Meze 99 Classics Walnut Silver Headphones (Silver & Black)

Product Information

First I thought that the logo of Meze Audio is a sketch of a lyre music instrument. Later I learned that the logo was inspired by the feathering of the male Lyre Bird (pretty close though). A species of bird that is known for its superb ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from its environment, and the striking beauty of the male bird’s huge tail when it is fanned out in courtship display. Lyre Bird, beautiful-sounding, beautiful-looking, and a beautiful logo for an audio brand I think.

Link to my review and measurement index thread where one can also find a full review overview, more information about myself as well as my general-ish audio and review manifesto: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/956208/There is, however, slight evidence of the wood lacquer being worn on the bottom edge of the ear cups by the end of our time testing them – something you should perhaps expect to happen over time if they’re constantly placed on a desk. The 99 Classics interesting and that they come with the box that is actively useful after you remove the headphones. It’s a simple cardboard number, with a flip-top lid that you pull up using a fabric tab. The interior is lined with foam, and if you keep the box around, it’s excellent for storing things in. Your correspondent uses it to hold his wallet and keys and sunglasses and ben-wa balls and what have you. Zoom forward a few years, and Meze is now a fairly staple choice for audiophiles looking for a midrange-priced set of closed headphones. How could this happen? Usually, a company called out like this puts its tail between its legs and disappears into the shadows.

The earcups padding I got are the old style with smaller inner space; newer units have a larger hole that allows for a better fit of the ear and consequent better comfort. The problem with the old style is that the space is just barely there for your ears to fit in and it takes a bit of time to find the right spot. Larger, deeper pads would make it easier to find the right spot and would enhance comfort in the long run, though they’re really comfortable as they are now. Music files streamed from Tidal and Qobuz through AudioQuest's DragonFly Red DAC included: "I'm Not Doing This for You," from the self-titled album by electronic beatmeisters Awefekt (24-bit/44.1kHz, 37d03d); trip-hop from Dido in "Hurricanes," from Still On My Mind (16/44.1, BMG); Deep South beats in the hip-hop subgenre trap in "Red Room," from Offset's Father of 4 (24/96, Motown); Frank Zappa's The Yellow Shark, performed by Ensemble Modern (16/44.1, Zappa Records); and dance/R&B from Solange in "Things I Imagined," from her When I Get Home (24/44.1, Columbia). Vinyl included two very dissimilar albums: the popping jazz of Barney Kessel, Ray Brown, and Shelly Manne's Poll Winners Three! (Contemporary S7576), and the urban dread of Fink's Resurgam (R'Coup'd RCPD015). Treble is pretty much delicate up until the higher notes, when the interesting things are starting to happen. Once again I’d call the sound quite neutral and even up until around 10k, where the focus is being held on. It isn’t prone to sibilate, yet is quite detailed and defined. Treble response isn’t neither dark nor bright, but I find it quite temperamental.

Build quality is excellent, everything is finished to a very high standard, and there was nothing to complain about in manufacturing. I mention in the classic review that this is one of the best headphone designs of the past few years. It is a modern take on a classic design and has been pulled off in a classy way. The sound follows a similar flavor to what you get with the 99 Classics, which made our list of the best audiophile headphones, but the Neo's have a more prominent low end and a slightly lusher midrange. Both are excellent-sounding headphones in their own right, and I would say that only slightly do the Classics have the edge in terms of refinement. It still has that analog and engaging sound of the Classic but takes things just a touch to the warmer side and pushes the bass up a couple of notches. Male leads have grain and weight to their performances, and stringed instruments like cell and acoustics resonate beautifully in this frequency. This is the less expensive option, and it is based on the normal Meze 99 Classics cable in terms of overall aesthetics. It comes with a 2.5mm ending, and it is a silver plated, high-purity copper cable. In perspective, this is an interesting choice for materials, as they should provide both the warmth of copper and the sparkle in the treble that Silver tends to add. I have tried Meze 99 classics with Pixel 3aXL, Asus ROG laptop and it was paired with IFI HIP DAC.I have listened to spotify premium and apple lossless. This review will be divided into my experience with Headphone Zone, accessories, build quality, comfort and sound.

