Meze makes headphones. That has always been the anchor of what they do -- beautiful full-size over-ears built with genuine craft in Romania, with a warm, musical sound that has earned them a serious following in audiophile circles. The ASTRU is something new. It's their first in-ear monitor in the mid-to-high tier, and their first IEM to feature planar tweeter technology.
The driver configuration is a tribrid: a dynamic woofer for bass, two balanced armature drivers for the midrange, and a planar magnetic tweeter for the high frequencies. Each driver type is assigned the frequency range it handles best. The planar tweeter is the key differentiator -- planar high-frequency drivers are faster and more extended than balanced armatures at high frequencies, with a transient accuracy that brings detail and air without the edge that some multi-driver IEMs introduce.
The shell is precision-machined aluminum with a detachable 2-pin cable. The sound, from early listening, is everything you'd expect from Meze -- warm, rich, and spatially generous, with the planar tweeter adding a top-end extension and speed that their headphone lineup has never quite been able to achieve in an IEM form factor before.
Available at $899. A 2-pin cable is included.
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