[Marrogwar]

I've expirienced only Campfire Holocene, which is not cheap for sure. But i dont have anything with similar sound signature to compare cheap vs campfire. does anyone know something similar?

But this set impressed me a lot. Also worth mentioning that i bought it used 300$ (650$ for new).

 

[alamnp]

But this is not the end of the story.... I can elaborate on it a bit.... and fantasize a bit:

See the Mest II cost more than $1,000, and someone is already selling it for $650. That means he lost almost half his money at the time of purchase. Soon it will turn out that the Mest 4 will come out. Or 10 other flagships, which reviewers will praise to high praise. In the meantime, you will find that your flagships in one of the 21 armatures have suffered a malfunction and completely lost their value. After that, you'll buy cheap KZs again and find that they actually play pretty well too....

Trust me on this, I started with Kbear Believe 4 years ago, saving up and bought used IEMs for half price.

When you buy good quality IEM, you can sell it back without losing money. Then you keep adding your saving until you can get what you want. I saved up enough for 4 years and got my EE Odin.

Bought Monarch Thieaudio and sold it back without losing a dime.

Tried MEST MKI to MKIII basically for free. Regardless what you read about MKI here and MKII, there is only a subtle diferrence when you hit kilobucks level that none of the entry level can achieve.

For sure ALL kilobucks IEM, has standardized resolution and imaging, natural and forward mid, great treble extension without sibilance (this won’t happen with entry level IEM, why? They could not afford a good crossover for tuning and the armature), rounded bass (you won’t find bass bleed on kilobucks level)

The only difference will be in soundstage and specific niche such as: being basshead, being great monitor, being technical monster.

When I spent $300 for 8-10 entry level IEM, those money are gone because I could not sell them back without losing a significant chunk of my money.
What’s worse, not that many people wants it, because they are so cheap anyways, people will buy it brand new.

When I saved up, first year I got my Monarch, then climbing to the nex level and next level and next level.

Monarch Thieaudio is nothing compared to Mest and to Empire Ears. But it is TOTL of the entry level.

It is hard to save up, because all of the cheaper ones are eye candies to me and for each one of those I have unreal expectation that they will be a kilobucks killer (lol WILL NEVER happened).

If you realize that you won’t fall into a rabbit hole of cheap IEM chasing.

 

[alamnp]

I've expirienced only Campfire Holocene, which is not cheap for sure. But i dont have anything with similar sound signature to compare cheap vs campfire. does anyone know something similar?

But this set impressed me a lot. Also worth mentioning that i bought it used 300$ (650$ for new).

Resell them after you save up, step up on the one. If it’s not your end game, try resell it within 3 months and get the upgraded one after.

If you can get your hand on Aure Audio Elixir (now discontinued) get it. That’s my end game TOTL IEM, so far none can beat it in terms of overall performance. Was $2200, I got mine $950. Last time I checked someone selling it for $700. A true masterpiece IMO.

I think if you sold everything that you have right now or not buying all those stuff, you can afford Fatfreq Maestro SE or Grand Maestro already.
One of the most hyped and true to the hype IEM right now.

 

[alamnp]

Really not a believer in that. Maybe if sometime i'll get to audition something of that nature then i will.

Also, there's something to be said about taking a 1000$+ outside. I wouldnt feel comfortable.

If you are in the neighborhood, I will let you try mine… yeah that worries me, but layperson don’t know how much these earsets are. You won’t get mugged for it.

 

[requal]

Trust me on this, I started with Kbear Believe 4 years ago, saving up and bought used IEMs for half price.

When you buy good quality IEM, you can sell it back without losing money. Then you keep adding your saving until you can get what you want. I saved up enough for 4 years and got my EE Odin.

Bought Monarch Thieaudio and sold it back without losing a dime.

Tried MEST MKI to MKIII basically for free. Regardless what you read about MKI here and MKII, there is only a subtle diferrence when you hit kilobucks level that none of the entry level can achieve.

For sure ALL kilobucks IEM, has standardized resolution and imaging, natural and forward mid, great treble extension without sibilance (this won’t happen with entry level IEM, why? They could not afford a good crossover for tuning and the armature), rounded bass (you won’t find bass bleed on kilobucks level)

The only difference will be in soundstage and specific niche such as: being basshead, being great monitor, being technical monster.

When I spent $300 for 8-10 entry level IEM, those money are gone because I could not sell them back without losing a significant chunk of my money.
What’s worse, not that many people wants it, because they are so cheap anyways, people will buy it brand new.

When I saved up, first year I got my Monarch, then climbing to the nex level and next level and next level.

Monarch Thieaudio is nothing compared to Mest and to Empire Ears. But it is TOTL of the entry level.

It is hard to save up, because all of the cheaper ones are eye candies to me and for each one of those I have unreal expectation that they will be a kilobucks killer (lol WILL NEVER happened).

If you realize that you won’t fall into a rabbit hole of cheap IEM chasing.

My experience is not so candy. In fact, there are no totl that I have heard and desire to have them. Most had flaws similar to cheap iems, and I can list them for a long. And in the aforementioned Mest 1-2, one can safely identify sibilance, or the unnatural tonality of EE Odin.

 

[Marrogwar]

Resell them after you save up, step up on the one. If it’s not your end game, try resell it within 3 months and get the upgraded one after.

If you can get your hand on Aure Audio Elixir (now discontinued) get it. That’s my end game TOTL IEM, so far none can beat it in terms of overall performance. Was $2200, I got mine $950. Last time I checked someone selling it for $700. A true masterpiece IMO.

