[Andykong]

@betula posted a comment to my review about our impressions being close to 180 degrees off. I posted a reply, the short version is: I didn't think about running the Liric in when I got them, so it will be interesting to hear what others on this leg of the tour hear as they break in. Also, I don't know how old @betula is, but I'm middle aged and I may not hear what he and others younger than me respond to as bright/ shrill/ spikey. While I like extended and airy treble, I don't like bright/ harsh treble. With speakers, I've stayed away from metal dome tweeters and B&W for that reason. My brother-in-law, on the other hand, likes hotter treble than I do and has enjoyed the B&W speakers I recommended he try for twenty years or so.

I didn't try Liric with my QP2r, an error of omission on my part. Maybe you should send them back to me so I can do the evaluation right.

Good try, QP2r probably is not a strong enough reason, but if you have a new headphone or a new amplifier coming in before the end of tour and you want to add more comparison to your review, why not? For the recrod, QP2r runs with Pure Class A Current Mode amplification, and current mode is, "theoretically", a magic for palnar headphone.

By the way, I enyoy reading yoru review because you shared the music that lead you to a specific observation. I check them out on Youtube while reading your review with my Liric in order to get a better grasp of your impression, and I had a good treat by the time I finsh reading your review. I really like and encourage similar practise in headphone review. Even when I don't necessarily agree with everything you said, but I know where you come from and that is a very interesting exchange in the journey of music.

For the record, previous discussion suggested that the Empyrean and Liric sounds better after 50-100 hours run-in, but the Elite sounds very good immediately after open-box.

 

[Andykong]

For those that might be interested, I just posted my Liric review and comparison to the ATH-AWAS in the Head Gear section.

An audiophile turned Audio Engineers with musical instruments background? Wow, I couldn't have figure that out based on the information we collected for the tour. Meze is lucky to have you on board our tour.

If the Liric "wasn’t far behind" in your system which was fully optimised for ATH AWAS, I think Liric performs very well already. Interestingly, you describe yourself as "rather treble sensitive" and the Liric "leans to the warm side". I just added "

I am intrigued when you said ATH AWAS and LIRIC complimented each other. I haven't heard the ATH AWAS but may I ask if this headphone is closer to a "traditional" ATH tune (e.g., W5000/W2002) or the newer "reference" tune (e.g., ADX5000)? ATH headphones is a very big family and their sound signature are very versatile over the years. I have the W5000 in my collection and that's a very good closed back for female vocal but it is very different from Liric. If I were to pick a ATH headphone that is closer to Liric in sound signature, I probably will pick the AP2000Ti.

By the way, I just added Sister Drum (Track 2) to my Liric playlist. This is a very popular test track among Chinese audiophiles, I am surprised that an Canadian musician quoted this track in Meze Liric review.

 

[elnero]

An audiophile turned Audio Engineers with musical instruments background? Wow, I couldn't have figure that out based on the information we collected for the tour. Meze is lucky to have you on board our tour.

I trained as an Audio Engineer but never actually worked as one. I ended up coming home to PEI and working with Frank Hale at Swans Speakers just after he took over the company. I moved to Toronto for a few years and then moved back to work at Swans but that was short-lived because Hi-Vi Research bought them not long after.

If the Liric "wasn’t far behind" in your system which was fully optimised for ATH AWAS, I think Liric performs very well already. Interestingly, you describe yourself as "rather treble sensitive" and the Liric "leans to the warm side". I just added "

I was very treble sensitive when I was younger. I'm in my early 50's now though so I've been wondering if it's not quite as severe as it used to be. Regardless, I personally wouldn't characterize the Liric as bright. The treble wasn't as clean and clear as the AWAS. Given some of the conversation around how long the Liric made need to settle, I wonder if I gave them enough time. I had them at a pretty busy time of the year with some family things that came up during the two weeks so I didn't spend as much time with them as I would have liked. It will be interesting to see how others on the tour perceive them.

I am intrigued when you said ATH AWAS and LIRIC complimented each other. I haven't heard the ATH AWAS but may I ask if this headphone is closer to a "traditional" ATH tune (e.g., W5000/W2002) or the newer "reference" tune (e.g., ADX5000)? ATH headphones is a very big family and their sound signature are very versatile over the years. I have the W5000 in my collection and that's a very good closed back for female vocal but it is very different from Liric. If I were to pick a ATH headphone that is closer to Liric in sound signature, I probably will pick the AP2000Ti.

