Meze ARTA Headphones

Damn it - the Meze ARTA headphones make you reconsider the phrase “high-end”. Physically, they are amazing in hand, with the chromed metalwork looking like molten liquid silk that’s been lovingly moulded, then frozen in space. The way light sparkles off them makes you want to pick them up and caress them. Then you put them on and they are effortlessly comfortable in a way that most headphones don’t even aim for let alone achieve. The headband takes all the weight and leaves the feather soft earpads to caress your ears with no sense of pressure at all. And all of this is achieved with a level of construction quality that feels bulletproof, yet in an elegant way that is quite refreshing.

Of course, all of this is just the entre to the main course – the listening. Most headphones have a closed in sound that’s in your head. The ARTA’s don’t. They make acoustic music, especially, sound like you’re in a cathedral listening to live performers with no speakers involved at all. The sense of space around, well, everything is spell binding and addictive. It takes a while of marvelling at how every instrument has its own place around you before you start thinking about how those instruments actually sound. Well, I can tell you now, the ARTA’s are endlessly expressive, dynamically exuberant, timbrally lush, attention demanding and emotionally draining, just like real music. Voices come through with a realness that is spooky, like they’re singing just for you, and you can reach out and touch them, if they’d let you. Saxophones sizzle and squeal just like in real life, rhythmic double bass makes you want to wriggle your whole body and drums attack and rumble, as if there’s a subwoofer involved and yet you’re just listening to headphones, now that’s a neat trick.

Above all, there is a sense of occasion about the ARTA headphones that is undeniable. In the end the cost is trivial when you consider the price of loudspeakers that can provide you with anywhere near this level of listening pleasure. The ARTA’s are aspirational and inspirational. If you can, don’t hesitate, just buy them.

If you’d like to hear what all the fuss is about, we have the Meze ARTA on demonstration in-store at Carlton Audio Visual. Bring your favourite music and prepare to be mildly difficult to impress afterwards.