Meze is a boutique headphone company based in Romania. The company took the audiophile world by storm with the release of its highly-praised 99 Classics headphones. Recently, building upon the success of their previous products, Meze released two earphones: the 11 Neo and the 12 Classics. Coming in at $59 and $79 respectively, these two earphones are quite beautiful. Today I’ll be reviewing the 12 Classics. You can find my 11 Neo review here.

You can find the 12 Classics on sale here for $79.

Disclaimer: This review is based upon a sample unit provided to me by a manufacturer or distributor in exchange for my honest opinion and un-edited words. I do not profit in any way from the writing of the review. I would like to thank Lorand at Meze for sending me this review unit.

Preference and Bias: Before reading a review, it is worth mentioning that there is no way for a reviewer to objectively pass judgment on the enjoy-ability of a product: such a thing is inherently subjective. Therefore, I find it necessary for you to read and understand what I take a natural liking to and how that might affect my rating of a product.

My ideal sound signature would be an extended sub-bass with a leveled, but textured, bass. The mids should be slightly less pronounced than the treble, but still ahead of the bass. I prefer a more bright upper range.

Source: The 12 Classics were powered like so:

Nexus 6P -> earphones

or

Hidizs AP100 -> earphones

or

HiFiMAN MegaMini -> earphones

or

PC optical out -> HiFiMe SPDIF 9018 Sabre DAC 3.5mm out -> earphones

All music was served as MP3 @320Kbps or as FLAC.

I found my Nexus 6P to be sufficient to drive the 12 Classics at near-peak levels of performance.

Sound Signature

Initial Impressions:

The 12 Classics does imitate the sound signature of the 99 Classics reasonably well. The 12 Classics has a nice and naturally-warm sound signature. It’s an easy-going and inviting experience, although not one that is too precise and “clean”. The treble is slightly ahead of the upper-mids, while the upper mids are behind the lower-mids. The bass is matched with the lower-mids, being only slightly more emphasized.

Treble: Songs used: In One Ear, Midnight City, Outlands

The first thing I noticed about the treble was how well it decayed. This is a trait that I absolutely loved with the 99 Classics, and I’m glad to hear that the Meze crew managed to maintain it on 12 Classics. The high-hats of In One Ear were clear and decayed well. While they didn’t have the cutting precision of other IEMs in this price-range, their performance was passable.

The electric synths of Midnight City were well positioned in the mix, and had a medium hardness to them. This is reflective of the 12 Classics’ laid-back tuning and healthy attack and decay speeds. Unfortunately, as the song progressed past the intro, I found that these synths tended to get lost a bit in the mix. While they were never inaudible, the synths did tend to get pushed around a lot by the other instruments.

The violins of Outlands were decently separated from the mix, but lacked air. While they weren’t particularly congested, I didn’t find them to convey any sense of grandeur like they do with some of my other IEMs. The background violins lacked definition, and could have certainly been articulated better.

Mids: Songs used: Flagpole Sitta, Jacked Up, I Am The Highway, Dreams

The 12 Classics tends to perform better on songs that have a drier production style. Thusly, Flagpole Sitta did sound quite good on them. The various electric guitars and bass guitar sounded hearty and full with a decently electric “crunch” to them. Instrumental separation was decent, though individual articulation of these instruments wasn’t particularly impressive.

The vocals of Jacked Up forward and well-defined. Vocal intelligibility is above-average. The pianos had a medium hardness, indicating that the mids have a rather healthy decay. This is a point of personal preference. I find that I enjoy my mids to decay a little bit faster than this, though I don’t mind how it sounds currently.

Bass: Songs used: Lights(Bassnectar Remix), Gold Dust, In For The Kill (Skream Remix), Leave Me

Bass impact is decent, while bass rumble is a little lacking. In Lights, I found that, while audible, the sub-bass simply didn’t reach far enough down into the 20Hz–50Hz range to feel like it had good depth.

In For The Kill performed similarly. While the sub-bass had good dynamics, it failed to really feel deep and rumbly.

Leave Me sounded quite good, but suffered from the same ailments as In For The Kill and Lights. While the bass-head in me wants more impact and rumble, I do honestly think that the bass in its current state will be enough to satisfy most listeners looking for a more balanced take on their music.

Packaging / Unboxing

The 12 Classics come in a rather standard box that is structurally identical to the one the 11 Neo came in. This isn’t a problem, as there isn’t too much to put in the package anyways due to the clever way the accessories are stored.