Massdrop x Meze 99 Noir Closed-Back Headphones Reviews | Drop

Massdrop x Meze 99 Noir Closed-Back Headphones

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Apr 7, 2019

Verified Buyer

With the small-hole pads, these guys sound essentially perfect to me. Glad I waited on them. They are also comfortable and they look great IMO. Late night keyboard practice has just gone up a notch.

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tenaciousTech

Apr 8, 2019

dan-themanI agree with preferring the smaller pads. It’s a much more cohesive sound experience, with tamed mid bass and treble. i was unsure about these at first, until I swapped pads the thought “oh, THIS is what the positive reviews of the original were talking about”

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Apr 8, 2019

dan-theman @dan-theman it seems my phones are stuck again in Frankfurt. Mind if you share some photos of your phones, especially the "revised" original pads?

(Edited)

Apr 8, 2019

tenaciousTechI had that same exact experience.

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Apr 8, 2019

I believe these are the ones you are talking about. With these on, I really get the sensation of my sampled instruments being the real thing. It’s cool—and no one else can hear you.

Apr 8, 2019

dan-themanKudos to you, for providing real pictures other than those promotion stills. And the phones are real gorgeous. Four days on, my phones are still in Frankfurt 😓.

bookman3

Apr 8, 2019

dan-theman3rd this. I was not-convinced at first -- loved the build quality and overall design, but bass was muddy. Then I read this and swapped pads. Amazed at how rich, layered, and well balanced the SQ is w/ the smaller pads -- and at what a difference pads make.

Apr 8, 2019

bookman3I was fairly bummed when I heard the larger holes pads, but with these... things are much better!

Apr 8, 2019

cheapladSort to hear. Just have patience, these are very nice and easy to drive too. My Sennheiser HD650 requires an amp and leak sound (of course). I still tend to prefer them because they are open back and the soundstage it provides, but these are my favorite closed headphones. The bass isn’t as tight as the German Maestro’s, but the rest of the range is more pleasant.

Apr 8, 2019

dan-themanYou know what, I sold my HD650 for I don’t have some good gear to feed them. Next thing I joined this drop..

Apr 9, 2019

cheapladThese things run off anything! I haven’t found a device that can’t power them well. I actually haven’t hooked them up to an amp. There may be a bit of improvement with that, but I’m not that OCD anymore. There’s a lot to be said for enjoying what you have and keeping things simple. These headphones have enough of everything to keep you satisfied I would think. They don’t image like the better open cans, but they keep things clear. To me they don’t image as well as my GMPs either, nor do they have that tight, clean bass. That said, they do play deep, they do play high, they are well balanced, they are comfortable, they don’t do anything irritating so you don’t need to EQ them or modify them beyond putting the small hole pads on which come in the box, and they are an all around sweet set of cans!

Apr 9, 2019

dan-themanYou can say it again, Dan. Having this hobby for some years teaches me a few things. Some cans/iems are really great, but doesn't means that you could play it good with your gear. Knowing what you like, and knowing what you gear is about, are very important, and they would save us tons of hard-earned cash. At one stage my plan was buying a $2K multi-BA iem (64Audio U12t to be exact). And then when I auditioned the gear, and found that I would not make the best of it without using an portable amp with my Hiby R3, which would be rather cumbersome for me. Also, U12t is, to me, rather uncomfortable. So the plan has since been scrapped. My motto now is "if R3 could not make it sing, it is not for me". I believe this Noir play great thru my R3.

Apr 9, 2019

cheapladYou can bet on it! Wise words my friend.

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TheHawk

Apr 9, 2019

tenaciousTechBasically what I take from the user impressions thus far: The stock pads shipped with the Noir are in fact the revised pads the Classics later changed to which were larger then the first iteration of the Classics that everybody raved about. Those larger pads caused the sonic shift everyone other than bassheads complained about (bloated bass, recessed highs) Seems the extra set of smaller pads the Noir comes with are much closer to what the Classics first shipped with which restore or at least get much closer to the original sound signature that early reviewers of the “Original” Classics raved about. I just might jump on these knowing this. I always loved the look of these and really like the Noir version but when I learned it was going to have the larger pads I took a pass on them (easy to spot in the promo photos as the original smaller pads are almost the size of the cups and the ones in the promo photos are quite a bit bigger) Not that I need another headphone😁 but it’d be nice to have a fun, easy to listen to headphone (without bloated bass) that’s easy to run straight off my phone/tablet Thanks for all the good info guys👍🏻

(Edited)

Apr 11, 2019

dan-themanI feel like I should add that I’ve done a fair bit of fairly objective headphone testing in the past if you are interestedhttp://dtmblabber.blogspot.com/2013/07/headphone-frequency-response-repository.html?m=0

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TheHawk

Apr 16, 2019

TheHawkWell I ended up jumping on these, shipped out last Thursday and they arrived Monday. I’ve only spent an hour or so listening to them so I won’t offer up a detailed review but I most certainly like them. I listened for half an hour of tracks I’m very familiar with using the larger ear pads they come installed with. They sounded good but I thought the mids were a little too recessed and although the bass had good presence it lacked detail. Swapped to the small hole pads and re-listened to the same tracks. In short the mids and highs sounded much better and the bass tightened up. The bass lost a little extension but the trade off of extra punch and detail is worth the tiny sacrifice. As others have noted......it just makes the overall sound more cohesive but still retains their warmth that makes them easy to listen to. In short you should definitely experiment with the pads and it’s great that it comes with two sets that definitely sound different from each other. Everybody hears differently so one persons trash is another’s treasure. And yeah......super easy to drive with my iPhone/iPad which was my primary reason to buy these.....they can play very loud without maxing your volume on YouTube, iTunes, etc.

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