Meze Audio 109 Pro

My first contact with the Romanian headphones maker Meze dates back to 2017, when I first listened the 99 Classics model. I liked its freshly new design, the earcups looked impressive and felt very comfortable and the sound was more pleasant than on my M50x. Recently I got the opportunity to listen the Elite, and after a 4 hour listening session I was convinced that these are my all time favourite pair of headphones and in the future they will sit on my desk. So, when the 109 Pro were launched, I was eager to get my hands (and ears) on them. Luckily, a friend of mine got them and I had the pleasure of testing them for a whole week-end. I liked that they are coming in a solid box as you can take them when you`re traveling but also keep them clean at home, as dust is a headphones (especially open back ones) biggest enemy. The cups are beautifully crafted, the attention to details remains at a high level, the wood looks awesome and the velour pads are smooth to the touch and fit your ears perfectly. The headband design makes them one of the easiest to wear and comfortable headphones I have ever had, you can listen for hours without feeling them on your head. But what about the sound? Well, compared to my LCD2C or the Elite, they sound completely different. The first thing that you notice is how clear and present the highs are. If on the LCD2C the highs are very discrete here are on the opposite side, as they offer a wide presentation, with lots of details and clarity. Depending on the source and amplification, they could get a little hot on treble peaks (or when playing low quality records), but when they are powered by a warm A Class amplifier solid or Tube based they will sound awesome. The bass completely surprised me, as I didn’t believe that from a dynamic and open design I will receive a decent amount of low frequency, but boy I was so wrong. They have a solid representation in low end area and mid bass, and listening to electronic music was so fun. The voices sound extremely clean, maybe too much sometimes, and the instruments also. I enjoyed to listen to Rock albums, blues, jazz, they handled all the genres effortless.

Hello all! It has been a long while since I've been active here! I acquired the Meze 109 Pro about a month ago as I got back into the swing of things. These have been my daily cans at work so I feel I've had enough time with them to offer my opinion on them.

Context:

For some background on me, I started my head-fi journey back in 2013, after moving into a smaller space due to my job. This move forced me into the awkward situation of not being able to enjoy music the way I wanted to... shortly after moving (and a few complaints later) I was put in a position where I had to get rid of my large listening rig (Vienna Acoustics Mozart Grand and ML Dynamo) After a few weeks of being sonically crippled and now dealing with having to downsize my guitar stack (yeah I was that guy) ended up being talked into buying a set of Grado's by a silver tongued sales person called Ken to help ease the pain of my situation. Th Grado's offered a very colored take on recording familiar to me, sometimes it was utter trash, but when it worked they sounded magical! This was the impetus to my head-fi journey, I now needed to find something magical that sounded good regardless of what I fed it! This completely snowballed into slowly acquiring a huge hoard of stuff... Stuff that I've also cleared out here in hopes that some of this gear gets the love it deserves. My sonic preferences lean towards the more analytical side of things, I really enjoyed my time with the HD800, and now Arya. I appreciate fulled bodied presentations but they are not my preference. Musically I digest most things, but really enjoy a Jazz, Prog Rock and Folk.

Actual Context (I promise this time):

Build

The Meze 109 Pro is a wonderfully built piece of functional art. The walnut wood cups look and feel premium as they should, the headband and accompanying hardware are beautifully finished and sufficiently sturdy. Each unit comes with 2 cables (more on that in a second) and a carrying case. The packaging is very nice and includes plenty of aesthetically pleasing waste products (A lot of you will enjoy the unboxing but I'd prefer less waste on marketing and more of the product cost sunk into development or manufacturing) The included cables are at best adequate, they work fine and its nice that we get two choices of length BUT they are of average quality and usability. They like to stick to themselves due the friction of the material used on the outer jacked (an unidentified TPE, though likely a form of TPE-U). The jacks used on the headphone side of the cable are TS mono connectors that are long and skinny since the headphones themselves have a very recessed port. This is just an annoyance but it would have been nice if they were less recessed OR had bigger entry points so I could use my existing balanced cables (I ended up buying a set, another additional cost in this hobby). The ear pads are well cushioned and of above average size, they were never uncomfortable on my very average sized head. The overall package is light, comfortable and built well enough to last.

