About 25 years ago, I had this horrible set of Pioneer 4-Way speakers. Not the wonderful ones built in Japan with premium drivers and accurate crossovers. Nope, these were the kind of speakers you find at garage sales with cheap the near peeling off the edges, along with Cerwin Vega and old JBL’s. As much as I can criticize them, I can honestly say I have never enjoyed a stereo as much as I enjoyed ‘em hooked up to an early nineties Yamaha stereo receiver. I have since moved on to much more accurate, expensive, and well-built equipment. But to be totally honest, listening with the Pioneers was just flipping fun.

Nowadays my tastes have matured, and my headphone collection includes the Alpha Primes and the Sennheiser HD-800S’s. My search for neutrality has paid dividends, and my music collection is an eclectic blend of Stoner/Doom, Prog, World Music, Jazz and Classical. I have no complaints about my gear. However, I still remember the headbanging fun of those old speakers, and no matter how good my current headphones are, they don’t scratch that particular itch.

Enter the Meze Neo 99’s.

I tried the Classics when they were part of the tour about a year and a half ago, and reading my notes as well as my review clarified my memory of the experience. I loved those headphones, and gave them a solid four-star rating. I recently decided to reward myself with my first set of new headphones in a long, long time. Reading the reviews and thread comments confirmed my suspicion that the Neo 99’s might bring me even closer to the Pioneer experience. To make this review really, really short: I was right.

You may notice that I am rating these headphones with a rather harsh three-stars. They simply do not have the clarity and detail of the Classics, at least not compared to the notes I took. For instance, the bass bleeds all over the mids, obscuring fine details. The most recent album by Argus is a good example of what I mean...

“From Fields of Fire” is one of the best traditional or classic metal albums I’ve heard in years. The recording is exceptional, and the performance by the musicians is pretty strong. When I listen with the Neo 99’s, all of the emotional impact remains in the recording, but the tonal properties of the guitars, and especially the bass guitar, are severely lacking. Comparing the exact same recording on the exact same equipment with my venerable Grado SR-250i’s, the detail embedded in the recording was nothing short of remarkable. The sonic character of the bass as well as the drums were as if from an entirely different recording, and I heard the same thing with every other headphone that I own.

Returning to the Neo’s, the fine detail, my reason for using headphones in the first place, was all but absent. This was also apparent in the vocals, guitars, and cymbal work of the drummer. Even the bass drum presence was limited to a lively ‘thud’. As a transducer, the Neo 99’s are simply not accurate instruments revealing the subtle, and even not-so-subtle, details of the recording. But for that matter, neither were ancient Pioneer 4-Ways sold at Circuit City and the Good Guys in the 80’s and 90’s. And the more I grow in this hobby, the more convinced I am that we should all have some Pioneer/Cerwin Vega/JBL speakers in our lives. Because the truth is, when I listen to anything heavy with my other cans and IEM’s, I always seem to reach for the Neo’s to hear if they give me that extra something I crave, and they usually do. I’m just not fooling myself into believing they are anything but what they are: good headphones at a competitive price that sacrifice detail for impact.

I’m totally okay with that!

First, I’d like to thank Meze for this awesome tour. It’s been hard, reading all of the glowing reviews and waiting for my spot. By the time I got them, I was afraid that my “contrary nature” would put them at a disadvantage. I just tend to buck trends, and am skeptical about anything that gets such widespread praise.
15 seconds with these headphones took care of that concern…

BASS
A lot of people believe the bass is one of the most important aspects of a headphone….
You know what? My usual way of wanting to write a review just isn’t going to work with these headphones. In my experience, nothing about these headphones has anything to do with being ‘neutral’, ‘transparent’, or ‘revealing’. In fact, these cans sound like they don’t care about any of that.

I just can’t imagine going in-depth on each song on my reference list and describing the sonic virtues and deficits (and there are a few). Because for this guy, these headphones made music, from Ufomammut, to Frank Zappa, to Tyler Swift, sound like I want them to sound. Everything was fun, lively, and energetic. I couldn’t help but tap my toes, bang my head, and rock back-and-forth while sitting on my deck chair. Even my girlfriend smiled and tapped her fingers to the beat when she had them on. Everything was just THERE!

I did, of course, compare them to my Hifiman HE-400i’s and Mr. Speakers Alpha Primes through my Liquid Carbon amp. They 99’s did not fare so well in that decidedly un-fair competition. The just didn’t scale very well. The clarity and transparency of the Primes were just a totally different experience.But in the end, I just didn’t care. I just put them back into my iPhone, iPad, and laptop and let them do what they were born to do: BOOGIE!

