Head Fi

Antonio Meze, lead designer and founder of Meze, says "Rai Penta is the culmination of 3 years of researching the most ergonomic shape and most vivid sound for a Universal In Ear Monitor. We could have released it earlier, but again, like with with all our products, we wanted to make sure it is truly the best we can achieve"

Needless to say, these aren't your average In Ear Monitors. They are hewn for aluminium and presicely engineered so that the air flow in their small casing is optimally controlled for each of their 5 drivers. This means that your listening experience is more controlled and musical than others on the market devoid of distortion created when cheaper plastic molded chanels are delivering the sound to your ears.  

There's also an outlet to the outside to stop build up of pressure within your inner ear making for a more comfortable listen.

The shape of the whole unit has been designed for comfort to make sure it fits snuggly and works anatomically as well as sonically.

They also come with a huge array of different sized and shaped ear bud tips so you can find the perfect fit for your ears.

A Solid State Headphone amplifier designed to perfectly match the Stax Earphones.

Now on demonstration at Carlton Audio Visual

Stax Headphones, the iconic Electrostatic headphone manufacturer, has come out with a new version of their SR-L700s...otherwise known as 'the Cyberman' headphone here at Carlton Audio...

These Headphones, or Earphones as Stax calls them, create vibrations and sound through a thin metallic membrane which accepts a dose of quite high voltage in order that it vibrates at frequencies corresponding to the music. 

This technology produces impeccable imaging and a fastness and clarity to the music.

A true Audiophile classic with a cult like following...'Man will be reborn as Cyberman'...after listening to Stax...

I gather that there are $320m of headphones sold in Australia last year ... some of thoose people need to try their aural pride and joys with this headphone amplifier to hear what they can really sound like like when properly powered and signalled.

This is the real deal Headphone amplifier. And our loss is your gain as we're selling our unit off Ex-display, in Black.

Perfect condition, as new and comes with Box and all accessories.

A Tube Driver designed to perfectly complement Stax Earphones. 

An upgrade from the SRM 006tS, it now offers increarsed efficiency equating to better sound quality.

A beautiful Ebony Makassar wood finish a new warmer sound profile make these a distinct upgrade from the original Lirics. Still lively but with an even larger Sound stage.

I was even impressed by the beautiful box these come in. It looks like a picture of a rural scene in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania printed on the box.

Meze have continued to make waves in the Head-Fi world proving they're not just a short lived start-up, they're here for the long haul. Run by a small group of young(ish) Romanians who are passionate about keeping industry and manufacturing, as well as their families, in their native Romania. Their drivers come from just accross the border in the Ukraine. The Rinaro drivers have been the perfect match for Meze delivering the lithe, rich sound that they're renowned for.

The Liric IIs are on demo now at Carlton Audio Visual.

The LCD-24 was a special creation from the designers at Audeze and a 'pet project' of the Chief Technology Officer. These headphones use their ultra light, ultra definition Fluxor planar magnetic drivers with Nano scale diaphragms. 

In their words, 'the result is a robust and refined sound featuring the vibrant midrange, powerful bass, and treble extension iconic to Audeze's Flagship headphones'.

We're selling our Ex-Demo set that has had limited use and is in perfect condition. Come and test them for yourself!

PRICE DROP

Making way for the new Empyrean II. Our last pair of Empyrean's, Ex Demo, Black/Copper in perfect condition. Complete with hard case and 2.5m OFC cable, ending with 6.3 jack. Get them while they're still here! 

A ultra classy refined set of Headphones. It's hard to find anything bad to say about these. Except that there's now a new and improved better version with the Emprean Elite. But we were scratching our heads wondering what they could possibly do to make these any better.

The sound is detailed and precise but will let loose with kick and punch if you give them half a chance. The Soundstage is truly enormous and the quality of the finish is impeccable. 

The people who make these are Romanians and the engineers that have developed their special Isodynamic Hybrid Array Driver are Polish. Two former eastern block countries who are now part of the EU and obviously have oodles of talent to produce some of the best Headphones in the world. 

The Isodynamic driver is a variation of a Planar Magnetic driver done with a dual shaped voice coil array that makes them super light weight and super responsive. And you can definitely hear that responsiveness of the Empyreans over other Planar Magnetic designs.

The lightness in the driver makes them incredibly comfortable to wear for long periods of time as well.