Although headphones such as the 99 Classics are meant to be used indoors (who would wear them on the subway?!), their isolation is actually pretty good. They can isolate you enough so that music will cover outside noise even at moderate listening volume. The microphone is decent enough to handle calls in relatively quiet environments, though it won’t be able to handle situations with lots of noise. Sound & SpecsWhile the MEZE 99 Classics don’t quite make it into the ultra-high end audiophile arena – much as we are sure that MEZE would like them to - they are still some of the best sounding headphones we’ve ever listened to for this price. Other headphones recall mosh pits at metal gigs, or bawdy flamenco dancers. The 99 Classics? Ball gowns and tuxedos, baby. Waltz. Tango. Many headphones often swing too far in one direction, offering either sound that is incredibly warm, sacrificing precision for color. Or they swing the other way, being too orientated towards the studio, delivering transparent, legal sharp audio that, while laudable, doesn’t always do the music many favours. The 99 Classics get the balance just right. The MEZE 99 Classics are a gorgeous pair of cans | The Master Switch Build quality and design are good, however ultimately the headphones don’t appear as premium. Still very good.

Of course, yours truly comes late to the game with regard to reviewing the 99 Classics which is a good thing because I am hoping to avoid the hype machine a little and talk about these in a ‘dust settled’ type environment and second Meze came out with a new Walnut silver edition just in time for me to get my hands on it so hey something new right? What Is The Pitch? The dwindling number of wired over-ears compared to a decade ago means there aren't many models around today that we’d recommend at this price point. But the 99 Classics are one of them. Pairing Notes - The Meze 99 Classics paired perfectly with any source I threw at them. They are incredibly efficient and easy to drive.Yes, they sound better out of a higher-end DAP, but even from my Google Pixel 2 or LG V30, these headphones sounded seriously good. This being said, not even the Silver Cable won’t make the headphones a different product, they are just much better presented and more balanced, more enjoyable, and have a more pleasing sound.Meze 99 Classics is one of the first headphones I ever reviewed, and it is a headphone I still love and feel quite happy to listen to. Today we take a look at the silver cables for them. They have quite a unique, warm and musical sound, with a strong bass, but they have a lot of headroom so you can EQ them quite heavily to get a more traditional V-shaped sound out of them. Meze has many other cards up their sleeve and they’re working on high-end Planar headphones these days, namely Empyrean. Anyone who has ever worked with Meze can tell about how trustable and reliable they are, and about how they do care about their customer and will walk the extra mile to ensure that you’re happy using their products, being in my top ten companies I trust and would entrust my money with. I consider the Meze 99 Classics among the best headphones you can buy– hence the high rating. Their peculiar design and sound signature make them stand out from the crowd and affords them a niche where they reign supreme. about the bass meze vs 770 I have to say i was not impress as is not the most detailed and texured bass I have heard but beyer sells the dt 770 as headphones for drummers and I can tell thats why they sound dry and hit like hammer, not in a really bad way but I guess they tuned a bit here so drummers can hear better precision on percussion. I also feel that the mids are a bit dry and recessed on the 770. Some designers will decide to just double the same design for both channels, when making a balanced module, while others will redesign the entire amplifier with a much different configuration, for a better performance in the balanced mode. And I expected, after a few seconds of this lower frequency uplight, to hear a higher frequency downturn. That is, I expected the bass, so much of it was there, to swamp and leach all over the soundstage. It didn’t. Well, look psychologically it kinda did. That is, you can’t help but be mentally affected by the bass so you may think the mids are being bloomed by the bass but that’s not really the case. The mids are pretty tight and focused, yes, but not really swamped. There’s a slight warmth for the midrange but that seems to be endemic to the nature of the headphone sound. That is, there is an overall dark glow over the soundstage but there is enough air and space in the upper frequencies for the mids to hold their own and deliver the detail you need. Even treble-based cymbals are suitably tremulous.