The Meze 99 Classics, for the price and beyond, are wonderful headphones that do perform up to there with much more expensive headphones. Right now Meze is offering two distinct types of wood for the cup, Walnut and Maple adorned with either an accented gold or silver finish on the external metals. The Walnut silver is the latest version to hit the market and the one I am reviewing right now. Audio quality, we should point out, doesn’t actually have anything to do with this. To be honest, the more effective a pair is at conveying accurate sound, the uglier it is likely to be. Just look at the headphones from Stax, a company that makes very fine audio equipment which closely resembles waffle irons. Fortunately, the Meze 99 Classics get both right. They look, and sound, incredible. (It’s worth noting that the light-colored wood version seen in the photos here has been discontinued – it was available at the time of writing, but you can now buy it in only walnut finish). A close-up of the cable connectors | The Master Switch Build Quality

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 & Specs The grain is excellent but you can ignore the rather weird dark knot feature at the center of the cup in the main picture, this is a class B unit so you won’t get that on retail units, they simply will not pass the QC. Each cup is crafted initially on a CNC machine and then finished and polished hand with Meze claiming each set takes approximately 45 hours to complete. I was immediately taken with the 99 Classics' top-to-bottom coherence: a generally even tonal spread, with no part of the audioband dominating the rest. Spatial performance was good for sealed headphones, with generously sized images focused at the center of my cranium. Even at loud volumes the 99s kept their cool, never sounding shouty, edgy, boxy, or otherwise criminal in the treble. Midrange to lower frequencies were also evenly distributed. Generally, all frequencies were reproduced with well-proportioned weight. The 99s were neutral in the best sense of the word. It’s pretty hard for me to objectively rate the Meze 99 Classics. While the overall sound quality isn’t on the same level as for example Hifiman Sundara, it is a very enjoyable pair of headphones and you just simply want to listen to them. I believe that’s the definition of a great product. At the end of the day, some customers are looking for the best quality in a specific price range, and others just want to have a fun experience with a very pleasingly tuned pair of headphones. If you lean more towards the latter, I’d highly recommend the Meze 99 Classics, as it’s just an emotional sounding headphone, but keep in mind that in terms of pure SQ the Sundara is an overally better product, and by some margin. 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.

Sound-wise, considering the price, it’s pretty much impossible to criticize the 99 Classic. They offer great value and punch well above their weight. If you are into headphones I bet you have heard at least something about the Meze 99 Classics headphones. It is one of the most heavily promoted headphones I have seen in a while.

Two 1.6" (40mm) Mylar-cone drivers are at the heart of the 99 Classics, each held in an injection-formed frame of reinforced ABS, a tough, rigid plastic. The 99 Classics' specifications include a frequency range of 15Hz–25kHz, a sensitivity of 103dB/1kHz/1mW, and an impedance of 32 ohms. stars: The product is only about average or even somewhat below that and somewhat flawed/flawed in some areas. [neither "Thumbs Up" nor "Thumbs Down"]

Packaging & Accessories

Comfort: I only own a handful of IEM/headphones, but these are the by far the most comfortable headphone. its very light weight, and the headband very nicely distributes the weight on your skull. Its earpads and very soft and it has very low clamping force even straight out of the box. If you are wearing in a hot environment then it will obviously get warm, but other than that its pretty comfortable. The earcups are soft and cushiony and when I put them on, my ears dont the insideof the headphone. But I have to say when you are listening to songs and if your hand or anything hits the metal headband or the earcups then the sound is amplified, but its not really that much of a problem.