Read an extensive review of the Meze Empyreans here

Meze Headphones continue to reach new heights. They're not content with their already exceptional Empyrean Headphones they've managed to take them to the next level. These are a group of people who are passionate and dedicated to creating the best Headphone experience they can.

They work closely with Ukrainian company Rinaro (now with an extra manufacturing facility in Poland!) who make their planar magnetic drivers. Rinaro has been very clever inching out all of the efficiency in the drivers by combining a switchback and a spiral design into the one driver to maximise performance.

Other beautiful details over the Empyrean Is are the options in Ear pads. Depending on your listening preferences, you can switch out the ears pads betweeen an angled and a 'duo' version. The angled version will give you an airier, more transparent signature.

We have been playing around with these Headphones now for a couple of weeks and find their detail and efficiency absolutely breathtaking. If you're after something that has that detail and has a bit more warmth, the step up to the Elite version ($7000) is still recommended.

To note: These only come in the one colour, black, at least for the moment.

We already love the Naim Uniti Atom as a 2 chanel stereo amplifier come streamer so it's no surprise that a headphone version of that is going to be very popular and attract some rave reviews. An attactive all-in-one box capable of impressing serious Head-Fi enthusiasts. 

This unit will happily do the heavy lifting on some of the harder to drive highend Headphones to make them come alive like never before. And there's no need to start a whole new HiFi rack to accomodate a headphone amp, source and cables. One box to sit on a desk, perhaps, and you're good to go.

Naim products bought from us, a genuine approved Naim dealer, include the full 2 year warranty.

Read What HiFi's impressive review on this unit here

And Headfonia's review here

Every now and then one of our manufacturers comes out with a product that gives me hope that innovation has not died and been forsaken in the cause of conformity and conservatism.

On the 5000 series Yamaha designers were let off the lead with no constraints, so it is no surprise that the headphone amplifier built to match the remarkable YH5000 head fi is a fantastic no compromise design.

I absolutely love the way it has two toroidal power supplies protruding gasometer style from the casing. One power supply for digital and one for analogue circuitry. I love the double rectangle footprint and the anti-vibration construction ... it feels like it has miniature Ohlins suspension for its five feet.

It is my great hope that Yamaha will bring out a range of high fidelity components built along similar principles.

 Link to Carlton Audio Visual YH5000 page 

Now available in the darker, matt Tungsten finish as well as the classic Aluminium.

This Elite model from Meze is an improvement on their already spectacular Empyrean Headphones. A new driver design creates a bigger soundstage and more detail.

The Meze Empyreans have been extraordinarily popular and from all accounts these lack nothing that the Empyreans have in terms of sound and general performance. Just improving on what was already a sensational base. 

Meze has collaborated with Ukraine’s Rinaro Isodynamics who designed the MZ3 isodynamic driver found in the Empyrean. After three years of research and development, Rinaro makes the updated MZ3SE drivers used in the Elite. This brings their new “Parus” low mass acoustic diaphragm built using a proprietary “ultra-thin biaxially oriented semi-crystalline polymer film”, and arranged in a rather unique and complex way for maximum sonic results. 

Read more about the Empyrean Elite here at Meze's own official site

 Darko Audio on the Meze Elite headphones 

We now have these on regular demo. These headphones are hand manufactured in Yamaha’s Kakegawa factory in Japan.

The product feel is just exceptional, they appear aesthetically to be fragile and delicate but when you pick them up the first tactile impression is how incredibly light they are and the second is just how incredibly strong they are. 

If you know your Tolkein then I would say that these have been crafted in Mithril by some Elven agency of artisanship.

Yamaha have returned to planar magnetic headphone design with the YH-5000SE and listening makes a stunning first impression. They havnt bothered to compromise with sweetness and light but have gone for a maximum injection of music approach. 

These are like having a pair of NS1000 loudspeakers strapped to your ears. We got to try the first pair in Australia and at first I thought they were a bit affronting and perhaps too actinic for the tempered head fi market here..

The problem is that I missed them almost immediately. I want to hear all the music. I want to know the mood of the singer and what the guitarist did the night before. These headphones can do that for me.

Yamaha YH5000SE official site

"What Hi Fi" on 50 years to design the Yamaha YH5000SE

"Sound Advice" on the Yamaha YH5000SE

"Major Hi-Fi" on the Yamaha YH5000SE

"Headphone Dungeon" on the Yamaha YH5000SE

"Head-Fi.org" on the Yamaha YH5000SE