Fit and Comfort

Seen above is the Meze Liric on a headphone stand that is actually a set of two artificial ears complete with soft-molded human ears and a couple of different adapters acting as the top of the head. This has been mounted on a tripod, which also showcases how headphones would look on a human head, with the artificial ears spaced ~20 cm apart. As with all headphones, getting a good fit and seal is crucial, so make sure to properly use the pivot points and height adjustability of the headband and ear cups. In this case, the glued ear pads made for a few complaints when the product page described them as non-detachable, before Meze recently put out not only replacement ear pad kits, but an instructional video on how to do it. It's still done to allow for a proper seal as intended, making the Liric quite isolating if you get a good fit. Once again, I will mention that the pressure equalization system works very well for keeping things comfortable for longer periods of time, and the 391 g of the headphones are barely felt courtesy the well-designed support system with average clamp force, which is sufficient for keeping it in place over your ears but not push into them. The ovoid shape and smaller ear cups might be more of a hassle though, and while they did go over my ears just fine, I still had my first few hours of wondering whether this was too small for me or not. I will also give a shout-out to the comfortable padded cushions without creating hot zones.

Audio Performance

Audio Hardware

If you are curious about how planar magnetic drivers generally work and differ from standard dynamic drivers, take a look at the equivalent section on this page. In fact, go ahead and read that entire review since it's a direct competitor to the Meze Liric and provides more context on what is possible with closed-back planar magnetic headphones. In general, planar drivers allow for larger, faster transducers and are my go-to over dynamic drivers if executed properly. Meze's take is via a collaboration with Ukraine-based Rinaro, who we hope is not affected badly by the ongoing crisis in the region. 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 is custom-developed by Rinaro for Meze Audio and uses an isotropic thermally stabilized polymer with a conductive layer, overall coming off rigid, ultralight, and responsive. The dual coils here 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. There's a patent-pending technology called the Phase-X™ system, which Meze says "improves ambience and spatial sound imaging, often found to be a problem in closed back headphone designs." I also found the ear pad design quite intriguing, especially with the pressure equalization system in the ear cups, which has precision cut air vents to make the most of the space for the sound field. This allows Meze to get away with the relatively compact ear pads and increased portability of the Liric. Indeed, with a rated impedance of 30 Ω, which is about average for planar magnetic headphones, and an equally easy-going sensitivity of 100 dB/mW, the Meze Liric is one of the easiest planar magnetic headphones to drive. This makes it conducive with portable sources, but do pair it with a good source to make the most of your whole audio chain. Some examples were discussed on the previous page, and the various different cable lengths combined with the various adapters further make the Liric a decently scaling option from portable to home or professional use.

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 that was the issue with my previous setup, which is 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 and head-size and shape. Each set of microphones has an XLR output I separately adapted to 3.5 mm. I did power the headphones using a dedicated source, the JDS Labs Element II, for measurements as well as listening, which also used a variety of other sources at my disposal.

This artificial head simulator feeds into a reference USB sound card, which in turn goes to a laptop that has ARTA and REW running and the headphones connected to the laptop through the sound card and/or a separate DAC/amp as needed. 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, which nets a good balance of detail and noise not being identified as useful data. Also, the default tuning was used for testing, and no app-based settings were chosen unless specifically mentioned. Each sample of interest is tested thrice with separate mounts to account for any fit issues, and an average is taken of the three individual measurements for statistical accuracy. The raw data is then compensated based on a custom curve created after having worked with Crinacle from In-Ear Fidelity to get measurements with this setup on par with a GRAS 043AG industry-standard measurement rig, so big thanks to him for that.


As before, 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, as I have added new ones, including two from Harman Kardon developed after years of R&D. The Harman 2018 over-ear target in particular is a reference curve many headphone makers aim for now, but I find it too bass-boosted. As such, I am opting for the Harman 2018 curve with the bass target from the Harman 2013 curve, which is what is being referred to as the "Harman Combined" target there.

Meze Audio has plenty of marketing talk all over its exhaustive product page for the Liric, so it's hard to really pin-point what marketing expectations there are except for it, you know, apparently being perfect at everything. I have some expectations of my own based on my time with the Meze 99 Neo closed-back set that retails for a 10th of the cost of the Liric, so I went in expecting a bass shelf followed by an elongated mids section, hoped for proper pinna gain, and then a more controlled, detailed treble response. Depending on where your interests lie, the Meze Liric can be too bright and fatiguing or just about perfect. A polarizing set this is!

