Massdrop x Meze 99 Noir Review (Headphone)

[IAtaman]

it’s truly funny how audio perception is. I own a Utopia, HEKse, Beyer T1, many summit phones and ordered this on a blind buy, this was one of the most impressive $200 pairs I’ve ever owned Now the massdrop AKG K7xx, got that too and it’s bloody awful and grating on my ears.

I don't think you need to be spending $200 to get this type of sound signature.

 

[solderdude]

My impressions of the Meze 99:

The Meze 99 Classics sound overly bassy and ‘fat’. For those that prefer a ‘neutral’ and natural sound it is not the perfect headphone. It has a ‘hollow’ sound to it and upper) mids are recessed.
When using on portable devices and listening to popular music the described sound is not necessarily a bad thing. Pop recordings actually do not sound poor on this headphone and can see why many people are liking the sound.
The mids also have a ‘thick’ signature, as in lacking clarity/presence, and is way too ‘laid back’ for me.
To me it sounds fatty, bassy, hollow and lacks ‘bite’ which are all negative words but many others may find it pleasantly bassy, warm, laid back with pleasant soft highs.
There is no ‘sharpness’ to the sound which many people may find pleasing.
The treble is subdued compared to the bass but not of poor quality. Smooth would be a good description.

Totally different from Utopia and HE1000SE.
It could be the Meze with a poor seal could be not that bassy at all as it is quite seal dependent.

 

[mmmdc]

Does anybody know of any measurements made with the Yaxi stpad2? I think they do wonders for the tonal balance but I'd be curious to see how true that actually is.

 

[Ron Texas]

I found the EQ suggested by our host in this thread to have some excess energy in the 600 Hz to 1200 Hz range so I came up with this:
Equaliser: Generic
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 401.0 Hz Gain 4.00 dB Q 3.000
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 180.0 Hz Gain -10.00 dB Q 1.000
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 2500 Hz Gain 3.90 dB Q 1.400
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 8600 Hz Gain -5.00 dB Q 4.000
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 680 Hz Gain -2.00 dB Q 2.000

It's a combination of our host's EQ and the Oratory1990 recommendations and is a work in progress.

 

[Ron Texas]

Here is my second try this time combining the optimized EQ in this thread with Oratory1990's EQ:

Preamp: -5 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 47 Hz Gain -7.25 dB Q 1.0
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 208 Hz Gain -10.0 dB Q 1.0
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 415 Hz Gain 5 dB Q 2.2
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 680 Hz Gain -2 dB Q 2.0
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 2500 Hz Gain 4.0 dB Q 1.4
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 8600 Hz Gain -6 dB Q 4.0

I'm using the built in Audio Units PEQ in Foobar2000 for MacOS which will not allow a Q less than 1.0. However the additional EQ at 47 Hz helps a lot.