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Best Premium Headphones Award 2025-2026 – EISA
Best Headphones for Audiophiles 2025 - Robb Report
Lightweight Planar Magnetic Design with Award-Winning Hybrid Driver Array
The new POET headphone from Meze Audio caresses your audio palate with lush, airy vocals and precise bass impact for a balanced low-end. Its natural tonality is delicately enhanced by subtle hints of sparkle, adding a lively character. Excellent detail retrieval and separation bring your music to life, making POET a harmonious blend of technical finesse and emotive expression.
At its core, life is a journey of constant transformation. We navigate its peaks and valleys, either looking for purpose or being driven by it. Some events may seem perplexing, noisy. But others possess an unexplainable, ethereal quality that makes you feel complete. Time spent listening to music can be one of these events, so make the most out of each moment with the POET headphone.
"From the very beginning of our POET journey, we knew we wanted to create something unique – a more compact planar-magnetic open-back headphone that is every bit as capable as our flagship models," observes Alex Grigoras, Meze Audio Acoustic Engineer.
"Well then, what better place to look than at the very apex? In collaboration with our friends at RINARO ISODYNAMICS, we synthesized the essence of ELITE’s driver technology and gave it new life. I believe POET turned out to be more than just a headphone; it’s a nod to a huge stepping stone in our development as a team and a testament to how far we’ve come.”
Best Premium Headphones Award
The POET won an award for Best Premium Heaphones 2025-2026 from EISA, the Expert Imaging and Sound Association.
"A premium high-fidelity headphone with objet d’art looks, the finely crafted Meze Audio POET brandishes an open-back design to deliver airy detail and an engaging bass performance."
"Going hand in hand with the POET’s refined, immersive performance is an all-round design packed with attention to detail, from the magnetically attached earpads and lightweight headband to the robust carry case and braided 6.35mm cable. A marriage of sound quality, style and ergonomics, Meze Audio’s POET will delight headphone enthusiasts."
Award-Winning Performance
The POET grabbed the Best Headphones for Audiophiles Award 2025 from the Robb Report.
”At $2,999, the Meze Empyrean II was last year’s choice, and POET brings the same natural, detailed sound a little closer within reach. Voices and instruments are lifelike, bass is subterranean, and highs soar but are never harsh, thanks to planar-magnetic drivers using patented Hybrid-Array technology from Meze engineering-partner, Rinaro Isodynamics. Magnetic ear pads and a lightweight open-back design make these some of the most comfortable headphones around."
"Gorgeous, Comfortable, Easy to Listen to"
"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," reports reviewer Lieven, headfonia.com, February 22, 2025.
"This is a smooth-sounding, relatively balanced sound signature, easy on the ear and relatively easy to drive. It has some nuanced adjustments to the bass response and the highs to give it a more relaxed tuning than the more aggressive Liric II and Empyrean II," observes Marcus, headfonics.com, March 26, 2025.
"The POET also avoids being labeled a ‘lesser Empyrean’ with a stronger treble fill and a slightly flatter bass response. It provides a little more midrange contrast while retaining a good sub-bass response free of excessive upper-bass bloat."
State-Of-the-Art Design in a Compact Frame
POET represents Meze Audio's dedication to crafting and refining headphones to perfection. It features a blend of high-performance materials that elevates both form and function and includes the top-of-the-line diaphragm technology used in Meze Audio's far more expensive ELITE. The result is a compact planar-magnetic open-back headphone that excels on all fronts.
Implementation of the Acoustic Metamaterial Tuning System technology licensed from Dan Clark Audio relies on a precision-crafted metal component that strategically covers select openings in the driver frame. This technology effectively attenuate high-frequency peaks for a less fatiguing listening experience.
Award-Winning Technology
RINARO ISODYNAMICS has been at the forefront of planar magnetic technology for over 30 years, with a state-of-the-art R&D and manufacturing facility in Ukraine.
POET features the RINARO MZ6 Isodynamic® Hybrid Array driver – a synthesis of the MZ4 and the MZ3SE drivers featured in the award-winning Meze Audio LIRIC and ELITE headphones. This new design aims to deliver a compact yet high-performance experience akin to the ELITE series. Each MZ6 driver is meticulously hand-assembled and tested at RINARO’s industrial facility in Ukraine, ensuring exceptional quality and precision.