There's certainly a bass shelf, and this time, it's executed much better than on the Meze 99 Neo. In fact, this is the best bass shelf I have seen in any closed-back set of headphones reviewed here to date, although that is a low bar. There's a steady rise in SPL from ~180 Hz and up that maxes out at 4 dB elevation in the mid-bass compared to the lower mids itself. This is about perfect for my tastes, and might well be for you too if you are not huge on bass. It provides excitement to songs that have drums and bass guitars, allowing users to appreciate the deeper notes and attacking transitions in the likes of old school rock and roll or funk music as much as newer aged trance and techno. There's also a good sense of space around, and I for once found myself appreciating the closed-back soundstage more here than in the mids proper. The Liric also scales very well with EQ, having extremely low distortion and a linear impedance curve across the entire frequency range. Indeed, I dialed up the bass response further via Equalizer APO w/Peace GUI for others to use, which was also a means to test the portability of the Liric by taking it to a few different places, and almost everyone fell in love with it. I should mention that the average person will have a similar reaction with any halfway decent set under these conditions though, but if you ever wanted to rock out to heavy metal in the comforts of your own personal space, these will do well.

It's the mids I was more let down by, especially coming from the literal highs with the bass response. The lower mids are more recessed than I'd have liked, which places some male vocals in the background and makes them gritty even. The aforementioned sense of space is not helping either, especially when listening to the likes of country music, pop, or even R&B, with the saxophone in particular at times randomly coming off as too forward. Imaging is also not as good as I would have liked from a premium set of headphones, although I can't tell you exactly whether this is because of the taller soundstage profile since I would now be testing my memory based on the limited time I had with the Liric. I did make a note that the Liric's technical performance was generally impressive but not class-leading, and I can certainly see that. The tuning gets a touch honky with that 1 kHz peak that can make some higher-pitched vocals sound nasal, so if you thought baby metal was annoying, the Liric will only make it more so.

I also want to say that the right channel's measurement above is more representative of the Liric as a whole since the pinna gain region did not come off as unnatural as the left channel seems to show. But I would refrain from recommending the Liric to those who exclusively listen to podcasts or movies over music, and would take many other sets over the Liric for music monitoring unless you need a closed-back, portable set. As we get to the upper mids again, we see the most polarizing aspect of the Liric's tuning in the form of its smooth, slightly elevated treble response. A train of thought is that both detail and resolution of headphones are often associated with a smooth, voluminous treble response, whereby enough sound output is needed throughout the lower/mid highs for it. In that sense, I see where some have called the Liric highly resolving and others fatiguing. As is usually the case in such matters, I see the real behavior somewhere in between. Indeed, tonally, the SPL response is below the Harman target most of the way here. But it is that dip from 1.5–2 kHz followed by the slightly recessed pinna gain that exaggerates everything forward before things do in fact get peaky. It makes the Liric a potential winner for orchestral music, albeit not as a set you can listen to for long symphonies at a time. I found instrument separation to be very good, and notes decayed quickly to where faster pieces played as well here as in the bass region.


This being a closed-back planar set, I thought of comparing the Meze Liric to a few other such entries normalized at 500 Hz, including the less expensive but directly competing Audeze LCD-XC (2021), even more expensive HIFIMAN HE-R10 Planar Version (review coming soon), and a less-expensive offering from Monoprice whose review may or may not have been published by the time this goes out. Suffice it to say then that the world of closed-back planar headphones is in dire need of more entries, and Meze putting out the Liric was a welcome surprise to many who reside here. The Liric is easily tuned better than the HE-R10P, although it does get bested technically and purely in terms of detail retrieval and contrast, especially in the mids. The Monolith by Monoprice M1070C is interesting since its tonality changes quite a lot based on which of the two stock ear pads are used—the lambskin pads make it far more V-shaped than the more laid back set it becomes with the velour pads. I'd certainly pick the Liric over both of these for multiple reasons, and comfort, portability, and accessories further extend that gap. It is the Audeze LCD-XC (2021) that is the toughest competition here, and my personal preference would be the Audeze not only for the $700 in savings, but the better overall tonality. If you prefer a bassier response, however, the Liric gives it to you out of the box. You are definitely paying for the portability aspect though, but the mass savings, and comfort with the Liric, have to be acknowledged.


In round two, I shied away from normalizing the frequency response since tonalities were so different, and I simply have some other headphones in a similar price class as the Meze Liric here. These include open-back planars, such as the HIFIMAN Arya Stealth Magnets version, Audeze LCD-X (2021), and HIFIMAN HE-R10 closed-back dynamic version; the latter two have pending reviews as well. This time, it's much harder to do a straight comparison, although the HE-R10 is once again lagging behind massively to where there is no reason whatsoever to get it at all. The HIFIMAN Arya is a neutral-bright set that is similar to the Liric by being too treble-intense for many, but it is also a highly spacious open-back set that would be an excellent partner to the Liric for those who prefer this tuning and wish to have an open and closed set. The LCD-X is way more analytical and deserving of the music monitoring application, which also makes it less fun to most before EQ takes it a few notches up. It's still on the darker side though, so it interestingly is the strongest in the mids, where the Liric falters more.