Driving and pairing:
At 16 ohms nominal impedance and 105dB sensitivity at 1mW, the Rai Solo are extremely easy to power and deliver decent performance from most mobile sources. My Samsung Galaxy S9 drove them easily, using about 60% volume at my preferred listening levels.
The sound quality didn’t seem to be noticeably affected for better or worse when switching-over to Earstudio’s ES100 mobile DAC/amp, playing FLAC files via Bluetooth over Sony’s LDAC codec. I used Chord’s Mojo for the bulk of the review period, as the Chord tended to sweetly smooth-out the highest register, for a slightly less brittle, ‘digital’ sound and overall better refinement.
The Rai Solo also performed-well with Apple’s USB-C to 3.5mm ‘dongle’, providing more-than-comfortable volume at around 30% on my source’s digital volume control.
Net-net: you’ll be able to eke-out a true performance from the Rai Solo from most sources with the need for huge amounts of power or exotic digital sources.
Conclusion:
The Rai Solo is another piece of refined, yet eye-catching industrial design from Meze Audio that feels premium beyond its price-point. Underneath that subtly polished steel lies a forward, energetic sonic signature that will ultimately prove controversial for some, yet may feel like ‘nirvana’ for others. Particularly lovers of energetic rock and instrumental music will appreciate the lashings of energy in the presence region.
At their $249 price-point, the Rai Solo feels like a veritable bargain in terms of the trickle-down design, manufacturing learning and premium presentation of their bigger brother. The more forward, treble energetic presentation for me personally makes it harder to consider it as a daily driver. But, for some of you, they might sound like just the ticket – depending on how spicy you like your music served.
One thing is for certain – the Rai Solo certainly isn’t dull.
SiR ReaL
You need to burn these in. That annoying treble peak is gone and the sound is now lush and natural and beautiful.
Matty Graham
Hello mate, glad to hear they’re working out for you. I did play well over 80 hours of music over the Rai Solo before finalising my evaluation, so I can most definitely assure you that was taken into consideration.
Phoenix
I would compare these to Final Audio’s E5000. And there, I’d prefer the FA as it’s just a no-nonsense, long time listening design.
Ferglekutt
I got these recently by doing something I almost never do. I bought them on a whim because I love my 99 Classics, and Meze had a very aggressive Black Friday deal on them. Purchasing something without reading a mountain of reviews isn’t something I often do.
They’re quite comfortable, and because of their (obviously) negligible weight and lack of clamp are easier for me to wear for hours than a full-size headphone. The also have better passive isolation than any full size phone I know of. Their tuning is certainly bright-ish, but they push a good amount of detail at quite low volumes.
On the other hand, dummy that I am, I made assumptions about Meze’s house sound being described well with words like, “rich, mellow, warm,” and so on, so yeah… more fool me. Overall, they put me more in mind of my Grado SR225e than the 99 Classics, and I suppose that’s how I’d recommend them. They’re probably more likely to click with Grado fans than 99 Classics fanciers.
All of this, to me, adds up to something that wouldn’t be my first choice as an all rounder / primary, but I think I’ll use these a lot at work. The good comfort, the very good isolation, and their amenability to low-volume listening (I’ve been enjoying them around what I imagine is the upper-mid 50s (db)) makes them very well suited to the office environment, but anyone who’s ended up here in the comments for this review, as a Rai Solo owner, this review is the most “spot on” one I’ve read.
Jonathan Hall
These Iems really need a long burn in period. At first I truly hated them. So I burned them in for a week and didn’t listen. Upon listening again the Meze house sound was back. Brighter than the classic 99s but Base was back and they opened up a bit as well.
I now really like these and it was not a case of getting used to the sound as I didn’t touch them for a week. I figured give them a change and if they are the same then return them. These are keepers now.