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The Sublime Aesthetics of Meze Audio 99 Classics Headphones
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May 29, 2025
Great audio doesn’t need to look stunning, but when it does, it’s a win-win! That’s exactly what the Meze Audio 99 Classics deliver: rich, immersive sound with a beautifully crafted design. With walnut ear cups, a spring-steel headband, and multiple cable options (playback-only or inline mic), these headphones are as versatile as they are stylish. Tech expert and audio enthusiast Dave Taylor puts them to the test, including a hands-on demo of the optional Meze Audio Boom Microphone add-on. Are they worth the hype? Watch and find out! Check them out at: https://mezeaudio.com/products/99-classics-headset-walnut-gold?_ef_transaction_id=&oid=38&affid=220 Visit Dave's Q&A Web site at: https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ #mezeaudio #headphones #boommic #audiophile #askdavetaylor
View Video Transcript
0:00
these headphones sound as beautiful as
0:01
they look let's check them
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[Music]
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out Dave Taylor here and you know how
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your gear looks might not be quite as
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important as how it sounds in the audio
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world but no one complains when their
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gear looks beautiful and that's what
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these are so these are the Mi audio 99
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Classics headphones with actual Walnut
0:29
ear cups and a spring steel headband
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they are beautiful looking headphones
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and they have beautiful sound and as you
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can see the way that headband works is
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when you put it on it just sort of
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floats so you just get to the right
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angles and everything super comfortable
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these are very comfortable these are
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plenty comfortable enough for long wear
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and they're really easy to work with let
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me give you a couple of specs here 40 mm
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dynamic transducers 15 to 25,000 HZ
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frequency response with a total harmonic
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Distortion of less than
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0.1% 32 ohm impedance because at the
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other end of this very long
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wire very long
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wire is a 3.5 mm Jack and it does come
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with both a Quin adapter and it comes
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with and I haven't seen this for a while
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comes with an air airplane adapter so
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you can plug it in and then you can use
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it on some of those old school mono
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airplane plugs I never really understood
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why airplanes had those my suspicion was
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so you'd have to rent their headsets but
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companies got it all worked out and
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that's really nice as I said it comes
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with a really long fairly thin somewhat
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susceptible to Tangles wire and this is
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the audio um playback only wire for lack
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of a better term but it also includes
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this wire and this gives you a shorter
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run but more importantly it also
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includes a microphone so I'm going to
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actually switch these two out and that's
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easily done you just unplug both sides
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of your
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headphones and let's go ahead I'm going
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to just wrap these up so that they're
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neat give me just a second to use this
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little bit of velcro keep things
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organized
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and that should be good enough and now
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this one is a considerably shorter cable
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as you can see and what you want to do
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is you want to be able to differentiate
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left and right and that is pretty dang
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subtle so let's see um I
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think okay so the one with the
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microphone is left and then you look at
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these and you're like well which one's
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left and which one's right I don't don't
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think it matters because they're
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independent ear cups you just plug in
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the one that you want on the left side
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and then just make sure you put that
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over your left ear and you're good so
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now I have the same audio experience but
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I have a much shorter cable much more
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appropriate for a computer or a phone or
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a device that you're right next to if we
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still had iPods I would say it would be
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great for an
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iPod oh specs wise we were got to 32 ohm
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impedance for this but it also has 103
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DB of sensitivity which means it's very
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responsive to volume and they can get
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crazy loud please do not maximize these
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because you will be hurting your hearing
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they're that loud in terms of weight
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they are 9.2 o or 260 g and as you can
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see in these couple of close-up photos
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it's beautifully engineered they're just
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really really attractive looking
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headphones
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they definitely look like audio file
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gear because they are audio file gear so
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comes with all these things the two sets
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of wires comes with this hard case not a
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huge fan of hard cases I'm going to put
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this aside that one's not too bad cuz
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it's not too big but the company also
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sent me the Mi audio boom mic and this
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is pretty interesting because in
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addition to the 99 Classics having the
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built-in wire with the microphone you
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can actually buy a better selection and
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this one actually turns one of those
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plugs into a boom mic so what I thought
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would be fun to do would be to record
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the audio of me speaking with both of
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the microphones and you can see which
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ones which so or decide which one you
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think sounds better so give me a second
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let me get everything hooked up with my
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Mac and I'll be right back okay I have
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it hooked up to my Mac which means that
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I'm now able to record and this is the
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inline microphone and it's really high
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up which is interesting most of them
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tend to be much lower down but as you
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could hear it has very good audio pickup
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all by itself but the real question is
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how will this compare to the boom mic so
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give me another second I'll switch
