Meze Audio
Baia Mare, Maramureș, Romania · founded 2011
Design-led boutique known for pairing distinctive wood/aluminum industrial design with modular, user-serviceable construction; its Empyrean and Elite flagships use planar drivers co-developed with Rinaro Isodynamics. A rare high-end audio brand built and hand-assembled in Romania.
Meze Audio is a privately held, high-end audiophile headphone and earphone maker founded in 2011 by industrial designer Antonio Meze in Baia Mare, Romania. It broke through in 2015 with the wood-and-metal 99 Classics (funded via Indiegogo) and established itself in the summit-fi market in 2018 with the Empyrean planar flagship, developed with Ukrainian driver specialist Rinaro Isodynamics. The company remains a family-scale, design-led boutique (roughly 40 employees) that hand-builds and tests its higher-end products at its Baia Mare headquarters. Its brand ethos is captured in the motto “Timeless, original, purposeful.”
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At a glance
- Type
- Manufacturer
- Founder
- Antonio Meze
- Founded
- 2011
- Headquarters
- Baia Mare, Maramureș, Romania
- Price range
- Budget → flagship
- Makes / sells
- over-ear headphones, planar magnetic headphones, dynamic-driver headphones, in-ear monitors (IEMs)
- Known for
- wood and CNC-machined aluminum industrial design, user-serviceable / modular construction, Rinaro Isodynamic Hybrid Array planar drivers, comfort-focused ergonomics, premium finished materials (walnut, leather/vegan alternatives)
- Website
- mezeaudio.com
Notable products
- Empyrean / Empyrean II — Open-back planar flagship (2018; Empyrean II in 2023) using Rinaro Isodynamic Hybrid Array; ~$2,999. The product that established Meze in the summit-fi market.
- Elite — Open-back planar flagship (2021) with Rinaro Parus MZ3SE driver; ~$4,000, the company's top-tier model.
- 109 Pro — Open-back dynamic-driver headphone (2022) at ~$799; a more attainable flagship-adjacent model.
- Poet — Open-back planar headphone (2024) at ~$2,000, using a Rinaro Parus MZ6 driver plus Dan Clark Audio AMTS tuning.
- Liric / Liric II — Closed-back planar portable headphone (2021) at ~$2,000.
- Rai Penta — Five-driver hybrid flagship in-ear monitor; the Rai Solo is a single-driver IEM sibling.
- 99 Classics — Wood-cupped dynamic closed-back headphone (2015, Indiegogo-funded); the model that first built Meze's reputation, ~$309.
- Alba — Entry-level IEM (2024) at ~$159, Meze's most affordable product.
Sources: Meze Audio - Wikipedia · Meze Audio official — About us · Meze Audio Labs SRL company profile (EMIS) · Meze Audio POET review (Headfonics) · Meze 109 Pro review (Audiophile Heaven)