Fit and Comfort

Seen above is the Meze Audio LIRIC 2nd Generation placed on a mannequin head to help show how these headphones would look on the human head. Note that the head is slightly under average sized, so account for the discrepancies accordingly. As with all headphones, getting a good fit and seal is crucial, so make sure to properly use the various pivot points, along with the height adjustability of the headband and ear cups. This section is mostly a summary of the points expanded upon in more detail on the previous page, but I will point out that the new LIRIC weighs 427 g, which is slightly higher than the 391 g of the previous version, but still on the lower side for closed-back planar magnetic headphones. Part of this is due to the use of lighter materials for the chassis but keep in mind these tend to cost more than plastic or steel. The lower profile design, which should be obvious in these photos, also helps despite the ear cups themselves being only so thin given they still have to house planar magnetic drivers with thick pads. I mentioned before how the ear pads are ovoid to better follow the human ear and the majority of readers should find these working well for them. The clamp force is higher than average, perhaps some of this has to do with the same chassis and headband assembly from the previous model but now paired with ear pads that detach. I noticed some added pressure on my left and right temple after ~an hour of use and shifting the headband higher to try and alleviate this resulted in the ear cups slowly adding some pressure on the top of my ears instead. It's not necessarily uncomfortable as much as just reminding you these are on your head, unlike the Meze Elite which you would not even notice were it not playing audio into your ears. The side effect is, especially with the thick but non-contoured pads, there is potential for some people to not get a proper seal around the ears and that may result in some lost sub- and mid-bass. I found these to work fine for me with the added clamp force actually resulting in pretty good isolation from the ambient environment as well as relatively lower sound leakage.

Audio Performance

Audio Hardware

I recommend going through the equivalent section on this page to better understand the base technologies developed by Rinaro Isodynamics for the LIRIC 1st Generation given this newer driver builds upon that. The so-called MZ4 isodynamic hybrid array driver takes this same principle, but has a highly unique voice coil design that is the same as in Meze Audio's more expensive open-back flagships. The MZ4 driver uses a fiberglass-reinforced polymer casing with two sets of neodymium magnets on either side of a 92 x 63 mm (5796 mm²) diaphragm with an impressive active area of 3507 mm² (60.5%) moving back and forth inside a 0.3 T magnetic field. That magnetic field strength in itself is not as impressive as you might see coming from dynamic drivers in this price range or lower, but remember that it is uniformly spread over an extremely thin diaphragm that weighs all of 80 mg in a 71 g total driver mass. The diaphragm employs dual coils including involve a switchback coil—shown in blue above—catering to the lower frequencies and positioned at the top, with the spiral coil in orange handling the mid-high frequencies directly pointing into the ear canal to minimize undue resonances and time delays. The Phase-X and pressure equalization systems make a return too, and then comes something new called QWRM—A quarter wavelength resonator mask which is a metal component that is designed to cover specific openings in the driver frame as seen in the previous page. The goal here is to attenuate high-frequency peaks above 7 kHz to reduce potential fatigue, and Meze has also updated the tonality to fall between balanced and warm. The end result is a set of headphones which are relatively easy to drive with an average rated impedance of 61 Ω and a high-for-planars sensitivity of 100 dB/mW. This makes the LIRIC quite conducive with portable sources, especially with the shorter balanced cable that I used even with some capable portable DAC/amps without feeling left out. That said, I found a warmer chain to pair better with the LIRIC 2nd gen, be it a DAP with an R-2R DAC or a desktop chain that shifts away from my usual neutral recommendations. Just don't use something with a high output impedance though given these drivers seem to display a non-linear impedance curve with a peak in the upper mids.

Frequency Response Measurement and Listening

I will mention that I have a general preference for a warm-neutral signature emphasizing a slightly elevated bass and smooth treble range with detailed mids and good tonal separation. I also generally prefer instrumental music over vocals, with favored genres including jazz and classical music.


