Following the huge popularity of Meze Audio's flagship Empyrean headphone product release in mid-2018, the Romanian audio manufacturer is now making a triumphant return to the Head-Fi market - this time with their sights set on in-ear monitors.
Meze’s high-end in-ear project has been in the works for around three years and, whilst the company have been dropping alluring hints across industry blogs and social media, Anto Meze and his team of designers determinedly held back release of the RAI Penta until they were truly confident it was the very best in-ear headphone they could conceive:
Rai Penta is the culmination of 3 years of researching the most ergonomic shape and most vivid sound for a Universal IEM. We could have released it earlier, but again, like with any of our other products, we wanted to make sure it is truly the best we can achieve.
Anto Meze – Founder, Meze Audio
Meet the RAI Penta
Meze’s brand new IEM model features no fewer than five individual drivers consisting of four custom balanced armatures and one classic-style large dynamic driver. The hybrid technology referred to as ‘Penta Hybrid’ by Meze enables an intelligent harmonised delivery of frequencies which bypasses phase overlay issues.
The result is a super high resolution, balanced sound signature with impeccable micro-detailing and unrivalled realism across a wide frequency range (4Hz – 45kHz).
To eliminate the usual imperfections found in plastic tube and dampener style multi-channel IEMs, RAI Penta’s housing assembly allows seamless function of all five drivers simultaneously by allocating necessary sound tube length for each driver’s aim volume capacity.
Ergonomics at its best
Meze understand that true audiophiles will spend consecutive hours [maybe days] immersed in their music. As such, comfort and truly immersive sound are key in the underlying RAI Penta's design. Each soft edge of the aluminium chassis is painstakingly drawn to match the natural curves of the ear and to remain comfortable even through longer listening periods. The high precision CNC aluminium also creates an ideal space for sound to be channeled directly into your ear without distortion.
Partnering up
As Meze Audio proudly state in their product specifications, RAI Penta will work with any device, be it a headphone amplifier/DAP or integrated amplifier – a result of the IEM’s deliberately low impedance and high sensitivity. That said, to yield the very best performance from the full driver array, it is recommended that a high resolution source is matched with the RAI Pentas where possible.
RAI Penta is detailed, precise and transparent and with its neutral yet musical tuning the Rai Penta will win over many hearts. Making a correct sounding hybrid is hard but Meze makes it seem oh so easy.
Liven Vranken, Headfonia (March 2019)
Find out more about RAI Penta on our dedicated product page, or for all other enquiries including pricing and UK availability, contact our Hi-Fi sales team!
