Hi all. This is my first post here, whereby I would like to share my impressions from auditioning and eventually purchasing the Meze Audio Elite at a shop. This post includes cursory comparisons to the HiFiMan Arya Stealth, DCA Expanse, 2022 Focal Utopia, and Final Audio D8000 Pro. This also shares a taste of one more person's experiences in entering the world of high-end audio.
tl;dr: The Meze Elite is the real deal, whereby its technical prowess can likely be revealed with the help of good EQ.
Context:
I started out with cheap concha-mounted earphones and then a black Sony MDRZX100 which I also primarily used with my Kawai ES8 digital piano, then in the midst of university circa 2019 upgraded to the Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT based on reviews and RTINGS' measurements. It was then that I learned to EQ and found that compensating this headphone's mid recess toward the Harman target greatly improved the sound and restored the body of piano tones. By 2021, I acquired the Jabra Elite 85h on the basis of RTINGS measurements for "flat" frequency response, its active noise cancellation, and its microphone quality for working from home. This was one pair of headphones that I never really had to EQ for music to sound right to me, or for which EQ only provided minor improvements. The ATH-M50xBT still did some magic when used with my Kawai ES8 and its built-in four-band EQ, particularly for the "EX Grand" tone; my Jabra and Arya just sound dull or blunted out of that piano, and the built-in four-band EQ could not fix that.
My musical tastes at the time were primarily classical music of the Romantic Era, mostly solo piano and concertos, as well as jazz fusion by Hiromi, and Chinese orchestra; all were consumed via YouTube. I will not comment on the relative sufficiency of 320 kbps MP3.
HiFiMan Arya Stealth:
In early February of this year, prompted by my learning of the HiFiMan Edition XS and a lull in my already costly typewriter collecting hobby freeing up funds, I finally had the chance to audition my first high-end cans. I suppose it is cool finally having the funds to legitimately be able to handle headphones of this tier, but once you meet these "mythical masters of soundstage" in person, they kind of just become "objects", and I no longer have qualms about how YouTubers "wave theirs around". They are "babies", but quite durable ones amid reasonable handling.
Anyways, I had brought my Jabra and focused on the first movement of Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 as performed by Yuja Wang in
(honestly pretty good audio, though I have since found much better). Let's say, I was "surprised", in a bad way. I at the time honestly could not tell apart the soundstage of these headphones. They all sounded "just as big" and "full" out of the Chord Mojo 2 that was set up for demo. Even the Sennheiser HD 800 S didn't really sound any "wider". The only difference to me was the amount of space around your ears and the distance of the drivers from them. I also wasn't as prepared to evaluate tonal differences. Anyways, determined, I continued listening, searching in earnest for that little bit of improvement that would have me not going home empty-handed or making a choice purely on the basis of my preferring the Arya's comfort; the Arya also felt the most open, like wearing a pair of empty rings around your ears. The Audeze MM-500 was the first headphone there to surprise me as sounding "good", at least tonally. I eventually disqualified the HD 800 S after feeling that I wasn't as content with how strings sounded on it. I then tried the Meze Audio 109 Pro and HiFiMan Edition XS, and was surprised to find that they both immediately sounded off to me both tonally and in their imaging. I finally tried out the Focal Clear Mg and received a similar pleasant surprise to my ears as I had with the MM-500 which I eventually disqualified. Finally while listening to the impassioned section of the last movement of the Brahms through the Arya, something clicked, and I had experienced my first audio nirvana. The Focal was good, but I preferred the Arya. I could also finally realize the increased clarity I was getting compared to the Jabra (over Bluetooth, which honestly still sounds great), like moving from a cheaper, smaller-aperture telescope to a higher-end and larger-aperture telescope, the Arya turning those fuzz clouds into beautifully resolved globular clusters.
My 2-hour (yes, some would have spent much longer or between multiple sessions) visit was completed with my purchase of the FiiO K9 Pro ESS DAC/amp/preamp (my only comment is that I love the looks and build, benefit from the balanced architecture and XLR outputs, it probably isn't enough for the Susvara, and this scientifically will most likely be the only one I will ever need for the rest of my life (I would have to fall in love with the
looks of another DAC or amp for me to replace it), though I may try out others, at least amps, every once and a while) and the Meze 99 Series silver-plated 4.4 mm termination cable (I didn't even know what model it was or what it looked like at the time, whereby I had simply asked for a good balanced cable primarily for its power benefits; I got a bundle discount on it, and do love its feel and looks; I will make no comments on cable sound). The DAC is hooked up to my Windows desktop or laptop via the included USB cable; I will again not comment on choice of cable.
