Recommended by: Deepak Gopalakrishnan
Deepak ‘Chuck’ Gopalakrishnan lives in Pune and has spent a decade working in the digital marketing world. He is currently co-founder of roughpaper.in. When not working, he spends his time listening to music, cycling, and annoying his cats. He spends a lot of time (and money) on audio-related gear.
Price: ₹ 28999
If you love music, you owe it to yourself to get a good pair of headphones built for sound quality rather than fashion. They can truly bring alive aspects of songs you’ve heard hundreds of times before and bring you closer to the artist.
The Meze 99 Classics: Why I recommend them
They sound amazing. The sound is warm and fun, and they work with any genre. Rock & metal, my preferred ones, sound terrific on them.
They’re very highly rated and remain a bestseller for HeadphoneZone for close to a decade.
They’re made by a Romanian brand that focuses solely on audiophile headphones. They’re very comfortable to wear, even for a few hours.
They look great – that wooden finish makes it one of the most gorgeous headphones out there.
They’re quite durable – I’ve had my pair for over 6 years and they still work brilliantly.
Replacement pads are easily available, the cable is detachable, a lovely solid carry case is included
But let’s address the elephant in the room – they are wired.
Without getting into why, wired headphones sound better than wireless. So if you’re looking for 100% convenience or plan to use your jack-less phone as the primary source, this may not fit the bill. But if you’re looking to immerse yourself in music, wired is certainly the way to go and the 99 Classics are an amazing way to start. That being said, they’re “closed” headphones, so you can even travel with them.
Pro tip
Get a portable bluetooth DAC like the Astell & Kern XB10. Get Apple Music on your phone since it offers lossless streaming. So basically – for around 32k, you’ll have an incredible music streaming experience which can rival setups worth much more.
This should be enough for most music fans… Until you fall down the slippery audiophile slope that ends in planar-magnetics and electrostatics, but that’s for another day.