4/5

Sound:

Bass:

This was actually a surprising thing... these open back headphones have pretty good bass impact, speed and texture! Listening to Patricia Barbers "Code Cool" I was surprised to be experiencing the amount of bass impact and texture in this track. Now these aren't a bass heads dream BUT they have a very fun way of sounding big when the recording calls for it. Bass is fairly tight and precise with minimal bloom or bleed into the mids. Extension sounds fairly good as demonstrated in Heather Rigdon "My Mother Would Like You" Electronic music fairs well in this regard also, using Daft Punks Random Access Memories sounds delightful. In short bass response is what I would call fun, punchy, quick and present and never overbearing, or muddy.

4/5

Mids (Where Music Lives):

Mids on the 109 Pro are fairly neutral to warm sounding. The overall feel of the mids is thick but not veiled. Notes carry weight, instruments and vocals have great timbre, and sense or placement. The mids sound luscious and deliberate. Listening to Nightwish "Ghost Love Score Live at Wacken" The guitars have good texture and are very saturated but retain definition, Floor Jansen's voice sounds glorious here but hold that thought. To summarize these cans have very nice mids that don't do anything to offend and often reveal enough about a track to know if its recorded poorly BUT never beats you over the head with that information ruining the experience .

4.5/5

Treble:

Treble is a sensitive topic for a lot of us so I'll be blunt. These headphones have a good about of treble energy tittering on being sibilant on occasion but never crossing the line. These have what many would call well extended "sparkly" treble, though it continues the theme of texture. Cymbals have great attack and decay, never sounding overly splashy and undefined. If you like treble these are glorious, if you hate sparkly treble, still try these, I find them on the edge of enough and too much... or nearly perfect. Referring back to the Nightwish video above, this recording is somewhat hot in the treble, but listen to then last 3 minutes of it and take in all of that sonic information... on some setups this would sound pretty harsh BUT on the 109 Pro its not. Its well reproduced, detailed and beautiful.

5/5

Presentation and Technicalities:

The Meze 109 Pro makes a very complete and cohesive musical statement blending frequencies into what I consider could be an everyday sound. Rarely do I find a track that sound bad on these (poorly mastered audio will only go so far though) They are forgiving but not completely like some other headphones. They are spacious without sounding artificial (K702, HD800), detailed enough but not overly analytical, impactful without bloat and build well imaged soundscape (although not the best) Detail retrieval is good but not amazing. Layering and separation has a very 3d quality, the overall presentation of the sound stage is fairly wide and tall, with above average depth. Everything about these cans is above average but not class leading. There are a lot of other options in this sub 1K segment that do individual things better than these. OG Clears are probably the biggest competition, but in terms of space the Meze are better by quite a bit, detail retrieval I would give to the OG Clear. The Meze is more fun and engaging, the Clear more "correct" and has better dynamics. Different flavors of the same ice cream if anything.

4/5

Conclusion:

The Meze 109 Pro are wonderful cans. They are not the most technically proficient at anything vs the competition in the sub 1k class BUT they are engaging, comfortable, beautiful and most importantly enjoyable. As an overall package these are great cans. These will be my recommended headphone in the sub 1K space along with the OG Clear. They both offer a taste of more expensive equipment and would be endgame level equipment for a lot of people. They are easy to drive and will sound good out of pretty much anything. They scale a bit with better amps and sources, but never truly make big gains. If you're looking for a fun sounding can with great extension on both end of the sonic spectrum with beautiful mids and a great sense of space you will enjoy these.

4.4/5

TLDR version on YouTube: TDLR - Meze 109 Pro

The Meze 109 Pro have been sent to me on loan by DeCine, the official distributor for Meze in Spain. DeCine don’t sell direct so I have left a link to the official Meze page for these headphones on my blog. As always, DeCine has not made any specific requests and my review will aim to be as unbiased and sincere as humanly possible.



Intro…

I got to try out the Meze 109 Pro, powered by the Feliks Audio Envy, last year and the 20 minutes or so I spent with them left me wanting to try them again ever since. So when DeCine reached out and asked if I would like to review them, I jumped at the chance.

Sometimes we will try something out for a brief period and form a first impression (good or bad) that may change when we get to spend more time with them. In the case of the 109 Pro, the first impression was very good and except for one set up (that I have mentioned plenty of times in the past), these were the most interesting headphones that I got to try out at the High End show.

