Meze Audio Strada

Design

• Magnesium frame
• Macassar hardwood earcups
• magnetically attached earpads

If you’re familiar with the look of Meze Audio’s Liric II over-ear headphones, there’s really only the colour of the magnesium frame that’s going to set the design of the Strada apart. If you’re not, though, well – it’s like this…

These are relatively wide, fairly light (330g without cable) headphones, and they feature magnetically attached earpads that are a) made from memory foam with a PU leather cover, and b) so generously padded that they contribute to that width more than somewhat.

The frame is made from magnesium, and the elaborately shaped yoke arrangement is quite strongly at odds with not-even-remotely elaborate adjustment rod mechanism that modifies the position of the headband.

The headband itself is fairly wide and thin. It’s covered with more PU leather on the outside, while on the inside it’s covered in fabric and much more judiciously padded than the earpads – the four-stage contact points are designed to help airflow and thus prevent your head heating up too readily.

The outside of each earcup is made from a quantity of good-looking and tactile Macassar ebony hardwood. And the frame surrounding each of these quantities of Macassar features a 3.5mm cable connection – Meze Audio supplies two 1.8m lengths of braided Kevlar OFC cable in the fairly large EVA case the STRADA travel in. One is terminated with an unbalanced 3.5mm jack, the other with a balanced 4.4mm alternative.  

The frame of the STRADA is hand-painted, and available in just one finish: a deep, mildly metallic tone that anyone with an interest in motor racing from back in the day is going to recognise immediately as a very close relative of British Racing Green.

Specification

• 50mm dynamic drivers
• 5Hz – 30kHz frequency response
• 111dB sensitivity

Fundamentally, all of the stuff I’ve talked about in the design section constitutes the way Meze Audio has decided to suspend a driver over each of the listener’s ears. And it’s the driver technology deployed in the Strada that explains just how they can be so much more affordable than their very similar-looking Liric II siblings.

Unlike the super-elaborate planar magnetic driver technology fitted to the Liric II, the Strada use the much more common dynamic driver technology. Although this is not the same as saying there’s nothing interesting, or complex, about what’s going on here.

Each STRADA earcup features a 50mm dynamic driver that’s based closely on the driver found in the company’s (very similarly priced) 109 PRO open-back over-ear model. For its use in a closed-back design, though, Meze Audio has naturally given it quite a going-over…

The W-shaped dome is made of cellulose composite reinforced with carbon-fibre – which means it’s both durable and lightweight, and should be able to reduce many of the resonances that can lead to distortion.

The torus that surrounds the dome is of beryllium-coated semicrystalline polymer – the beryllium coating increases both the durability and the stiffness of the driver without weighing it down and compromising transient response. Carefully positioned grooves on the torus also contribute to the intended effect.

Finally, a copper-zinc alloy stabiliser is positioned around the membrane to absorb vibration and further reduce distortion.

This arrangement, says Meze Audio, delivers a frequency response of 5Hz – 30kHz, which is deeply impressive if anything like accurate. Impedance of 4ohms is nothing to worry about, but a sensitivity rating of 111dB (SPL/mW @ 1kHz) means a fairly pokey DAC or digital audio player is probably in order if you’re going to hear the STRADA at their optimum.

Sound Quality

• Presentation is commendably open fopr a closed-back design
• Articulate, detailed and engaging sound
• Prioritise refinement at all costs

The first thing it’s important to note about the Meze Audio Strada, even before you have begun listening to them, is that it’s fairly important to sit still. Bumping or knocking the connecting cable will cause noise to be transmitted – that’s the case, to a lesser or greater extent, with most headphones, but it’s more pronounced here than is the norm.

But once you’re sitting comfortably and not fidgeting, there’s an awful lot to enjoy about the way these headphones sound. No matter if you’re listening to a big-standard Spotify stream of Highwayman by The New Eves or a full-fat 24-bit/48kHz FLAC file of Ora Cogan’s Cowgirl, these are eloquent and informative headphones, and are more than capable of revealing and contextualising even the finest details in order to let you know you’re getting the complete sonic picture.

Where soundstaging is concerned, they’re considerably more open, more spacious and more expansive than is the closed-back norm. They can do intimate and direct well, of course – but when it comes to opening up a recording and putting meaningful space between every element of it, the Strada are more reminiscent of open-backed alternatives.

This ability to give elbow-room to each participant doesn’t come at the expense of togetherness or singularity, either – recordings are presented as a unified whole.

When it comes to frequency response and  tonality, the Meze Audio are quite carefully neutral; and not about to stick their oar in too obviously. Detail levels are high at every stage, and though they can dig a long way down and hit respectably hard while they’re at it, the Strada give bass sounds plenty of texture and variation – and they control the attack of low-end information so well that rhythmic expression is never less than naturalistic.

The opposite end of the frequency range is similarly detailed, and there’s sufficient substance to balance out the polite amount of bite and shine the headphones summon when describing treble sounds. In between, the midrange communicates in the most positive way, and voices are as expressive of attitude as they are of tone or timbre. The frequency range is described even-handedly, with no suggestion of understatement or over-emphasis at any stage.

There’s a fair amount of dynamic headroom available for when a recording shifts through the gears, and the distance the Strada can put between hushed and heartfelt and furiously angry is quite considerable. In combination with the attention they pay to the dynamic of harmonic variation and to transient response, it makes for a vivid and convincing sound.

It’s really only when they’re asked to deal with content that’s in some way rough around the edges, or that prioritises posture and attack over good taste, that the Meze Audio are found even slightly wanting.

Fundamentally, they’re a grown-up and quite refined listen – and this position works well almost all of the time. But when asked to play music that ignores refinement and instead prefers snottiness, the Meze Audio’s desire to bring order to bear where none is supposed to exist results in something of a stand-off.            

Should you buy it?