Through the following six weeks, I would acquire an Idagio Premium+ subscription and discover many fantastic recordings, my also coming across other excellent tracks for testing soundstage, imaging, and other "technicalities". The Arya sounds excellent, though still to me only subtly better than my older headphones when all are EQed (using Equalizer APO's variable-band graphic equalizer) to the Harman target (which I greatly prefer insofar as it implements the full "ear gain", whereby I am sensitive to any recessing of this part; switching to Harman from the stock tuning feels like lifting a veil and substantially improving the clarity). The main differences are my simply preferring the planar style of presentation and having this much space around my ears within the pads. Transients do also feel a bit sharper, and string plucks or contrabass vibrations more "tactile" per one's feeling like those plucks or strikes were actually there. Anyways, I still felt like even the best classical recordings just weren't sounding real or vivid enough to me. EQing the treble by ear to have a smoother response may have provided a slight enhancement, and in one case within Yosi Horikawa's "Crossing" (
https://soundcloud.com/yosi-horikawa) seemingly caused a high-pitched percussion instrument I had never heard beforehand to appear or be revealed in the upper right of the sonic image. Basically, I just want my audio to sound "real", and while that includes the search for the perfect recording, as much as people may speak of "diminishing returns", the Arya still wasn't there for me. Regardless, it was the Arya (and Idagio) that got me back into listening to music more than ever, mind finally appreciating symphonic works and other genres rather than focusing so much on piano repertoire.
The Grand Audition:
All my gear fix neatly into one tote bag
The listening setup: only used my own FiiO K9 Pro ESS
DCA Expanse:
I originally wanted to audition the HiFiMan HE1000se after reading some glowing reviews and others impressions in line with my ideals, and knowing that I don't have a problem with treble content at all (if a trumpet sounds piercing, I know first-hand that that's how they sound in the concert hall if not more), but no local shops had it available for demo. Eager to hear something new, it was the DCA Expanse that I first favoured for its supposedly very low distortion and other supposed merits of its AMTS technology, whereby one shop had this and a few other flagships available for demo. It didn't look ultra-impressive in person, though the lighting in the listening room wasn't ideal. It was reasonably comfortable, though I didn't like that more pressure was applied to the jaw than to the upper part of the tabs; I am also not fond of fuzzy fabrics. The elastic suspension strap works nicely and enables quick adjustment of earpad seating. The earpad "aperture" size is decent, though decently shorter than and a bit wider than the Arya's; I like having a lot of space.
DCA Expanse versus HiFiMan Arya Stealth ear space
I didn't like the lack of side-to-side (vertical axis) swivel. In terms of build, maybe I would also have liked for it to feel yet sturdier in the hands. The default cable's microphonics weren't ideal, though that is probably common with these braided fabric sheaths. Now, if anything, after much preceding tinkering with the headphones.com amp power calculator, I found myself pleased that the K9 Pro ESS on 4 o'clock medium gain over balanced XLR (in contrast, with these Idagio recordings, I typically driver my Arya at 3 o'clock low gain over balanced 4.4 mm; note that this is with -6 to -7 dB digital preamp via Equalizer APO to avoid digital clipping) was plenty capable of driving the DCA Expanse to exquisitely loud orchestral tuttis. Considering the power distribution of frequencies in musical audio, I strongly doubt that a powerful amp would pull more detail, richness, or vividness out of the DCA Expanse for
my ears.
Regarding EQ:
- One thing I will note is that when comparing multiple headphones' technicalities, if you are willing to EQ the headphone to a preferred target, then I feel that it would be beneficial to EQ the headphones to said similar target so as to minimize the bearing of differences in tonal balance in one's assessment of one headphone being "more detailed" than another; I believe @artisandro some months back also advocated for this approach (Btw, did you ever get the chance to compare the Elite and LCD-5 with EQ?). For example, would you regard one headphone as being "less detailed" simply because it was intentionally tuned to have the ear gain region of its frequency response relaxed such that the respective details sound quieter or are masked?
- See https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G7MIp1GW1Q61_Wi8kENHrfGQeulvcUcT/view?usp=share_link for the Equalizer APO variable-band graphic equalizer profiles I used. config.txt has the corresponding preamp settings for each headphone. I do still check whether I like the stock tuning. The EQs for all the headphones compared during this audition were based on the headphones.com measurements and target. To an extent, this shows how well a headphone can present one's desired tonal balance, and as you will see, already being very close to said target does not guarantee its sounding the best to you.
