I’ve always been a fan of underdog brands, and Romanian headphone maker Meze definitely counts as one. The company has been making wave amongst audiophiles, and today we have in for review their most affordable headphones – the £185/$199 Meze 99 Neos. These are far from cheap headphones at that price, but when the other end of Meze’s range tops out at €4000 they’re still relatively modest!
As you’d hope, the Meze 99 Neo still carry a certain air of authority with their black textured plastic earcups and zinc alloy headband. They actually look more expensive than they are, and their blend of high-quality metals and plastics goes some way to justifying the price point – though they of course don’t look or feel quite as premium as the wooden earcups of the Meze 99 Classic. The headphones are well-built too, held together entirely by screws and metal fixings to ensure complete repairability. I haven’t felt the need to test this, but reports elsewhere suggest they’re easy to tear down.
What’s particularly intriguing about the 99 Neos is their suspension-style self-adjusting headband. I’ve never been the biggest fan of this design, but the 99 Neos are effortless to wear – and this is helped by some seriously deep earcups and only moderate clamping force. These design features mean they outperform other headsets I’ve tested in recent months like the Grado SR325x and Sennheiser HD 660S2 in terms of comfort for me. The thick cushions also provide good passive noise isolation. This makes the 99 Neos a great set of travel headphones, and also benefits extended listening sessions.
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