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A community member
Nov 2, 2018
I thought the standard version with the gold looks nicer than the MD version, and I didn't want to wait so long, so I purchased a pair at full price on Amazon. Here are my impressions: (4 Stars out of 5) I can understand why these cans get so many rave reviews. The highs have the most beautiful texture to them. Crisp and detailed without any harshness or sibilance. The midrange is exactly right, with no bright peaks or perceptible recesses. I experienced no ear or head fatigue after 2 hours of continuous listening at high levels. They are surprisingly easy to drive. I like my music loud, and even running them straight from my Galaxy S8 without any external amp or DAC, I can get surprisingly loud, clean levels. The headphones are the most comfortable pair I own, out of a large collection, exceeding even the cozy AKG K701. They look beautiful, and the cans, case and cables all exude the feel of quality. The midbass is the achilles heel of these headphones. There is a cloudy bloom in this range that sounds like the resonance of the walnut enclosure. It is prominent enough and undesirable enough in character that it is a rather constant annoyance to me, unless I'm listening to music mastered between the late '70s and early 90s, where there tends to be less relative content in this frequency range. Normally this would be a deal breaker for me, but the mids and highs are so gorgeous that I still recommend these headphones and rate them highly. The low bass is nondescript. It is there in proper balance, but isn't especially punchy, tight, nor articulate. It doesn't sound bad, rather its overall character simply leaves me utterly nonplussed. The low bass is quite vibrant though, which is good. Some folks claim these phones are dark or rolled off in the high frequencies. I don't find this to be the case at all. They certainly don't have boosted highs like the Beyer cans, HE400i, or the venerable but grossly overrated ATH-M50X. I suspect that those who perceive the highs as less prominent are listening at low volume levels and their perceptions are colored by the Fletcher-Munson curve. This states that human ears are less sensitive to bass and treble at lower volumes. Therefore, cans with boosts in these ranges sound more balanced to those who listen at low levels, whereas a headphone like this one will sound more balanced at higher levels, as the headphone itself is indeed more balanced, and the human ear's frequency response curve is rolled off at lower volumes. Lastly, my first pair had a notable channel imbalance. One driver was noticeably louder than the other, shifting the balance well to one side. I confirmed the problem was in the headphone by swapping the left ear to the right and vice versa (problem shifted to the other side of my head with the rotation of the headphone), summing the music source to mono to ensure the problem was not in the recording (balance still shifted in mono), and lastly, swapped the cables to the opposite driver (problem remained on same side of headphone). In addition to the imbalance, there was a mismatch in frequency response, as evidenced by listening to a monophonic sine sweep from 20-20kHz. There were a few areas of the range where the image drifted to one side or the other, although the drift was rather small and less perceptible than, for example, the 3 Hifiman planar models I own. I have ordered a replacement pair and hope to have better results with the balance. I will revise down if the second pair exhibits a similar problem. Otherwise, recommended despite its midbass tonality. The mids and highs are that good. UPDATE: I received my replacement pair No channel balance issue with the second pair, so my first must've been defective. BUT, the small but noticeable frequency response discrepancy between the drivers still exists, as noted by ear with music and with a sine sweep test tone. Thus, the imaging could be better- some vocals, guitars, bass, etc. mixed dead center in the original recording will present slightly panned to the left or right depending on what part of the frequency spectrum they occupy. However, this is common in cans in this price bracket. Lastly, on my second pair, one of the two cables was defective. The TRS cable was fine, but the TRRS cable with the inline mic sounded like it was miswired out of phase, with a very hollow sound. The effect was similar to a plug not inserted all the way into the jack, but it was. source device was Galaxy S8. This phone works fine with other headphones with TRRS plugs and inline mic/remotes, so the problem is definitely in the Meze. I didn't test this cable with the first pair, so I'm not sure if this issue is a one-off manufacturing defect, or a design defect / incompatibility. Still really like these headphones though. UPDATE #2: I received the replacement TRRS mic/remote cable. Meze's support was excellent, they replied within a day and by the end of the week I had my new cable. The new cable works fine, so I must've just got a bad one, and there is no inherent pinout incompatibility with the S8.
DareToBe
213
Dec 6, 2018
The frequency response discrepancy is so annoying. I don't have Meze, but I've experienced frequency response discrepancy from Hifiman, MrSpeakers and Audioquest. It becomes super annoying when vocals are affected, though I can tolerate a little bit inaccurate imaging of instruments. Sometimes I was able to try a few and find a good one. It's even safer to buy a demo copy than a new pair from these "rising star" brands. Maybe they are just green to mass production. The famed Japanese and Germany brands usually do a better job.
cwelton17
108
Mar 14, 2019
Hmm the reviews of questionable mid-bass seem consistent. Hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised but I'm starting to wish I had just saved the money to put towards a pair of Focal Elex's...
Pringoslav
45
Feb 22, 2020
i have the same issue. the left side driver is much louder than right side driver. im fighting that using windows sound control panel. ive set left channel to 8% volume, while right side is at 10%. that centers the volume perfectly. I ordered meze 99 noir only for outdoor use because i already own hd6xx for home use. looks like ill have to get replacement headphone too.
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