I used it with the Burson Funk and Asgard 3
Interesting neither of those amps I would consider neutral. Maybe I have a unicorn pair.
I have the A3 as well. Interested in your experience with it for the Meze 109.
Detailed enough or too much warmth, etc. iyo. Thanks.
The RS6 or N6ii are on my radar as well. I have to say though, the RU6 sounds VERY good and gives you a nice taste of that R2R goodness on the go for a lot less cash. I got mine mostly out or curiosity to hear how the sound compared to the desktop R2R DACs I’m familiar with, figuring it would be some watered down gimmick. I have to say, it hasn’t been that at all! The RU6 actually does give you that R2R tone and I think it’s worth every penny and then some. Just FYI.
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Very pleasant sounding headphone. Bass has good extension. Mids are nice. Soundstage very spacious. Detail is good enough. Where this headphone lack is instrument separation and treble can be a little spicy on certain tracks.
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@JaVerde Thanks. Looks good. Treble won’t bother me, but instrument separation might, as I listen to a lot of full orchestra. I’ve seen other reviews too,
but have time to think about it more and try to hear one first.
Got talked into getting these lol, gotta say I ended up sitting with them for most of my day. Probably one of the most comfortable headphones I have topped with amazing timbre. Definitely made me a huge fan. I do have to say I think my only complaint is there is an ever so slight sibilant tone in certain vocals though but that so far has been my only potential negative. I am curious if the headband is replaceable to another brand as it seems very easy to remove.
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I don’t really know what other brand you would be able to replace it with. I do know however that Meze has made these, along with many of their other models, to be completely serviceable and easy to remove and install repaired parts of need be. No glue or anything like that, just everything held in with screws and tension. Every part can be serviced.
Noticed that about it’s build… and I am extremely appreciative of that considering most companies definitely aren’t like that.
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I know Sennheiser Hd600-660s series are pretty similar in that regard, most of it is replaceable and easy to take apart. Not to the extend of the Mezes, but yeah I agree with you.
I own the 660s but I am honestly contemplating whether these are just a straight upgrade at this point as it’s making me contemplate selling them
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I would say if you are finding yourself not really needing the Senns for any specific reason then sell them. Personally the only need I see for owning a 660s is if you wanted an easier to drive portable 650s. Other than that, I don’t see a need for that specific headphone unless you really like its sound. In my mind, the reason to own a 6 series Senn is for that amazing midrange and beautification from tubes due to their high impedance. The 660s has half the impedance and is not as affected by tubes so their value (IMHO) definitely is lowered for that reason. I regret selling my 650s because I haven’t found something that does tubes as nice as it does yet. However that was very early on in my audio journey and I made an amateur “educated” decision selling them not understanding their importance and uniqueness. I hated their mostly plastic construction even though they were very light because of that. And I was upgrading to the Radiance so I figured why would I need this headphone anymore? I still miss it.
So TLDR: Even if the 109 may sound better to you or what not, which I’m sure it is! I cannot wait to get mine, don’t sell the 660s unless you know it’s not offering you any unique reason to keep it regardless of whatever shortcomings it may have.
That is something to take into account… 109 pro here is actually only 40 ohm impedance 112 db spl this thing doesn’t take much at all to power this doesn’t respond much to tubes
I usually put my Focals on tubes, things such as elex respond fairly positively in the low end with bass buttons such as IFI and some tubes. IIRC HD 650 responds more to tubes than the 660s as well so there is that since they are of different driver/impedance
I will say that the mids in the 660s are forward and overall sound is more intimate with rolling off on the treble as a more focus point but 109 pro in comparison is more energetic and much more spacious. My only complaints as of this point are the slight peak in that treble(I eq’d it back just a hair and this fixes this issue quite easily for me in the 10k range) and the pads themselves while comfortable they aren’t completely that suede type material as inside of the pads is leather instead so they are a hybrid designed pad… that leather likes to stick to my ear and build up a bit of heat… I have been curious to maybe try a beyerdynamic pad like the suedes from dekoni(heard some good things off reddit more so if you cut off the cloth covering the driver from the pad and in terms of material they feel extremely identical but meze has a very interesting foam here) or my ZMF beyer pads… but I took off the pad on these one time and it was a huge pain to actually get them back on lol
If I am being honest I would take the 109 pro over an Elex or OG clear… says a lot since I love those headphones… but 109 pro doesn’t have that thinner sound of the elex or metallics of the clear to my ear
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Yeah I pretty much second everything you are saying. The fact that the 109s are easy enough to drive on almost everything was both a major selling point for myself and a negative as because of that I knew they were not going to be effected by tubes as much which is a shame. And on your note about the elex and clear, I think I’m in the same boat. If the elex is a budget clear from what I understand, then yes I agree. I’ve tried the clear and was impressed by its technicalities but just found it’s not what I’m looking for. I don’t want to analyze my music anymore at this point. I just want it to wow my and lull me into euphoria. Clear made me focus on the music too much. Again, not a bad thing, but not what I’m looking for anymore.
