![]() The Meze 99 Classics is highly recommended if you’re in the market for a headphone of this type. You need to be dainty with it and treat it with love. And as good as the materials are, this headphone is not the “throw it in the backpack” type. ![]() Efficient and light, yes but it just doesn’t do the job good enough in canceling out noise. If the need is geared more towards a portable headphone where passive sound isolation is needed, I feel 99 Classics falls a little short. A lot has changed really with how headphones are supposed to be tuned especially with Harman’s curve becoming more and more prominent. The 99 Classics sounds coherent, clean, and musical enough to merit that. Instead, it’s marketed towards hobbyists and enthusiasts. Now I keep on using the word bassy or bass-heavy in this review but the interesting thing is Meze doesn’t even market it as such. The look is exceptional, build quality is great, accessories are plenty, and comfort is very good. Looking past its sound performance, there’s even less flaw to find. ConclusionĪs a bass-heavy headphone, the Meze 99 Classics performs quite well in many different departments. Shouldn’t be even included in this list contextually-speaking, but just in case you’re reading this review and have gotten to this part despite not being a basshead. It’s even closer to neutral than the Panda so this one can sound ‘boring’ relative to others in this list.įull review of Focal Spirit Classic here. The Spirit Classic has no bass accentuation, less warm and musical midrange but better overall coherence and linearity. Translates to less ‘fun sound relative to the 99 Classics.įull review of Drop THX Panda here. The THX Panda is closer to neutral bass with better sub-bass extension and impact/punch, lesser accentuation but is less articulate and lively sounding up top. This is a Bluetooth headphone based on the Oppo PM3 which is why I feel the need to include it here. If you can EQ, the NightOwl is a hair better but otherwise, there’s no contest.įull review of Audioquest Nightowl here. ![]() I would say the Meze 99 has a much better overall balance, midrange coherence, and stage while the NightOwl has better treble resolution and more natural timbre. This is also a colored headphone except the shelf or elevation affects a wider spectrum. ![]() I have some sealed headphones and thought it’d be great if I can do some quick back and forth between some of them (or from memory) Vs Audioquest NightOwl I’m gonna fail a blind test where this headphone is plugged in straight from the audio jack of my Asus laptop versus it being plugged through my THX 887. The best part for me though is how efficient this headphone is and not just its drivability, but how good it sounds off any sources. Not too constricted but not gonna be mistaken for an open headphone. This is quite common with wooden headphones and accounts for their good musicality in exchange for some congestion on fast music. Imaging is quite good once you get past that elevated bass and the transients are snappy despite the wood decay vibe that permeates in the bass and lower midrange area. Not papery sounding or overly smoothed out. It does sound a bit tizzy up top which may bother some but as a sealed bassy headphone, I thought the treble frequency was tastefully done. The treble, while slightly lower in level, is quite articulate without the harshness or peakiness. There’s also a good amount of energy in the presence region which I feel is needed to balance the tonality a bit. Super bassy headphones a lot of times tend to affect the midrange badly where the vocal can sound unnatural and cupped but this is not the case with Meze 99. It does make things sound warmish but the midrange doesn’t become dull or veiled. It’s also not as tight as the two but I think this is because of the wood coloration and the bass tuning.ĭespite the mid and upper bass bloom, the transition to mids is pretty good. The overall extension is good but not great as it rolls off quite early compared to say the Drop THX Panda or Audeze Sine. The bass is emphatic and can sound overpowering and murky if the track has a lot of it. The 99 Classics is a fun-sounding, colored headphone so those who are sticklers for neutrality should skip this.
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