Anyways, all I can say is that it sounded "good".
Test tracks:
- I used Susumu Hirasawa's "Parade" ( quirky, yes, but it gets incredibly rich and textured) as a general test of how well a headphone fills the soundstage and presents the ridiculous number of things going on in that track, whereby I found the Arya (always using my EQ) more vivid and engaging. The DCA Expanse happened to sound clearer without the EQ profile than with it. I didn't have time to test my "x Hz and up only" or "only up to x kHz" profiles.
- I likewise preferred the Arya's presentation of Yosi Horikawa's works. I typically use "Letters" as a test of "image size" within the soundstage, whereby I honestly haven't found much difference in such between headphones: I at the opening hear the pencil scribbling toward an area behind my left ear, then across toward the right behind the back of my head, then yet further, a number of inches to a foot obliquely behind my right ear, unless it really was going straight out to the right and it was simply impossible for me to turn my head toward it to check; I think the Arya (and my older headphones) out of these headphones had the pencil actually feel like it was behind my head rather than passing through the back of it, though that might imply these higher-end headphones' being better at pushing the image forward; otherwise, the main difference I feel regards how much it feels like that image is intersecting with the cups as opposed to being less obstructed as with the Arya.
- For Mahler Symphony No. 5, I used the 2022 Simon Gaudenz recording in https://app.idagio.com/recordings/43791766 (free subscription is available), particularly the strings and the louder parts. For Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, I used the 2006 Chailly recording in https://app.idagio.com/recordings/19965074 (this was the first classical recording other than https://app.idagio.com/albums/edition-musikfabrik-vol-09-scherben (it really sounded like I was on the stage when I first heard it through the Arya, though the magic tends to only really happen on the first listen) to actually astonish me with its vividness). For these, with or without EQ, the Arya sounded more vivid to me. Maybe, the Arya technically sounded "grainier", though I'm not sure if it technically sounded richer; the same goes for the following tracks.
- I use https://app.idagio.com/albums/my-european-journey "My European Journey" for transients and how sweetly and vividly a headphone can portray guitar timbre. I use the Rodrigo y Gabriela playlist in for transients, soundstage, and imaging. Here, I also preferred the Arya, its having a more vivid sonic image and feeling more "tactile" in its presentation of plucks, strums, and hits around me in the air. The DCA Expanse did not add or enhance anything for me here.
- "Uchoten" and "Haruka" from KodoHeartbeat present nice and vivid audio of Japanese taiko drumming, the latter showcasing some flute. Regardless of the volume, I felt more impact, "tactility", and vividness from the Arya. As for the latter video, the drum hits at 2:31 weren't as "chunky" as they had ought to have been as they were on the Arya.
- "Best 8D song" presents a nice test of a vocal, transient, and musical source panning around and even above your head from different distances. The DCA Expanse didn't do anything special for me.
- "build me up buttercup" which I found in https://forum.hifiguides.com/t/best-sound-stage-recordings/2267 presents a decent test of vocals and how the flanking guitars are imaged. The DCA Expanse didn't present anything special for me. With the Arya's stock tuning or the HiFiMan house sound that "delays the ear gain", the vocals do sound a bit more distant or spacious.
- I use this lovely if not exotic display of culture as a test of how the headphone renders an immersive sound field and its spatial cues: "Mao Jagoi". It also features flute timbre, percussion, and microphone-amplified vocals. This was one of the first tests that revealed the increase in clarity from my (EQed) Arya to my comparably EQed older headphones. The DCA Expanse did not sound advantageous in its rendition of this audio.
- and are my go-to tracks for testing how well the treble, timbre, and details of Chinese orchestra are rendered. Nothing special from the DCA Expanse, percussion perhaps not sounding as "tactile". I also use the opening drum strikes of the former to test "impact". In the latter, the opening suona should sound vivid and noble, your hearing the hall reverberations. I also use the orchestral tuttis or swells here to test the sense of soundstage. This can also be a test of clarity or instrument separation.
Now, I was on the basis of the good reviews of the DCA Expanse, its engineering, and its distortion measurements (particularly down to the bass) rooting for it, so I thus felt a bit disappointed and spent the most time with this pair trying to find something redeeming or surprising. While I was hoping for the claims by some of its being "super-detailed" and "expansive" to be true, I unfortunately ended up hearing the "muffled" (not that extreme) or "dull" sound others have mentioned. Nonetheless, I had beforehand also reviewed the other headphones' marketing material, whereby all seemed enticing.
