Second time is the charm

Design

• Self-adjusting headband
• Hand-finished walnut earcups
• Detachable earpads

Of all the ‘not much seems to have changed’ aspects of the Meze Audio 99 Classics (2nd Gen), design is a big one. At a glance, you’d be hard-pushed to tell the new model from the old one – the same slender metal outer frame with vegan leather headband inside, the same CNC-machined, hand-finished, polished walnut earcups… but there have been changes. They’re just very subtle.

The earcups are larger than before – the increase in internal volume is intended to help reduce standing wave interaction and thus improve bass control. The earpads have become larger too, which is good news for those of us who might be blessed with larger-than-average ears, and now the vegan-leather-over -medium-density-memory-foam pads can be detached thanks to a reworked six-point clip-in arrangement.  

The headband is self-adjusting, thanks to a concealed length of sprung steel, and it contacts the outer frame using gold-coloured cast zinc hardware. The same material is used where the frame contacts the earcups.

Without the cable attached, the 99 Classics (2nd Gen) weigh a very manageable 290g – and the nicely judged clamping force and painstaking hanger arrangement means these headphones are not any kind of burden to wear, even over extended periods.

Or, at least, they’re not if your head is of appropriate size. These are fairly large headphones, certainly a little larger than the model they replace, and anyone with a head smaller than a medium is going to find them a bit much.

Specification

• 40mm dynamic drivers
• 1.8m braided Kevlar-covered OFC cable
• USB-C dongle DAC supplied

Meze Audio says it intends the 99 Classics (2nd Gen) to have a more neutral, better balanced sonic signature than the model they replace – and it has taken numerous steps to try to make good on this promise.

The size of the drivers is, at 40mm, unchanged from the original 99 Classics, and they still use neodymium magnets – but the diaphragm is now made from polyether ether ketone rather than mylar.

The company has improved its production processes in an effort to optimise driver-matching, which will obviously benefit stereo imaging accuracy and all-around audio performance. And the drivers sit behind re-engineered baffle architecture – slimmer beams and a more open grille design attempts to keep high-frequency artefacts and diffraction to a minimum.

The jack shell on each earcup is now wider – 7mm, in fact, so it is compatible with a wider range of connecting cables. And there’s a small bass vent above each connection point, designed to enhance low-frequency performance.

The cable Meze Audio provides is reworked, too – it’s an 1.8m dual-twisted length of Kevlar-covered oxygen-free copper with a 3.5mm termination.

There’s a 6.3mm adapter included in the hard case the 99 Classics (2nd Gen) travel in, and also an extremely handy USB-C DAC dongle – plug the dongle into the USB-C socket of any music source that doesn’t have a headphone socket, attach the cable to the 3.5mm socket at the other end, and you can turn any smartphone or laptop into a hard-wired source of music. 

Performance

• Spacious, detailed presentation
• Express rhythms really well
• 15Hz – 25kHz frequency response

Connect the Meze Audio to any source of music using either the 3.5mm or 6.3mm connection and the results are admirably consistent, no matter what you’re listening to or the format in which it’s stored. Every time, the 99 Classics (2nd Gen) are an open, organised and insightful listen.

A 24-bit/96kHz FLAC file of Mind Loaded by Blood Orange is presented on a big, properly controlled soundstage with plenty of space available for each element of the recording to stretch out and express itself. Low-frequency control is assured, so the moments of rhythmic eruption are given full rein, and bass sounds are nicely detailed at the same time.

The numerous dynamic shifts in volume and intensity are revealed, though perhaps not quite as explicitly as is absolutely ideal – but the more nuanced dynamics of harmonic variation (especially in voices) are identified confidently and put into convincing context.

The tonal balance, sure enough, is less coloured and more neutral than that of the model these headphones replace, and this allows the temperature of a recording to be revealed more accurately – the 2nd Gen are not inclined to stick their oar in when it comes to tonality.

They’re similarly even-handed when it comes to frequency response, too – from the deep, textured low frequencies to the chunky, bright top end via the deftly communicative midrange, each area gets exactly the weighting it requires. No area of the frequency range is pushed forward, no area is underrepresented.

There’s unity as well as clarity to the sound here – for all the space the Meze Audio create, and all the attention they pay to absences and silences on the soundstage, they’re adept when it comes to the idea of performance. There’s a togetherness and a singularity to the way the 99 Classics (2nd Gen) present music that’s by no means a given no matter how much you’re spending on some headphones.

Switch to the bundled USB-C DAC dongle and it proves to be quite adept, provided you’re not hoping to listen to DSD files. It’s certainly a step or two up from the digital-to-analogue conversion prowess of an Apple MacBook Pro, and connected to the USB-C slot of your average smartphone it will provide better sound than if you plug into the same phone’s analogue output.

Should you buy it?