I haven't heard the W5000, W2002 or ADX5000 but I've owned the W100, W1000, W10VTG and W3000ANV. It's been a long time since I've heard any of those though. From my recollection though, the AWAS is far more neutral than those. Vocals still sound amazing, but without that nasal quality that could come through on some of the older woodies.

I actually had a paragraph in my review that I talked a bit about swapping between headphones. With headphones that are very different, swapping between them can really through me off. Whichever headphone I swap to can sound "wrong" until I spend some time adjusting to their presentation. Then when I swap back, it's the same thing all over again. When swapping between the Liric and the AWAS I didn't have that. They're different for sure, but they seemed to have enough similarities that they didn't need the adjustment period they would if they were very different. Where they were different, like in the sub-bass and soundstage, was how they complemented each other. So large scale recording were more cohesive on the Liric and albums that could use a little more bass benefited from the Liric as well.

By the way, I just added Sister Drum (Track 2) to my Liric playlist. This is a very popular test track among Chinese audiophiles, I am surprised that an Canadian musician quoted this track in Meze Liric review.

If I remember correctly, it was actually the Swans Asian rep that introduced Frank to Sister Drum at CES. I remember him telling me how they blew a Polk Audio sub with it in one of the rooms at CES. I used to use the title track for my testing but over the years I gravitated more to Turning Scripture. There's so many different things in that track to look and test for. The whole album is excellent though.

Thank you again for including me on the tour. I know I wasn't necessarily your target audience, but I think the Liric makes for a fine non-portable headphone as well.

 

[llysender]

Just tried the liric a yesterday and honestly I'm a tad conflicted. On one hand I keep telling myself I dont need the detail, vocal texture and holography of the ATH-AWKT and that the liric is a very good companion headphone for all my J-core EDM music. Which it kind of is but the lack of fine micro detail of all the screwups and noise being smoothed over is just maddening. That being said I can respect that decision since vocals have their own charm with that rich smoothness along with the good dynamics.

Honestly as a standalone headphone the liric is worth every penny. Also Meze is the only planar company that actually gets bass that sounds correct which is a plus point in my book.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Meze is the only planar company that actually gets bass that sounds correct

Yeah Mezes Bass is very engaging more speaker like than typical planar.

 

[utdeep]

Selling my Mint Meze Liric for a huge discount:
https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/meze-liric.19089/

Best closed back I’ve heard, but I need to buy an Elite.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Selling my Mint Meze Liric for a huge discount:
https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/meze-liric.19089/

Best closed back I’ve heard, but I need to buy an Elite.

Boys best 1650€ you could spend in the headphone realm

 

[vsg28]

My limited time with the LIRIC is almost up, so time to share some photos before final testing is completed.

 

[vsg28]

Frequency response now measured as well, getting the seal on the artificial ears is harder than I thought in order to reflect the measurements to be in line with my own listening experience. The cup size and the yoke angle plays such a big role.

 

[Andykong]

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone.

Today is second day of Chinese lunar year, in our custom (southern part of China to be exact) we call this 開年, which can stand for "start a year" or resume regular business for a new year. That's why we normally have vegaterian meal on the first day of Chinese new year, and then we can resume normal on the second day.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone.

Today is second day of Chinese lunar year, in our custom (southern part of China to be exact) we call this 開年, which can stand for "start a year" or resume regular business for a new year. That's why we normally have vegaterian meal on the first day of Chinese new year, and then we can resume normal on the second day.

Why a vegetarian meal?
Has that a historic reason?

 

[Andykong]

Frequency response now measured as well, getting the seal on the artificial ears is harder than I thought in order to reflect the measurements to be in line with my own listening experience. The cup size and the yoke angle plays such a big role.

Your FR curve looks almost the same as Resolve's curve, I put the two curves together with the X-axis reading line up appropriately to enable comparison. Since you performed this measurement independently, we can basically conclude that this is a corss-checked measurement for Meze Liric.

Yes, getting the seal on the measurement tool is not as simple as putting it on our head. That probably explained some of the dispriency among different measurement results, so verification and cross-checking is important.

By the way, beautiful pictures, looking forward to read your full Liric review.

