Meze 99 Classics Walnut Gold | Wired Over-Ear Headphones with Mic and Self Adjustable Headband | Classic Wooden Closed-Back Headset for Audiophiles

These are my first audiophile headphones. The sound compared to cheap headhones and earbuds is amazing. I have a large head and wear glasses, the headphones are very comfortable which was very important to me. The headphones are a little bass heavy but it is not over powering. I am driving them with Schiit Magni and Modi paired optically to my windows computer.

I bought these because every review Ive seen of these said theyd last forever and have too much bass. The build quality seems pretty nice, they could have polished the brass/gold colored fittings a bit more but thats personal preference, the wood cups honestly feel like plastic but Id rather not scrape some off and check... The only way I get the bass I want is EQ and the Xbass on the hip dac. Otherwise Id say they sound pretty good in just about everything Ive listened to with it but Im still not sure I like them enough to keep em...

I can understand why these cans get so many rave reviews. The highs have the most beautiful texture to them. Crisp and detailed without any harshness or sibilance. The midrange is exactly right, with no bright peaks or perceptable recesses. I experienced no ear or head fatigue after 2 hours of continuous listening at high levels. They are surprisingly easy to drive. I like my music loud, and even running them straight from my Galaxy S8 without any external amp or DAC, I can get surprisingly loud, clean levels. The headphones are the most comfortable pair I own, out of a large collection, exceeding even the cozy AKG K701. They look beautiful, and the cans, case and cables all exude the feel of quality. The midbass is the achilles heel of these headphones. There is a cloudy bloom in this range that sounds like the resonance of the walnut enclosure. It is prominent enough and undesirable enough in character that it is a rather constant annoyance to me, unless Im listening to music mastered between the late 70s and early 80s, where there tends to be less relative content in this frequency range. Normally this would be a deal breaker for me, but the mids and highs are so gorgeous that I still recommend these headphones and rate them highly. The low bass is nondescript. It is there in proper balance, but isnt especially punchy, tight, nor articulate. It doesnt sound bad, rather its overall character simply leaves me utterly nonplussed. Some folks claim these phones are dark or rolled off in the high frequencies. I dont find this to be the case at all. They certainly dont have boosted highs like the Beyer cans, HE400i, or the venerable but grossly overrated ATH-M50X. I suspect that those who perceive the highs as less prominent are listening at low volume levels and their perceptions are colored by the Fletcher-Munson curve. This states that human ears are less sensitive to bass and treble at lower volumes. Therefore, cans with boosts in these ranges sound more balanced to those who listen at low levels, whereas a headphone like this one will sound more balanced at higher levels, as the headphone itself is indeed more balanced, and the human ears frequency response curve is rolled off at lower volumes. Lastly, my first pair had a notable channel imbalance. One drive was noticeably louder than the other, shifting the balance well to one side. I confirmed the problem was in the headphone by swapping the left ear to the right and vice versa (problem shifted to the other side of my head with the rotation of the headphone), summing the music source to mono to ensure the problem was not in the recording (balance still shifted in mono), and lastly, swapped the cables to the opposite driver (problem remained on same side of headphone). In addition to the imbalance, there was a mismatch in frequency response, as evidenced by listening to a monophonic sine sweep from 20-20kHz. There were a few areas of the range where the image drifted to one side or the other, although it was less perceptable than, for example, the 3 Hifiman planar models I own. I have ordered a replacement pair and hope to have better results with the balance. I will revise down if the second pair exhibits a similar problem. Otherwise, recommended despite its midbass tonality. The mids and highs are that good. ALL DROPS > AUDIOPHILE You are currently viewing a single conversation.Return to Full Discussion me110 3D I thought the standard version with the gold looks nicer than the MD version, and I didnt want to wait so long, so I purchased a pair at full price on Amazon. Here are my impressions: (4 Stars out of 5) I can understand why these cans get so many rave reviews. The highs have the most beautiful texture to them. Crisp and detailed without any harshness or sibilance. The midrange is exactly right, with no bright peaks or perceptible recesses. I experienced no ear or head fatigue after 2 hours of continuous listening at high levels. They are surprisingly easy to drive. I like my music loud, and even running them straight from my Galaxy S8 without any external amp or DAC, I can get surprisingly loud, clean levels. The headphones are the most comfortable pair I own, out of a large collection, exceeding even the cozy AKG K701. They look beautiful, and the cans, case and cables all exude the feel of quality. The midbass is the achilles heel of these headphones. There is a cloudy bloom in this range that sounds like the resonance of the walnut enclosure. It is prominent enough and undesirable enough in character that it is a rather constant annoyance to me, unless Im listening to music mastered between the late 70s and early 90s, where there tends to be less relative content in this frequency range. Normally this would be a deal breaker for me, but the mids and highs are so gorgeous that I still recommend these headphones and rate them highly. The low bass is nondescript. It is there in proper balance, but isnt especially punchy, tight, nor articulate. It doesnt sound bad, rather its overall character simply leaves me utterly nonplussed. The low bass is quite vibrant though, which is good. Some folks claim these phones are dark or rolled off in the high frequencies. I dont find this to be the case at all. They certainly dont have boosted highs like the Beyer cans, HE400i, or the venerable but grossly overrated ATH-M50X. I suspect that those who perceive the highs as less prominent are listening at low volume levels and their perceptions are colored by the Fletcher-Munson curve. This states that human ears are less sensitive to bass and treble at lower volumes. Therefore, cans with boosts in these ranges sound more balanced to those who listen at low levels, whereas a headphone like this one will sound more balanced at higher levels, as the headphone itself is indeed more balanced, and the human ears frequency response curve is rolled off at lower volumes. Lastly, my first pair had a notable channel imbalance. One driver was noticeably louder than the other, shifting the balance well to one side. I confirmed the problem was in the headphone by swapping the left ear to the right and vice versa (problem shifted to the other side of my head with the rotation of the headphone), summing the music source to mono to ensure the problem was not in the recording (balance still shifted in mono), and lastly, swapped the cables to the opposite driver (problem remained on same side of headphone). In addition to the imbalance, there was a mismatch in frequency response, as evidenced by listening to a monophonic sine sweep from 20-20kHz. There were a few areas of the range where the image drifted to one side or the other, although the drift was rather small and less perceptible than, for example, the 3 Hifiman planar models I own. I have ordered a replacement pair and hope to have better results with the balance. I will revise down if the second pair exhibits a similar problem. Otherwise, recommended despite its midbass tonality. The mids and highs are that good. UPDATE: I received my replacement pair No channel balance issue with the second pair, so my first mustve been defective. BUT, the small but noticeable frequency response discrepancy between the drivers still exists, as noted by ear with music and with a sine sweep test tone. Thus, the imaging could be better- some vocals, guitars, bass, etc. mixed dead center in the original recording will present slightly panned to the left or right depending on what part of the frequency spectrum they occupy. However, this is common in cans in this price bracket. Lastly, on my second pair, one of the two cables was defective. The TRS cable was fine, but the TRRS cable with the inline mic sounded like it was miswired out of phase, with a very hollow sound. The effect was similar to a plug not inserted all the way into the jack, but it was. source device was Galaxy S8. This phone works fine with other headphones with TRRS plugs and inline mic/remotes, so the problem is definitely in the Meze. I didnt test this cable with the first pair, so Im not sure if this issue is a one-off manufacturing defect, or a design defect / incompatibility. Still really like these headphones though.

