In the world of high fidelity, there are headphones that fulfill its function, and then there are those that convert listening to a ritual. The Meze Poet, created by the Meze Audio firm, belong undoubtedly to the second category, along with some editions of Technica Audio. They are not simple electronic devices: They are art pieces that combine crafts, advanced engineering and an obsessive search for the purity of sound.
Meze Audio was born in Romania with a clear idea: to manufacture headphones that not only sounded well, but also transmitted beauty and durability. The Poet follow that philosophy to the letter. Each unit is assembled with carefully selected materials: A magnesium chassis that ensures lightness and rigidity, steel grilles with copper details, and a design that seems taken from a goldsmith workshop. And yet, everything has a purpose, no accessory is banal.
One of its great successes is in the braided cables of high quality copper, handmade. It is not an aesthetic whim: Oxygen -free copper (PCUHD) reduces impurities that can generate noise or distortionensuring that the signal comes clean and loss. As a practical touch, magnetic pads are easily placed and removed, which allows them to keep them impeccable over time.
Despite its price (€ 2000) or precisely for that reason, everything in the poet is designed to last: from the ergonomic, coated with leather or suede, to the possibility of dismantling each component and buying a new one. It is no accident that Ize speaks “Structural sustainability”: In a market where many products are born with expiration datethese headphones pursue the decade of life. Or more.
But Beauty would be irrelevant, without a heart and a brain at the height. Poet use hybrid isodynamic drivers, developed in collaboration with Rinoo Isodynamics.
And here comes the question: What are the hybrid isodynamic drivers? We go in parts. A driver is the “engine” of the headset: the piece that converts the electrical signal into sound. The usual thing in headphones is to find three technologies: the dynamics (a diaphragm moved by a coil and a magnet), the electrostatic (very precise, with ultrafine diaphragms between loaded plates) and those that have magnetic planar technology: a flat diaphragm with a printed coil and a magnetic field that moves it uniformly.
Hybrid isodynamics are the evolution of magnetic planar and are called hybrids because they combine the isodynamic magnetic field (the entire diaphragm vibrates with the same force reducing distortion) and the hybrid diaphragm. In the poet, the membrane has specialized areas: one designed to handle the bass, another for the acute and both integrated into a single ultrafine diaphragm. Thanks to this, a single diaphragm covers the entire range, but optimized for each frequency.
Why are they better? The distortion is extremely low (less than 0.05 %), the answer is faster, controlled bass and each instrument can be better distinguished Because the diaphragm movement is more precise. A metaphor? If you want to paint a wall you need brushes for details, for wide areas and for areas between them. Poet drivers fulfill the three functions without seeing any transition between them.
The frequency range is another blow of effect: it goes from 4 Hz to 96 kHz, well above what the human ear can capture. Why does it matter then if we can’t hear them? Because This amplitude allows to reproduce harmonics and transitory with a unique fidelity, which gives rise to a more natural soundcloser to what happened in the recording room.
The Meze Poet are open headphones, designed to enjoy a quiet environment. They do not isolate from outside noise, and do not try. The most striking, beyond the technical specification, is the coherence of the project: each piece, each screw and each finish responds to the same philosophy. There are no free ornaments. Metal finishes and copper details are not only beautiful, they also fulfill acoustic functions. Modularity is not only practical, it is a statement against obsolescence. And the test of A new trend between some manufacturers: return to the artisanal with current technology,