Meze 99 Classics Walnut Silver Headphones (Silver & Black)

Product Information

Look and Feel - This is an understated, but premium, headphone. Aesthetics are not as striking as the Empyrean, bringing a bit of a "boxy" vibe, but they maintain attractiveness for the form factor, with the bronze trim adding an elegant touch. Build quality is robust, with the headphone emanating quality while in the hand. I was interested to see if the Liric would unseat the XC as my go-to closed can, so this review will be based on that question.

Meze Audio 99 NEO - Richer Sounds

Zoom forward a few years, and Meze is now a fairly staple choice for audiophiles looking for a midrange-priced set of closed headphones. How could this happen? Usually, a company called out like this puts its tail between its legs and disappears into the shadows. The light weght invites the lazy to handle the thing with one hand only - which works, but in that case the height rods are slipping out of the set position. With two handed handling it does not happen.This being said, not even the Silver Cable won’t make the headphones a different product, they are just much better presented and more balanced, more enjoyable, and have a more pleasing sound. The Silver Cable also comes with a balanced plug, and with an adapter from the 2.5mm balanced connection, to a 3.5mm single ended connection. This means that you will be able to explore the full potential of your player with the silver cable, regardless whether you have a single ended amplifier, or a balanced one. That said, in my head, when I was listening to the Liric I would sometimes think “this is like a more mature 1540”. Both have good sub bass presence. Both are on the warm side. Both are comfortable and isolate fairly well. But then when I switched to the 1540 I would realize there are distinct differences.

Meze 99 Classics Cables - Silver and Balanced - Audiophile Heaven Meze 99 Classics Cables - Silver and Balanced - Audiophile Heaven

I’ll be honest, I didn’t spend a whole lot of time comparing them though. It was pretty obvious right off the bat that while the 1540 is a nice enough headphone in its price range, the Liric is quite a step up. I like these for almost everything regarding Genre pairing, except EDM, where I prefer having a planar headphone with more aggressive speed and impact. For everything else, though, it would be hard not to reach for the Meze 99 Classic if they were at hand. It is encapsulated in grandeur but doesn’t boom. These are the kind of headphones where you don't want a visceral, sharp bass but a smoother one that compliments the midrange's slightly warm tones. While the Liric can scale well with higher performing gear... it's not as much of a change as something like the HD650/600. Yes, it will improve, but like many planar headphones... that % of gain often times is just not worth it imo.The Liric’s sound clean throughout midrange. Nothing is over emphasized. The Elites sound a bit fuller and more natural, but this is not what the Liric’s are trying to be. The mid-tones of the Liric’s are focused and expressive in their own right. What I found in my listening session with the C9 is it adds a natural bass boost and some flavor to the midrange. Giving the mids of the Liric’s more presence without muddying up the sound. I would say one can hear that they come from the same house. This shall not lead to the conclusion that they have the same frequency characteristics though. Not too much width but fairly good localisation and decent layering. Instrument separation could be a little better, just like the separation (it's not foggy but not spot-on sharp and exact either). 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.