Meze Audio Elite:
I was firstly quite pleased to find that the default hybrid earpad "aperture" was very similar in size to that of the Arya's HE1000-style oval earpads, its only being a bit shorter and wider, and the contact surface of the pads being smaller.
Meze Elite versus HiFiMan Arya Stealth ear space
The feel was nice and soft in a manner pleasantly familiar to my Jabra Elite 85h, but with much more space and openness. The friction-based yoke adjustments felt nice and smooth, but firm in a well-balanced way. I unfortunately was running low on time and thus couldn't do all the listening tests I wanted to do, but let's say I ended up not needing said time.
Here, I preferred the EQed sound, the stock tuning being too laid-back or diminishing the ear gain region too much.
Drums sounded more tactile or impactful than on the DCA Expanse, though 2:31 of "Haruka" may have sounded "chunkier" (a good thing) on the Arya. "Letter" like the DCA Expanse had the pencil going through the back of the head rather than noticeably behind it. "Parade" sounded full and rich, though it needed my EQ profile to sound right to me. It was when I jumped into the middle of the first minute of "Ixtapa" from the Rodrigo y Gabriela album that I found myself astonished.
Finally. I suppose you all have your own memories of the first time your face lit up to what you heard.
With EQ (again, toward the headphones.com target), the Meze Elite just did something indescribably wonderful. The feeling of so many different subtle improvements be it in image quality, "vividness", "tactility", timbre, perhaps image separation, all hitting you at once. It was simply wonderful. Now, the Arya's sonic image technically still felt a bit more "tactile" or sharp, but the Meze was still quite capable of tactility while also doing all these other wonderful things, or any loss of sharpness was rather in the feeling of little concentrated bubbles of richness. Perhaps the feeling was like going from one HDR TV to a yet fancier and more vibrant HDR TV. I could jump into the middle of "Diablo Rojo" in the album and find myself pleasantly surprised in a way that I didn't with the Arya, as nice as it sounded with it. I did a quick sanity check with the DCA Expanse, whereby it simply sounds fine, but after switching back to the Elite with EQ, there is just something about this presentation that I like, perhaps foremost the size of the driver and ear space and not having AMTS or AFDS in the way.
I then put on that "Best 8D song" video, and my goodness... (We can't use expletives here.) Maybe certain factors artificially enhanced the experience, but I was seriously astonished at the time by what I heard (YMMV; if you want to try it yourself, I recommend first listening through it with your "lesser" headphones). At long last, the magical "soundstage" I've been looking for. The sheer transparency to this sonic image moving around your head. When it managed to sound
that convincingly far from your head. "The drivers disappear". When you can't help but throw your hands up to your head. Just an exquisitely open and immersive sound.
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 sounded crisp, though I might have preferred the Arya's rendition of the piano timbre or attack. Strings likely sounded better and more vivid or finely textured on the EQed Elite. I didn't hear as much improvement for Mahler 5. The guitar tracks all sounded excellent. Anyways, seeing those things that I still yet preferred on the Arya had me imagining just how much better the HE1000se could be for certain things.
2022 Focal Utopia:
I have found Focal headphones with their lack of side-to-side (vertical axis) swivel to be most akin to plopping beefy plastic earmuffs or a C-clip over your head. Now, something immediately felt off with the Utopia's pads that I had not perceived with the Clear Mg's when I last auditioned it. The pressure on these pads was distinctly focused on the top and bottom. The pads were flat and didn't seem to fit the contour of my temples and whatnot very well. Upon feeling for the gaps, I came upon the realization that it actually was sealing properly, but astonishingly presented this possibly "fantastic" feeling of there being nothing in front of or behind your ears. Likewise, it generally felt exquisitely open and transparent to the outside world. The ear space is smaller than on the DCA Expanse at least insofar as it is circular, the diameter being comparable to the width of the Arya's aperture.
Focal Utopia versus HiFiMan Arya Stealth ear space
DCA Expanse versus Focal Utopia ear space
Bass clipping: The above was noted earlier on when I spent too much time comparing the bass clipping sound from 20 Hz to 200 Hz between these headphones, this having been the first "real improvement" that I noticed with the DCA Expanse over the Arya. When you crank up 20 Hz, you eventually more noticeably notice that "chopper-like" sound behind the fundamental tone, this speeding up into a faint rattle once you get to 200 Hz, its becoming much less noticeable after that, or masked by ear resonances. After playing with the gain settings, I am pretty sure the clipping was not coming from my amp, mind I think clipping should be impossible if the K9 Pro ESS had the coupling of its DAC and THX amp fine-tuned. Each headphone has a subtly different clipping timbre. I don't know if this is the sound of "bass distortion", or the sound of pushing headphones too hard (it was still below my threshold for "exquisitely loud"), and I'd say it was still noticeable on all these headphones at "moderate" loudness. I think the DCA Expanse performed the best in regard to having the quietest clipping at a given perceived bass SPL, though not by much. The Elite and Arya performed similarly to one another here though I believe the Elite's bass distortion is supposed to measure better, though perhaps not at this SPL. The Utopia didn't have any of the "crackling" issues I had read about, whereby it could get pretty loud while maintaining a comparable clipping timbre to the others. Otherwise, it seems quite competitive in pure-tone bass performance.
