Meze Audio 99 Classic HEADPHONES

I have on hand a number of pairs of headphones. 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. (I prefer the isolation from outside sounds provided by closed-back’phones.) But from the moments I saw—and then heard—Meze Audio’s 99 Classics, with their graceful style, balanced sound, and natural wood-grained glory, they had me.

Generally, I’m not a headphone guy. 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 like floor-standing speakers. 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 remember the first headphone resurgence. 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. 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.

Meze Audio didn’t enter the headphone business until 2009, when founder