a drummer (obviously), but I am interested and wanted to give it a try. Traditional drum set will occupy too much space and introduce too munch interference to my family, so I can only afford a set of Alesis or Roland and practise with headphone. Is this an acceptable setting to learn playing drum? I assume LIRIC is a good headphone for this purpose?

 

[Jefecesti]

Glad to run into a drummer because I have a personal question that is in the back of my mind for a while already.

I am not a drummer (obviously), but I am interested and wanted to give it a try. Traditional drum set will occupy too much space and introduce too munch interference to my family, so I can only afford a set of Alesis or Roland and practise with headphone. Is this an acceptable setting to learn playing drum? I assume LIRIC is a good headphone for this purpose?

Defininely! Just make sure you'll acquire a proper hi-hat & snare drum, to achieve appropriate feeling. Probably Roland TD-17KVX would be a good set to start.

LIRIC would definitely be a good headphone for that purpose!

 

[Resolve]

Therefore I am not surprised that when someone say Focal Radiance punches better than Liric. If punch is your preferred bass presentation, then you probably will prefer electrodynamic headphones. If you want rumbling bass, than planar headphone probably has a better chance to deliver the bass response that you'll enjoy. I am not saying one is better than others, they are different and its important to know your preference.

Well said! Thanks for this explanation and I agree with the assessment. And yes, punch is the more traditional term, and I'll do my best to avoid 'slam' in the future since that seems to raise some eyebrows haha.

 

[Andykong]

Well said! Thanks for this explanation and I agree with the assessment. And yes, punch is the more traditional term, and I'll do my best to avoid 'slam' in the future since that seems to raise some eyebrows haha.

Glad we have very similar opinion toward this subject, down the specific examples of planar headphones that performed exemplary on this attribute.

There is a lot of discussion on dynamic vs planar from technical or engineering perspective, but relatively little from sonic characteristic perspective, maybe that's good topic for a short video.

 

[Beagle]

I have similar observations and I have my theory which are originated from my speaker experience. I tend to use the word "punch" instead of "slam" but since I come from a different language background, I hope I didn't caused any confusion.

A word that used to be used by Harry Pearson of TAS was "gestalt". I believe this is what we get when everything works together to provide musical satisfaction and the "full effect".

 

[BowWazoo]

...Therefore I am not surprised that when someone say Focal Radiance punches better than Liric. If punch is your preferred bass presentation, then you probably will prefer electrodynamic headphones. If you want rumbling bass, than planar headphone probably has a better chance to deliver the bass response that you'll enjoy...

Last year I switched from Utopia to the Empyrean, for the reason that the Focal had a good punch, but little "rumble". So I was missing something in the bass. The Empyrean has both, and was therefore "more complete". The Liric is, in my opinion, even more energetic in this regard.

 

[LongBeforeShort]

A friend came brought his liric along a while ago and i gave them a listening time, even though it was almost entirely music from his playlist, which won't help me in any way to define the quality of a headphone. So take my lines with a grain of salt, because, you know, when people get something new and discover new music or old ones, they always want to share their impressions with you

So, take this as first impression. I found the Can to be well made, it looked like it could take a beat. It is fairly leightweight and feels very comfortable on my head. The case is too big in my opinion, it could be a lot smaller, for example like the Sendy Audio Peacock, even though that headphones is a lot bigger. So there is plenty of unused space and the cables are terrible as always aside from the connectors, which looks nice.

My overall impression was, too much forced bass, not the biggest punch, but it's there, very clear sounding and detailed, until i heard my own songs and figured out, that there are a few problem zones with this headphone. The Bass volume was too much in the upper regions, even though it felt like it reaches deep down as well. Vocals got lost and i could not tell them clearly apart, while some songs were really sharp and very uncomfortable to listening. At the same time the treble upper regions seems to be not above harman target, which would be too much for my taste, so it had to be the midrange.

I believe this headphone could be a very good investment for some people after EQ, i would not listen to this headphone without EQ outside of a specific Playlist. The Audeze LCD-2 Closed with oratory EQ with your own subjective adjustments has superior tonality, but softer, less controlled bass and the Hifiman Sundara with oratory EQ is overall better sounding in all aspects, but got very poor build quality, comfort and is no Closed Back.

The change of the earpads for a 2000€ headphone on the other hand, is not good practice, if you ask me. Something like that should be fairly cheap and comfortable to do, not like this.

If you don't listen to music with vocals and certain instruments, this headphone may work surprisingly good for you and may sound very explosive.