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things around
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again okay now you're hearing my voice
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is picked up by the boom mic and this
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should sound better than the previous
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audio sample but it's up to you and
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you're hearing which one do you think
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sounds better now while I have the boom
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mic on I will point out that it does
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come with a very easy to access volume
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control and mute button
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so you can't hear me when I'm muted
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because that's literally what muting is
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so let me jump back to my regular
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microphone pretty interesting right both
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of them sound really good in my opinion
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and I think that I would be interested
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in the boom mic if I was is really
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spending a lot of time talking but I'll
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tell you these are sort of audio file
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headphones so they give you a big Rich
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sound with a lot of Sound Stage it's
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probably going to be a little
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disconcerting to be on a long Zoom call
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or a phone call with someone but then
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again maybe you're recording yourself
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singing and you have the music that
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you're singing along to and so you want
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the best possible audio pickup that
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would be what this is and this is an
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omnidirectional microphone and like I
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said it has inline mute and volume
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control and it's super easy to work with
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cuz again you just unplug it plug in a
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different wire so by default the 99
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Classics have the two different wire
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choices they have just for audio
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playback with no microphone they have a
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much shorter wire that includes a
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built-in microphone and there's an
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inline control that you might or might
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not use for things like pause play and
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volume control but they're so high up
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that I suspect most people won't use
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those that's okay so the default mic uh
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default headphones come with microphone
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and no microphone and then the boom mic
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actually includes in addition a splitter
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so if you have a PC and it has a
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different microphone in and audio out
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they actually include that splitter so
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you can use that too so very handy again
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the headphones by default have that/
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Quin adapter and that airplane adapter
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the hard case the boom mic includes a
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convenient little carrying bag um so
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they've really thought of everything and
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what we need to talk about is we need to
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talk about the sound and I will tell you
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these are very nice it's a very Lush
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sound I would say it's a little more on
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the base side than on the treble side
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which for most people and most music
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sounds great I was listening to some
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Kate Bush I'm such a huge Kate Bush fan
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I've been a Kate Bush fan since her
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first album so it's been a while Kate
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and every album she makes just sounds
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better and better in terms of Sound
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Engineering and headphones like these
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really bring out all the details and all
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the just beautiful orchestrations and
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everything and her singing has a WI wide
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range of frequencies and these just
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reproduce everything really nicely
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they're really an enjoyable listen I
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really have incredibly few complaints or
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criticisms of these they're very
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comfortable if anything I wish that the
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left and right on each of the different
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wire choices was a little more overt
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because having to do as you saw that
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sort of looking at it with the light
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reflecting to try to figure out there's
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no harm done making it actually a
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different color making it easy to see
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what's what but otherwise there's so
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much to like here and they're actually
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for the kind of audio file headphones
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they are with the Walnut finish and
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everything these are very affordable for
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if you're ready to go up to the next
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level with your headphones and your
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audio that's exactly what these are now
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I am going to ask you to subscribe to my
9:23
channel click or tap on that subscribe
9:26
button hit that Bell icon for
9:27
notifications of my new content and give
9:30
me a thumbs up I always appreciate when
9:32
you do that sweet these are the Mi audio
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99 Classics headphones in this case I
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actually have the boom mic plugged in
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comes with two different wires a long
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one for playback only and a shorter one
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that includes a built-in microphone and
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the headphones are in gold or silver
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these are silver as you can see here and
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they're
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$39 at M audio.com
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the boom mic is a separate device and it
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is
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$79 at M audio.com so if you want to get
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this full setup it's going to set you
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back about 800 Buck sorry $400 not $800
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but if you just want the headphones and
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you can still use the inline microphone
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so you can still use them for calls if
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you need to but mostly you can use them
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to just enjoy the heck out of whatever
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it is you're listening to so nice 300
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bucks definitely a worthwhile investment
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if you listen to music at all and any
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music is going to sound better through
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headphones like these and more
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specifically through these 99 Classics
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that's what I got think I'm going back
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to Kate so I'll have to catch you in my
10:46
next video
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[Music]
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