Unfortunately, it sometimes lacks the necessary precision and firmness, so that it sometimes grumbles grumpily instead of hitting hard. Just like fingerprints, wood grain is as unique, thus making each pair of Meze Headphone a one of a kind. On poorly mastered or low bitrate songs, the 99 Neo does tend to sound a little muffled throughout its midrange, especially with genres such as hip-hop. The 99 NEO looks robust and powerful to me (especially due to the headband and the silver brackets).

Of note, they do have the larger, plusher earpads found on later 99 Classics revisions and I did find the Neo to be that much more comfortable than early 99 Classics that felt a bit cramped. For the bulk of this review the Meze 99 Classics were partnered to the AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt, which proved to be an exceptional musical partnership. Somewhat more neutral and colder music sources are recommended here in combination, since warmer ones could thicken the bass even more. As the Meze Neo shares the DNA of the Classics, we guarantee that the Meze 99's are serviceable if any parts ever need to be replaced.But for the most part, the 99 Neo performs quite predictably with a sound that is laid-back, warm and mostly familiar.

Despite the bass emphasis, mids as well as highs still have enough room to breathe and the audiophile demand does not come up short. I use must of the time high gain with X20, but not for the Meze wich I find sensible to too powerfull amping, so low gain it is and it sound delicious. This positive impression continues onto the exemplary headband which is by far one of the best I have used among the usual thin, stiff or inadequately padded units; portable headphones just have bad headbands in general. The 99 Neo might look frail due to those thin headband rails and small earcup adjustment mechanisms, though in the hand, the headphones are very solid with a reassuring rigidity to every component. With warm surroundings the pads gets warm very quickly and you can literally feel the warmness in your ears.adapters, plus both a 1m cable with in-line remote for portable use and a 3m cable for plugging into a home system.

Bass also suffers from slight bloat and tubbiness, notes aren’t as taught as I would prefer though I’m sure many will enjoy the extra punchiness and fullness provided by the Neo’s bass response. Meze Neo 99 look like a sent from heaven that have been crafted with love compared to this austere depressing Hifiman design. The box is pretty big with the image of the headphone printed on the front with the specs mentioned on the back.Since this is the second Meze 99 review we have had on the site in the past few weeks, I thought, given the similarities between the original 99 Classics and the newer Meze 99 Neo, I would be more to the point and shorter in this review as what was said during the original review applies to almost every area of the Neos. The 99 Neo’s also have pretty great detail retrieval even if their more natural, darker sound favours smoothness over aggressive detail and clarity. About design and comfort, the NEO is from another planet where audio lover body is respected and well understand, the HE-300 just feel like an insult to human body in fact. And as the piano, then the violins and cello take over from Einar, this reviewer is stilled by the beauty and forced, simply, to listen. In truth, I love the entire album for its realness and beauty and its display of profound emotional connection and musicianship.

The 99 NEO is not only visually very appealing, it also does not show any weaknesses in terms of workmanship. At the initial part of the track the guitar sounds sweet and the background instruments are separated out clearly.

Their flagship product named Empyrean Phoenix is one of a kind and I hope their 99 neo will stand to their brand image. Mids of Takstar are little more recessed even if brighter and more clearly separated from the lows, where the NEO give extra pleasant warmest to vocal or instrument and do not have upper mids harshness like the PRO82. Their respective bass responses were very close to being a match, though the Sonorous III may have gone just a wee bit deeper. I mention in the classic review that this is one of the best headphone designs of the past few years. They also have really great sub-bass extension with rather outstanding definition of sub and lower-bass notes.