[DekoniAudio]

Hey Dekoni Fans,

We're happy to announce that we now have ear pads for the Meze 99. Whether you have a Noir, Neo or Classic, you can put on a pair of Dekoni Audio Sheepskin earpads.


We understand some may be thinking, “wait, what about the other styles you offer?”. That’s a great question, human who is also an Audiophile!

We worked closely with Meze who let us borrow a pair of 99 Classics and Neo. We prototyped, tested sound signature, and had listening tests done by both of our companies' employees to ensure customers that we at Dekoni didn’t detract from the carefully engineered sound signature Meze set out to deliver.

Out of the four Elite styles we prototyped, only Sheepskin provided a frequency response worthy of the Meze name. If you check out the graphs below, you can see there is a dip at 300Hz in three of the four pad styles which really detracted from overall performance of the 99 Classic.

Now that you know why there is only one style available, lets go over some of the main points of upgrading to a pair of Dekoni Audio Elite Sheepskin ear pads.

• High density memory foam for added comfort
• Premium sheepskin leather for a rugged feel
• Two year warranty
• And this sweet frequency response

Thanks for checking out our newest earpads for the Meze 99. You can purchase pads now at DekoniAudio.com.

 

[393699]

No offense to you guys, but 80 US for these earpads is just ridiculous. This is just straight up ripping people off.

 

[DaYooper]

No offense to you guys, but 80 US for these earpads is just ridiculous. This is just straight up ripping people off.

69.99 on amazon

 

[jincuteguy]

Comon, where are the pads for Hifiman Arya headphones?

69.99 on amazon

But are they worth the price though? I never had a Dekoni pads before so I don't know.

 

[Mightygrey]

These don't appear to be solving any particular problem with the Meze 99 while making the bass even more over-emphasised.

 

[6PANDEMONIUM6]

I would love love LOVE it if they came out with Elite Hybrid pads for the Empyrean. I'd probably buy them in bulk. Not sure how that would adjust the frequency response though.
The magnet structure in them is probably too much of a hassle too. . . .

 

[JediMa70]

These don't appear to be solving any particular problem with the Meze 99 while making the bass even more over-emphasised.

Which is what I'm trying to reduce..

 

[DekoniAudio]

Comon, where are the pads for Hifiman Arya headphones?

We have a contact at Hifiman and are working to get more support for the various models they offer.

I would love love LOVE it if they came out with Elite Hybrid pads for the Empyrean. I'd probably buy them in bulk. Not sure how that would adjust the frequency response though.
The magnet structure in them is probably too much of a hassle too. . . .

We had a lot of trouble getting the sound signature and comfort just right for the Empyrean. We gave our loaner Empyrean back to Meze, but hope to revisit the project again in the future.

These don't appear to be solving any particular problem with the Meze 99 while making the bass even more over-emphasised.

Its always good to have options, thats how we look at it!

 

[Mark Up]

These don't appear to be solving any particular problem with the Meze 99 while making the bass even more over-emphasised.

True. This is the ONLY reason why I bought the headphones and returned them, twice. The comfort, the other aspects of sound kept wanting me to make it work. The mid bass ruined it. Honestly, they need to find a way to flatten that area, and maybe extend and increase the low sub bass (10-50 hz) and maybe extend the treble a bit while flattening that one peak in the highs. There are a few pads that do that from other manufacturers. I'll post a link to a pair that fixes the mid bass issue below, while extending the high treble a bit (ie. over 8 khz) without enhancing that spike in mid treble like these Dekoni do. The only reason I didn't keep the Meze with these pads on the was these unfortunately further roll off the sub bass when they tame the mid bass.

