The Meze 105 AER review and comparison with 109 PRO. Bonus: Meze Boom Mic review

Today I will review in detail the new Meze 105 AER open-back headphones, compare them with their more expensive 109 PRO, and also look at Meze Boom Mic.

The Meze 105 AER comes in a large beautiful white box. Besides the headphones you also get a de-attachable cable, a cable pouch, a good quality hard shell case, a 3.5mm to 6.3 mm adapter and product booklet. Presentation has always been a strong point with Meze headphones and in this regard 105 AER doesn’t disappoint either. By the way, for those wondering, AER means Air in Romanian. 

🛒 Meze 105 AER at the official MEZE web store

If you follow my channel, then you know I’m a big fan of Meze designs and builds. The headband of 105 is something you can see on other Meze headphones, like 99 Classics and 109 Pro. The outer part of the headband is made of two spring steel parts that extend all the way down to the ear cups. The two spring parts are then attached to the center of each ear cup.

Design & build

The self-adjusting headband rail is made out of plastic and is covered with a pleather that has a nice padding and 105 AER name embossed on it, along with channel indication marks. The rail is attached to the headband using two cross-structure joints that have a gun-metal gray color and a Meze logo attached to it on both sides. Overall, the Meze 105 AER headband size auto-adjusting mechanism works flawlessly, and I like this design a lot.

The ear cups swivel a bit both horizontally and vertically and this allows you to adjust it for the better fit. The ear cups are made from ABS plastic and feature quite a futuristic pattern on the mesh which is covering the outer part of the ear cup.

The ear pads are oval. The height of the ear pad is 105 mm, the width is 90mm. The opening of the ear pad is 65 mm in height and 48 mm across in the widest part. The depth of the ear pad is 25 mm. The ear pads are made out of velour, they are soft and flexible too so they can accommodate large ears too. The velour is softer and more breathable than leather, and it also prevents sweating and overheating during long listening sessions, so I think Meze did a great job here too.

The Meze 105 AER ear cups host 50mm drivers that are covered with fabric filters. From what I understand, the drivers in 105 AER are different from the drivers used in 109 PRO and they are modified to be more accessible and more versatile. This is achieved by using a different voice coil, different driver frame and a carbon fiber-reinforced cellulose composite dome.

Each ear cup has a 3.5 mm connector socket on the bottom of the ear cup. Overall the build quality is great and headphones have been designed in a way so they can be fully disassembled and serviced. 

Cable

The headphones come with 1 de-attachable cable, it’s 1.8 meters long. It has a 3.5mm connector on one end and two 3.5 mm connectors on the other. The cable is coated in fabric below the splitter, but above the splitter it’s sheathed in rubber, so it reduces the microphonics, at the cost of not being very flexible. I know I’m nit-picking, but personally I would like to see a more flexible and relaxed multi-core cable shipped with Meze 105 AER. 

Meze Boom Mic

As we are talking about cables, I’d also love to mention the Meze’s Boom Mic that you can purchase separately. As a matter of fact, it’s not a standalone microphone, but rather a cable with integrated boom microphone, headphones volume control and microphone mute switch.

This cable is 2 meters long, sheathed in rubber and has quality connectors. The omnidirectional microphone is placed inside a CNC milled aluminum enclosure which is then connected with a goose-neck to the left channel connector. The use of a goose-neck allows you to position the microphone in the comfortable position.The hardware microphone mute button is also a nice addition, which will be handy if you plan to attend online meetings.

This microphone is not only compatible with Meze’s own headphones, but it’s also compatible with any other headphones that have dual mono 3.5mm input sockets. In addition the microphone is compatible with any source that is equipped with a CTIA 3.5mm jack. In case you don’t have such a connector on your source, the Meze boom mic comes with Y-adapter so you can connect headphones and microphone to separate sockets on your device. 

The only two complaints I have are the length of the goose-neck part which I think could benefit from an additional centimeter or two. And the fact that the microphone is omnidirectional, so it picks up not only your voice, but the ambience as well. On the upside, if used in a quiet place, the microphone sounds natural and lively.

Fit & comfort

First I will state that I have large ears and I always preferred headphones with large oval ear pads that can fully accommodate my ears. With Meze 105 AER my ears completely fit inside the ear pads and I didn’t experience any discomfort even during long listening sessions. The ear pads are very soft and comforting and there are no questions here either.

I also tested the headphones with glasses, and didn’t experience any discomfort or lack of seal. For the record I wear glasses with a 4mm thick frame.

The headphones might also look a bit bulky in pictures, but in reality despite weighing 336 grams without the cable, I just don’t feel it’s weight on my head. The main reason is that the headband evenly distributes the weight. The clamping force is average, and it provides a good fit and seal without excessive pressure which is a great thing. It’s also good to see that 105 AER maintains the same level of comfort as its older and more expensive brother 109 PRO. 

Meze 105 AER subjective sound impressions

Before we talk about the sound, please note that all the sound impressions I’m sharing on this channel are completely subjective, so please take them with a grain of salt. 

