Meze 99 Neo vs 99 Classic+Boom Mic - Which is Better Plastic or Wood ? Honest Audiophile Impressions

[@ginom407]

I enjoy my 99 Classics and have gotten accustomed to the extra bass. Most of my headphones are open back, but when I need to listen on a closed back the 99's are my first choice. Thanks Dave! You Rock!!!

[@TheHonestAudiophile]

Awesome 😎 Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@mrigankadeyMD]

for refrence i tried both 99 neo, classic and FiiO FT1 back to back from a more or less neutral A&K KAAN Ultra as source at my local dealer from a balanced 4.4 output. From what i could gather for 1 hour, from my experience of trying them is the following:- 1. Between 99 classic and Neo, both are almost identical, except i found that classic is more timbre accurate, but more warmer overall than Neo. However, Neo is slightly more V shaped so is more Bassy Quantity overall. Both of them Bleed into Mids but its very track dependent, if the recording has complex mix of low bass, midbass and mids you will notice the bleed. Otherwise in general classic's bleeding is more noticeable than Neo. However because of more treble energy in Neo its sometimes gets masked or hidden. However the Upper Midrange and lower treble of Neo seems a bit off, it seems not cohesive enough E.g.- A low piano tone sounds correct in Classic, goes down low and has smooth reverb but in Neo, it goes down low but reverb has those minor details when fading away, it has a texture in it like drawing with pencil on paper. Besides that there is hardly any difference. Both respond to EQ and source gear very well so incase you don't like the sound you can just get appropiate source or Use EQ quite liberally to make them less bassy, less trebly, etc. also i can't explain why but for some reason both 99's sound much cleaner in balanced 4.4mm than in 3.5mm, like there is noticeable modest upgrade in resolution and imaging even when volume matched. TLDR- Classic more rounded smooth like, but accurate instruments, bass bleed noticeable; Neo more energetic, so bass bleed hidden on some tracks but still there, has more texture but at cost of some intruments sounding a bit off sometimes. Both EQ vey good, good idea to get source as per preference. 2. Compared to 99s FiiO FT1 is more neutral sounding but has tad bit less bass than normally neutral. Tuning is very safe and balanced overall, very negligible bass bleed to midrange, but still there. In terms of technical performance resolution, imaging, etc. Meze's are more capable, but only by a modest margin, no timbre issues here Unkile Neo, but this headphone sounds a bit dry, like impact of instruments like piano, drums, guitar, etc. is a bit underwhelming, like when a piano key is pressed or drums struck or guitars plucked, etc. you feel that in Mezes but in FiiO its like oh...that happened. In terms of Response to EQ'ing and source pairing, it did good, but i was not able to get that engagement feel that Meze's had. i increased bass and did a lot of tinkering with lower and upper midrange changed to warmer source like Cayin N3 Ultra and got it very close to Meze's impact but I think i got limited by the driver capability of the FiiO. Overall i think FT1 is very neutral, versatile and safer tuning than Meze's out of the box Warmer signature. Also there was no difference in sound or technical abilities changing from 3.5mm to balanced 4.4mm for FiiO. TLDR- FiiO FT1 is neutral, balanced and versatile, unlike Meze's which are more technically capable and has 2 different flavours of warm signature. But value wise FiiO costs less than Both Meze's (atleast in my region). EQ and source pairing response Good but not as good as Meze's. Conclusion - I think cost value wise Fiio FT1 definitely is the way to go, for marginal sacrifice in technical performance it gives you almost same performance as Meze's at lesser cost. But other wise i would go with one of the Meze flavours, if i can swallow that extra cost for those marginal improvements. Also i think Meze provides different value proposition for being more expensive like, if you want your headphone to be repairable, better built quality and availability of spare parts in the future, the Meze design asthetics, more variety of out of the box accessories, Meze's self adjusting fit etc. I think FiiO is catching up to Meze's quality but they still require more work to be done. This tells me the drivers of Meze's are simply very polished with revisions and improvements over the Years to stand the test of competition in the market, no wonder they still keep selling these even now. But man Competition is cutting it very close. In the end i could not justify the extra cost for the 99 classics over the Fiio but i liked the warmer engaging feel of the meze but there was too much bass bleed for my taste from the 99 classics, also i wanted easily repairable closed back for regular use, since, i am not certain that Fiio would be keeping any spare parts support for FT1 like pads, hinges, etc. So i settled on 99 Neo instead. Finally i compromised on the timbre factor and got a HiBy R6 GEN III DAP to remedy it via MSEB which fortunately Worked Wonders.

[@TheHonestAudiophile]

Thanks for the impressions

[@MrPINKFL0YD]

Everyone needs a pair of Senheisier 600s end of story

[@TheHonestAudiophile]

Can't argue with that 💯

[@larsjunge]

Yes, if you dont mind maximum clampforce, minimal sound stage and a cheap plastic feeling 😅

[@giannisapostolopoulos9217]

Thanks Dave, weren't these headphones silently revised to a lesser V shape a while ago? I remember reading about it.

[@TheHonestAudiophile]

No idea, this is the first time I've ever heard them.

[@AronAddams7]

I prefer the classics, wish it had a bit less bass. It also looks much better.

[@TheHonestAudiophile]

Absolutely 💯

[@sunnytang740]

👍👍

[@imabeliever85]

These are good headphones, I wish they folded up

[@TheHonestAudiophile]

Yes, totally agree 💯

[@Anomalyn1]

Had the 99 Classics a few years ago, i sold them because they were too boomy for my taste, otherwise nice headphones.

[@davegorthuis679]

For me that was exactly the same

[@davegorthuis679]

Both these headphones are fun sounding headphones, just like the latest Fiio FT1 however that last one is a step up sound quality wise imo.

[@wtfgebeurdmij2991]

Yeah these headphones are fucked up ever since the original pad manufacturer went out of business. Whole frequency response went to shit. ( It used to be great ) Recently they even tried to change the tuning again for the new pads with new damping and air vents at the swiffle headband thingy. Did not help at all. Both headphones sound terrible right now.

[@TheHonestAudiophile]

Interesting, haven't heard the Fiio FT1

[@Anomalyn1]

@@TheHonestAudiophile DMS did a review on it. It's quite cheap.

[@wtfgebeurdmij2991]

Yeah these headphones are fucked up ever since the original pad manufacturer went out of business. Whole frequency response went to shit. ( It used to be great ) Recently they even tried to change the tuning again for the new pads with new damping and air vents at the swiffle headband thingy. Did not help at all. Both headphones sound terrible right now.