Audiophile headphones don’t have to be super-expensive, as Meze proved with the 99 Neos we reviewed last year. Now the 99 Classics are here, offering a step up in materials – walnut earcups and a spring steel frame – and a subtly different sound signature in exchange for a higher £269/$309 price.
The walnut earcups are what set this model apart from the textured black ones on the Neo, and feature a unique grain pattern on each model, according to Meze. The shaping of these wood and finishing process takes 45 days – an incredible amount of time given the
asking price. It’s also worth noting that the headphones can be disassembled to their component pieces, making them a lot more repairable than an average pair of headphones.
The Neos changed my perception on suspension headbands, as I’d previously never been the biggest fan of them. However, combine the plush leatherette headband with their lighter metal frame, and they’re beautifully effortless to wear. They conform to my head wonderfully, while there is also a lot of room to breathe thanks to their deep, plush earcups. Those deeper earcups also lend the 99 Classics to have sublime passive noise isolation, making them a good set of cans for travel if you prefer a wired set, and to just have on your head for extended periods. During my time with them, I never really wanted to take them off.
It’s also the little things with Meze that also extend to the 99 Classics that set them apart, such as the excellent case they come with that’s felt-lined on the inside and hard on the outside. They’re also kept in place with a small pouch in the middle that holds all the cables, including a shorter standard cable for portable listening, and a bigger, longer one for listening with your home amp, streamer, or similar. You also get a plane adapter so you’re flight-ready with your own headphones for when you’re jetting off somewhere nice.
Acoustically, Meze says the Classics are identical to the Neos. If that’s the case, they’ll be all warm and lovely – the aural equivalent of sitting by a cosy warm fire in winter, or curling up on a sofa with a good book and a heavy blanket over you. In fact, with the wooden earcups, they may well be even warmer and lovelier than the Neos, which I loved a lot for their rich and natural sound.
The 99 Classics are also easy to drive, with a 32 ohm impedance meaning they’ll play nicely whether you’re listening to a Spotify playlist on your MacBook or smartphone with an adapter. Of course, if you give them a quality DAC such as the Chord Mojo 2 or iFi Zen Blue 3 and music source in a range of CD-quality files through my Fiio M11S, then the 99 Classics can truly sing.
There’s more bass than you might expect from a set of cans I’ve just referred to as being ‘warm and lovely’, but they can get pleasantly low, providing atmosphere in tracks that warrant it. My usual suite of hard rock tracks including The Invisible Man by Marillion, and the Meanwhile section of Steven Wilson’s Objects Outlive Us were suitably brooding, while the deep, synth bass of Earth, Wind & Fire’s Let’s Groove was reassuringly meaty.
Jack Johnson’s Washing Dishes is a simple song, featuring his smooth vocals and acoustic guitar at the forefront with underpinnings of percussions and drums, and the 99 Classics delivers it with insightful clarity and a that lovely natural presentation alluded to earlier. Moving over to the busier Nights on Broadway from the Bee Gees, the vocals are sunk back into the mix, in among the song’s clavichord and prominent drum work, although the general presentation of the Gibb brothers’ marvellous harmonies is rich and full.
Heart in a Cage from The Strokes has some incessant cymbal work throughout virtually the whole song that is smoothed over pleasantly for a non-fatiguing listen. They’re crisp and vibrant, although lack the absolute precision and sometimes harshness that’s present on more analytical options. It’s a similar story with the competing sounds in the intro on Steely Dan’s Do It Again – the 99 Classics are insightful and present, and not heavy-handed in their presentation.
The 99 Classics also have a decent soundstage with good width for a set of closed-back cans, as was demonstrated with on a live recording of Paul Weller’s Hung Up with its live reverb, as well as with my usual mean test suite of Rush’s 2112. To be specific, it’s everything from the slow, limited guitar parts and ambient water noise of the song’s ‘Discovery’ section into the intermittent vocals and even harder rock when moving into the ‘Presentation’ and ‘Oracle: The Dream’ sections. With this, the 99 Classics provided a great sense of immersion, although weren’t as wide as similarly-priced open backs, such as the Grado SR325x
Their great positioning and imaging also helped in everything from racing in Forza Horizon 5 and Assetto Corsa Competitzione and into Counter Strike 2 where I had an excellent time of being able to find enemies. In addition, the prominent low-end worked well with explosions and the gritty noise of gunfire, while it also helped provide some welcome atmosphere to throaty engine notes in those racing titles. Even if gaming isn’t the intended use here, the 99 Classics performed admirably, although some may still prefer any of the best gaming headsets for that more specific purpose – although, with the first-party Meze Boom Mic accessory, you can essentially turn these cans into a bonafide gaming headset.
It was perhaps inevitable that I was going to wax lyrical about the Meze 99 Classics, because, well, just look at them. I know that the £269/$309 asking price is a fair amount of dough, and is comparable to dearer reference cans from Sennheiser and such, but the 99 Classics arguably punch above their weight based on the level of craftsmanship and care that’s gone into them, as well as their comfortable fit and generally lovely sound.
Otherwise, I’ll suggest the £189/$199 the 99 Neos that are a bit cheaper and provide the same fundamentals as the Classics with a nearly-identical sound profile and the same comfort, just without the walnut cabinets – you won’t be disappointed with either.
