[koover]

I have the Neo and I agree with Marks description...and recommendation. I was able to borrow Fostex Purplehearts for a weekend a year or so ago and I did experience some listeners fatigue. Recently I was testing the Neo for comfort (stock pads) to see how long I could wear them continuously without needing a break. After 12 hours (!!!) I finally had to stop as it was 4am and I needed some sleep. I listened to many albums of various genres. I actually wanted to keep going!

I would like to add if the Purplehearts peak your intestest, doing the Lawton driver dampening and swapping out with the Ori pads transforms the PH’s into another HP. I wasn’t crazy about them until those two mods happened. Now they are “close” to a TOTL HP (or probably an upper tier midfi can) and I couldn’t be happier.
The bass is so much cleaner, punchier and tighter, mids are pushed forward a bit and the treble is definitely tamed. My 2 cents. Then adding an extremely inexpensive pad attenuator ring in each pad made out of simple cardboard gives it a bit more punch in the bass.
I absolutely love the 99 classics and will NEVER give them up. They are IMO the best HP in this price range. Again, my opinion only. These 2 HP’s satisfy my bass needs and believe both are exceptional values in monetary value and sound. Either one you can’t go wrong with but you must do the mods on the PH’s before I would strongly recommend them.

 

[mbwilson111]

I would like to add if the Purplehearts peak your intestest, doing the Lawton driver dampening and swapping out with the Ori pads transforms the PH’s into another HP. I wasn’t crazy about them until those two mods happened. Now they are “close” to a
TOTL HP and I couldn’t be happier.

The Purplehearts belong to my husband...I was just checking them out that one time. The Neos are mine ( he has Classics). Between the two of us we have so much variety to choose from if we want to do comparisons. Personally I would just rather enjoy my music so I don't normally try to be too analytical. At the moment I am rocking Gary Moore's Still Got the Blues with some buds

 

[koover]

Awesome. I’m the same way. No analytics for this guy. Tell your husband he just needs the dampening mod and he’ll be a happy guy. It’s easy to do or he can send it to Lawton and it’s cheap.
I’m getting the Neo’s any day now on a borrow for about a month and really looking forward to hearing them.

 

[mbwilson111]

Tell your husband he just needs the dampening mod and he’ll be a happy guy

I am sure he will see your post. We are in the UK so I doubt it is easy to send them. Paid a fortune already on import fees when they arrived.

 

[Bansaku]

Ok, I think it's time to bring up a topic that has been bugging me for more than a year now. What is up with statements claiming that the 99 Classics have stronger bass than the 99 Neo (and respectively the 12 Classics vs the 11 Neo)? Compared to the Classics, I find the Neos are bass cannons! The 99 Classics have about the same bass quantity as my AKGs and HD 600 whereas the Neos are more akin to the DT 770 or ATH-50, making the Porta Pro seem weak, and rivaling my Mee Atlas in quantity! I find the bass quantity the Neo have over the Classics to be substantial, regardless of the pads I have tried (originals vs gen 3) and regardless of the source. Perhaps the 99 Neo I had during the pre-launch tour do not reflect the bass quantity as the official production model, however having both the 11 Neo and 12 Classics on hand I can safely say the Neo are better suited for EDM and the Classics more jazz-rock. But hey, that's just my ears....

 

[nmatheis]

My thoughts echo what @Bansaku said above as pointed out in a post earlier in this thread (LINK). Personally I found 99 Neo's warmer, more spacious sound signature really went well with electronic, classic rock, and metal.

 

[Mark Up]

I find the bass quantity the Neo have over the Classics to be substantial, regardless of the pads I had tried (original v gen 3) and regardless of the source.
Perhaps the 99 Neo I had during the pre-launch tour do not reflect the bass quantity as the official production model. But hey, that's just my ears.