They came close though. These are $10 USD on Amazon and do everything except keep or extend the Meze sub bass, addressing all of the Meze issues, except for creating a new issue (losing low sub bass). I'd suggest Dekoni try to build a pad similar in design (they're just PU leather which I would often prefer to animal hide) that retains or improves in the lowest sub bass. You'd have a real winner. They also could cross-sell to ATH-M50x users. The MSR7 pads below greatly improve comfort and spaciousness while taming low mid to mid bass bloat. Unfortunately, they do lose a bit of the lowest sub bass, and don't address the overly bright ATH-M50x treble. It would not be an issue with the Meze headphones, since those area already rolled off in the highs.

https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M40x-ATH-MSR7BK-Headphones-Replacement/dp/B07SPY8FVB/

 

[staticV3]

@DekoniAudio could you please present your frequency response measurements not as raw data, but as the difference between stock and a certain pad instead? That would make it so much easier to read and interpret!
In REW this can be done by clicking on "All SPL", "Controls", then under "Trace Arithmetic" you choose the two FRs, set the mode to"A/B", and finally you click "Generate".

 

[Ethereal Sound]

Please make some pads for the susvara!

 

[Bansaku]

True. This is the ONLY reason why I bought the headphones and returned them, twice. The comfort, the other aspects of sound kept wanting me to make it work. The mid bass ruined it. Honestly, they need to find a way to flatten that area, and maybe extend and increase the low sub bass (10-50 hz) and maybe extend the treble a bit while flattening that one peak in the highs. There are a few pads that do that from other manufacturers. I'll post a link to a pair that fixes the mid bass issue below, while extending the high treble a bit (ie. over 8 khz) without enhancing that spike in mid treble like these Dekoni do. The only reason I didn't keep the Meze with these pads on the was these unfortunately further roll off the sub bass when they tame the mid bass.

They came close though. These are $10 USD on Amazon and do everything except keep or extend the Meze sub bass, addressing all of the Meze issues, except for creating a new issue (losing low sub bass). I'd suggest Dekoni try to build a pad similar in design (they're just PU leather which I would often prefer to animal hide) that retains or improves in the lowest sub bass. You'd have a real winner. They also could cross-sell to ATH-M50x users. The MSR7 pads below greatly improve comfort and spaciousness while taming low mid to mid bass bloat. Unfortunately, they do lose a bit of the lowest sub bass, and don't address the overly bright ATH-M50x treble. It would not be an issue with the Meze headphones, since those area already rolled off in the highs.

https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M40x-ATH-MSR7BK-Headphones-Replacement/dp/B07SPY8FVB/

Did your 99 Classics come with the new or old pads? The old pads are available on Amazon.

 

[Evshrug]

These don't appear to be solving any particular problem with the Meze 99 while making the bass even more over-emphasised.

Just saying, the stock Meze 99 variants are very popular, but their classy wood and metal headphones are accompanied by PU pads. This gives a sheepskin option.

Another thing is the Sheepskin graph shows about a 2.5 dB higher bass... but also an “increase” of about 2.5 dB in the mids and highs as well. What’s really happening here is the frequency response is very similar to stock, but there is a bit less midbass in the 300-500 Hz range, and all of Dekoni’s comparison graphs are equalized at 300 Hz for consistency. So, if everything is the same balance except a dip in the midbass, the Sheepskin pads on the Meze 99 will actually sound like they have a bit less bass warmth, with less bloat and tighter bass while retaining the extended sub bass.

I’ll be writing a separate sound description post for Dekoni and these pads in the usual Dekoni measurements thread.

 

[DekoniAudio]

Please make some pads for the susvara!

We are prototyping right now.

 

[Mark Up]

Did your 99 Classics come with the new or old pads? The old pads are available on Amazon.

I actually was a tester of the original 99 Classic on Head-Fi when it first came out. Great headphone except the ear pad opening was too small, plus they'd lacked lower sub bass. Then I'd tried the new Classic which had better ear pad space, this improved the stereo image and width and depth and they had slightly smoother highs, but way too much mid bass to low mids. Then I tried the 99 Neo and they sounded the same, with maybe slightly less high details, and slightly less mid bass bloat, but still, too much. As Dekoni stated above, they may be reducing the low mid area with their pad about 300 hz or so, but 99% of the low end issues are the mid bass bloat up into the lower mids (80 hz to 160 hz).