Meze Rai Penta:
Where to begin on this one? It’s Meze, the guys who made the utterly inoffensive Empyrean. They’re making an IEM now I guess. Cool.
The bass on the Rai Penta is lacking in subbass, mostly being midbass. The bass in Talk Talk’s After the Flood is of suitable quantity but hardly as satisfying as I’m used to. It’s also a little sloppy, there’s tightness to be desired. It’s a Not Good from me.
The mids are... there. They seem to be aiming for a warm-neutral shtick and they nailed it. Congratulations, I feel nothing. I just don’t have the capacity to care here. They feel more lower mids oriented than upper mids, which sounds pretty decent overall. There’s a little bite with a little weight (just a little, don’t get your hopes up big guy) with electric guitars which sounds passable. Vocals are ok. Jon Anderson on Close to the Edge seems too consonant for my taste, but that feels more like a treble issue. Overall I feel it performs better with male vocals than female. Don’t expect it to handle soprano males either.
Treble feels recessed and lacking in extension. The cymbals on Magma’s K.A. I lack in energy. Instead I hear far, far too much punch from the kick drum with not enough weight to make it convincing. Track A-Solo Dancer by Charles Mingus also lacks upper frequency fire from the cymbals. The whole thing sounds like it’s trying so hard, too hard, to please. And maybe if warm and boring is your thing, go ahead and pair it with your WM1Z. I can’t say much about it aside from that.
Technicalities are mediocre, if not lacking. Treble gets splashy when called forth to lay down complex cymbal parts. Detail (especially microdetail) noticeably seems to get squished alive by the small and congested staging. There’s examples of good intimate staging, and there’s this. Seperation is mostly definitely not up to par either, the drums and bass on Gorguts’ Obscura have effectively fused into a single rhythmic entity which is again, Not Good. Boulez’s version of Le Sacre du Printemps is utterly lacking in grandioseness in Les Augeres printaniers. The orchestra chugs along, but there’s no rhythmic energy or drive to it, no power. I don’t find myself in awe at anything. This is the biggest flaw of the whole thing, the staging and presentation just sucks.
I’d write more but what else is there to mention? I guess it’s comfortable? That’s it? You’re dropping a grand for this. I feel like with how poorly the dynamic driver performs, you’d be better off buying an Andromeda or an M7, and I’m no Andromeda fan. Hell, an M9 on discount or used would decimate this. There’s very little motivation to buy this unless you genuinely love the Empyrean sound.
For reference, all of this was heard out of the 3.5mm jack of the WM1A.
Do I recommend it? Only to Empyrean aficionados. I was talking to Crinacle while demoing it and the very first conclusion he came to was that it was, quite literally, the Empyrean in earphone form. Which, I guess, is a point to Meze for consistency. Unfortunately, neither of us are fond of the Empyrean, so it’s really hard to praise it. For the rest of us, it appears we’ll have to stay away.
Rating: 4/10
Where to begin on this one? It’s Meze, the guys who made the utterly inoffensive Empyrean. They’re making an IEM now I guess. Cool.
The bass on the Rai Penta is lacking in subbass, mostly being midbass. The bass in Talk Talk’s After the Flood is of suitable quantity but hardly as satisfying as I’m used to. It’s also a little sloppy, there’s tightness to be desired. It’s a Not Good from me.
The mids are... there. They seem to be aiming for a warm-neutral shtick and they nailed it. Congratulations, I feel nothing. I just don’t have the capacity to care here. They feel more lower mids oriented than upper mids, which sounds pretty decent overall. There’s a little bite with a little weight (just a little, don’t get your hopes up big guy) with electric guitars which sounds passable. Vocals are ok. Jon Anderson on Close to the Edge seems too consonant for my taste, but that feels more like a treble issue. Overall I feel it performs better with male vocals than female. Don’t expect it to handle soprano males either.
Treble feels recessed and lacking in extension. The cymbals on Magma’s K.A. I lack in energy. Instead I hear far, far too much punch from the kick drum with not enough weight to make it convincing. Track A-Solo Dancer by Charles Mingus also lacks upper frequency fire from the cymbals. The whole thing sounds like it’s trying so hard, too hard, to please. And maybe if warm and boring is your thing, go ahead and pair it with your WM1Z. I can’t say much about it aside from that.
Technicalities are mediocre, if not lacking. Treble gets splashy when called forth to lay down complex cymbal parts. Detail (especially microdetail) noticeably seems to get squished alive by the small and congested staging. There’s examples of good intimate staging, and there’s this. Seperation is mostly definitely not up to par either, the drums and bass on Gorguts’ Obscura have effectively fused into a single rhythmic entity which is again, Not Good. Boulez’s version of Le Sacre du Printemps is utterly lacking in grandioseness in Les Augeres printaniers. The orchestra chugs along, but there’s no rhythmic energy or drive to it, no power. I don’t find myself in awe at anything. This is the biggest flaw of the whole thing, the staging and presentation just sucks.
I’d write more but what else is there to mention? I guess it’s comfortable? That’s it? You’re dropping a grand for this. I feel like with how poorly the dynamic driver performs, you’d be better off buying an Andromeda or an M7, and I’m no Andromeda fan. Hell, an M9 on discount or used would decimate this. There’s very little motivation to buy this unless you genuinely love the Empyrean sound.
For reference, all of this was heard out of the 3.5mm jack of the WM1A.
Do I recommend it? Only to Empyrean aficionados. I was talking to Crinacle while demoing it and the very first conclusion he came to was that it was, quite literally, the Empyrean in earphone form. Which, I guess, is a point to Meze for consistency. Unfortunately, neither of us are fond of the Empyrean, so it’s really hard to praise it. For the rest of us, it appears we’ll have to stay away.
Rating: 4/10
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