![]() All plugs and cables can be kept in a small, resealable, faux-velvet pouch (provided). Also included are 3.5mm-to-¼" and dual 3.5mm airplane adapters. At the headphone ends of these cables are dual 3.5mm gold-plated TS plugsthese, rather than the earcups themselves, are marked L and Rwith a single 3.5mm TRRS plug at the amplifier ends. Meze Audio's 99 Classics, which are in the middle of the company's headphone line, arrived in a zippered hard-shell case that also contained two lightweight, detachable, Kevlar-sheathed cables: one 4' long with a one-button remote control for portable use, and a 9' cable for home use. The Zhuhai factory, with a workforce 1000 strong, also makes headphones for other audiophile brands Meze's headquarters, in Baia Mare, Romania, has a staff of 15. Vontea adds that Meze, who has experience designing products for a number of different industries, wanted to create "an object to pour his passion for music in, an object that is full of personality and life and that has its own story." Meze Classic headphones are designed and engineered in Romania and manufactured and assembled (including drivers) to Meze's specifications in Zhuhai, China. Meze Audio didn't enter the headphone business until 2009, when founder and designer Antonio Meze "was searching for a pair of headphones that he could connect to in the same way that he felt connected to his Fender Stratocaster guitar"this according to Raluca Vontea, who works as the company's brand manager. And while many of today's headphone faithful enjoy their cans on the go, others still prefer listening at home, just as in those golden days. As an aspiring musician and hash-fueled music lover in the late 1970s, listening to Jethro Tull and Joni Mitchell through Koss's original, sickly green Pro4A headphones, or Sennheiser's spongy-yellow HD 424s, was like journeying to Valhalla without leaving my smoky listening den. I remember the first headphone resurgence. So, given my big (literally and figuratively) ears and relative newbie status as a headphone listener, I'm the perfect candidate for the Meze Audio 99 Classics and their affordable price of $309. I prefer to experience recorded music at full scale and full dynamic range, with lifelike aural images dancing before me in my gritty Manhattan crib. (I prefer the isolation from outside sounds provided by closed-back 'phones.) But from the moments I sawand then heardMeze Audio's 99 Classics, with their graceful style, balanced sound, and natural wood-grained glory, they had me. And I admit that I've lusted after the heavenly sounding, medieval-looking Abyss AB-1266 Phi headphones, and considered the MrSpeakers Aeon closed-back headphones. So, my guess is that my stock cable at least was faulty.I have on hand a number of pairs of headphones. In each case, they're a big improvement over stock. I don't think it's the particular cable I chose for them either, because I use cables from Periapt, Dyson, Venus Audio, and HiFiMan randomly, just grabbing whatever is at hand. I was not impressed initially when listening with the stock cable after the swap, they've become one of my favorites. The NO cable swap wasn't that dramatic, but it had that sort of effect. I can honestly say it made the difference between wanting to sell them, even at a loss, and now listening to them pretty frequently. ![]() When I got home, I swapped the cable and the sound was immediately better. The cable for the Queen measured alarmingly badly with little consistency between channels. Well, recently at a meet-up we busted out a multimeter and started testing cables. I kept hearing about how lush and organic they were, and that just wasn't my experience. When I went on the forums, I found that my experience of those earphones did not match anyone else's. ![]() It gave them an unbearable peak around 2k and harsh metallic treble that I just could not get over. With that one, the stock cable made them sound absolutely terrible. The other one was the cable for the TFZ Queen. Out of all of those, there have only been two cases where the cable swap made a difference I was certain wasn't just a result of bad memory or placebo effect. Usually that is just to go balanced or because the stock cable is too short, too ugly, or too chintzy. At this point, I've replaced the cable on nearly all of my earphones and headphones, all except the ones that are hardwired.
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