I read a lot of reviews and threads bemoaning the state of the hobby, with $5000 headphones and such. But there is a lot going on in the sub-$500 category that for me, redeems the excesses at the Top of The Line stuff. I think Meze really hit the target with the Classic 99’s.

But not quite a bullseye. I found the cables, and even the frame itself, to be quite microphonic. The ear pads could be a little larger, and the pads do get a bit on the warm side.
So, I’m giving these 4 stars. I just think Meze can and will do better, and if they ever join in the TOTL battles, I’ll pick up a pair. The Classic 99’s hint at greatness, and I would like to hear what they do if they go all-out. In the meantime, I’ll be buying these. I joined this hobby for fun, and the Classic 99’s deliver as well or better than any headphones I have tried to date.

AKG K7XX
As should be obvious, I’m not a professional reviewer. Heck, I’m not even a frequent reviewer. But every now and then, I do get a desire to throw my $.02 in an interesting headphone or other piece of equipment. In this case it is the AKG K7XX, straight from Massdrop.

One of the things that keeps me in this hobby, is I just love headphones. I am always seduced by the magic that emits from the transducer. I am also entranced at the thought of the miniature room sitting on top of, or near, my ears. Every experience is different and every headphone seems to carve out its own particular niche.

These headphones have garnered enough attention that I couldn’t resist the most recent drop. I’ve read glowing reviews, with one member who I really respect, referring to them as giant killers. Really? For $199? I just had to try them, especially since for the past 4 years I’ve mostly been listening to planars from Hifiman and Mr. Speakers.

Before you read on, I will state right out the gate that rarely have I heard a headphone that I disliked so intensely from the first few minutes I wore them. In fact, my initial review was written with a one star in mind. That’s just how much I do not like what they do, although I can certainly understand why some people think this is one of the greatest bargains in headphones today. But at this moment, I have to be “that” guy who really dislikes something that’s almost universally loved. Let me explain…

BASS
A lot of people believe the bass is one of the most important aspects of a headphone. I totally agree with this, but for me it’s a matter of quality and not quantity. I have to admit; the 3 dB bump that AKG claims is compelling. It is there, and it’s rather tastefully done. But unlike other commentators on these headphones, I find that it does come at the expense of macro and micro detail.

And this is the thing that really bugs me about these headphones. A slight bass boost is always a nice thing, except when it interferes with the overall presentation. Especially when it comes to percussion. There’s something about the bass on these headphones that “veils” the kick drum on a lot of the material I love to listen to. These headphones just don’t have the visceral impact I value so much in a speaker or set of headphones. Now, Grado’s are not known for their bass, but the presentation of the bass guitar or a kick drum on my Grado SR-225i’s (with tape modification) is very distinct and clear. But the K7XX’s just don’t present those instruments as clearly and distinctly as I want.

MIDRANGE
I have very little to complain about regarding midrange overall. But that pesky bass boost gives a bit of chestiness, for lack of a better word, for vocals – especially male. Even female vocals are affected somewhat, though not nearly as much. It’s as far from “natural” as I have heard in the past couple of years.

However, the presentation of electric guitar, keyboards, and even stringed instruments is pretty good. In fact, they’re a bit above average. What is most impressive is the lack of distortion. Once material gets dense and complicated though, the mids tend to lack clarity and definition.

Going back to drums and percussion, they have very little impact. I don’t get the sense of “smack” when the stick hits the drum. For most people this might not be a big deal, but for this guy, it’s maddening not to hear that or sense that. For dynamic headphones, these just don’t seem very dynamic to me.

TREBLE
For the most part, this is their strongest presentation in the audible range. Virtually no sibilance that I could detect, regardless of material. Really good detail retrieval in the upper range as well. Most importantly, these are extremely non-fatiguing headphones. Their treble presentation makes them very easy to listen to, for extended periods of time. If you love how they sound overall, this is awesome.

IMAGE/SOUNDSTAGE/DEPTH
Okay, here’s the part where I expect a number of people to totally dismiss this review and move on to something else. By far, the strongest aspect of these headphones is their soundstage. It is wide, and under the right circumstances, they are impressive. My problem with it is it seems unnaturally so. Yes, this is because I listen to a lot of Grado and other headphones that have a more limited soundstage.

But it’s also because the depth of the soundstage is very, very shallow to me. It’s wide, and I can hear where that is fun. But it’s at the expense of imaging. By that I mean vocals seem out of proportion and larger to me than I usually experience with my other headphones. This is where I have a problem with their imaging in my head. Which reminds me, these headphones are more “inside my head” than any other set of headphones that I own. I experience no illusion that anything is in front of me. It’s all right between my ears, which when I wear them, is about 10 feet wide.

