We do not want to roll out the company history and philosophy now, as anyone interested can read for themselves when visiting the meze homepage. At least, the 99 Neo is a logical continuation of what was started with the 99 Classics more than a year ago. Instead of opulent walnut optics, there is now rather unobtrusive plastic and otherwise a little bit has been honed on the outside.
The saying good does not have to be expensive, one can of course also convert into good may be a bit expensive. At least as long as the price is still in tangible relation to what is being offered. While almost 250 Euros can be quite justifiable, if you look at the prices for really good headphones. But can the 99 Neo really meet this rather high standard?
We know that the audience among our readers for such headphones will not be huge, but the interest in good and rare products is still likely to be unbroken. That's why we start a self-experiment with the 99 Neo from Meze.
Accessories and scope of delivery
For the proud price you can of course expect something and so you will find in the packaging a quite stable headphone box with zipper, which includes all three-give. In addition to the headphones, there is a travel adapter for the aircraft, a jack adapter to 6.3 mm, and two connection cables in Y-type, in which each of the two earcups is connected separately.
While the slightly longer one is a simple 3.5mm stereo jack cable, the other with multi-pin connector has a small control unit including multifunction button for moibile terminals, as well as a small, built-in microphone. The clean rubberized cables end in fairly trustworthy looking metallic plugs. It all fits, now only the rest has to be right.
Optics, feel and comfort
Let's just see what we have and how the 260 grams of live weight (without cables) are so touched. When it comes to tooling, Meze hasn't let himself be lumped and combined really neat ABS plastic with a very good metal mechanics. The material mix doesn't look quite as classy visually and haptically as it did with the 99 Classic, but as you know, this is also a matter of taste and price. The metal applications and the matt black handle are rather cool, the Kopus very warm.
By the way, you don't have to be afraid of fingerprints, because a slightly fluted surface simply puts away such everyday things with a gesture of nonchalance. The self-adjusting pull-out mechanism in the headband works quite well, but the contact pressure from hat size 62 was a bit too high for us. After all, the shells were tight and airtight, and even a light headbang test was mastered without a start into a geostationary orbit. However, it is precisely this pressure that we will have to respond to later.
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The control unit mentioned above in the optional cable for mobile devices works quite well and is also positioned reasonably appropriately. The button is grippy and big enough. Since the cables are quite thick, the exact rotation is of course a gamble, as the position can never be held permanently. But this fate is shared by all systems with cable control due to their design.
Upholstery, driver, interior design and tuning
The first Question Time already took place after we had taken a closer look at the ear pads. The somewhat lax foam with the covered PU-leather imitation seals the air movement quite well, but the sound from the outside is not completely. That's fine. But the newly formed cushions, which have grown in size (but not in depth), also have their acoustic pitfalls, as we will see (and hear) later.
The basic law of headphone design has been for years, that shell, damping and upholstery influence the actual sound characteristic ("signature") the most and rather less the installed drivers. They almost always come from the big OEM shelf and are just waiting for what you make of them later.
What Meze installs here comes from higher-quality 40 mm stacks, but this is completely sufficient as long as the stroke is correct and the membrane is not scrap. The advantage of the rather small membrane diameters lies in their slightly higher torsional stiffness, which usually also suits the heights and the settling behavior very much. Meze has covered the drivers on the top with someth textile and relies on medium-thick fleece adhesives when covering the recesses for pressure equalization in the driver shell. Test closing half of the openings makes the headphones a little drier and harder. So you still have easy options for influencing yourself.
The upper shell can be loosened and removed fairly easily with a T6 screwdriver. Inside, we find only minimal cushioning with the small piece of oval foam. Without wanting to anticipate the sound check and the measurements – if you want to have a little less upper bass, you can also plug a little tighter here. Either use a denser material or simply more of what is already in it.
Meze is working more towards maximum levels here, which may also be the case with mainstream voting. If you like it a little more restrained, you can dampen it a bit, but this also slows down the low bass a bit. The soldering quality is good and the cables used are also qualitatively appropriate to the price. The same is true for the bushes, whose contacts definitely do not come from the low-cost shelf. But as it all sounds when we screw it back together, we read exactly one page further…
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