Our current headphones test setup uses a set of two custom in-ear microphones for the two channels. These microphones closely adhere to the IEC711 class, but have been tweaked to be more reliable in the >10 kHz frequency range, the precise issue with my previous setup, that is otherwise still very good and will continue to be used for IEMs and earphones. Two soft silicone pinnae are installed on the sides, separated by a distance matching my head, and multiple "height" adapters have been 3D-printed for further customization based on fit, head size and shape. Each set of microphones has an XLR output I separately adapted to 3.5 mm. I used a transparent source—the JDS Labs Element II—for measurements after confirming it was not a bottleneck in any way. This artificial head simulator feeds the microphone lines into a reference USB sound card, which in turn goes to a laptop that has ARTA and REW running. I begin with an impulse measurement to test for signal fidelity, calibrate the sound card and channel output, account for floor noise, and finally test the frequency response of each channel separately. Octave smoothing is at the 1/12th setting, netting a good balance of detail and signal-to-noise ratio. The default tuning was used for testing, and no app or program-based EQ settings were chosen, unless specifically mentioned. Each sample of interest is measured at least thrice with separate mounts to account for any fit issues, and an average is taken of the individual measurements for statistical accuracy.


As per usual, you can find my headphone frequency response measurements on VSG.squig.link, along with all the earphone measurements. Scroll to the bottom and choose different targets there, including two from Harman Kardon, developed after years of R&D. The one seen here is the Harman 2018 over-ear target that I figured makes sense in this context of a closed-back set. Before we talk more about the LIRIC 2nd Generation's sound signature, let's first discuss the channel matching achieved here. Meze Audio and Rinaro Isodynamics both do a good job with hand assembly and testing of all the planar magnetic drivers and the end result is a set with no perceivable channel imbalance here. Given this is Meze's flagship closed-back set, I expected to see a high level of quality assurance and control, so this is good to see. Knowing this is a randomly picked retail unit makes it all the better, and I will also mention that using the headphones for over 50 hours didn't change anything either for those who would undoubtedly be curious about burn-in.

Meze Audio doesn't necessarily tune its headphones with the Harman target in mind and thus don't take any deviations from the target above as any fault. If anything, audio is so subjective and people have different preferences/music libraries to where I always encourage well-executed takes on different tuning styles. In general I feel like Meze prefers to have a warmer house sound and we do see some of this in the new LIRIC too. I would classify the tonality here as U-shaped with emphasized lows and highs without having the mids feel recessed. My first session with the LIRIC 2nd Generation was one of excitement with my acoustic jazz collection especially feeling quite detailed and instruments being strongly rendered. Then came some cymbal clashes and suddenly my ears started ringing with the realization that the earlier impressions were perhaps from a false sense of clarity induced by an overly emphasized upper treble reproduction. Indeed, measurements confirm as much, and it's made all the more obvious with the lower and mid-treble region being more in control, if not slightly recessed relative to what comes before and after. Perhaps this is the result of the QWRM tech on the driver frame and, if so, I would have really liked to see Meze re-work this to affect a broader frequency range. As it stands, the upper treble can result in a sense of faux detail elsewhere but many instrument harmonics clash and the overall sound signature is also affected via a metallic sheen to the timbre throughout. This is why I was using a warmer source chain but ultimately had to go with EQ to pull down the 15-16 kHz region by 5-6 dB to make for a far more pleasant time with the new LIRIC 2nd Gen.