"A Strikingly Beautiful Type of Sound"
"Overall, the Meze Audio POET offers a strikingly beautiful type of sound that is just so easy to fall in love with. It’s refined and rich, with no compromises on technical aspects. It’s a spiritual heir of the original Empyrean, but better. Again, big words, but I stand by them, notes Pawel Szachno, ear-fidelity.com, March 31, 2025.
Exclusive MZ6 Isodynamic Hybrid Array Driver
Created exclusively for Meze Audio, the MZ6 driver is a celebration of more than eight years of extensive R&D. It is one of the most advanced and lightweight full-size planar magnetic drivers available to date, boasting Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) that measures under 0.05% in the whole frequency range. The upper frequency limit is an incredible 96 kHz for ultra high-resolution audio reproduction.
Symmetrically placed on either side of the diaphragm, powerful neodymium magnets are arranged into a Hybrid Array to create a 0.3 Tesla Isodynamic magnetic field required for a uniform activation across the whole diaphragm surface. The reinforced polymer housing is designed to withstand the demanding 10.7 N load generated by the Hybrid Magnet Array.
Rinaro Parus Diaphragm
This new driver features Rinaro Parus®, an innovative low mass acoustic diaphragm built on an ultra-thin biaxially oriented semi-crystalline polymer film. This, combined with the signature Isodynamic Hybrid Array Driver technology, allows sound waves to be targeted with more accuracy around the shape of the ear, producing natural sound transparency and a wide, articulate soundstage. This results in improved definition and speed over the entire frequency range.
The Parus diaphragm has a remarkably low weight of 0.06 g and an expansive active area of 3507 mm², contributing to the superior detail retrieval and extended frequency response.
"Beautiful, Well-Constructed, Exceptional Sounding"
"The POETs are a beautiful, well-constructed, exceptional sounding piece of audio jewelry. They are without a doubt a very worthy contender in the $2K headphone market," reports longtime reviewer mikaik, head-fi.org, August 27, 2025
"The Meze POET features an intricate, high-quality design that might make you mistake it for a closed-back headphone," observes Delaney Czernikowski in his review for audio46.com, May 27, 2025. "The craftsmanship is exceptional, and the build quality feels premium. Comfort is well-balanced, with an over-ear design that provides a secure fit without excessive clamping force. The adjustability ensures long listening sessions remain fatigue-free."
Dual Coil Arrays
Two different voice coil configurations found in the Isodynamic Hybrid Array create the opportunity to improve the sound intensity distribution at high frequencies when directed at the auricle and ear canal. This solves a common problem with conventional planar magnetic arrays whereby reflected signals enter the ear canal with different time delays, thereby worsening the focus of 3D sound imaging.
The use of dual coil arrays – a switchback coil and a spiral coil –not only creates a balanced frequency response around the whole range, but it also allows for better frequency targeting within different areas of the ear, improving acoustical perception on the upper frequency range.
The switchback coil is more efficient at reproducing lower frequencies and is positioned in the upper part of the driver. The spiral coil is more efficient at reproducing middle-high frequencies and is positioned directly over the ear canal, enabling more direct sound waves to enter the ear without any time delays.
High-Quality Materials, Enveloping Comfort
One of the most sophisticated and advanced planar magnetic technologies in the world has been scaled down for a compact form factor. The super-lightweight 2.5 oz. (73 g) total driver weight creates a headphone that offers comfortable prolonged listening sessions in a compact form factor.
The intricate patterns featured in the steel grille were carefully selected to elevate the fine audio tuning that we were aiming for. Combined with the magnesium chassis, POET is visually striking and highly durable. The soft suede leather headrest and flexible titanium alloy headband promote exceptional ergonomics, distributing weight evenly for a snug fit that envelops you in comfort, making every listening session a delight.
Premium Cable Included
A luxurious pair of high-end open-back headphones is never complete without the right cable. That’s why our premium hand-braided copper cable is included with your POET headphones, featuring a 1/4" (6.3 mm) termination to ensure the widest compatibility with desktop setups.
Magnetic Ear Pads
To make your serviceability and pad-swapping experience as easy and accessible as it can be, Mez has integrated the magnetic ear pad system from its 2nd Generation LIRIC into POET as well.
Designed for Life
Taking long-term sustainability to a new level, ELITE is also fully serviceable. From the replaceable earpads to the high-performance materials used, every part on the headphone chassis is available to be easily disassembled and serviced.
