[srkbear]

A bit of a follow up on my first impressions. I’ve listened for a good period of time with both pad options, and I’m frankly struggling a bit.

I’ll start by saying that I absolutely loathe the term “veil”, given how often it is invoked in the context of audio woo and the fact that it is such a nebulous, undefinable term.

But depressingly, it’s the only word I can think of to use here, albeit only in the context of one of the pad options.

Overall I would describe the sound signature, irrespective of pads, to be extraordinarily pleasant, smooth and listenable without any frequency grating my nerves at all.

But I seem to be stuck in a loop between the pad choices. With the hybrid pads, the bass is highly punchy and pleasing, but with the compromise of the highs sounding muted—aka “veiled”, ack—which is causing the detail retrieval and imaging to suffer. They remind me a bit when you need to decompress your Eustachian tubes on an airplane—kind of muffled.

Yet with the Alcantara pads, the “veil” lifts, the highs sparkle, the soundstage opens wide and the details are infinitely more audible to my ears. Yet out comes an unmistakable bass roll off, and the punchiness is almost completely lost. When I try to correct this with PEQ, it seems like the veil drops down again somewhat.

Anyone else out there with a similar experience? Has anyone had any luck with an aftermarket pad that sits somewhere in the middle?

 

[betula]

A bit of a follow up on my first impressions. I’ve listened for a good period of time with both pad options, and I’m frankly struggling a bit.

I’ll start by saying that I absolutely loathe the term “veil”, given how often it is invoked in the context of audio woo and the fact that it is such a nebulous, undefinable term.

But depressingly, it’s the only word I can think of to use here, albeit only in the context of one of the pad options.

Overall I would describe the sound signature, irrespective of pads, to be extraordinarily pleasant, smooth and listenable without any frequency grating my nerves at all.

But I seem to be stuck in a loop between the pad choices. With the hybrid pads, the bass is highly punchy and pleasing, but with the compromise of the highs sounding muted—aka “veiled”, ack—which is causing the detail retrieval and imaging to suffer. They remind me a bit when you need to decompress your Eustachian tubes on an airplane—kind of muffled.

Yet with the Alcantara pads, the “veil” lifts, the highs sparkle, the soundstage opens wide and the details are infinitely more audible to my ears. Yet out comes an unmistakable bass roll off, and the punchiness is almost completely lost. When I try to correct this with PEQ, it seems like the veil drops down again somewhat.

Anyone else out there with a similar experience? Has anyone had any luck with an aftermarket pad that sits somewhere in the middle?

It is possible to experience something like this if you A/B test the two pads swapping them constantly. Both have strengths and weaknesses.
I would suggest listening to one pad for a day or two and then listen to the other pad for another day or two. This will give enough time your ears to get fully accustomed to the sound. I agree with you that the ideal pad would be the combination of the two but that doesn't exist (yet).

Most people are happy with one or the other though.

I settled down with the hybrids as to me this is the better choice: punchy and impactful bass, livelier sound. I do miss the more natural spaciousness of the velour in the upper frequencies, but the benefits of the hybrid and the shortcomings of the velour made my choice easy. A lot depends on your preferred music genres too. With classical music the velour is probably a better choice but with bassy, modern music the hybrid wins.

 

[turbofeet]

Hybrid us definitely the better balanced pad to my ears.

I also found the Elites got better after burn in. Some people may or may not concur.

 

[srkbear]

Hybrid us definitely the better balanced pad to my ears.

I also found the Elites got better after burn in. Some people may or may not concur.

I’m looking for a rock and roll headphone, so punchier bass is definitely up my alley.

 

[commtrd]

Interesting thoughts on the pads; I have not even tried the velour pads, as i could not stand to lose any of the bass at all. My preferred headphones for several years were the LCD 4z, so I got used to the awesome bass those cans provide. In fact that "signature" is one that I greatly prefer overall, albeit I always wanted a bit more in that upper-mid region which the Elites provide so nicely with the hybrid pads. I have sent my 4z into Audeze for them to install a set of the new style pads which supposedly help alleviate the suck-out of the upper-mid region while maintaining the kick-ass bass they are so well known for. I will pass on thoughts about the new pads when I get them back and have spent some time listening to them. The Elites do sound wonderful, but I wish they had more substantive bass a lot of times. I think that since I have had Audeze headphones exclusively for the last 20+ years that I have come to expect every headphone that I own to have that awesome bass and unfortunately just not the case. I never really considered myself a "basshead" per se but maybe I am in fact really dependent on the bass regions as definitive for perceiving good sound quality LOL. It will be super interesting to see how the new pads alter the SQ of the 4z.