I think if you sold everything that you have right now or not buying all those stuff, you can afford Fatfreq Maestro SE or Grand Maestro already.
One of the most hyped and true to the hype IEM right now.

I want to buy mest mk2 for my birthday after i heard demo on Dan's reviews channel. I consider this as my endgame

 

[alamnp]

My experience is not so candy. In fact, there are no totl that I have heard and desire to have them. Most had flaws similar to cheap iems, and I can list them for a long. And in the aforementioned Mest 1-2, one can safely identify sibilance, or the unnatural tonality of EE Odin.

None of those lol, those usually people who just sampling them (without owning them) and using wrong pairing for DAP.

Mest plugged in to the iPhone directly = a bliss with Apple Music

Best try to just plug it to your iphone. Iphone direct is the best, DAP only needed for a power hungry IEMs usually costs 2.5k or more.

Odin is a different beast, you won’t get the best without the exact pairing, due to its power requirement.

If you are using 2.5mm, won’t get you anywhere. You need to use 4.4mm connection with at least 180mw to power those Bass driver and crossover.

 

[alamnp]

I want to buy mest mk2 for my birthday after i heard demo on Dan's reviews channel. I consider this as my endgame

You will love it, get the MKII instead of MKIII, to me it’s easier to drive, you can plug it directly to iphone and sounds superb already. MKIII you need DAP to power it, so those upgrade to me not worth the price. Wait for someone who sells used. I sold my MKII for $750, so you should be able to get it for $750 or less, just to be patient.

Mest is 85% of Odin’s bass capability with more 3D presentation due to bone conduction driver, a bliss. It is an IEM that you will love. Inside of your head, if you never had any IEM with superb sound staging, MEST will WOW you…
If you have tried Mentor then a different story.

I might sell my Odin to get UM Mentor, the only thing that makes me hesitatw UM is chinese company, so if something is broken, it will be a hassle to fix it.

Once you hit that 2-3k, the consideration should be their warranty policy and their customer service. Not so much of the sound quality anymore. Because like I said, the difference is very subtle and will not blow your mind.

If you own Mest anything above Mest will be very subtle differences. You can stop there, because if you spend extra $1000, you won’t get the excitement worth to that money that you spent.

btw someone is selling EE Legend X for $900, great deal, once you tried it, you could resell it for $1000+

https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/empire-ears-legend-x.58445/

Mest MKII mint here for $800

https://www.head-fi.org/classifieds/unique-melody-mest-mkii-pd.55603/

 

[requal]

None of those lol, those usually people who just sampling them (without owning them) and using wrong pairing for DAP.

Mest plugged in to the iPhone directly = a bliss with Apple Music

Best try to just plug it to your iphone. Iphone direct is the best, DAP only needed for a power hungry IEMs usually costs 2.5k or more.

Odin is a different beast, you won’t get the best without the exact pairing, due to its power requirement.

If you are using 2.5mm, won’t get you anywhere. You need to use 4.4mm connection with at least 180mw to power those Bass driver and crossover.

Without going into details, frequency graphs, etc. For me, the only more expensive IEMs (over or about 1k) I could have are Softears Twilight. They appealed to me, but in a situation where there are earphones like the Olina SE, I don't feel the need to pay extra

 

[alamnp]

Without going into details, frequency graphs, etc. For me, the only more expensive IEMs (over or about 1k) I could have are Softears Twilight. They appealed to me, but in a situation where there are earphones like the Olina SE, I don't feel the need to pay extra

I can only speak from my experience. None of those are true... lol.

I never tried Softears, so I can't comment on those. Those graphs mean nothing when it's not translated into real demos.

Each one of us has a different hearing profile and the technicalities on paper are different with the whole new demo.

But I tried Fiio, KZ, CCA, Moondrop, Blon, Tripowin, TFZ, and Periodic Audio and more, all sub $1000, I can truly vouch, that none of them stands up to the kilo bucks IEM that I tried or owned.

Just giving you my two cents, I wish that you could also experience the bliss of having end game IEM like me.

 

[WhereAreMyEars]

Just giving you my two cents,

Can't help but imagine that's all you can give because everything else you've spent on kilobuck IEMs

 

[alamnp]

Can't help but imagine that's all you can give because everything else you've spent on kilobuck IEMs

In 4 years only spent $2200 total. Some used IEM that I purchased with bargain actually sold them with profits. Some through ebay. I can honestly said I made $800 profits trading kilobucks IEM.

If I want I can sell my Odin on ebay for $2800.

 

[nraymond]

If you are using 2.5mm, won’t get you anywhere. You need to use 4.4mm connection with at least 180mw to power those Bass driver and crossover.

The size of the connector has no impact on power. 2.5mm and 4.4mm are both balanced connections, and assuming the amplifier involved is the same, will perform identically.

 

[alamnp]

The size of the connector has no impact on power. 2.5mm and 4.4mm are both balanced connections, and assuming the amplifier involved is the same, will perform identically.

Lol of course there is: 4.4 has more "distance" between the channel grounds and thus should have a better channel separation. 4.4 has more contact area, better contact means a more accurate signal transfer.

Another thing, now high end DAP even the portable one has 4.4mm vs 2.5mm. Lower tier DAP usually has 3.5mm and 2.5mm for example Fiio and Qudelix, whereas LP, Astel Kern, Caiyin, iBasso, etc have 4.4mm instead. Anything with more than 200mW power usually has 4.4mm connector instead of 2.5mw.

 

[dirtdawg]

Kilobucks IEM sounded a thousand times better. I would suggest you to safe up and get one of those.

Which kilobuck IEM sounds 1000x better than my PR3? I can't even comprehend that level of sound quality. My poor brain might explode.