Meze Audio Strada review: refreshingly closed-back over-ears that offer a beautifully wide soundstage — but are quite wide literally | Tech Radar

Overview

News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest smartphones

News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets

Details

Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more

Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards.

Meze Audio's new closed-back headphones are gloriously green and expansive, but the soundstage isn't the only thing about them that's wide

Elements from pricier models, elements from similarly priced models, but definitely no Frankenstein’s monster-style outcome…

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

A closed-back pair of headphones that sound admirably un-closed, the Meze Audio Strada have an awful lot that will appeal to the well-off and larger-headed listener.

+Sound more spacious and airy than most closed-back designs

Sound more spacious and airy than most closed-back designs

The best wired headphones, all tested by Tech Radar's audio experts

The best headphones you can buy today, all tested by our experts

The best over-ear headphones for any budget, all tested by our experts

We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you're buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Visually, the Meze Audio Strada are more than a little reminiscent of the company’s much more expensive Liric II planar magnetic over-ear headphones. In terms of the most important technical aspects, they share quite a bit with the brand’s 109 Pro open-back model. But despite all this apparent cross-pollination, the closed-back, dynamic driver-toting Strada manage to be a distinct and individual proposition. And not only because they’re only available in a combination of ebony hardwood and a delightfully deep, slightly metallic green.

The materials that have been deployed — magnesium, PU leather and memory foam as well as that good-looking quantity of Macassar wood — feel luxurious and utterly fit for purpose. The standard of build and finish cannot be argued with. It’s even possible to overlook the rather unsophisticated ‘adjustment rod’ mechanism that alters the fit — although it is not possible to overlook the fact that even at their smallest adjustment these are quite large headphones. The smaller-headed music-lover can probably stop reading now.

Those listeners who aren’t physically swamped by the Strada, though, are in for a treat — a spacious, detailed and deliciously informative treat that only the best wired headphones can deliver. By the standards of the closed-back configuration these headphones sound large and airy, and create a well-defined and expansive soundstage. The have plenty of dynamic headroom, great neutrality where both tonality and frequency response are concerned, a proper facility with rhythmic expression thanks to excellent control over the deep and textured low frequencies they generate, and an overall sense of refinement and sophistication that is bound to satisfy a whole lot of customers.

In fact, if they didn’t play the ‘refinement’ card quite so strongly, even when dealing with the most unrefined music, they could conceivably snatch that extra half-a-star.

The Meze Audio Strada (stylised to 'STRADA' in the company's marketing materials) are on sale now, and in the United States they sell for

There are very few pairs of passive headphones that have a long list of features, and the Meze Audio Strada are not among them. The one significant feature they do have, though, has quite obviously come in for an awful lot of attention.

The 50mm dynamic drivers Meze Audio has used here are derived from the drivers fitted to the company’s open-back 109 PRO model — but naturally it’s been finessed in order to suit its new closed-back environment.

So each driver features a ‘W’-shaped dome made from carbon fibre-reinforced cellulose composite — it’s a combination that offers light weight and durability, and is designed to reject most of the resonances that can cause audible distortion. The torus surrounding the dome is made of semicrystalline polymer that’s been beryllium-coated; the coating adds to the durability of the component, and because it adds stiffness without any knock-on effects where weight is concerned it doesn’t hamper transient response. The torus also features some grooves positioned at carefully calculated angles to further boost its effectiveness. And there’s a copper-zinc alloy stabiliser surrounding the membrane that absorbs unwanted vibrations and reduces distortion yet further.

This painstaking arrangement results in a frequency response, says Meze Audio, of 5 Hz - 30k Hz, which in real terms means ‘staggeringly deep’ to ‘inaudibly high’. The 4ohms impedance measurement is nothing to be alarmed by, but a sensitivity rating of 111d B (SPL/m W @ 1k Hz) seems to suggest a fairly powerful DAC or digital audio player will be required to get the best out of these headphones.