In the meantime, I have really been enjoying the Elites, especially with acoustic guitar, but they sound great with all genres really. I have not even considered trying the other pads as I could not stand any less bass response at all. If I could merge the Audeze bass with the Elite cans, that would be the most blow-away cans available IMHO. And not saying the Elite bass is sub-par at all, just wish I could have a little more in the sub-bass and mid-bass regions while keeping the air, staging, and sparkliness of the treble regions. I hear plenty details and air on these cans so no problem there. Also think that if I listen to the Elites for a few years I would come to accept them as my new norm, and never really think about it. Hopefully Meze will someday offer some pads that may enable this added bass; although if the volume is cranked up somewhat, the bass is more pervasive to my ears. So there's that. And I would never complain about the overall signature and sound quality of the Meze Elites. I guess it boils down to what the listener really focuses on, extreme detail retrieval and sound staging or superlative bass and mids as predominant.

 

[adrianm]

A bit of a follow up on my first impressions. I’ve listened for a good period of time with both pad options, and I’m frankly struggling a bit.

I’ll start by saying that I absolutely loathe the term “veil”, given how often it is invoked in the context of audio woo and the fact that it is such a nebulous, undefinable term.

But depressingly, it’s the only word I can think of to use here, albeit only in the context of one of the pad options.

Overall I would describe the sound signature, irrespective of pads, to be extraordinarily pleasant, smooth and listenable without any frequency grating my nerves at all.

But I seem to be stuck in a loop between the pad choices. With the hybrid pads, the bass is highly punchy and pleasing, but with the compromise of the highs sounding muted—aka “veiled”, ack—which is causing the detail retrieval and imaging to suffer. They remind me a bit when you need to decompress your Eustachian tubes on an airplane—kind of muffled.

Yet with the Alcantara pads, the “veil” lifts, the highs sparkle, the soundstage opens wide and the details are infinitely more audible to my ears. Yet out comes an unmistakable bass roll off, and the punchiness is almost completely lost. When I try to correct this with PEQ, it seems like the veil drops down again somewhat.

Anyone else out there with a similar experience? Has anyone had any luck with an aftermarket pad that sits somewhere in the middle?

My impression is the opposite. I the velour pads sound veiled (there's really no way around this) to me and less detailed. I didn't really like using them for more than 10 minutes. Then again, different chain ,etc.

 

[TheAttorney]

I also found the velour (alcantara) pads to be more veiled and less detailed than the hybrids.
Furthermore, the hybrids have much greater precision of sound stage, in that individual images were more clearly defined, plus cleaner, sharper and more impactful transients.

Even allowing for different systems and tastes etc, I'm at a loss to explain how this seems to be more or less the exact opposite of srkbear's reaction.

One thing I have noticed though is that the exact vertical position of the Elites does matter in terms of overall presentation (not as much as it did for my HEK's, but it still matters). My preferred position has resulted in the Elites being a bit lower than I originally thought they should be. Even a 1mm adjustment makes an incremental difference, so it's worth remembering that the much thicker velour pads will cause the Elites to ride slightly higher. So, if you care about getting the most accurate comparison, you should make a vertical adjustment each time you swap pads.

Which leads me on to a rare design weakness of the Elites:

There are no markings, or click locks, for height adjustment. Which would be fine if the height always stayed perfectly in place, but over time and repeated handling and storage actions, the height very gradually shifts (often left and right in opposite directions because of the opposite twist directions when handling/storing). None of this matters if you don't hear the same vertical differences as I do, or if you don't want to have another variable to fret over. But fretting and obsessing is what many audiophiles do .

 

[adrianm]

Which leads me on to a rare design weakness of the Elites:

I'm 100% sure this was a design choice. It's not practical, but adding It would detract from the whole "work of art" aesthetic they're going for

 

[commtrd]

I just visually gauge the positioning of the posts once a day before donning the headphones the first time. They never move. Agree that it is critical to get vertical and horizontal alignment properly dialed in.

 

[baneand]

I own Liric and I agree on the moving of handle, I need to readjust after day or two, which is annoying

 

[adrianm]

Fresh off the press. Happy to own 1.7 products of year off their list.LOL.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/stereophiles-products-2022-headphone-product-year

 

[srkbear]

Fresh off the press. Happy to own 1.7 products of year off their list.LOL.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/stereophiles-products-2022-headphone-product-year

My god, don’t scare me like that, I thought it was going to say Meze had a new flagship coming out!

Congratulation on your accomplishment though.

 

[adrianm]

My god, don’t scare me like that, I thought it was going to say Meze had a new flagship coming out!

Congratulation on your accomplishment though.

We're all winners here! Would've been regardless, but nice to get some validation as opposed to the amateur reviewers shouting "Elite is not totl"

 

[srkbear]

We're all winners here! Would've been regardless, but nice to get some validation as opposed to the amateur reviewers shouting "Elite is not totl"

The Elite is not TOTL? My mind wanders to what criteria these connoisseurs are using then! TBH who gets to decide that anyway, and what does the term even mean?

Actually I looked it up. Per Webster’s, “being or belonging to the highest or most expensive class”. Certainly for Meze it objectively meets that definition. Price-wise I would hope it would qualify among its competitors—but if the naysayer folks started name dropping Spirit Torino Valkyries as their benchmark I’d stop listening to them anyway!

 

[commtrd]

Elites sound fairly TOTL to me for whatever that is worth. LOL