 

[adrianm]

A friend came brought his liric along a while ago and i gave them a listening time, even though it was almost entirely music from his playlist, which won't help me in any way to define the quality of a headphone. So take my lines with a grain of salt, because, you know, when people get something new and discover new music or old ones, they always want to share their impressions with you

So, take this as first impression. I found the Can to be well made, it looked like it could take a beat. It is fairly leightweight and feels very comfortable on my head. The case is too big in my opinion, it could be a lot smaller, for example like the Sendy Audio Peacock, even though that headphones is a lot bigger. So there is plenty of unused space and the cables are terrible as always aside from the connectors, which looks nice.

My overall impression was, too much forced bass, not the biggest punch, but it's there, very clear sounding and detailed, until i heard my own songs and figured out, that there are a few problem zones with this headphone. The Bass volume was too much in the upper regions, even though it felt like it reaches deep down as well. Vocals got lost and i could not tell them clearly apart, while some songs were really sharp and very uncomfortable to listening. At the same time the treble upper regions seems to be not above harman target, which would be too much for my taste, so it had to be the midrange.

I believe this headphone could be a very good investment for some people after EQ, i would not listen to this headphone without EQ outside of a specific Playlist. The Audeze LCD-2 Closed with oratory EQ with your own subjective adjustments has superior tonality, but softer, less controlled bass and the Hifiman Sundara with oratory EQ is overall better sounding in all aspects, but got very poor build quality, comfort and is no Closed Back.

The change of the earpads for a 2000€ headphone on the other hand, is not good practice, if you ask me. Something like that should be fairly cheap and comfortable to do, not like this.

If you don't listen to music with vocals and certain instruments, this headphone may work surprisingly good for you and may sound very explosive.

One important detail that you didn't mention is...what what was your source chain.

 

[TheNameIsGerald]

My theory is, dynamic driver moves air through piston movement from a relatively small surface area, planar driver moves air through vibration of larger surface area. The way they move low frequency, (especially mid-bass), piston movement will deliver punch effectively while vibration can deliver a lot of bass output, linear and extended, but rumbling instead of punching.

i can't say whether your mechanistic explanation is true or not - but it seems plausible and has given me an intuitive mental image of how different driver types could affect bass output characteristics. So thank you very much for that!

 

[FullBright1]

This gear is special.
Another winner from Meze.
Thats 2 new headphones, both are fantastic, and both released in the same year.

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[Andykong]

Remember our Rai Penta give away competition with HiFi+ last years? We had a lot of fun last year and we decided to all-in with a more attractive prize. You get a chance to win the ELITE, our new isodynamic hybrid array flagship headphone worth £3,699.


To join the Meze Audio Elite give away competition, please go to our Competition Page and fill in the correct answer in the form. Alternatively, send your answer on a postcard (including your name, address, and contact details) to: ELITE COMPETITION; MEZE AUDIO, Iuliu Maniu str., nr. 38, 1st floor, ap. 2, Baia Mare, 430131, Romania.

The competition will run from December 2nd 2021 until February 3rd 2022. The competition is open to everyone, but multiple, automated or bulk entries will be disqualified. The winner will be chosen at random on Friday, February 4th, from all valid entries, will be contacted via email (where possible) and their name will be published on this here webpage and in HiFi+ magazine. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Meze Audio and Absolute Multimedia (UK) Ltd. are compliant with the Data Protection Act and UK laws apply. Our policy is such that we will not pass on your details to any third party without your prior consent.

 

[Unseen Aura]

To join the Meze Audio Elite give away competition, please go to our Competition Page and fill in the correct answer in the form. Alternatively, send your answer on a postcard (including your name, address, and contact details) to: ELITE COMPETITION; MEZE AUDIO, Iuliu Maniu str., nr. 38, 1st floor, ap. 2, Baia Mare, 430131, Romania.

Yay, & entered!

 

[zen87192]

Entered and crossing my fingers for a Win.

 

[Jefecesti]

Glad to run into a drummer because I have a personal question that is in the back of my mind for a while already.

I am not a drummer (obviously), but I am interested and wanted to give it a try. Traditional drum set will occupy too much space and introduce too munch interference to my family, so I can only afford a set of Alesis or Roland and practise with headphone. Is this an acceptable setting to learn playing drum? I assume LIRIC is a good headphone for this purpose

.

You seem to be a part of Meze organization.

Are you really into trying drums? Or is this just a part of selling Liric?