ON THE OTHER HAND
By now, it is probably clear that the AKG-K7XX headphones are far from my favorite headphones. In fact, up to this point, they are by far my least favorite that I have heard to date. I posted some impressions on the K7XX thread, and got a few suggestions for trying them under different circumstances. But it didn’t matter what the source was, didn’t matter what the amplifier was, and it didn’t matter what I was listening to. I just don’t like these headphones.

Then, I decided to watch some older episodes of “The Walking Dead”. My girlfriend is not fond of the show, so I watch it pretty much alone. Which means, I use headphones- usually the Alpha Primes from Mr. Speakers. But this time, I decided to give these a chance through my receiver, a rather average Marantz SR-7008, not a receiver generally regarded as a great headphone amp.
It was like a revelation. Almost every single objection I had up to this point regarding these headphones disappeared, and I enjoyed television on headphones like I have rarely done before. The soundstage was wonderful and everything is perfectly placed, from the birds in the background, to the zombies eating flesh in the middle. They came across is dynamic, impactful, fun, and a much better headphone for this purpose. I thought for sure I would keep them…


IN THE END
To sum it up, I was initially quite disappointed in these headphones. Music just came across as flat. Even the wide soundstage seemed to lack depth or excitement. I couldn’t enjoy any music on them at all, no matter what source or amp I used. I wrote in another tread that I can see why people love these so much: I just don’t hear it.
However, when I used them for movies/TV, the whole thing flipped for me. I’m glad I kept trying with these, because I would have missed out on an experience that I found enjoyable and in many ways, practical.
Overall, I have to rate these as a marginal “3”. They are worth the money if one favors their signature, have no apparent quality issues, and fit a very specific want of mine. But not a need. Gamers, video enthusiasts, and soundstage fans might indeed find these to be the deal of the decade. For me, they’re just a set of headphones that do one thing that I value very well. The rest- they’re okay.

TEST TRACKS
Cowboy Junkies- Crescent Moon, Mining for Gold, Misguided Angel
King Crimson- Indiscipline, Asbury Park (live)
Black Sabbath- Into the Void
Taylor Swift- Red
Lo Pan- El Dorado
Porcupine Tree- Arriving Somewhere, Trains, Anesthetize

TELEVISION SHOWS
The Walking Dead: Season 6, episodes 1 through 6
Vinyl: Season 1, Episodes 1 through 3

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT
Shiit Modi and Magni
Benchmark DAC-1
Cavalli Liquid Carbon
Burson Soloist
iPhone 6S
ipad Air 2
Oppo BDP-103
Sonos Connect

               I've been trying to write a review of these headphones since September 13th, but I've been completely stuck.  Simply put, I'm almost embarrassed by how much I love these headphones, and I find myself unable to write what I consider a critical assessment.  My favorite reviews and reviewers on Head-fi are those that are able to strike a balance of criticism and praise.  If anything is too one-sided, I lose trust in what I'm reading. So- I'm stuck...
                I've had this happen before, with my main speakers, the Ohm Micro Walsh Talls.  To me, they are the epitome of a mid-range speaker that can be truly end-game.  I bought them as a compromise between quality and convenience, and after five years I'm still very much aware that I have no need or desire for another set of speakers.  I think that the Hifiman HE-400i's are an even better value, and a better performing transducer, than my beloved Ohm's.  So I guess I should toss objectivity to the wind, and tell you why.
 