Seem comfortable with pretty much any style of music

Could conceivably sound a little more demonstrative

If you’ve read the words ‘closed-back’ during the course of this review and have assumed the Strada are going to sound intimate, direct and quite, well, closed then I can’t really blame you — that’s how the vast majority of closed-back headphones sound, after all. But what’s most immediately striking about these Meze Audio is how open and spacious their presentation is. They can do ‘direct’ and ‘conspiratorial’, sure — a listen to a nice big FLAC file of Elliott Smith’s Between the Bars lets you know they can communicate on a very one-to-one basis. But switch up to Shabaka’s Ol’ Time African Gods as a 24bit/48k Hz file and it quickly becomes apparent the Strada create a big, well-organised and airy soundstage on which pretty much any recording gets the space to stretch out and express itself.

Tonally, the Meze Audio are almost entirely neutral from the top of the frequency range to the bottom. There’s the tiniest suggestion of heat at the lowest frequencies, but it’s not even close to making you want to take your pullover off. And the frequency response they muster is similarly even-handed — though they dig very deep into the lowest frequencies, and have great shine and a polite amount of shine at the opposite end, they neither under- nor overstate any particular area of the range. And in between those two extremes, they communicate in the most unequivocal manner — listen again to that Elliott Smith tune and the eloquence of his voice in unarguable.

These headphones seem able to turn their hand to pretty much any type of music, too. They have the sort of dynamic reach to put huge distance between the quietest and the most intense passage of Bernstein’s rampage through Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, they are deft enough to tease out the harmonic over- and undertones that exist within the squeal and grind of The Stooges’ I Wanna Be Your Dog, they have the power and the facility with rhythmic expression to make the heavily sedated skank of Dr Alimantado’s Best Dressed Chicken in Town roll by in the most natural and convincing manner.

Really, about the only meaningful criticism I can level at the Strada is not so much about the nuts and bolts of music reproduction but more about attitude. There’s a slightly self-conscious sense of refinement to these Meze Audio headphones, a grown-up and unflappable character that’s very pleasant and welcome right until the moment that it isn’t. If there’s energy in a recording, the STRADA do more than just allude to it, but at the same time, they seem unwilling or unable to properly sink their teeth in. I get the impression they think this sort of behaviour is both juvenile and a bit beneath them — if they could sound a little more demonstrative when it’s absolutely crucial, they’d be holding all the cards.

The Strada are, at a glance, a dead ringer for Meze Audio’s (much more expensive) Liric II over-ear model. The fact the pricier headphones use planar magnetic technology to produce sound, rather than the dynamic drivers that are fitted here, goes a long way to explaining the price difference — certainly there’s nothing about the way the Strada are designed, built or finished that suggests penny-pinching.

The magnesium frame contributes towards a very acceptable 300g weight (without cables attached), and the carefully considered hanger arrangement and clamping force also helps the comfort quotient. Or, at least, it does if you’re not one of the smaller-headed among us — the Strada, like almost every pair of Meze Audio headphones I’ve encountered, are large.

The rather prosaic ‘adjustment rod’ mechanism that alters the fit of the headphones allows the size to run from ‘quite large’ to ‘very large indeed’.

As well as being quite large, these headphones are quite wide — and the generous nature of the PU leather-covered memory foam earpads makes them larger still. Happily, the broad headband (which is covered on the outside with more PU leather) is much more judiciously padded on its fabric-covered inside, and the layout of the padding allows air to flow and prevents your head from warming up too quickly.

The outside of the ear cups are, just as with the Liric II, made from some handsome and actually quite tactile Macassar ebony hardwood. The lustre of the wood contrasts nicely with the colour of the frame — it’s a mildly metallic variation on British Racing Green, it’s applied by hand (all four coats of it) and it’s your only option when it comes to the colour of the Strada.

