Meze 99 Classics Discussion + Impressions Thread
May 29, 2019 at 12:36 AM Post #5,686 of 7,677
I put the small pads on about 5 minutes after getting the Noir, and the large pads will never go back on. I've never had a pad swap make that big of a difference, especially pads that are so similar.

Said it many many many time here in this thread; The original smaller pads make the world of difference! :metal::sunglasses:
 
May 29, 2019 at 1:47 AM Post #5,687 of 7,677
Thanks man. I think I'll go with Meze 99 Noir from Massdrop. I have the HD 58X and enjoy them immensely. Aaprt from the fact that one is open and one is closed, have anyone heard both? How do they compare?
Have you received your set yet? I haven't heard the HD58X, but I am familiar with the 6XX. I can't say the 99 Noirs are technically more precise than the 6XX, but it does offer a more fun sound signature, a slightly wider soundstage (iirc), and they're much easier to drive. The 99s achieve a level of technical competence, especially the mid-range. Taken all those factors into account, they're like a closed-back version of the Fidelio X2. If the HD58X inch closer to the X2 than the 6XX (and from what I've read it sounds like they might), then it would fit along with.
 
May 31, 2019 at 3:54 PM Post #5,694 of 7,677
I'm really glad that Meze opted to sell the smaller "new original" (getting Spinal Tap flashbacks here) pads on their site. It's great when a company listens to their customers and makes their product's lifetime last longer by offering a better ownership experience. Just felt like calling that out because it doesn't happen all that much in the era of planned obsolescence.
 
May 31, 2019 at 10:13 PM Post #5,696 of 7,677
I’ve recently noticed a big scratch across one of my Noir’s ear cup despite me babying the thing all its life. I swear it gets scratched just by you looking at it. Oh how I wish Drop would have used a more durable coating. I do know they had to cut corners to get the cost of the product down, but geez.
 
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May 31, 2019 at 11:00 PM Post #5,697 of 7,677
I've been testing a lot of different combinations with the Meze Noir to see how I can get the best sound (to me) out of them. The common threads are a) I'm using small pads in all situations, b) streaming Qobuz hi-res downloads and Tidal Masters via UAPP on phones, and c) test tracks are Hotel California (192/24 MQA on Tidal), Better Together by Jack Johnson (96/24 on Qobuz), and The Well by Tord Gustavsen (96/24 on Qobuz).

Here are the different things I've tried with comments on each setup:
  • Directly out of Galaxy S10+ - not a great pairing, the S10+ has a very ordinary DAC; eq helps some, but still nothing to write home about
  • LDAC from S10+ to Radstone ES100 - actually sounds better than headphone jack of the S10+ to my ears
  • LDAC from LG V35 to Radstone ES100 - sounds much better than out of the S10+ thanks to the eq settings on the LG; I wasn't sure if the eq was applied before the bits are sent via Bluetooth to the Radstone, but I can now confirm that they are. Clicking the various pre-set eq settings on the LG while streaming to the ES100 results in obvious on-the-fly changes to the sound quality. (**eq only impacts Qobuz files, as MQA from Tidal requires bit-perfect setting on UAPP).
  • iDSD Micro Black Label - Too dark for me, these headphones need a brighter DAC than what is in the iDSD Micro BL
  • Out of my Brooklyn DAC+ via the Pro iCAN - expected this to be clear winner, but actually it isn't; best settings I found are with the iCAN on SS mode, no bass boost (obviously) or 3D mode; midrange is very recessed coming from my desktop stack, which indicates to me that these don't really scale all that well
And the winning setups are............
  • Directly out of my LG V35 with eq reducing 125kHz band by 6db. Not only is this setup the most convenient, but it was clearly the best sounding to my ears.
  • Dragonfly Red out of both phones - I'd say sound quality from Dragonfly Red is equal to the LG V35 Quad DAC.
  • UPDATE - Oppo HA-2 SE out of both phones - I dug out my 3 year old Oppo since it has been gathering dust for over a year. Might be my favorite pairing at this point (sound wise), probably due to the bright nature of the Oppo which offsets a bit of the Meze darkness. Might also be due to me getting the parametric eq settings dialed in for UAPP.
On a side note, I swapped the standard 3.5mm cable with the Meze balanced cable from Amazon for use with the ES100 (that's the only 2.5 balanced output I have available to try). I couldn't tell any difference from the stock cable, but I did like that it is about 2 feet shorter.
 
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Jun 2, 2019 at 10:28 AM Post #5,700 of 7,677
Do the 99s sound noticeably better using a Dragonfly Red, as opposed to not when playing music from an iPhone 8?

I think so, but everyone hears differently.
 

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