Meze 11 Neo Earphone Quick Review by mark2410

Meze 11 Neo Earphone Quick Review by mark2410

Thanks To Meze for the sample.

Brief:  Meze goes warm.

Price:  £49 or €59

Specifications:  Frequency response: 16Hz - 24KHz, Impedance: 16Ohm, Sensitivity: 101dB (+/- 3db), Total harmonic distortion: < 0.5%, Noise attenuation: up to 26dB, Titanium coated 8mm mylar driver, 3.5mm gold-plated jack plug, 7N OFC cable, length: 1.2m

Accessories:  A shirt clip, 5 pairs of tips and a pleasant little case.  A pretty reasonable bundle.

Build Quality:  Very good.  Meze seemed to have leapt into making things like that of on an old hand at this sort of thing.  Despite the 11 Neo being vastly cheaper than the 99’s these seem to be as nicely constructed.  The buds are all metal and impeccably put together.  Everything thing feels good.

Isolation:  So so.  As dynamics go they aren’t super bad or anything but these aren’t high isolators.  They were fine ta go walk about outside with but even at on a bus, hmm yeah I wasn’t loving them.  So Tube commuters or for a long flight id look elsewhere.  Though if you have music running you may well not notice traffic so do pay attention with your eyes.

Comfort/Fit:  Great.  Zero issues on either aspect, in and done.  Happy to wear all day.

Aesthetics:  The look very good.  Rather subtle but their metal nature means they look great to me, not obvious perhaps but I liked them lots visually.

Sound:  Heavy, warm and rich.  So in a completely different turn from the 99’s these are all warm and sumptuous.  The bass is warmly rich, rather largely scaled and very rolling, pleasing on the ear.  They are very weighty with a strong follow through.  Everything on them is so easy on the ear, warm and rich, smooth, oh so smooth a presentation.  Everything on them sounded so pleasing and enjoyable.  Never hurried, dry or open they don’t really suit stuff that needs to be so, they also really can’t convince you of a breathy presentation.  They make everything warm.  As such slow, more bassy, smooth vocal tracks with a relatively light treble work best.  The treble is moderately detailed but its softened and slightly meted presentation means that treble heavy stuff, well it gets warmed up considerably.  If these were a drink they would a creamy mug of hot chocolate with some marshmallows floating, slowly melting on the surface.  While it is lovely and is perfect for certain things, like of a snug winters evening but if you want something to jolt you awake with its clarity and lightness, this is not it.

Value:  Rather good.  The audio is super creamy, sumptuous and they are excellently put together.  Well worth their price tag.

Pro’s:  Highly rich flavour.  Greatly pleasing bass.  Creamy rich vocals.

Con’s:  Can be too thick and creamy.  Dry and breathy it just cant do.