Also, my setup is a little more modest than the setup in the Meze listening room, which probably added up to at least ten times the price of the headphones (or more), so I am happy to be able to get a more “real world” (for me at least) experience than that brief period.

The 109 Pro use a 50mm Beryllium coated polymer and cellulose-carbon fiber composite dynamic driver. This is mounted with a copper-zinc stabilizing ring and which serves to reduce distortion, at least according to the Meze literature. This is actually the first open back dynamic driver headphone by Meze, coming in at just a little under 800€, which is certainly not cheap but is quite a lot less than some of the flagship models from the same brand.

So, let’s take a look at how all of this translates into my personal use case and what I think of the Meze 109 Pro after being able to put it through its paces for a more extended period.



Presentation…

The presentation of the 109 Pro is simple but elegant, arriving in a black box that opens to reveal the transport/storage case, inside of which we find the contents.

Those contents are the headphones, 2 unbalanced cables (one is 1.5m and the other is 3m long), a 3.5mm to 6.35mm adapter, a storage bag for the cables and of course the EVA molded case which is of very good quality.

Underneath the case, we also get a nice booklet that speaks in depth about the headphones and the properties I already mentioned above (with much better detail of course).



Build and aesthetics…

Meze makes some of the most beautiful, well built and comfortable headphones I have ever had the pleasure of trying and the 109 Pro are no exception.

Starting off with the build, they use a combination of Walnut, Zinc, Manganese Steel and vegan leather. All of these are of high quality and assembled in a way that leaves no doubt that these are a very well built set of headphones. They are also very proud to announce that these headphones are meant to last and every part of them can be dismantled and serviced if the need should arise.

The aesthetics play with the wood and copper highlights on black steel, which really stand out and give the headphones a look that is elegant and places them as a premium set of headphones. Obviously aesthetics are a very personal thing but there is no denying that Meze has paid attention to each small detail, even to the point of the copper on the back of the drivers being visible through the grill matching the highlights found on the headband, or the internal grilles that also match etc.

While the build is very good and the aesthetics look great (in my opinion of course), when it comes to comfort, these are in a league of their own!

Using a simple dual steel headband, the 109 Pro have a padded strap that is mounted on an auto adjusting system that makes them seem to float on the head. These are not really a heavy set of headphones anyway, but once they are on my head, they all but disappear. In fact, I even found myself forgetting I was wearing them when between calls and forgetting to press play on the music

I admit that it is winter, which makes it much easier for me to wear headphones for an extended period of time (as we are not getting temperatures of over 40ºC every day) but these are still the most comfortable set of headphones that I have worn for a very long time, maybe only second to the Koss KPH40 (which are obviously not a rival in any other category).

My only complaint would be with the cables. They are nowhere near the worst cables I have received with headphones but they are quite rubbery and do seem to have a bit of a life of their own. As they have been coiled (this is a demo unit, so I am not sure how long they have been stored inside the bag/box), they have memorized the coil shape and have a habit of springing to that shape.

This is obviously a minor complaint in comparison to the great aesthetics and amazing build quality of the headphones.



Sound…

All tracks mentioned are clickable links that allow you to open the reference track in the streaming service of your choice (YouTube, Tidal, Qobuz, Spotify, etc.)

For those that just want the TLDR (and didn’t just watch the TLDR on YouTube), these are the dynamic driver headphones that I have most enjoyed to date. I don’t think they work for all genres but for 80% of my preferred music, I would be quite happy to have these as my only set (although I would probably suffer from planar withdrawal ).

Ok, so, knowing that I am going to praise these headphones, let’s go through the usual steps and test tracks, doing my best to point out why I like these for so many things and what I feel are the weaker points.

Starting off with the usual look at the graph:



Seeing that I haven’t gotten around to coming up with a personal preference target for over ears, I have included the HD6XX as a reference point but I have also included one of my favourite planar headphones, the Arya v3 (SE), as another reference point.

Starting off, as always, with the lowest frequencies, the extension into the subbass range is very good, with no perceived roll off at all. I find that they reach way down into the depths of “Chameleon”, presenting the rumble in a way that is certainly present but not boosted. In fact, I find that the low ranges of the 109 Pro are very planar like in their presence but have more of a smooth timbre than the somewhat cold timbre that is found commonly on planar headphones.

