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Meze Audio Ultra
Meze Audio has never treated cables as an afterthought, offering several upgrade options for its headphones alongside the standard cords supplied in the box. The latest addition takes that idea considerably further. Ultra Cable is the company's new flagship headphone cable, built around extremely pure silver conductors, an elaborate hand-braided geometry and metal hardware designed with almost as much attention as the headphones themselves. It is also priced accordingly, positioning itself as an accessory primarily for owners of Meze's most ambitious models rather than a casual replacement for a worn-out cable.
The Ultra first appeared publicly at High End Munich in 2025, where Meze presented it alongside the then-new 105 Silva. At that stage the company described it as a high-performance cable intended mainly for the Elite and Empyrean II, with a continuous 16-to-8-wire braid and dual 4-pin mini-XLR connectors. The production version arrives at an interesting moment for the Romanian manufacturer, as Meze has since moved even further upmarket with Arta, its new reference planar magnetic headphone. Arta uses the MZ5 HΩ high-impedance Isodynamic Hybrid Array driver developed with Rinaro and now sits at the very top of the company's headphone lineup. Not surprisingly, the final Ultra Cable is listed as compatible with Arta as well as Elite, Empyrean II and the original Empyrean.
At the heart of the design are 7N high-purity silver conductors, specified at 99.99999% purity. Each cable uses 40 conductors measuring 0.08 mm in diameter, arranged in a continuous braid that changes from sixteen wires in the main section to eight wires after the split. The particularly interesting part is the transition itself. Rather than interrupting the conductors at the Y-splitter, Meze maintains the continuous braid, avoiding an additional soldered junction in this section of the signal path. The company also points to the braided geometry as a way of reducing electromagnetic interaction between individual wires and limiting both incoming and outgoing interference.
This is a substantial step beyond Meze's existing silver-plated PCUHD premium cable. That model uses Furukawa copper conductors plated with silver, a 140-conductor arrangement and an eight-to-four-wire braid, and currently sells for considerably less. Ultra, by comparison, dispenses with the copper core entirely and moves to solid high-purity silver conductors. Meze associates the material with lower electrical resistance and describes the intended sonic effect in terms of greater transparency, more clearly resolved microdetail, extended but smooth high frequencies and tighter bass. Those are, of course, the manufacturer's descriptions rather than measurements of how large the audible difference will be in a particular system, but the engineering direction is clear - Ultra is meant to be the no-compromise cable in the company's portfolio.
The hardware has received similar attention. The connector shells and Y-splitter are made from cast zinc alloy with a PVD coating, and their rounded, elongated shapes were influenced by Streamline Moderne, the aerodynamic branch of Art Deco that became popular during the 1930s. Product designer Szabolcs Ferenczi explains that the intention was to evoke the movement, speed and flowing shapes associated with that period. The theme is therefore not simply decorative - Meze has tried to visually connect the streamlined metal components with the idea of an unobstructed electrical signal running through the silver conductors.
On the headphone side, Ultra terminates in a pair of 4-pin mini-XLR connectors. At the source end, customers can choose between 3.5 mm, 4.4 mm balanced, 6.3 mm and 4-pin XLR plugs, which covers portable players, conventional headphone amplifiers and balanced desktop systems. The standard cable measures 1.2 m, although Meze accepts custom orders up to 10 m. The dielectric is PVC, while Jensen solder containing 5% silver is used where soldering is required.
As with an increasing number of Meze's higher-end products, production takes place in Baia Mare, Romania. In the case of Ultra, "handmade" is more than a decorative label. Each cable is individually braided and assembled after the order is placed, and the company says its workshop currently completes only one unit per day. That explains the quoted lead time of around three to four weeks and also makes Ultra feel closer to a made-to-order accessory than a conventional item pulled from warehouse stock. Each cable is supplied in a hard presentation case with an Alcantara cloth that doubles as a cleaning cloth for the metal parts.
The Meze Audio Ultra Cable costs $999 for the standard 1.2 m version, while European retailers list it at €999. Given that it can be paired with headphones such as the $6,000/€6,000 Arta, the price perhaps makes more sense in the context of Meze's increasingly ambitious flagship ecosystem than it would viewed as a standalone cable. Info and pictures by Meze Audio.
