Introduction

Meze by Antonio Meze might sound like a fashion brand at first glance, and perhaps there is something to that postulation too with how the products from Meze are designed and manufactured, but there is no denying that Meze is an audio brand first and foremost. Indeed, we have already seen two products from this Romanian brand in the form of the Meze 99 Neo and the Meze Liric. Both are closed-back headphones that are on opposite ends of the pricing spectrum in Meze's lineup but share a common design philosophy of making headphones look great with excellent build quality and comfort. I had mentioned in the Liric review how Meze's higher-end headphone offerings tend to use planar magnetic drivers, with the previous open-back flagship Meze Empyrean having debuted the rather unique driver developed in collaboration with with Ukraine-based Rinaro Isodynamics. Today we take a look at Meze's current open-back flagship—the Meze Empyrean ELITE, also simply referred to as Meze ELITE now.


The Meze ELITE launched in September 2021 during an exciting time when we saw a lot of new flagship headphones being released—Audeze had the LCD-5 and CRBN, Dan Clark Audio released the STEALTH (review coming soon), HIFIMAN was cooking up quite a few updates across its lineup and Focal was also working on the new Utopia as we found out later. Meze wasn't standing still, having seen a mixed response to the sound signature of the Empyrean, and the new ELITE was aimed to be, well, an elite version of the Empyrean. It's now mid-2023 and the Meze ELITE has had a few limited edition releases, a new permanent colorway pictured above, and new accessories from the time of launch. Meze's UK distributor, SCV Distribution, was kind enough to loan a demo unit of the ELITE for review, although it is an older version so I will talk about the various updates over the course of this review. The review sample should be still applicable for the ELITE when it comes to how it sounds out of the box, and so we can begin our coverage with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

This demo unit of the Meze ELITE is a few months old at least, and predates the launch of the newer ELITE Tungsten that brought with it a new carry case for either color version of the headphones. It's no surprise then that I have the older "Silver ELITE suitcase" here which sells for $299 by itself. This would have come inside a partially open white cardboard box that had the same markings on the front as on the aluminium case itself, with the company logo and product name etched as seen above. It's fairly large at 47 x 39 x 17 cm and the native silver finish matches the silver of the original ELITE headphones too. There is a nice carry handle and locking latches for added functionality, with rubber feet on multiple sides so the case does not get scratched in vertical or horizontal orientations. Opening the case we see customized foam inserts to fully cover and protect the contents on their way to you.


The new suitcase that is used for all current orders of the Meze ELITE is much smaller at 35 x 32 x 15 cm and costs slightly less when purchased separately. It's easier to transport and store thus but note that it is made of ABS plastic with a leather handle, so perhaps it's not as sturdy. I have not seen or used this case so I can't say much more about it.


The older unboxing experience provides paperwork in the form of a user manual and a note confirming this is an original Meze product. We also get a set of replacement ear pads made of Alcantara. This is another change in the current iteration in that Meze now includes angled Alcantara pads that are contoured for a better fit compared to these straight, uniformly thick Alcantara pads with medium density foam filling.