Hi Guys,

Today we are taking a look at a headphone which is a bit of a change of pace for me. Meze Audio’s 105AER. The 105’s are an open back dynamic driver headphone, coming in at an MSRP of $399USD. In my own personal preferences, I tend to gravitate towards electrostatic and Planar Magnetic headphones, but I always really enjoy when a loaner of a dynamic driver is offered to me as a change of pace, and to see how things are sitting in that section of the market. At $399USD, the 105’s are also much more affordable than some of the top of the line headphones out there these days, and are something that a lot of people looking to buy their first pair of “good” headphone might be considering. With how well the 105’s older sibling the 109 Pro has been received by the community, I was really looking forward to seeing how Meze had tuned and approached their more affordable sibling.

In terms of the 105’s looks and initial impressions, they are pretty classically Meze. Obviously less extravagant than the $4000 flagship ELITE’s, but they have a striking visual design, feel well made, and use quality materials, and come in well considered and functional packaging. The 105 is only available in one finish, a dark grey/black combination. They are an open back headphone, but much more closed sounding on the head than a fully open back model like an egg shape model from Hifiman for example. I would even say that on the head they are approaching sounding and feeling semi closed, but they definitely leak sound like an open back model. In terms of use cases, I think that the 105’s are mainly focused on casual listening of whatever your favourite music happens to be, but a boom microphone is available separately from Meze for $79USD, allowing you to turn them into a gaming headset. In terms of gaming, I mostly play single player games and don’t have a use for the boom mic, but I did use the 105’s whilst gaming and they served that role very well also. The 105’s do come with a very sturdy case for storage, as well as a 3.5mm cable (terminated in 3.5mm at the headphone end also) and a 1/4” adapter.

With a sensitivity of 112db/mw and 42ohms impedance, the 105’s are incredibly easy to drive. They can happily be run from whatever source you have on hand, be it directly from a phone, a laptop, or something more substantial and dedicated to headphone use. I’ve run the 105’s directly from my laptops 3.5mm output mostly, but have also had great success using iFi’s iDSD Finale, and Earmen’s Angel. In some ways it is a real nice change of pace to not have to worry about having enough power and drive for a pair of headphones, and the plug and play nature is really handy. Of course, you can always do more, spend more, and try to achieve better sound from your source/amp, but sometimes just keeping things simple, and enjoying your music is more important. This is especially true if you are trying to keep your budget lower, and just want a pair of headphones to enjoy with no muss or fuss.

In terms of their sonics, the bass response of the 105’s is pretty robust, especially in the mid bass. I wouldn’t say the sub bass is recessed, but there is a slight emphasis in the mid bass on these headphones in comparison to the sub bass. This doesn’t bother me, I like bass, and the Meze are fun in this regard. Electronica, rock, are all very enjoyable with this sort of tuning. In terms of impact and slam, like most dynamic driver based headphones the 105’s fare quite well. They aren’t as impactful as some other headphones which cost a lot more, but I never found myself lacking physicality in the low end, and I think the slight mid bass emphasis also helps these qualities. I think if watching movies is your primary use case for the headphones you own and you are considering the 105’s, you might want to use EQ to slightly boost the sub bass, but apart from that, especially just in general use for music, the bass tuning of the 105’s is very enjoyable.

The midrange of the 105’s is hit and miss for me personally. The low mid range is a bit too forward and warm . Over the years I have slowly grown more accustomed to a slightly leaner low mid range, and the 105’s are the opposite of that. If you like warmer headphones, I reckon you would really enjoy the stock tuning of the 105’s low mids. It does give a really nice warmth and body to acoustic music, but can be slightly muddy sounding for faster pieces, like some electronica or rock. The upper midrange is actually slightly pulled back from neutral, which I enjoy and helps give a slightly more spacious sound, and also avoids being too shouty and harsh with vocals. I think this is an area I am slightly more sensitive to than most, so you might prefer slightly more upper mids than the 105’s have in their stock tuning. Both areas are incredibly easy to tweak via EQ, so if you are open to that option, I would really recommend playing about and seeing what you prefer best.

The treble of the 105’s is pretty much inline with my personal preferences, apart from the upper treble which I tend to prefer a few DB more than they have in their stock tuning. I could happily use the treble of the 105’s stock, but giving 7.5K and above a few db increase via EQ brought them more inline with my preferences. A bit sharper and a bit more air really helped bring out some more perceived detail and clarity.

In terms of the 105’s technical performance, they are commendable for a $399USD pair of dynamic drivers which are so easy to drive. I had to do a bit of a detox from my personal expectations, preferences, and what I am used to in terms of spatial qualities and openness. In my own time, as mentioned at the beginning of this review, I mostly listen to electrostatic and planar magnetic headphone, which also all happen to be incredibly open backed headphones, whilst also having a fairly large spatial presentation. The 105’s aren’t trying to be like those headphone, and aren’t trying to present music in that way. After a bit of adjustment, I really enjoyed listening to music with the 105’s. They aren’t a massive soundstage dynamic driver headphone like the Sennheiser HD800, and more follow the spatial qualities of something like the ZMF Verite, or the Focal Utopia. They are a much more focused sounding headphone, and closer to the ears. The overall detail levels, dynamic performance, are fairly in line with their MSRP of $399. If all you care about is technical performance for the money, I would point you towards something like the Hifiman HE6seV2, but those come with massive caveats like how incredibly difficult to drive they are, and a headband which isn’t the comfiest thing in the world. I think the Meze aren’t trying to be that however, and are aiming for a general use type of headphone. In that use case, they do very well indeed, especially with how easy to drive and use they are.

The build quality and attention to detail is typical of Meze Audio, in one word, awesome. I love how the 105’s look, and feel in the hands. They don’t reach the heights of the $4000USD ELITE or $3000USD Empyrean 2, but they aren’t trying to, and to expect a $399USD headphone to do that is a bit unreasonable. The materials used all feel high quality. The ear pads are a very comfortable velour material, the headband is a PU-leather, and the cups are a hard PC-ABS plastic material. The headband is auto adjusting to your head size, using the same mechanism as Meze’s other dynamic driver headphones. The only issue I had with the 105’s is my head size, and the clamp force being slightly too strong. However, I think that this is very likely fixable by slightly bending the metal part of the headband outwards. I did not try to do this as these headphones are a loaner model from Meze and it didn’t feel right to bend a pair of headphones I did not personally own. Still, if you purchase a pair of 105’s, this is definitely something you can try doing, and I’m guessing it would alleviate any clamp issues you might have. Overall, I’m very happy with how the Meze 105’s are built and feel in the hands. They are very comfortable (with the caveat of slightly too much clamp force for my head size) and also feel very well built for their price.

Overall, I have really enjoyed the month I have spent with Meze’s 105AER. I’m a big fan of Meze overall, and really enjoyed my first time trying one of their Dynamic Driver models. They are a headphone which is very well built for their price, feel great in the hands, whilst also providing a sound quality that is very easy to get into an use. With their incredibly easy to drive nature, there really isn’t any barrier between simply purchasing a pair, plugging them into whatever source you happen to have, and getting into enjoying your tunes. I do think there are some models on the market which can outperform the 105’s in terms of straight sound quality for the money, but those models also come with massive caveats about build quality, how hard they are to drive, and other considerations. If you just want something that is well built, really enjoyable sonically, can be used as a gaming headset, and is simply easy to plug and play, the Meze really make a strong argument for themselves. If you feel that those are the sort of qualities you are looking for in a pair of headphones, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend checking out the 105AER’s. Well done Meze!