Fit and Comfort

Seen above is the Meze ELITE 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 available height adjustability of the headband and the swivel/rotation of the ear cups themselves. This section is mostly a summary of the points expanded upon in more detail on the previous page and I should say right away that the Meze ELITE is the most comfortable set of headphones I have ever worn. Indeed, if you were to merely look at the specs and notice the 420 g mass, it would be easy to assume this is a heavy set that can be physically fatiguing over time. The thing that those specs don't tell you is that Meze's fantastic suspension headband system distributes the weight not only over the top of your head on a wide area but also along the sides to a decent extent. It results in these headphones becoming one with your head, if I say so myself. Add to this the average clamp force as well as the excellent sizing and ear cup swivel/rotation options and now you understand why I have been so happy just having these over my head as a welcome change from the extremely clampy and heavy AceZone A-Rise I was testing around the same time. The ear pads have an oval opening with plenty of room for even those blessed with larger ears. I don't have the newer angled Alcantara pads but I expect those would contour around the ears for a more secure seal even better than the pads on this sample too! Note that the Alcantara pads are thicker and will make the ELITEs jut out further compared to the hybrid pads. Lastly, keep in mind that these are open-back headphones and the ambient environment can affect your listening experience.

Audio Performance

Audio Hardware

Please read the relevant section on this page for a brief introduction on how planar magnetic drivers work if you are unfamiliar with them. Now we can get into the novel Rinaro Isodynamic hybrid array driver design that was used on the Meze Empyrean before being further tweaked for the ELITE. This current iteration is called the MZ3SE driver and involves a fiberglass-reinforced polymer casing with two sets of neodymium magnets on either side of a 102 x 73 mm (7446 mm²) diaphragm, with an impressive active area of 4650 mm² (62.5%) moving back and forth inside a 0.35 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 110 mg in a 75 g total driver mass—that's 150 g in drivers itself out of a total of 420 g for the headphones! The diaphragm is custom-developed by Rinaro for Meze Audio and uses an ultra-thin biaxially oriented semi-crystalline polymer film with the goals of "remarkable strength, stiffness, and stability, combined with an extremely low acoustic mass." Then we get to the dual voice coil arrays which includes 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 net result is a set of headphones with a rated impedance of 32 Ω, which is about average for planar magnetic headphones, and an equally easy-going sensitivity of 101 dB/mW, making the Meze ELITE 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. I generally paired it with solid state amplifiers and a good delta-sigma DAC at home.

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 FiiO K9 Pro—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 Harman 2018 over-ear target in particular is a reference curve many headphone makers aim for now, but I find it too bass-boosted—especially for open-back headphones. 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. Before we get talking about the sound signature of the Meze ELITE, I want to first talk about the channel balance achieved here. You will notice how the left and right channels are extremely close to each other all the way from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, which is the region of interest for human hearing. I did not pick up any channel balance when I first listened to the set before measurements were taken and I still don't perceive anything after seeing the measurements here, which isn't surprising given the slight discrepancies seen in the higher frequencies here are likely measurement artifacts as a result of being well beyond the coupler resonance point. Keep in mind also that this is a randomly chosen retail unit from the UK distributor that was designated to be a review loaner and that the ears pads on this unit were new so as to not be a factor either. I will also mention that using the headphones for ~50 hours didn't change anything either for those who would undoubtedly be curious about burn-in.


The green line seen here is the average frequency response for both channels of the Meze ELITE with the older Alcantara pads and is only here for those who are using these pads or bought the ELITE before the updates done recently. The current retail version ships with the hybrid pads, represented here in blue, as well as angled Alcantara pads that I have not used and thus can't speak for. As such, I'll only say that the Alcantara pads are more comfortable on the ears—especially for longer periods of use where the hybrid pads with the leather contact surface can run warm—and the newer versions should be similar in this regard. The hybrid pads are otherwise what I will focus on here and we see right away that the Meze ELITE goes for a warm and relaxed sound signature. This tonality is one that might feel wrong to some when looking at the graph, and indeed I will confirm that the ELITE sounds exactly like it measures, but yet it's won over many people because of this fairly unique tonality that is well executed and makes sense for some music genres.

The dip in the sub-bass is not much but can be felt in tracks focusing on the lower frequencies, so if you are an EDM aficionado then you may want to consider EQ here as the ELITE is quite receptive to it. The focus ends up on the mid bass that is quite pronounced by comparison to please rock and metal music fans, with bass guitars naturally represented and drums having a satisfying thump. I also noted right away that the ELITE isn't as resolving as many other flagship sets I have tested so far, although admittedly that isn't a detriment for someone looking for a comfortable, enjoyable, relaxing listening experience as opposed to someone wanting to pick out every single detail for a different use case. The elevated region from ~400 Hz going down means there is some bass bleed into the lower mids, which in turn caused some male vocals to feel recessed/hazy to me. This is also why I can see people using EQ again to tone down the 200-400 Hz region perhaps. Doing so can also provide for better instrument separation and clarity, especially for saxophones and piano keys that can otherwise be drowned out by drums and guitars.

Imaging with the stock tonality is conditional thus as it favors some instrument classes over others, but excels with EQ to where I do feel convinced it can improve the technical performance of the headphones, or at least shine a brighter light on its potential, even if it means losing out on the ELITE being different from the norm. As such, my recommendation would be to spend 10-15 hours with your library and noting what you like and dislike before making any changes. This can be especially valid with the upper mids wherein that relaxed presentation makes a strong case for itself combined with a fairly natural soundstage—nothing too wide, nothing cramped either. Female vocals sound like you are in a cozy club with the singer not too far away from you. The same could be said about the higher frequencies too wherein Meze has done a great job balancing between a dark sound and a non-fatiguing one. In fact, I found myself not changing things too much here since, with the EQ changes done in the lower frequencies, it was fairly well balanced enough for my jazz and classical music collection. A brighter treble response would not necessarily give you more detail here and the air in the higher frequencies go a good way to have harps, triangles, and cymbals resonate in an ethereal manner.


I feel like those looking at the Meze ELITE are unlikely to consider a brighter sounding e-stat/planar set so I decide to talk more about warm/neutral flagships instead in this section. These include the new Focal dynamic driver flagship Utopia—the newer 2022 release—that is the closest of the four to the ELITE when it comes to a warm/relaxed sound. The Utopia uses its speaker-design pure Be drivers to good effect and provides an extremely punchy and dynamic sound for bass lovers without compromising on detail. It's not as comfortable as the ELITE—nothing really is—and I'd give the edge to Meze for the treble reproduction too, although I can really see the Utopia being complimentary to the ELITE if you do EQ the latter in the lower frequencies. The Audeze LCD-5 is one of the headphones I was referring to above in terms of being highly analytical and extremely resolving, almost to the point of being overwhelming with the amount of information thrown at you. It's tuned more neutral than the LCD-4 that is arguably a more direct competitor to the ELITE, although the narrower soundstage, less-than-universally-appealing comfort/design, and the potentially shouty upper mids leading to recessed treble reproduction makes this feel even more a contender for EQ and music monitoring rather than a set to simply put on and relax after a long day. The real challenge, at least in my opinion, comes from the HIFIMAN Susvara that has been around for 6+ years now and still one of the top choices for an end game set today. It may have a higher MSRP but sells closer to the ELITE once you actually talk to dealers. 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. I'd personally go with the Susvara if you have a decent amplifier for it though, although I do see why some prefer the ELITE.