The headphones arrive in a fairly large, rigid EVA travel case, and there’s a little pouch inside containing two 1.8m lengths of braided Kevlar OFC cable. Each has two 3.5mm terminations at one end (both Strada earcups must be wired), and at the other end there’s either a single-ended 3.5mm connection or a 4.4mm Pentacon alternative. Plug in both ear cups, plug the other end of your preferred cable into your source of music, and away you go.

Aesthetically very similar to much pricier Meze Audio cans

If you’re judging purely on looks, it’s hard to argue against the value that’s on offer here — after all, the

Detailed and beautifully accurate, just erring half a star over on 'refinement'

Detailed and beautifully accurate, just erring half a star over on 'refinement'

The only issue here is, they're a touch large for some heads

The only issue here is, they're a touch large for some heads

They look much more expensive than they are (similar to a lot of other Meze cans that actually are)

They look much more expensive than they are (similar to a lot of other Meze cans that actually are)

You like things luxurious but not opulent There’s more than a hint of ‘premium’ about the STRADA, but they don’t shout about it

You enjoy detailed, expansive sound The amount of detail that available here is predictably excellent, the spacious sound delivered by a closed-back arrangement is altogether less predictable

You like green Specifically quite dark, slightly metallic green that’s been flawlessly applied in multiple coats

You like the more visceral aspects of music reproduction Even at their most abandoned the Strada never sound less than refined

You’re one of those smaller-headed people These are large headphones and you are unlikely to feel comfortable wearing them

You’re a fidget Keep bumping the cable and it will keep transmitting noise into the headphones

If the closed-back configuration isn’t essential for you, then the Meze Audio 109 PRO are well worth considering — they have much of what makes the Strada so compelling, and they’re not green.

You can also consider the five-star Grado Hemp — great sound, interesting materials and a decent saving over the Strada, but hardly the last word in luxury.

If closed-back is your thing, though, then the Audio Technica ATH-W1000 (for a little less money than the Meze Audio) and the Audeze LCD-2 (for more-or-less the same price) should be on your radar.

I use the cable with the 4.4mm termination to connect the Strada to an i Basso DX340 digital audio player, and also (although obviously not at the same time) to an i Fi i DSD Diablo 2 headphone amp/DAC that’s hooked to an Apple Mac Book Pro via USB-C. Additionally, I connect them to the 6.3mm headphones socket of an Eversolo DAC-Z10 pre-amp/DAC (using a 6.3mm adapter on the 3.5mm cable) — this way I get to hear music delivered by a Technics SL-1300G turntable, a Rega Apollo CD player, and an Arcam ST25 network streamer.

Simon Lucas is a senior editorial professional with deep experience of print/digital publishing and the consumer electronics landscape. Based in Brighton, Simon worked at Tech Radar's sister site What Hi Fi? for a number of years, as both a features editor and a digital editor, before embarking on a career in freelance consultancy, content creation, and journalism for some of the biggest brands and publications in the world.

With enormous expertise in all things home entertainment, Simon reviews everything from turntables to soundbars for Tech Radar, and also likes to dip his toes into longform features and buying guides. His bylines include GQ, The Guardian, Hi-Fi+, Metro, The Observer, Pocket Lint, Shortlist, Stuff T3, Tom's Guide, Trusted Reviews, and more.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

1 Former Bell Labs engineers develop chip to improve Wi-Fi range and consistency

2 If Apple is truly learning from the Mac Book Neo, it should return the i Phone to its $199 roots

3 Canonical raises Ubuntu RAM specifications amid global memory shortages

4 Researchers find Nvidia GPUs are vulnerable to Rowhammer attacks

5I went stargazing in the Atacama Desert and used a hidden i OS 26 feature to capture the night sky — here’s how to take similar photos on your i Phone

Tech Radar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Key Takeaways

• News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest smartphones
• News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets
• Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more
• Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards

• Meze Audio's new closed-back headphones are gloriously green and expansive, but the soundstage isn't the only thing about them that's wide