The impedance of Meze 105 AER is 42 ohms and the sensitivity is 112db, which means you can drive it even with your smartphone, if of course it still has a 3.5mm output, but the headphones really scale if you pair it with better amps and sources. The sound of 105 AER is a combination of a well pronounced bass, natural midrange presentation and soft, yet revealing treble. All of which results in a very silky, full, slightly dark and enjoyable sound presentation.  

Bass

Unlike a lot of open-back headphones that lack the bass due to their open design, the Meze 105 AER bass is surprisingly pleasing. It’s not near any bass-head levels though, but being an open-back headphone the bass here displays a good authority and solid punch. It’s fast, well-controlled, with a good texture. The mid bass is more pronounced than the sub-bass so music that relies on mid-bass and warmer lower midrange sounds full and enjoyable. The note weight is also good and the bass maintains a good balance in the mix, so complex recordings with a lot of things happening in the low register sound clean. Compared to 109 PRO, I still give a slight edge to 109 PRO in terms of bass texture and speed, but 105 AER comes really close.

Midrange

The midrange on Meze 105 AER is the star of the show. It’s full, warm, lush and organic. Both male and female vocals sound great and I had a fantastic experience with the vocal-centrist genres from my music library. Vocals and instruments are also positioned slightly forward and that brings vocal performance closer to the listener. The guitars have a great bite, sound full and fast. 

The midrange sounds coherent and particularly listening to well recorded female vocals makes the listening experience ethereal. The upper midrange doesn’t stick out in the mix, which is a great thing. The upper mids also never have been harsh, no matter what music I was throwing at this pair. Overall the midrange presentation is very lively, yet rounded and well glued together and I personally liked it very much.

In comparison with 109 PRO, I think Meze 105 AER gives you 90% of midrange performance of 109 PRO. The only two things where the 105 AER falls short in comparison is a mid range resolution and details, which are better on 109 PRO. 

Treble

The treble on 105 AER is slightly veiled, soft and dark for my personal liking. It reminds me of the treble response of Sennheiser HD 650. Being soft doesn’t mean it lacks details as the details are there. And I think that people who prefer a smooth treble response will be pleased.

On the upside, the treble doesn’t sound grainy and in addition it sits well in the mix. Compared to 109 PRO the major difference lies exactly in the treble response, and detail retrieval. 109 PRO is just a more technical headphone, which depending on what you are looking for can be either pro or a con. But it also costs almost twice as much.

The treble in my opinion also makes Meze 105 AER quite a forgiving pair of headphones, and myself having a lot of rock and metal in my collection, I really enjoyed how some of the not so well recorded albums still sounded buttery smooth and non-intrusive. 

Sound stage, imaging, details

Now briefly about the soundstage, imaging and details.

The first thing I noticed with Meze 105 AER was the soundstage depth and height. So I would say that sound stage size can be described as average, and it’s still more deep than wide. The soundstage depth makes you immerse in your music and it really makes a difference.

The driver placement and open-back design definitely helps to keep the sound presentation spacious and natural at the same time. The soundstage conveys a good sense of distance, imaging is on point, the placement of instruments is great. The headphones are also suitable for games, and while it’s not a class leading headphone for a multiplayer environment, it still performed much better in my tests than a lot of competition in this price bracket. 

With the classical music pieces I sometimes wished the sound stage on Meze 105 AER was slightly wider, but on the other hand with alternative and rock music, the tracks sounded really coherent and well glued together. So personally I would gladly sacrifice some width in favor of such coherency and dense sound. 

Details and micro details retrieval are good, yet silky and smooth treble can sometimes lack a bit of sparkle for my personal preference. But on the other hand, not so well recorded material sounds way more palatable. The instrument separation is also good and the layering is great.

Conclusions

Meze 105 AER is a great new addition to the Meze product line. The headphones sound lively, are fun to listen to, have a great soundstage depth, sense of space and what is almost as important – they are very comfortable. They are also easy to drive, though they will still scale a bit when paired with a good amplifier and source.

🛒 Meze 105 AER at the official MEZE web store
🛒 Meze Boom Mic at the official MEZE web store

Pros

• Excellent build, design and choice of materials
• Outstanding comfort 
• Silky and lush sound presentation
• Excellent bass response for an open-back
• Beautiful mid-range
• Smooth treble
• Deep sound stage
• and a good hard shell case to protect your investment

Cons

• Not the most technical pair in its price range
• No balanced cable included in the package
• And treble can be a bit too smooth and silky for some people

To me the Meze 105 AER is another example of great engineering work that Meze has done and a perfect representation of the company’s in-house tuning philosophy. While $399 is still a substantial amount of money, I highly recommend you go out and try 105 AER because it ticks many boxes and does a lot of things right.

And that concludes my review for today. If you want to see more content like this, consider subscribing to my YouTube channel. Thank you for joining me, and until next time, goodbye!