Hifiman Sundara vs Massdrop x Meze 99 Noir

This is a planar magnetic over-ear open back headphone that comes in right at around $350. So let's take a look. This review unit was sourced through ...

However, the Meze 99 Classics sound colored & recessed to some level on all the source devices I have tried. Lets cut to the chase. Will you like these headphones for use with portable devices? I think that for most people, they will say yes. Because I think a lot of people in the market for better than average headphones will like the clarity of the mids and highs that these headphones bring

Seriously? For me, however, the dealbreaker was comfort. The housings on these things are very large and the clamping force is substantial. No matter how much I adjusted them, the pads on the housings pressed hard on the back of my ears and the bottom rear of my jaw, and I found that I could wear them for much more than thirty minutes before I have to take them off. This may have to do with the fact that the ear cup housings do not rotate at all, they are fixed perpendicular to the headband, and thus there's no compensation for pressure differences from the front to the back of the ear cups against your head/ears

I would like to have more leaned back tonality. Past gear experience: I bought the meze 99 noir while I liked the sound of it very much, the suspension strap mechanism was not big enough to fit my head unfortunately and made me very uncomfortable after 40 minutes of use. Tried the verum 1 mk2 afterwards but it is very heavy and it barely fits into my head (it sounds great as well).

Also these are some of the most open headphones ever. If you can hear your music someone 10 feet away can as well. As far as comfort goes they aren't the worst for me. Their pads are scratchy and slightly small, while the headband is just fine

Unfortunately the bass is boomy and bloated and interferes with the mids. The other deal breaker for me was the comfort. The cups are too small, they touch my ears, and when I turn my head side to side it breaks the seal of the pads and does funny things to the sound. I will keep my HD6XX for home listening and IEMs for portable

I’ve had no issues with “build quality” at all. Nothing has loosened and there are no “glued on” parts falling off. The non-swiveling cans are a non-issue to me. I’m using these to listen to music without waking someone down the hall or next door, not to be a DJ in a club somewhere

The Oppo's are very open headphones and pretty much useless at the office. Lots of noise come both in and out. This led me to a hunt for decent closed back headphones. I didn't want to spend a fortune both because of the attention and risk of damage (ruled out the Audeze LCD-XC and Mr