                Bass
 
                I might as well start with the Achilles Heel of headphones: bass.  I feel sorry for headphone manufacturers when it comes to this aspect of their work.  The biggest problem with bass is the variety of styles and types  that they are required to reproduce.  There is the bowed, upright bass in classical music and the plucked upright in jazz and other genres such as bluegrass.  Electric bass falls into various categories such as the Jazz Bass sound in jazz, funk, slap, and modern recordings, as opposed to the P-bass sound found in rock and blues.  Yet another type of electric bass is the Rickenbacker sound of early Geddy Lee, Yes, and a diverse blend of metal and progressive music (and of course, each of the three can be found in other genres, but I'm sticking to generalizations and cliches).  Then there's the effect-laden bass of dubstep and electronic music, synthesized bass, keyboard bass, sub-bass, movie soundtrack bass, explosions, and even ambience in live recordings.  Bass is very, very difficult to deliver across all of these and other possibilities.
                 When it comes to audio, even though I'm a bass player, I'm no bass head.  I need accuracy and detail in my headphone bass presentation.  One of the most disappointing headphones I've owned is the Hifiman HE-5LE.  Don't get me wrong, it was a fantastic headphone.  But after a few months, I realized that the awesome lower-octave of those cans was to the detriment of the midrange and overall balance.  I found myself greatly preferring the Grado SR-225i's bass presentation, which almost completely rolls-off the bottom octave and a half. The 5LE's were great for movies and soundtracks, and were like wearing subwoofers on my head, but it overwhelmed the other stuff that I listened for, including vocals and percussion.  Their replacement came with the Alpha Dogs, which extended deep, but honestly lacked the heft and weight that is present in a lot of recordings.  If the mastering is perfect, the Dogs are hard to beat, but they miss something in less-than-stellar recordings (I do have them being upgraded to the Primes at the time of this writing, so I'll hear if they do a better job in a couple of weeks).  The 225i's present the detail and nuance of the various types of bass, but fail to deliver sonic bombast when the recording calls for it.
                The 400i's, for me, are the perfect compromise.  Yes, they lack truly  serious "oomph" below 40 Hz, but they do have moderate "oomph".  They don't quite have the fine detail of the 225i's or the HE-560s that I auditioned.  But they are very, very close.  I can easily hear the difference between a Fender Jazz, Fender Precision, or the various Rickenbacker tones for electric bass. Synth bass has authority, and orchestral bass is almost perfect.  The 400i's can swing from the tasteful bass in the Cowboy Junkies' Crescent Moon to Kyuss' Welcome to Sky Valley, and then all the way over the Return to Forever's Romantic Warrior.  They are virtually effortless and transparent in this regard, and while they don't plumb the absolute depths like other headphones, they have yet to fail on anything I've thrown at them.
 
                Midrange
 
                When I think of mids, Grado comes to mind.  I just love them.  Models I have owned or heard over the past year include the 225i's, iGrado, RS1i, and GS1000e's.  They are just so easy and casual with mids, and with the exception of the GS series, possibly the ultimate rock headphones.  I'm sure many readers will disagree, but most of us can admit that a lot of rock fans love Grado, and vice versa.
The very first song I played on the 400i's as Into the Void by Black Sabbath.  It's just my ultimate fuzzed-out guitar song, and the Grado's present that song perfectly.  My first thought with the 400i's was "Holy *###, they sound just like the Grado's."  The next couple weeks was pretty much a steady diet of hard and heavy guitar rawk, and I was never disappointed.  Full, rich, saturated tone came out of these headphones, and I knew I was smitten.  The 560's did not present this kind of music so naturally and effortlessly, and the 5LE's couldn't even begin to do so.  The Alpha Dogs are too darn polite and restrained for me to really get my pulse moving.
                If there is one minor nitpick with the 400i presentation, it's with vocals, both male and female.  This is the area that reveals that they are not neutral, and that's with a slight bump I hear in the lower mids that adds a measure of thickness to voices.  It's not unpleasant, but the Alpha Dogs are my choice when it comes to vocal/choral recordings.  Other than that, or even because of that, the mids on the 400i's are so subjectively pleasing that I can live with just about any other shortcoming.
                Treble
                These are not the most extended, transparent, or "airy" headphones out there, not by a long shot.  However, like the HE-560's, they seem to walk the fine-line between too much and a slight veil.  Somehow, the zing of a cymbal crash, the slight squeal in some female vocals, and the piercing wail of a guitar solo are all presented fully without harshness or added sibilance.  Like the bass, this is a Holy Grail of headphone listening for me.  I simply don't need to change volume like I do with other cans if things get too bright, and I don't need to turn them up to hunt for detail.  The word that comes to mind is 'balance'.
                Image/soundstage/depth
                I don't really expect much of the above factors from headphones.  It could be one of the reasons I am rarely disappointed, and I consider myself lucky for that.  Still, I am aware of them, and as far as I can tell for the most part the 400i's are perfectly average for these, with one exception.  The depth presented with the 400i's is amazing to me, and I don't know how to account for it.  The Alpha Dogs are also good for this, but the 400i's kick it up a notch.  One of my favorite recordings for depth is Kill the King from the first album from the Masters of Reality.  It is a very layered and detailed recording, and the image out of the them was so good, I thought I had my main rig on.  I had to take off the headphones to verify that I was just listening to headphones.  The Alpha Dogs might have more detail, but for some reason the 400i's come across to me as holographic if the recording calls for it. That's why I can tolerate the mids in vocals, because singers usually come across as right in front of me in a way I have not experienced since I hard Magnepan 20's about 15 years ago, or Apogee Scintilla's. But honestly, ever since I heard and owned Ohm F speakers, soundstage has never been a serious concern for me, because I don't think anything can throw an image like an amazing omni-speaker like that. I don't even try...
                The Real Reason
                Everything I've written is well and good, but none of that combined is the real reason I gush over these headphones.  I gush because these observations and experiences are based on listening to them with the HP out of my Toshiba Satellite laptop using JRiver MC 20, Spotify, and recently, Tidal. If for whatever reason I need more volume than the Toshiba can supply, I use the FiiO E10.  In both cases, the experiences meets or exceeds my subjective experience with a Burson amp with either a Shiit Bifrost Uber or the DAC straight out of my Oppo BDP-103, and combined with the Alpha Dogs, HE-560, HE-5LE, GS1000e, SR-225i, or the RS1i.  Additionally, the 400i also bests the Sennheiser PX-100II and the iGrado with the same laptop. The mere idea that a $500 planar can do that with such a humble rig blows my mind.
                I can't explain it.  My degree isn't in engineering, it's in addiction psychology. I admit, it could be due to various biases, including expectation.  In the end, I don't really care, since I don't listen to headphones for any professional reason.  All I know is that the Burson is complete overkill for the 400i's, as is the Schiit Magni.  I also cannot discern one objective difference in anything between either of them and the laptop/FiiO combination: vocals, percussion, basses, soundstage, imaging, or anything. Believe me, I'm not trying to state that anyone else will have the same experience as I do with such a low-power, seemingly low-resolution rig.  The fact that I do is insane enough...
 