That is not to say that they are warm, I do not find the bottom ranges of these headphones to seemingly add any warmth at all, it is more about the way that the bass is reproduced that is more “normal” than that of the planar alternatives. As I have mentioned before, I play bass (although not very much recently) and dynamic drivers just seem “right” to me when reproducing those bass guitar notes, probably due to being what I have been used to for so long. When listening to some of my tracks, while there is no additional presence over something like the Arya SE, it does come across as smoother and more natural to my ears.

I wouldn’t say that the bass is quite as detailed as on some other alternatives but it is nicely balanced and things like “Elephants on Ice Skates” I find to have a very natural timbre to the bass guitar.

I don’t think that these would be the first choice for someone who is more into EDM than acoustic, I feel that “No Sanctuary Here”, although the bass is nicely balanced, may be lacking a bit of additional boost for those who listen mainly to this genre.

The mids are very well balanced, with acoustic instruments sounding very clear and realistic, keeping lower percussive hits well clear of interfering with any of the mid centric playing. The same goes for vocals, with the various voices of The Fairfield Four harmonizing in “These Bones” without ever getting in each other's way. The lower tones of the deeper voice could possibly benefit from a little more warmth but that is more of something I am used to with dynamic drivers than anything wrong per se.

Even the climb to the 3k mark is very similar on the Meze to the Hifiman offerings, something that I have found over time that I really like. It brings vocals forward but does not make them harsh or nasal, something that I have found to be the case with other sets that attempt a similar tuning.

The treble extension is good, with a nice sensation of air and openness which I find very impressive. Some people may find them to be a little overly present in the upper ranges but that is not the case for me, I like the presence and find that they deal very well with these higher frequencies.

My usual sibilance test with “Code Cool” places Patricia Barbers just about where I would expect her to be, in comparison with what I hear on my speaker set ups of choice, maybe with just a tiny hint more. In other words, her vocals are just slightly over the verge of sibilance. If I go back to my usual non-scientific -12 to +12 scale for sibilance, I would maybe place her somewhere between the 0 and +1 mark.

Paul Simon’s “Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes” basically confirms (to me) the same result with his vocals just edging into sibilance.

Details are also impressive on the 109 Pro, making everything sound detailed and complete but without pushing those details at you. Where some sets of headphones can push details in a way that can create a “wow” factor upon first listen and then become tiring over extended periods, that is not the case here. All details are nicely presented and not overly exaggerated.

Soundstage is very good, with a nice wide feel to it, and image placement is excellent. Everything is in its place, with plenty of space between things like the vocal layers in “Strange Fruit” or the main hit of the guitar body and the reverb in “All Your Love Turned to Passion”.



Conclusion…

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, when I first tried the Meze 109 Pro, I was impressed but I really wanted to spend more time with them to see if it really was a set that I would enjoy over extended periods or if it was just the initial impression. After spending this time with them, I have to say that I am just as impressed now as I was then.

I would describe the 190 Pro as a set of headphones that is very good for almost anything you throw at it, at least with my personal preference as far as tuning. It is not a set of headphones that is aimed at those that like a large presence in the bass area and I could see some people maybe finding it a little too hot in the upper ranges. But again, for my preferences, I find it a very enjoyable set of headphones.

As a fan of the Hifiman sound, I find that the 109 Pro gives the same sort of general tuning, maybe with a little less speed, yet with a touch of that dynamic driver sound that just seems natural. I understand that for many, planars are an acquired taste and here Meze gives you a dynamic driver option for a very reasonable price, especially factoring in aesthetics and build quality etc.

I also found that the Meze 109 Pro are not very picky about what they are powered by. I tried them on all kinds of set ups and while I really enjoyed them on the Echo Mk2 (not quite an Envy but still has that Feliks flavour ), I found that they were just as good powered by things like the Gryphon (used for this review) or the Asgard 3. They even sound good powered by the iFi Uno.

If you are someone who enjoys a nicely balanced sound and are looking for an all-rounder set of headphones without getting into 4 digits, then I think that the Meze 109 Pro should be high on the list of candidates to try out.

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As always, this review is also available in Spanish both on my blog (www.achoreviews.com) and on YouTube (www.youtube.com/achoreviews)