By comparison, the mids are very well reproduced here. Vocals feel fairly natural and forward without being shouty or honky. That dip at 1.5 kHz also does not come off as noticeable as the measurements indicate and perhaps some of this is to do with the ear gain being just right for me. Imaging is precise in a wide cone in front of the head whereas the soundstage is fairly secluded in the ears here. It's resolving enough to discern different string instruments in a quarter as well as some orchestral recordings too. One potential thing to be aware of is the 6 kHz peak in the measurements is not just an artifact and may end up making some songs feel slightly shouty. Although arguably the upper treble is more likely to drown out any upper mids-related fatigue anyway. It's also relatively balanced by the bass which is on the boomier side of things. The lower mids have a warmer presentation leading up to a thumping mid-to-sub-bass transition. I heard that 100 Hz peak quite prominently too, even more so than the graphs suggest, and this creates a serious punch for electronic music as well as kick drums to the point of being too much for me, especially paired with fairly blunted dynamics. Yet I know there will be many who absolutely love this and, combined with the decent bass extension, the LIRIC's bass can be a viable purchase justification.


The obvious comparison to make here would be the Meze LIRIC 1st Generation which has been discontinued, but some stores still seem to have stock and of course the used market will continue to deliver if you absolutely wanted one. I would say the LIRIC 2nd Generation is an improvement over its predecessor in most things although there are places where the original was more amenable. The unboxing experience and accessories are near-identical albeit you do get a nice premium cable now included for free instead of a shorter version of the same 3 m stock cable we see here. The wood ear cups will be a subjective thing even if I absolutely prefer them over the all black cups from before. Likewise, I do think the overall tuning and sound signature of the LIRIC 2nd Generation will appeal to more people given the likelihood of those who can afford to shell out the money for one of these also having less sensitivity to the upper frequencies is higher than I'd like. The original LIRIC comes off shoutier and more fatiguing as a result of the pronounced mid treble but does have a more natural timbre to many instruments, and the bass also feels like it belongs to a larger ensemble as opposed to the prominence it gets in the newer model. Neither are perfect sets by any means, but I would personally go with the newer model any day.

Then there's the HIFIMAN Audivina which is so bad that I decided it wasn't even worth my time to review it. This also costs the same as the LIRIC and is designed to be the closed-back equivalent to the HE1000 series of HIFIMAN's teardrop-shaped headphones. Unfortunately HIFIMAN has yet to figure out how to make a closed-back set of headphones sound good. The drivers are quite small and overly damped in general, but the bigger issue is the ear pads don't seal properly around your ears resulting in sound leakage and bass drop. The tonality is all over the place and the only reason it sounds fairly open is because of the poor seal. I honestly don't see any reason for people to spend even half the asking price for this set; it simply does not belong in this comparison section if it weren't for being a relatively new release from a direct competitor at the same asking price. I'll also mention the Focal Stellia, which is not a recent release but happens to be Focal's current flagship closed-back. The Stellia follows Focal's striking design aesthetics, although the color scheme can be divisive. It costs slightly more than the LIRIC despite being long in the tooth and uses pure Beryllium diaphragm dynamic drivers to finally be a change from all the planar magnetic headphones being discussed here. The Stellia is more punchy as a result of the drivers as well as the tuning which has a similar 100 Hz bump in the bass, making it even more colored and less accurate sounding. It's less comfortable compared to the LIRIC for me and the uneven upper mids and treble playback makes it harder to use with a variety of music genres—especially those I tend to favor.

Please note that I have no experience with competing closed-back sets from the likes of ZMF, Kennerton, and a few other brands as of this review, although things should change soon on the ZMF front! In the meantime, I would say the biggest competition to the Meze LIRIC 2nd Generation comes from the recently released Dan Clark Audio E3 which also comes at the same price point. The DCA E3 takes a lot of the tech which was introduced with the much more expensive STEALTH and the end result is an extremely comfortable set of closed-back headphones which has one of the more balanced tonalities of any closed-back headphones on the market. It may feel boring at first, yet I found it to work quite well for a wide variety of music genres to where I personally would spend my money there. The E3 also has some higher frequency issues for me but nowhere near as prominent as on the new LIRIC 2nd Gen. Keep in mind that the E3 is not a set I would use for a portable use case though given it is going to grab more attention in public as well as requiring more power. The LIRIC 2nd Gen also subjectively looks and feels better in the hand, and we all know how this can influence purchase decisions too.