ELITE

Pairing them with different amplifiers was an easy job, you won’t kill your time when doing so and your wallet won’t run away. If you already own a desktop headphone amp and a decent DAC, then I’m sure those will sound great with the Elites.

The Meze Elite makes a strong case for being one of the very best headphones in the world. I’d go so far as to say if we judge based upon design and build quality, the Elite has no rivals, save for its sibling which shares the same exterior.

The natural, fatigue-free sonic presentation can keep a listener enthralled for hours. We ended our review of the Empyrean II asking, “How much better can headphones get?” The Meze Elite Tungsten presents a subtle and refined answer

Meze together with Rinaro built new drivers from the ground up, and that resulted in a more balanced, faster, more precise and cleaner sounding headphone. The clarity of the Elite is really nice and it does complex and fast passages in a better way.

What first grabbed me about the Elites was the full-sounding, natural tonal balance, which isn’t necessarily the norm with audiophile headphones [...] The Elites are very pricey, but they’re indisputably among the best headphones you can buy, and you’ll be able to get good results with them using any amplifier.

The imaging is some of the best I’ve heard from a planar magnetic headphone; everything is carved very firmly in its proper place and there is accurate depth with most recordings.

Sonically, it sits right at the top with the other audiophile flagship headphones. If you are looking for a true upgrade, get the Elite. If you want more detail and clarity from your Empyrean, get the Elite. If you want the better and more efficient headphones without having to purchase an additional headphone amp, get the Elite.

Meze together with Rinaro built new drivers from the ground up, and that resulted in a more balanced, faster, more precise and cleaner sounding headphone. The clarity of the Elite is really nice and it does complex and fast passages in a better way.

The Meze Elite is, in every way, a reference-quality headphone that earns its flagship status and price—worthy competition for other flagship headphones.

When it comes to the sound quality, the Elite has that beautiful timbre that is just a true joy to listen to, paired with great detail retrieval, spectacular resolution, and soundstage.

These are truly impressive headphones that you could easily mix and master on, confident in the knowledge that you’re hearing a true representation of your music. For audiophiles, the listening experience is spectacular with any style of music.

I already loved the Meze Empyrean for it’s unique sound, but the new Elite takes it even further improving the sound in important areas, achieving an incredible balance between technicalities and musicality/natural sound. Empyrean was already doing that, but with Elite this is on another level.

A place in the sound Mount Olympus on Musicalhead is certain for the Meze Elite [...] With the Elite, the Romanian manufacturer has, without question, another hit in the headphone sector.

There were moments while I listened, when I could see Antonio Meze's face (I recognized him from a photo on the Meze website) and hear him saying, "Look! This is how I believe a headphone should be made. These are the pleasures I've decided to give you."

It's also comfortable and sounds great with an even wider variety of music, although Meze has the edge on design, aesthetics, and also the ability to simply connect to a portable DAC/amp without worrying about being bottlenecked by your source.

The Meze Elites are an exceptional headphone. They offer an open and expansive sound that’s articulate and abundantly rich with detail while remaining mellow in their delivery and seamless across their frequency range, that provides hours on end of musical enjoyment.

I think Meze has created a wonderful specimen to show what exceptional industrial design looks like and how one can make a big headphone fit extremely comfortably while keeping the design highly attractive and the build feeling like a luxury collectable.

Listening again to Snarky Puppy Shofukan and I feel the Meze Elite more realistically portrays the tone of the trumpets, percussion instruments, and cymbals. This track is so good with the Meze Elite! I got tingles listening to it, bobbing my head and tapping my toes.

Machined and weighted to perfection with a highly refined tuning devoid of peaks and dips, the Elite represents a triumph in high-end headphone design.

They have amazing clarity, sense of space, and speed. While they may not be the most resolving headphones out there they present as much detail as you could want in a way that is never fatiguing.