I bought these and a Fiio Q1 Mark II DAC/Amp as my first set of high res headphone/dac/amp. To be honest I was not sure I was going to notice the difference between these and the iPhone + a pair of Bose SoundTrue Ultra, but the minute I put these on the difference was quite big. I also love how they look and how comfortable they are. The only negative thing I could say is that they are not ideal for travelling. Ive recently used them in 6+ hours flight and if you want to take them off, you will have to put them back in your back pack because you cannot just put them in the sleeve of the seat on front of you. Another negative comment would be that the mic on the shorter cable is not place properly. People was having a hard time hearing me when I was using them to take a phone call. Overall Im very happy with them and because they are built to last I will be using them for a long time.

Beautiful. Great sound. Comfortable. Isolate sound well. Have had these for over a year and use them for watching movies at night. Bought Dakoni pads which are more comfortable than the stock ones. Perfect for movies since these are detailed with lots of substance in the base. Also great all-rounders if you can equalize them. Have a set of Qudelix 5xs which come with EQ profiles for this, which balances out the sound more favorably. Cons: Wish they hit faster

I reeeeally wanted to love these headphones, they were so beautiful and the case was amazing but once I put them on my head I noticed they pinched right under my ears causing pain. I thought that meant they needed to be broken in, but than I played some music through them and was thoroughly disappointed in the sound. The bass on some songs were great but any songs with nice vocals or symbols were just clouded and kinda distorted by the bass. The headphones bleed noise like no tomorrow to where I could hear every lyric to the song my dad was listening to even though they were closed back. If they released a more balanced sound with less noise bleed than I would actually consider buying a different pair but these werent for me. If you listened to nothing but rap and hip hop than I can see these fitting your taste more but I literally listen to everything and the sound was just gross.

As I suspected, the 99 Classic is easily worth the price. Of five pairs of hp I own, theyre the cheapest of all. But the sound from the 99 is very far from being cheap. Certainly more bass than my Oppo PM-3, even with upgraded ear pads.

These Meze 99 Classics Headphones work best with 5 Instruments in songs. The Meze 99 Classics Headphones allow Guitar, Piano and Bass to be fully represented. I hope to be able to afford Planar Headphones in the future but I will always hold onto these Meze 99 Classics Headphones.

These headphones came in second in a review by a trusted site. Their backstory was so unique and their promise of a totally different experience so appealing to me, I decided to take the plunge. Wow! Am I glad I did. These headphones are very comfortable and so well made! The wood ear cups definitely add a smoother dimension to the sound. The bass is rich, yet, the highs are still very pronounced. I have had three sets of headphones and none of them came close to this quality. Frankly, this is a stunning edition to the headphones field and should seriously be considered by the shopper. I told my son they were “life-changing.” If you love music, you just might agree.

The sound quality is outstanding for the price. I would call this a very good value for the price. I like them much better than my old Bose NC headphones.