I don't know if they changed the Classic beyond the pads. I did the pre-launch tours. Classics with old pads (maybe different in other ways) on that tour were kind of a brighter HD650 closed version in terms of bass content. The Neo had substantially more, but it had the newer larger pads. So I bought new Neo for myself and got the same sound. Bought new Classics to see the differences made by newer pads (and maybe something else). Brand new Classics are bassier, with more mid bass also, have a drier midrange and more treble than brand new Neo and I'd swapped the pads between each of them, and got the same result. Burnt them both in, same thing. Tyll's graphs showing differences with a bit more bass in the Classic are what I heard too. Dryness I mention in the mids on the Classic make them slightly less fun, the inner wood being less reflective seemed to help that. I thought the Neo had a bit of a "cupped hands" sound on initially hearing them, but I realized I was just hearing every midrange reflection true to the source. Some of the best midrange I have ever heard and again, smoother highs than the Classic.

 

[Bansaku]

Ya know, maybe it is the wood and each cup's unique grain and density that is causing the differences between not only other 99 Classics but Neo as well. My Classics had less treble (air) and bass (impact and resonance) than the Neo I had on the pre-launch tour, and I found the mids on the latter more dry. I will say this, with the small original pads on the Neo the mids are, in all honesty, some of the best I have heard, even surpassing the Classics in terms of smoothness.

Also, some Classics I have noticed do not have the cloth grill over the drivers. It is by no means a thin piece either, so I wonder if that too is partially responsible for the differences in FR response. Actually that last statement is rhetorical; I KNOW that cloth in front of any headphone's drivers affects the sound.

 

[Mark Up]

You have to wonder if there is variation in general with one set from another, not counting revisions made. I didn't check the old one but the brand new classic has fabric over the speaker.

 

[nmatheis]

Again, @Bansaku and I seem to have very similar impressions of the two. I just ordered Meze's fat, high-end copper cable to see if that helps provide a little more warmth and sparkle similar to the Effect Audio Ares II I've been using with my IEM.

 

[Bansaku]

Again, @Bansaku and I seem to have very similar impressions of the two. I just ordered Meze's fat, high-end copper cable to see if that helps provide a little more warmth and sparkle similar to the Effect Audio Ares II I've been using with my IEM.

I just looked up the Ares II cable, and I will guarantee the awesome Meze OCC cable will have a similar outcome, judging from my own experience. Subtle but noticeable, at least with my gear.

On a related note, I just finished whipping up a custom 8 wire 6N OCC cable for a fellow Head-Fier's PSBs (braiding wire sucks!), and the difference between my tiny gauge 4N quad wire to 6N octo thick ass wire took me by surprise! I thought the cable might be overkill, but now I am wondering if my OCC cable is in fact OCC!

Anyway, OCC is king! I couldn't imagine my cans without it, nor could I live with the standard stock cables (I even re-wired my SR60 with OCC). I still haven't re-made my Classic's OCC cable after I threw on an XRL plug, followed by HD 600 plugs for my testing of the HDV 820 , and man oh man am I missing it! While the stock cable is by no means terrible, my ears notice the difference. It's like forgetting your new boots at work and having to wear your old ones for the weekend.

 

[Mark Up]

OCC is the best flexible cable option. Solid Core Copper (of high value, ie. 7N) of a moderately thick gauge is the best, but it's not flexible enough for convenience. I wonder if anyone has tried the silver OCC, I usually avoid it for it's zingy character vs. copper, but these cans could benefit from that (I mean my NEO, though the Classic could, to my ears it already had plenty of highs).

 

[Jack-A]

Finally got and installed my MSR7 pads. To me they don't seem to be mutch deeper than the original pads, maybe couple millimeters more or so. The cloth that sits in front of the driver is much thinner than hsn the original, like really thin. The high's sound quite harsh because of this and the mids are gone too, making them sound qyite V-shaped . But yeah, thats what you get when ordering from ebay.

 

[Dobrescu George]

Meze are working on something awesome!

More news about empyrean are flowing on Instagram and such!

 

[koover]

Meze are working on something awesome!

More news about empyrean are flowing on Instagram and such!

Need........much.......more......info!!