Products of the Year

Meze Audio Elite headphones ($4000; reviewed by Herb Reichert in Vol.45 No.9 review)

Finalists (in alphabetical order)
Audeze CRBN headphones ($4500; reviewed by Herb Reichert in Vol.45 No.1 review)
IFi Zen Can Signature headphone amplifier ($599 with ZEN DAC Signature V2; reviewed by Julie Mullins and Jim Austin in January & March 2022, Vol.45 Nos.1 & 3 review) Dan Clark Audio Stealth headphones ($4000; reviewed by Herb Reichert in July 2022, Vol.45 No.7 review)
Stax SR-X9000 headphones ($6200; reviewed by Herb Reichert in March 2022, Vol.45 No.3 review)

Is it my imagination, or do headphones get better every single year? I still use the Sennheiser HD 650, and they're adequate for my needs, but I've heard enough other 'phones to realize how far the state of the art has advanced.

According to Herb, the Meze Audio Elite headphones are notable not just for their quality but for the extent to which they present a particular point of view about headphones. "Very few manufacturers declare their viewpoint about how their headphones should look, and feel, and sound as clearly as those I've auditioned from the Meze lineup," he wrote.

Listening to a very Herb-y track—"the extremely difficult-to-reproduce, sounds-best-on-headphones 'It Took the Night to Believe,' from Sunn O)))'s 2005 album Black One"—through the dCS Bartók DAC, "I smiled at how effectively the Elite sorted all that packed-tight, close-toned, multitracked layering. ... The Meze Elite did not disappoint: It delivered the full measure of dystopian anxiety and microdetailed doom-sonics with an appropriate feeling of high-voltage power." Sometimes I could just cuddle up to Herb's prose and take a nap. "The Meze Elite is an elite headphone,"

Herb concluded, "comparable to the best at any price."

About the Vote
In another close competition, the Meze Audio Elite squeaked by the Stax by one vote. The Audeze CRBN was in the race until the end but ended up four votes back.