Meze Audio's premium Liric 2 headphones are a touch of class in all the right places

Romanian audio company Meze Audio has unveiled the second generation of its excellent Liric headphones. 

While the design hasn't been radically changed, one major addition catches the eye immediately - the new striped ebony finish on the outside of each earcup.

Just like the luscious Audio-Technica ATH-AWKG shown off this week, the wood on the outside of the headphones looks just amazing. 

These are planar magnetic, wired headphones, with all the detail and power that this entails, but Meze Audio also says that the second-gen Lirics should be warmer and boast a tiny bit more depth than their predecessors. 

Those planar magnetic drivers are handmade by a Ukrainian outfit called Rinaro, and Meze says they've been slightly retuned to give a more expansive soundstage. This has involved actually scaling them down a little, interestingly. 

You should get a stunning listening experience, then, and Meze has also upgraded the cable that the headphones ship with.

It'll now come with a braided copper cable that can be topped with a couple of different connectors depending on your audio source at any given point. The headphones' earcups are also now magnetically attached and therefore easier to swap out for new ones - a great step for repairability. 

The headphones feature a bunch of clever features that return from the first-generation model, including that little copper outlet on the outside of each earcup. This is a pressure equalisation system which helps to modulate the bass output of each earcup, for example. 

It's all slightly heavier than the previous generation, now, too, weighing in at 427g - although from our experience with the last version, which was just a hair under 400g, you should find them nice and cushioned in the wearing. 

This should all add up to a pretty superb listening experience, and you'd hope so given they're priced at £1,850, $2,000 or €2,000 depending on your region.

That said, given how wildly expensive audiophile products can get, that price tag actually isn't anything crazy for the craftsmanship on show here. The second-generation Liric can be ordered directly from Meze Audio now.