 

[Andykong]

I trained as an Audio Engineer but never actually worked as one. I ended up coming home to PEI and working with Frank Hale at Swans Speakers just after he took over the company. I moved to Toronto for a few years and then moved back to work at Swans but that was short-lived because Hi-Vi Research bought them not long after.


I was very treble sensitive when I was younger. I'm in my early 50's now though so I've been wondering if it's not quite as severe as it used to be. Regardless, I personally wouldn't characterize the Liric as bright. The treble wasn't as clean and clear as the AWAS. Given some of the conversation around how long the Liric made need to settle, I wonder if I gave them enough time. I had them at a pretty busy time of the year with some family things that came up during the two weeks so I didn't spend as much time with them as I would have liked. It will be interesting to see how others on the tour perceive them.


I haven't heard the W5000, W2002 or ADX5000 but I've owned the W100, W1000, W10VTG and W3000ANV. It's been a long time since I've heard any of those though. From my recollection though, the AWAS is far more neutral than those. Vocals still sound amazing, but without that nasal quality that could come through on some of the older woodies.

I actually had a paragraph in my review that I talked a bit about swapping between headphones. With headphones that are very different, swapping between them can really through me off. Whichever headphone I swap to can sound "wrong" until I spend some time adjusting to their presentation. Then when I swap back, it's the same thing all over again. When swapping between the Liric and the AWAS I didn't have that. They're different for sure, but they seemed to have enough similarities that they didn't need the adjustment period they would if they were very different. Where they were different, like in the sub-bass and soundstage, was how they complemented each other. So large scale recording were more cohesive on the Liric and albums that could use a little more bass benefited from the Liric as well.

So the AWAS is somewhere in between W3000ANV and ADX5000, but lean towards the later? I can more of less figures out the presentaiton of this headphone and be able to understand your review better. While the Liric might not be able to dethrone the AWAS in your system, your observation and sharing has helped us (and the potential customers) to understand the Liric better. I sincerely appreciate different perspectives, espcically on subjects such as cold vs warm, bright vs mellow, fast vs slow, ... because all these are kind of relative experience based on personal preference and what we are comparing it to.

If I remember correctly, it was actually the Swans Asian rep that introduced Frank to Sister Drum at CES. I remember him telling me how they blew a Polk Audio sub with it in one of the rooms at CES. I used to use the title track for my testing but over the years I gravitated more to Turning Scripture. There's so many different things in that track to look and test for. The whole album is excellent though.

Thank you again for including me on the tour. I know I wasn't necessarily your target audience, but I think the Liric makes for a fine non-portable headphone as well.

That makes a lot of sense if you come to know this album from Swans Asia rep. The Sister Drum is a legendary album among Chines audiophiles, frequently used as a drum or bass adjustment track for speaker systems.

Nope, when I organise the Liric tour, I have never include "target audience" or "potential customer" into my shortlisting criteria. I tried to maximize mix and match of different gear and headphones, track record of reviews, contribution to forum discussion, and geographic/logistic concerns also plays an important role, but I don't really care about sales potenital in this process.

 

[Andykong]

Why a vegetarian meal?
Has that a historic reason?

Chinese new year celebration is all about union, harmony, joy and prosperous. We give red-pocket to children and we greet each other with blessing wishes. So naturally, we don't "kill" anything on the first day.

 

[vsg28]

Your FR curve looks almost the same as Resolve's curve, I put the two curves together with the X-axis reading line up appropriately to enable comparison. Since you performed this measurement independently, we can basically conclude that this is a corss-checked measurement for Meze Liric.

Yes, getting the seal on the measurement tool is not as simple as putting it on our head. That probably explained some of the dispriency among different measurement results, so verification and cross-checking is important.

By the way, beautiful pictures, looking forward to read your full Liric review.

Resolve is using an actual GRAS 043AG with one of their anthromorphic pinna, whereas I am using a custom-designed set with two calibrated IEC711 couplers tuned to be more reliable/accurate with a slightly damped resonance, and paired with two ear molds shaped similar to my average ears, so I guess they are close enough for this comparison:

I've since done a check of my setup compared to Crinacle's GRAS 043AG, and it's almost spot on with his to where it's basically within error margins of a random first-party GRAS rig itself. The main issue for anyone else wanting to measure the FR for the Liric is to account for where the ear canal opening sits relative to the drivers in the ear cup while not compromising on the seal. A soft pinna is critical here, something like the MiniDSP EARS won't do any good even for the bass I imagine.