Meze Audio POET Review

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The Meze Audio POET is a very lively and energetic, compact sounding headphone with a musical and exciting presentation. It’s more about musical enjoyment, impact and easygoingness than it is about technicalities, extension and the ultimate detail. If that’s what you want, look at the Empyrean and ELITE offerings.

I wouldn’t call the POET a warm sounding headphone, but compared to say the HE-1000 Unveiled, it definitely is on the warmer side of neutral. It also strongly depends on the setup used and the warmth that brings to the party, as the POET will also show exactly that with its transparency. The POET isn’t the fastest sounding headphone and the PRaT here isn’t what will impress you, but it isn’t bad either.

The POET’s clarity and cleanness levels are lower than that of its higher-end siblings, as well as compared to the competition at this price point (see later). That said, I don’t think it ever was Meze’s intention of delivering that in this creation. Here it is more about the musical enjoyment and having an ear pleasing, smiling experience when listening to all of your favorite tracks on shuffle. Personally I do find it performs better for certain types of music where fulness, bass presence and energy are more important.

Sound – Sources / Amplification

For this section I have chosen the following gear: the Feliks Audio Envy, the Ferrum OOR/Hypsos and the Niimbus US4+. The portable gear selected is the Chord Mojo 2 and the Astell&Kern SP3000T. The POET with an impedance 55Ohm and a sensitivity of 101dB is not the hardest to drive on paper, and we saw the exact same in our testing. That said, the POET still scales up a little with higher-end gear, but not that much.

First up is the ENVY, and here we get excellent vocals, separation and a delightful stereo imaging. The combo sounds full, weighty and natural. The presentation is soft and musical, with tight bass, smooth mid-timbre and a contrasty top-end. Never does the POET sound sharp or unrealistic. It’s a precise and refined combo with tube softness and warmth in the delivery. As both the Envy and POET are fuller sounding units, it’s quite evident you will not get a light and very neutral sounding combo here. Bass is tight, controlled and punchy. Bass reaches down low and there is some sub rumble but it is not the deepest or most impressive. The bass fulness connects perfectly to the mids here, and the mid timbre is just nice. Overall the layering could be better. The combo is very easy on the ear, very musical and engaging. A joy to the ear even if not the ultimate in refinement and most revealing.

With the Ferrum OOR, the POET sounds a bit cleaner, more neutral and lighter from top to bottom. This also makes the top-end stand out more here. As a result the combo is more neutral sounding and less impressive in the bass and sub-bass department. You still get a natural presentation with excellent vocals, but it’s a bit less dynamic sounding than with the ENVY. Layering here is more present and I feel the quality of the depth is better, it’s just less audible because of the lighter body. I have to say I prefer the top end here, at it is more energetic and lively, but I also miss the tube smoothness and mid-weight. It’s still a good combo and those who prefer a lighter and more neutral presentation will for sure prefer this over the warmer Envy presentation.

With the Niimbus US4+ and POET combo, you get the weight, body and warmth of the ENVY combo together with the clarity and cleanness of the OOR. It’s a great mix of tube texture and solid state performance and it’s the ideal sounding combo if either full solid state or full tube are too much for your taste. That said, I quite like the extremes of the ENVY and OOR with the POET and I find it to sound more engaging and dynamic in those cases. The Synergy with the US4+ is good, but it’s safe and not the most exciting to my ears.

From the SP3000T DAP, the POET sounds just like it’s connected to a desktop amp, even if the volume has to go up to get to the same listening level. With the SP3000T you have the advantage that you can listen to solid state, tube and hybrid mode and that is a certain win in this case. You can either get the more solid state tuning or the full tube one, though I myself find the latter to be too present in this combo (+ warmth, + body, – speed, – precision). For me it is either the hybrid or ss modes that work best, and especially the former. You get good weight in bass and mids, without going overboard on it and while retaining the lively, precise and dynamic character of the solid state amplification. The tubes bring you the warmth and smoothness, while the ss brings the refinement, speed and clarity. I could use this setup all day long. Isn’t musical bliss without missing any detail and precision the ultimate goal? Fully recommended.

Last but not least we have the Chord Electronics Mojo 2. With this mega popular unit the POET you as expected get a very solid state kind of sound, with a more digital than analogue presentation. Speed, clarity, cleanness and precision and at a high level here. The presentation is more neutral with lighter body in bass and mids. Bass isn’t as boomy or deep but it is refined. The vocals stand out here because of the lighter mids. The top end isn’t as lively as I expected and it’s actually quite nice and energetic to listen to. It’s a good sounding combo, especially if you like more neutrality, balance and linearity but to me this combo lacks emotion and a bit of musicality.

