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.

SHIPPING: The box came yesterday. No issues. UNBOXING: Used my trusty razor blade knife to open the box. The headphone was in a plastic wrapped box. The box was thick and textured with magnetic clasps to hold it shut. Similar to the packaging I have encountered on 1MORE In-Ear earphones. A hard shell carry case unzipped to reveal the headphone with its beautiful wooden ear cup. I took a moment to admire it. Also in the case was a 1/4 adapter and two braided cords -- one shorter and one longer -- in a zip pouch. FIT: The ear cups slipped over my large ears. The right ear rubbed the inside of the cup. No big deal just something I noticed. My ears did get mildly warm and clammy. My Bose and Kenwood headphones do the same thing. They are light and do not distract me when listening to my music and movie collections. SOUND: Very very good. But not excellent. Just short of audio nirvana. MOBILE DEVICES: Good sound from an Android tablet and an iPod Touch. Pleasantly surprised. No need for an amp. PC: Near excellent sound. I use an amp and DAC fed through an optical cable. The amp and DAC kick the performance up a notch or three. OVERALL: Worthy! I like the sound (especially with an amp!) and looks. I reserve a 5 rating for the best and costlier headphones. Cheers! I hope this helped.

I needed a closed-back headphone for work as I didnt want to annoy my coworkers with my open-back Grado headphones so I bought the Meze Classics 99 headphones, based on reviews on Head-Fi.org. tl;dr: The Meze 99s are not perfect, but they are good-sounding, very comfortable headphones. The Meze Classics 99 have a lot of bass, but arent overpowering. The midrange is good, as is the treble. My only complaint about these is that the resolution is OK to good, not fantastic. Sometimes instruments are very distinct, other times they can get a little muddy. That said, these are very listenable headphones. They are not exhausting to listen to for long periods. You find yourself wanting to listen more, which is a good thing. The sound stage is surprisingly good for closed headphones; somewhat better than the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pros. The earcups run on the small side, but the pads and headband are extremely comfortable. I have used them in 8-hour sessions and dont really notice the smaller earcups. The construction seems to be very solid: walnut, steel, and pleather - no cheap plastic in sight! They do come with some nice extras, too. A hard shell carrying case, connectors for both 1/4 inch stereo jacks and a airplane connector, and two cables: a 1-meter cable with a microphone for mobile phone use and a 3-meter cable without a microphone for home listening. Overall, these headphones are well worth the price, and I am very pleased with them. 4.8/5.0

Good looks, great fit, great sound.

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.

Great overall frequency response, better than my speakers. Nice and comfortable. These are not noise cancelling.

Listening set up: MacBook / iPhone + Oppo HA-2se + (headphones) Music I tried: 1960 Stravinsky Columbia Recording of Le sacre du printemps / Beach Boys Pet Sounds / Oneohtrix Point Nevers Replica / general hip-hop/dance music Head size: ~ 12 circumference (larger than most) || Listening preferences: Im not a bass head, I do prefer warmer mids Comparable Products I tried alongside: Beyerdynamic DT-1350 [80hms] (5th favorite) / Sennheiser 598 (4th) / Grado 225e (3rd) / Beyerdynamic T51i (2nd) / Meze 99 Classics (1st) *** As hopefully you know, everyone hears music differently (everyones ears are different), and everyone has preferences. Just because I prefer these doesnt mean you will. Overall +/-: + Where do I start, ok basics: comes with detachable headphone cables, package comes with two different length nylon coated cables that are tangle resistant. Comes with 3.5mm/1/4 converter. Long cable is perfect, I never not use it. + Adjustable headband works well with varying head sizes, Ive had multiple friends try it and none of them complained about uncomfortable pressure points, or not fitting well. I have a large head, these were the only ones I tried that fit well enough. + Leather ear cups are comfortable, I can wear these for hours. Its a preference, but I look forward to wearing these. + Wow the mids on these are so pretty. Listening to records like Unknown Mortal Orchestras II, the guitars are so glistening and warm coming across. + Highs arent as shrill or exciting as Sennheiser, but they are still pleasant. Enjoyed Stravinsky greatly on this. Sound stage made me feel present to recording. + Bass is there, but not dominating (as I prefer, not for everyone). Has color, but is reserved to allow rest of recording to shine (unlike Beyerdynamics which were too bass heavy in my opinion for listening to anything other than dance music) + Perfect for offices, very little noise bleed, and isolates you well enough from keyboard/general office noise. - Sub-bass could uses some more color, I tend to use bass boost feature on Oppo HA-2SE sometimes when listening to rap/dance music. - Nothing really, I struggle to complain about these. Sure its no open-back $1000 headphone, but my god I enjoy them. - The headband isnt really convenient for travel, but fine enough for office spaces. These aren’t marketed as portable, so don’t buy them for such purposes. Seriously buy these. Seriously. Wow. ****Note: I didn’t try these without my DAC/Amp, so I have no idea how these without them. I would strongly suggest that if you buy any headphone above $150 you get a dedicated DAC/Amp to drive them properly.

I am very pleased with these headphones! The build quality is excellent, the sound is excellent, and they are comfortable to wear for extended periods - The audio itself is similar to the Bose CQ35 though the price is closer to V-Modas Crossfade Wirelsss. I would rank these headphones somewhere in between the two. The Bose are more comfortable due to the deep earcups that fully cover your hear, but they do not sound quite sa good as these. The V-Moda sound a little better, but are significantly less comfortable since they are not fully over-the-ear. The only negative to these headphones is that they use two, mono 3.5mm plugs (one for L and R earcup) instead of a single stereo 3.5mm that plus into only one of them. It prevents using things like boom mics and requires that you manage another cable when listening. That aside, they are an absolutely must have for audiophiles in this price segment.

Excellent sound to go with the beautiful looks. Very easy to drive. Is it neutral? no. Enjoyable? YES. Comparing to Oppo PM3, I like both. PM3 is like listening to a performance inside recording studio, everything is super clean, while Meze 99 makes me feel like sitting in a concert hall that has more exciting and warmer acoustics. Sometimes I wish the bass could be a little tighter. So far I have only tried this for 24 bit FLAC or DSD files (mostly classical music) with the following DAC/amps: iFi Micro iDSD, Dragonfly Red 1.0, and Acoustic Research AR-M20 HiRes Audio Player, Sony NW-WM1A HiRes Walkman (SE and balanced output). They all sound wonderful.

Best headphones I’ve tried by far. You can hear every detail in the music. It’s a great addition to my home studio and has completely changed my practice routine!