Postscript
                One last thing, in the interest of full disclosure.  When it comes to amps, dacs, cables, and modifications, I'm pretty much on the objectivist side of things.  I don't ascribe to hardware modifications in headphones aside from the tape mod with my 225i's.  To compensate for loudness contours and personal preference, I rely an EQ, both graphic and parametric (but not at the same time, of course.)  My adjustments are 3 db or less (mostly), and involve cutting rather than boosting frequencies depending on the volume I'm listening at or the 'signature' of the headphone. It's just how I like to do things.
Update 3/31/16
Wow, as it really been almost a year and a half?  My, how things change.  I've added new gear like the Cavalli Liquid Carbon, ventured into balanced-cable land, and tried a few more headphones.  I thought the Meze Classic 99's might un-seat the 400i's as my favorite all-around headphone, but that fear was short-lived.
I am still every bit as enthusiastic about these cans as I was back then.  In fact, even more so. The Primes continue to best them in absolute clarity, detail, and transparency.  But for me, the 400i's hit that razor-thin line between mid-fi and Summit-fi.
No headphone or IEM has come all that close to supplanting the 400i's on my personal "Wall of Awesome".  One thing changed though: I have heard a difference in balanced configuration, with a high quality amp such as the LC, which causes me to revise my earlier statement about scalability.  They do scale, and mightily so.  I also am not so enamored with them out of an iPhone or other low-power source.  They sound good, but not great, especially compared to the Meze.
Next up, I ordered the new Sennheiser HD-800S's.  It will not be a fair fight, I know that. I do not expect them to hold up to TOTL dynamics like the Senns.  But it will be an interesting experience...
In the meantime, I still stand by my 5-stars.
(Oh, and I turned in my 'objectivist card' as soon as I heard the Liquid Carbon.  Just an FYI...)
 

      I bought these over a year ago, and then for some strange reason bought a pair of Hifiman HE-5LE's about two weeks later.  I of course went nuts over the 5LE's, and set these aside for many months. Fast-forward to now, and I barely take the 5LE's out of their case, as these have become my favorite all around can, with the 5LE's being reserved for high-rez and well-mastered material. 
      I understand that Grado are a polarizing headphone, and I believe I understand why.  Most headphones that I am familiar with require a lot of power, and fairly high volume to sound their best.  In my experience, that method of listening to headphones ruins the Grado experience.  They do have a significant treble bump, and they do sound harsh on a lot of material.  However, I find that when I listen to a them at low volume, the harshness disappears, the bass seems more full, and the overall presentation is pretty good.  To get the most out of my ortho's, I need significantly more volume.  With the 225i, just about a hair above speaking volume, and I'm set with no need to boost bass or treble.
      I cannot say that these are neutral, or even accurate headphones.  But I can say that detail retrieval is excellent, and they are very revealing of the quality of source material. Not to the point of the 5LE's, but they are still impressive, to me, for a $200 purchase. That being said, I don't see myself buying Grado's for family during Christmas or birthdays.  I really don't think these are for everyone. But if you like low-volume listening with a good amount of presence and detail, these are exceptional headphones.  They definitely make me want to try other Grado's, especially the GS1000.