skerry your initial comments below:
About 99Neo, I wasn't sure yet what to tell about them or if it is okay to break the surprise so early
As I said back then, they have a sound that is really good. Shocking good even. After testing so many headphones, it's easy to spot something that sounds interesting. While 99C would be defined by huge potential, 99N would be even better in their stock form, affirming more of that potential (which probably exists within the driver).
This is a questionable note, but making the headphone cups out of plastic has a positive impact of the sound to my ears. While the sound loses the warmth provided by the wood, it gains even more definition to the textures by default, and even better details. 99N needs a different EQ curve and I wasn't able to do it on the spot as I generally take a few hours while EQ-ing equipment and do it with professional tools for this. The thing is, 99N sounded so good by default that they didn't even need me to do so much EQ. The typical resonance Frequency of wood is felt with 99C, but the plastic of 99N provides a shorter resonance span and less incidental waves.
I've no idea how the cups look on the inside or anything, but the psychoacoustic differences between wood and plastic are well documented and plastic by itself can have a broad array acoustic properties depending on the density and proposed shape.
All I can say is that 99N sounds even better than 99C to my ears, the sound being faster, solid, but not dry. They are precise but the sound is still fun. The ADSR and textures are even better nuanced and the soundstage felt a tiny bit airier on 99N given that plastic has another absorption level of frequencies, giving a few more reflected waves resulting in an even better soundstage. 99C sounds pretty natural in this aspect, but the new changes only makes things better!
All in all, the idea of 99N costing even less money is good news as well. It is understandable since wood is an expensive material to produce and process, but I think that with the new design, 99N looks really good as well since the black plastic and general design is very attractive, gives 99N a whole design of their own, which feels industrial , grungy, edgy but still classy enough to be used in a business environment.
99C feels sweeter, smoother, more melodic, but the differences are not very big. I think that a buyer would be happy with either and the design differences and better price are important aspects to look into when making a choice between them.