Hm, you’ll make it even more difficult now for me to decide between the 109 and clears 
, well think I’ll wait a bit and look for pad rolling experience with the 109 if they get a that less treble or find that punch I carve 
as far as analytical nature goes I would probably take a DT 1990 or something like the Focal Clears among some other sets of cans for that as I don’t find these to tear apart music and point out their flaws as much as just being a musical headphone. While a bit bright too, it’s not too overwhelming either.
They definitely aren’t all that punchy in my opinion… they sound a bit stronger in the upper bass but not so much in the sub bass frequencies. It’s definitely a headphone I will encourage trying though as anybody I have told to listen to this so far really enjoys them. As for pads, I might get into it way later since I don’t feel like fighting with the original pads to get them back on… the pads from dekoni, zmf, etc for beyerdynamics and other brands of that sizing do seem to fit this headphone without much issue the issue with getting the original pads back on is that there is a plastic ring in the back of the pad that holds the foam in with the leather… on top of a tighter seal from the leather that goes inside the wood cups it’s a rather strange design to me
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one of the reviews out there where someone removed an ear pad for these headphones. i’m sure there’s more reviewers that have done it, but with this knowledge, i’ll swap pads IFF i get the 109s, and dislike the treble.
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so despite my decisions lol I tried to pad swap them… he didn’t try to swap them in the vid above but something I noticed when trying this is that dekonis pads from beyer are just a bit too wide and too much of a lip to properly attach to this headphone. Infact they are loose enough to slide off the headphone
while they technically fit I can’t really suggest a pad swap like this due to the strange design that is on this pad it needs to be tighter with less lip on the pads themselves to fit properly and as far as feel theres definitely a pretty large difference. Full suede pads seem to add more bass and less treble though turning it more warm than many likely would want(note: this change could be due to the dampener within the dekoni pad over the driver since the 109 pro does not have anything over the speakers but also these are a hybrid style pad ). Zmf pads from beyer just flat out won’t work due to there just being too much lip in the back of the pad to feasibly fit on the headphone… the portion that connects into the wood is rather shallow. As far as getting the pads on the plastic clear piece you see in the video above hugs against the leather of the pad lip making it relatively difficult at times to get the pads back on without issue such as the plastic getting caught in the wood or potentially even pulling the plastic out of the pad from overly stretching the pads. after switching it off and on a few times I got used to changing the pads but nothing I have here really properly fits this headphone
Place an edit, I think a larger concern over time may be that the pad also uses synthetic leather which can peel… considering the metal grating over this driver if the pads flake it can definitely get into that grating over the driver provided the pieces are small enough.
Secondary Edit after some use I guess… so after removing and tinker with the pads the stitching on these pads doesn’t seem to hold up either, got some white/grey showing on the pad slightly now(where the velour connects to the leather) so I guess caution is necessary?
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Thank you for sacrificing some wear & tear of your stock pads, and trying out some pad swaps in my steed.
This was very valuable information, considering I like to swap pads often, and own quite a few Dekoni Beyer pads. I also have the ZMF pads for Beyer & Dekoni.
After reading your observations, I kinda feel like the shape of the 109’s cups are similar to the Sennheiser 600 series, but bigger.
The thing about the ZMF Sennheiser pads is the attaching mechanism is just a removable piece of plastic. That way, you can use the pads on headphones with more common designs.
Maybe if I had a 109 in-person, I could check to see if the fenestrated sheepskin could fit & tame the treble.