Meze Audio 99 Classics Stereo Headphone - Walnut

Wall of Fame Award, Inner Fidelity

"Hours of Sonic Sustenance and Maximum Enjoyment"

The Meze Audio 99 Classics headphone delivers perfect, natural sound even to the pickiest of audio lovers. The walnut wood earcups, soft earpads, and the spring steel headband will make the 99 Classics an heirloom rather than just another pair of headphones.

"The Meze 99 Classics are simply a great headphone!" raves Tyll Hertsens, who honored it with a Wall of Fame Award in his innerfidelity.com review for February 27, 2016. "Time after time as I compared these cans against others in its category I found them not only superior in balance and natural sound, but also delivering a far more fun listening experience than competitors."

"I was immediately taken with the 99 Classics' top-to-bottom coherence: a generally even tonal spread, with no part of the audioband dominating the rest," reports Ken Micallef is his Stereophile.com review for May 17, 2019. "Depending on your playback equipment, the 99 Classics should provide hours of sonic sustenance with zero listening fatigue and maximum enjoyment."

Each Headphone is One of a Kind

Just like fingerprints, the grain in a piece of wood is totally unique. The walnut ear cups of the 99 Classics are made to showcase a satin-finished 100 percent natural wood grain. This makes each pair of Classics truly one of a kind. You will love how these headphones feel in your hands as you appreciate the sturdy build and precise assembly. Put them on, sit back, and enjoy your favorite sound of plucked strings, upbeat grooves, or thumping beats while looking classy.

Wood Technology

Meze Audio takes headphone design to a new level by combining modern technology with hand crafted design, using natural materials and focusing on delivering the best premium sound. The aim is to change the perception of headphones as technical devices or cheap plastic accessories and instead create a mature product to fall in love with and appreciate.

Each wooden ear cup of the 99 Classics is precision carved on a CNC machine and then hand finished and polished. There's no glue, just nuts and bolts. The metal hardware is cast zinc and manganese spring steel.

The choice of wood is an inherently difficult one. The rich colors of walnut require the use of air drying, which is a long and expensive procedure. The process of shaping just a single pair of earcups takes up to eight hours. Sanding, lacquering, and finishing takes a full 45 days. Finally, the wooden components are carefully inspected, and no flaws are permitted to reach the final assembly.

Total Comfort

The 99 Classics features a self-adjusting headband and soft, cushioned ear pads that cradle your head. The stamped manganese spring steel headband delivers even pressure across your head, for any head size. The ear pads are crafted of medium density memory foam, which feature sound isolation, inviting you to get lost in your music for hours. Find your bliss in warm, natural/balanced sound.

Fully Serviceable

Meze Audio strives for precision in every component used in the construction of the 99 Classics, which feature premium materials all the way These include CNC carved real wood walnut ear cups, cast zinc alloy hardware with electroplated coating, a stamped manganese spring steel headband, medium density memory foam ear pads and soft PU leather ear pad covers. There's no plastic to see or feel. Your hands and eyes will love the experience.

These are headphones to treasure and to keep. In addition to the warranty, Meze Audio guarantees that the 99's are serviceable if any parts ever need to be replaced, because Meze built these headphones to last.

Premium Cables and Other Accessories

The included detachable cables for the 99 Classics are special, too, both using threaded 1.5mm connections on one end and a 3.5mm plug on the other end. One cable is 4' long (1.2m) with a one-button remote control for portable use, and the other cable is 9' long (3m) for home use. Both cables use premium signal conductors made from OFC copper and a Kevlar jacket.

Included with the headphone is a hard EVA carrying case, cable pouch, airline jack adapter, and 6.3mm gold-plated jack adapter.

Product Features

Overview

Closed-back, circumaural over-the-ear headphones
Transducer size: 40mm
Ear-cups: cured and finished walnut wood
Cast zinc alloy hardware with electroplated coating
Stamped manganese spring steel headband
Memory foam and soft PU leather ear pads
Detachable Kevlar OFC cables
Plugs: 3.5mm gold plated
Finishes: Walnut and gold, walnut and silver

Included Accessories

Case: Hard EVA carrying pouch
Cable: 1.2m thread Kevlar OFC with Mic and remote
Cable: 3m thread Kevlar OFC
Adapter: 6.3mm gold-plated jack
Airplane jack adapter
Cable pouch

Product Specs

Frequency response: 15Hz - 25KHz
Sensitivity: 103dB at 1KHz, 1mW
Impedance: 32 Ohm
Rated input power: 30mW
Maximum input power: 50mW
Weight: 9.2 ounces (260 gr) without cables

Product Warranty

1 Year For Headphones and Earphones

2 Years For Elite, Empyrean, Liric and RAI Penta

6 Months for All Accessories

Parts & Labor

Meze Audio Warranty Information

"Whether listening to classical, indie, electronic or hip-hop, every listening session left us warmed by the sound, as if the harshest elements of any song was softened and everything desirable expanded outward."

- Gregory Han, Design Milk, August 9, 2021

"With a sonic character that’s easy to love at first listen, the 99 Classics are pleasingly even-handed and bask in full-bodied lusciousness and clarity from top to bottom. There’s a natural warmth to the midrange..."

"The dwindling number of wired over-ears compared to a decade ago means there aren't many models around today that we’d recommend at this price point. But the 99 Classics are one of them."

"Their appealing combination of natural warmth and good insight, all-day comfort and classic looks make them an appetising option."

- What Hi-Fi?, May 3, 2021

Wall of Fame Award, Inner Fidelity

"The Meze C99 Classics are simply a great headphone!"

"Styling is elegant and simple, luxurious and jewelry-like. A little over-the-top for my taste, but I recognize this is a tasty headphone. Build quality is very good with lots of cast zinc, steel, and wood. The headphones are fundamentally screwed together and can be disassembled with relative ease for repair. Hard-side clam-shell carry case and accessorization is terrific."

"Technically, sound quality is quite good, taking a small knock for slightly loose bass. But sound the quality as heard subjectively blows through all technical assumptions and comes together in a terrifically fun listening experience. Time after time as I compared these cans against others in its category I found them not only superior in balance and natural sound, but also delivering a far more fun listening experience than competitors. The Meze 99 Classic will be hitting the "Wall of Fame" with such a wallop that it will knock both the NAD VISO HP50 and Audio Technica ATH-MSR7 off and into retirement."

- Tyll Hertsens, innerfidelity.com, February 27, 2016

2022 Recommended Components - Stereophile

"I was immediately taken with the 99 Classics' top-to-bottom coherence: a generally even tonal spread, with no part of the audioband dominating the rest. Spatial performance was good for sealed headphones, with generously sized images focused at the center of my cranium. Even at loud volumes the 99s kept their cool, never sounding shouty, edgy, boxy, or otherwise criminal in the treble. Midrange to lower frequencies were also evenly distributed. Generally, all frequencies were reproduced with well-proportioned weight. The 99s were neutral in the best sense of the word."

"Meze Audio's 99 Classics sealed-back headphones are agreeable performers with a slightly buttoned-down sound that I nonetheless found easy to love, and that worked well with a wide variety of music. Matching the physical lightness of their hardware, the 99 Classics danced nimbly and purposefully. They largely got out of the way and the let the music through, free of gross editorializing in the shape of peaked or tweaked treble, or too-rich bass fundamentals."

"Depending on your playback equipment, the 99 Classics should provide hours of sonic sustenance with zero listening fatigue and maximum enjoyment."

- Ken Micallef, Stereophile.com, May 17, 2019