Meze Poet – Depth, Darkness, and Falling in Love Late

This is a review of the Meze Poet, purchased with my own money. I did originally have a tour set which I’ll talk about in these impressions (and a big thank you to Meze Audio for the Australian tour, organised by Keno). I write reviews with the hope that it’ll help someone find the right set for them, whether it’s their one and done, or one to add to a collection. I have over 250 headphones and IEMs, along with quite a few different sources. The impressions here are based on my ears and my time listening. I generally try to be somewhat objective however this one is entirely subjective, I want to explain why these work for me and maybe why they would work for you too.

The Poet comes in a cardboard outer sleave, with a decent sized box inside. The package I bought got a little banged up on its way to me, the case inside was perfect. Inside the hard case you get the headphone and a cable. The cable is one of the premium meze copper ones, terminated in 6.3mm. I would have liked the option for different terminations, but I already have the same copper cable in 4 pin XLR and 4.4mm, so no issue for me.

They’re an absolutely beautiful headphone and feel extremely solid. The cups can move up and down, swivel, and have a comfort strap that goes across your head. They are super comfortable and fit me perfectly. Probably the comfiest headphones that I own.

I’ve owned these for a few weeks now, and prior to that I had them on an extended demo, so probably have a couple of hundred hours of listening. I didn’t love them from the start and I’ll take you through that journey, but to cut to the end I absolutely adore the Poet and it’d be in the running for my one and done if I was to ever sell up my collection and settle down with one pair (the Abyss JOAL would be the other set that would be in the running!). I don’t see me every settling down, but I’m pretty confident that the Poet will remain in my collection, and continual rotation, while I’m still listening to music (well, until the Poet 2 comes along).

I am quite partial to Meze, with the Advar being one of the first ‘expensive’ IEMs that I really enjoyed, and I also love their full-sized cans, owning the 99 Classics (OG and v2), 105 AER and Silva, 109 Pro, and the OG Liric.

I used these across most of my sources however they were predominantly used while I was working so I drove them from the EF500 which sits on my work desk, out of the SE 6.3mm connection. Since getting my own pair I’ve also been listening to them out of the Mojo2 quite a bit. I listened to anything and everything on them.

Onto the sound!

The Poet has a dark overall sound to it, it has an amazing amount of detail, which is slightly odd for a dark sounding headphone (at least from my listening experience) and has some kind of addictive quality to it. When I had the demo set I wasn’t immediately taken by it, and through my time listening it grew on me but not to the point where I wanted a set. Then I listened to The National right at the end of the time I had them, Matt’s vocals through the Poet transported me to audio nirvana. The National have got me through so many issues in my life and I’ve never quite heard him like I have through the Poet. Listening to tracks that I’ve listened to 100’s of times just hit differently, in a good way. This was on the last day before I sent them back and then they left. I tried to find the same sound through my other sets, with EQ, but I couldn’t get the same feeling. So, there was only one thing to do, buy them. My set arrived and they hit exactly the same as the demo set did thankfully.

The Poet doesn’t have a wide stage, but it has depth. So much depth. I think that depth, coupled with the dark feel, works perfectly for The National. So did I spend over $3k aussie just for The National? Not at all. After figuring out what I love about the Poet everything else started to make more sense to me. Maybe it was brain burn-in, maybe it’s the emotional link from The National, but nearly everything that I play on the Poet I love now. The depth makes these sound quite unique, they remind me of a better version of the much maligned Beyerdynamic T1 Gen 3 in this respect.

Due to the depth vocals generally end up a little further back than normal, but I think it’s quite accurate. Whenever I listen to vocal tracks it doesn’t sound like they are recessed to me, they just sound right. I’m listening to Coheed and Cambria – Goodbye Sunshine as I write this and Claudio’s vocals are a little further back, but there isn’t anything in front of it either.

They have an overall relaxed sound to them, but they do work well for all genres, some genres just hit differently on the Poet to what you’re used to. It took me quite a few weeks to warm up to the Poet, but once it clicked it clicked. Your milage will likely vary when it comes to this, but I can throw anything on the Poet and appreciate how they play tracks, usually finding a new appreciation for the track. I’m currently working my way through all my favourites on these and having a wonderful time.

Who are they for? I think they’re designed for someone who wants a more relaxed listen, where you can wear them all day, throw anything at them, and just relax into your music. The detail retrieval is top tier, so if you want to pay attention and dig into your tracks you can do that, but you can also just as easily sit back and be swept away by the music.

So, do I recommend them? If you’re a fan of darker sounding headphones a resounding yes. They’re my favourite dark sounding headphones, possibly my favourite overall headphone, and once they speak to you you’ll never want to stop listening. I could take the Poet, the Mojo 2, and my iPhone and be one very happy audiophile for the rest of my life.