If there is a specific combo you want me to try, do let me know in the comments section below. As a conclusion for this chapter I will say that the POET doesn’t need a lot of amplification, but the choice of amplification will definitely be important to define how you want your POET to sound. So in that regards the POET is quite easy to drive, but it’s also transparent and it will show you what your setup brings to the table.

Sound – Comparison

The selection I made here is the following: the Empyrean 2, the Hifiman HE-1000 Unveiled and the new Abyss JOAL. I never compare open-back headphones to closed ones, so I am not including the Liric in this comparison. The amplifier used for this comparison is the SAEQ PDA-1b (in fully balanced mode).

The Abyss JOAL is brand new and is just a little more expensive. These are very different headphones from a design point of view and they look and feel very different. They are both comfy but the Meze’s pads and headband just do a better job in weight and side pressure distribution. From a sound perspective I actually find these similarly tuned with a fuller presentation, bigger bass and a focus on mid bass and mids. The POET is the biggest/fullest one though, and the JOAL is the cleanest. The Meze’s bass is tighter and fuller, it has more impact but less precision. The mids of the JOAL are more spacious and I do find the JOAL to be the widest and deepest, layered sounding of both. The JOAL is the most revealing and technically strongest. The POET’s vocals are more forward and have more presence. The top end in the JOAL is more lively and energetic than the calmer tuned Meze. The latter is the easier one to listen to, but it also has a safer tuning. The JOAL is more natural, has better 3-dimensionality while the POET is more in your face.

The Hifiman HE1000 Unveiled is a very different looking headphone, and it is not as compact even if they are more or less the same size (the ear cups on the Unveiled are much larger). I have to say both of them are comfortable, just in a different way. The pads also feel very different and they are larger, your ears don’t touch the pads. The HE-1000 Unveiled is more neutrally tuned and by far the widest and most spacious, airy sounding. The HE-1000 is very balanced compared to the POET, and it is cleaner, more precise, faster. The Meze has a weighty and full presence while the Hifiman is more neutral in this regard. From a technical point of view, the Hifiman to me wins it by a few miles. It’s more quality and refinement vs fulness and enjoyment here and these headphones will appeal to very different listeners. That also makes them complementary in any collection. But yeah, completely different tuning here with a different purpose. From an amplification aspect, the Hifiman is more difficult. Depending on your preference, the choice between these is super easy. A reference tuning/level vs an easier to listen to, engaging, do-it-all enjoyment.

Looking at both the HE-1000U and JOAL which are in the same price range (more or less), we do have to conclude that the POET’s colleagues are performing at a higher technical level. And that also brings us to the Empyrean.

We keep hearing and reading that the POET is more like the original Empyrean’s lush tuning (velour). As that one no longer is sold, it would make sense as the Empyrean 2 is differently tuned. Talking about the latter, its technical level is a lot better than the POET’s. Its’s not only more revealing and extended, but it shows better decay of both tones and notes. The sound stage in the Empyrean is also wider as well as deeper. It is presented in a more airy way with better layering. The Empyrean is the cleanest and clearest sounding of both headphones. Bass in the Empyrean II goes deeper and it has more sub rumble. In the Empyrean the bass is bigger than the mids and that is more balanced in the POET. The higher-end Empyrean has the typical spacious and airy, 3-dimensional sound of the flagship headphones where the music is all around you. With the POET is more flat, closer and between your ears. If you can spend the extra cash and already have better amplification at home, the choice for me is easy. So is the POET closer to the OG Empyrean with velour pads? Maybe, but they’re still quite different. The latest version of the Empyrean still is my favorite one, and it is also a sure value on our Recommended Buy List.

Conclusion

The team from Meze Audio has once again succeeded in making a gorgeous, comfortable and easy to listen to headphone. The POET isn’t the smallest headphone for on the go, but if you want to take an open-back headphone with you, this one will do just fine as it is quite easy to drive.

The POET tuning wise is very enjoyable, and it focuses on dynamics, engagement and pure musicality. The POET can’t be called the most technically performing headphone in Meze’s lineup, but the quality is good enough. If its technical performance would have been higher, it would have been a Recommended Buy Winner, but for now that honor only goes to the 105 AER, the Empyrean II and the ELITE.

Summary

Pros:

• Design
• Comfort
• Drivability (easier for travelling0
• Musical & Dynamic tuning
• Easy to listen to (lovely stereo image)

Cons:

• Intimate presentation
• Limited technical level

Specifications