While I was hoping that that aforementioned openness would in actuality do something great for soundstaging, with "Parade", it ended up just feeling like long, fuzzy tubes of sound being pushed into your ears. "Letter" presented a similar image size to all the others for that pencil scribbling. "Mao Jagoi" sounded reasonable. "Ixtapa" and whatnot sounded reasonable; nothing special. Its rendering of drums also wasn't special, though the feel of the transients perhaps came closer to that of the Arya; I guess I prefer planar impact. "build me up buttercup" perhaps sounded yet more left-right in its imaging, or the sounds clearly coming from the drivers. "Best 8D song" sounded reasonable, but didn't make the drivers disappear. When listening to the same on the Meze, I could only smile.
Decision:
I did at this point wonder if there was a chance that the inherent errors, unit variation, and HRTF differences when EQing these headphones to the same target had simply led to the resulting EQed frequency response of the Meze Elite doing something magical, whereby the errors could have skewed the listening results in any other direction. Regardless, I found the Elite to really be the most comfortable and engaging out of this lineup, and along with its beauty (especially the new tungsten finish which I ordered via the dealer and is unfortunately still on the way) and its maintaining the openness of the Arya while changing it up in terms of comfort and technology, I have no complaints regarding the outcome. My preferred cable termination is 4.4 mm which is also what I need for my new XLR amp and headphone switchbox setup per the adapters I acquired, and since this was not available with the stock cables, I "had" to get and bear the cost of the Silver-Plated PCUHD Premium Cable. "I don't mind." I personally couldn't tell reliable differences between my Meze 99 Series and my Arya's stock cable after a cursory volume-match, but that won't stop me from enjoying these cables' looks, feel, and probably better microphonic properties.
Final Audio D8000 Pro:
The shop was almost closing, and I was still waiting for my "payment brokers" (parents, insofar as my personal credit and debit limits for mobilizing my saved-up funds aren't up there yet) to arrive, my having no more than 15 minutes left to try out the D8000 Pro, particularly with the intent of testing how the AFDS technology affects its bass clipping performance. Hmm. It was somehow already worse before I got to the loudness I was able to reach with the other headphones (that is not to say that the subbass quality was not fine at low to moderate levels; perhaps it was simply that the clipping increased at a greater rate when approaching the threshold), then the right driver started knocking... That's not good. It still played music well after that, so I don't think any damage was done. So at least on this unit, it seems that the capacity for subbass quantity was not up to par, though that is not to say that its quality may not still be excellent when driven below that threshold.
The friction-based yoke adjustments felt nice. The pads were firmer, and I wasn't so fond of their texture (the fabric texture of the contacting surfaces of the stock HE1000-style pads is still my favourite, though I find that size of pad likely more prone to eventual but bearable fatigue than the Elite's hybrid pads), and I really didn't like the feel of the I believe intentional front and back gaps; this was the least comfortable to me, followed by the Focal Utopia and DCA Expanse. The ear space was comparable to the Utopia's. My EQ did well to improve the tonality toward my tastes. Otherwise, all I can say is that everything sounded "decent", and the bass in normal listening conditions probably did sound "high-quality". Maybe if I had more time, I might have noticed "more details", "more resolution", or "better transients" (which had ought to have led to a comment about good "tactility"), but like with the DCA Expanse, I did not find it particularly enjoyable, and the comfort was unacceptable to me.
Conclusion
That's it for this long-winded comparison sharing how I came to fall in love with the Meze Elite. To an extent, the timing of my entry into the hobby was good in that the tungsten finish had very recently been released (I was not fond of the aluminum finish, whereby my discovery of the tungsten finish presented something very close to what I had imagined of a colour scheme for the Elite that I would be quite happy with and that would not leave a sour taste in my mouth). Hopefully in two weeks, my Elite will be ready for pickup, and during then, I might get one last impression of the headphones covered herein and report accordingly.
Second listening session (post #4,660)
