Congrats on the purchase. The Elites do strike a nice balance between musicality and technical performance when compared to the other TOTL headphones. They are also super comfortable. Looking forward to hearing what you think of them.Well, recently I had decided I needed to get a pair of headphones that was both A) Easy to drive and B) As comfortable as possible and C) Sounded as good as possible whilst maxing out the first two criteria. The choice was pretty obvious, hop back on the Elite train. I was also curious how the angled alcantara pads had changed their sound, and was a big fan of the new Tungsten finish. I'll report back after some listening about the pads and the differences I hear, and I do have a pair of Empyrean Leather pads too, for good measure.
MEZE AUDIO ELITE - The New Isodynamic Hybrid Array Headphone - official thread
- Thread starter MezeTeam
- Start date
Just looked my self in the mirror while wearing my Mezes...fun stuff 
I do understand why my friends think that these look stupid on peoples heads.
But still <3
Try these:
Testarossa - Matt Lange
Sol - Solar Fields
I do understand why my friends think that these look stupid on peoples heads.
But still <3
Try these:
Testarossa - Matt Lange
Sol - Solar Fields
TheMiddleSky
Headphoneus Supremus
Even though not the prettiest headphone in the world, actually Abyss Diana has one of the coolest design while wearing them on my head.
I do agree, best looking summit fi headphone I have seen. Too bad the comfort was not to my liking with v2 and while the sound was technically better than Elite, it lacked the body and feel. It felt dry and cold in comparison.
krude
1000+ Head-Fier
I bought the Elites when the opportunity presented itself ... and here are some impressions after a few days of testing :
Context :
- I'm a 1266 TC and Utopia guy, I had Susvara for a year, tried a few different stacks and sold it bc it didn't gel with my listening habbits, I do appreciate it's strenghts and sound though.
- I run May + Bliss -> HA300MK2 with Elrog and CV181T2 drivers, I also started using my Audio Note Vindicator Silver Signature (that's a long name ... AN VSS for short) a somewhat legendary 2A3 speaker power amp ... as a headphone amp ...
So that's the level of gear I will be comparing here. I will also add that I owned Empys for a year a few years ago and was running them on much lower class gear (Chord Hugo 2 etc.) and I loved them, so that was one of the reasons Elites were always on my radar even though I own arguably higher rated sets already.
Here we go :
- I prefer Suade pads (not angled, need to order those), to Hybrids on this gear. Suade sounds more balanced and natural, but keeps the bass going strong on my stack.
- I absolutely had to use the Lavri Grand cable, copper doesn't do it justice restricting air and low level detail
- From my amps I would rate Bliss KTE to be around 6/10 pairing, HA300MK2 (Elrog + Psvane CV181T2) 8.5/10, AN VSS (Psvane WE275B (2A3 equivalent), Psvane ACME 274B rectification and Full Music 6SL7 driver) 10/10 pairing.
Until I tried my VSS (which is the best pairing I had for 1266 TC as well), I was going to say that Elites are a bit bland and not as detailed as the rest of the pack, but AN VSS really pulled out the performance from them. I can safely say that these can be more resolving than Utopia, and lose out to the 1266 TC only a small margin ... they don't have the piercing clarity of the TC, but they do make up with great full mids, sounding very coherent and having great timbre. TC is technically superior (and from memory Susvara as well), but, the difference from good amplification is really not that big, not big enough to care that much for me, and Elites are a really good daily driver (like my Susvara was when I owned it).
Comparisons using the best pairings I've heard :
- vs TC (both using AN VSS) - TC wins on most fronts, but not by much and Elites sound more neutral, reference, with better mids, better timbre, still impressive bass and imact. But overall I have to give an edge to TC, it's a more impressive set overall to me.
- vs Utopia (utopia from HA300MK2) - Utopia has more impact, more dynamics, but Elite edges it out on speed, textures, stage coheerence ... Utopia can have really good timbre so that's neck a neck. Overall I would say Elites are more technical, Utopia gets more bombastic from the right amplification. Utopia can also be more reference from SS amps, but I really don't find it engaging that way at all, so that's why I only use it with tubes.
- vs Susvara (from Ferrum stack and Holo stack ... from memory) - Elites are actually surprisingy close to how I remember Susvara, technicalities are on par, Susvara has better layering and clarity (not by much though). Elites obv have more impact, bass, mids are a toss up, possibly Susvara taking the cake for vocals, treble is a toss up. Generally Elites are quite reference (in comparison to the above), but Susvara is even more referenece. If you want reference, you want Susvara, if you want ... kinda reference ... but with some musicality and slam injected at the cost of 10% of technicalities, then Elites are that headphone. If you EQ Susvara to have similar bass (I used to experiment with this as most Susvara owners do), then it loses more technicalities than vs Elites ... so for good bass and impact Elites offer more technicalities than EQed Susvara.
Some things that sound great on Elite : Drums ! bass in electronica, Jazz where you can feel you are in the room
What doesn't sound so great : Large epic orchestral pieces with busy arrangements, Symphonic extreme metal
TL;DR most things sound really good, but they can fall apart a bit with the most demanding mixes ... but so does Utopia. TC and Susvara though will take anything and laugh in the face of most extreme mixes ... each at a cost though.
... so those are my initail thoughts. Only a few days of listening, also need to get angled pads : )
Update :
Actually I just relistened some really extreme mixes from the VSS using Suade pads, and the performance is there. Layering and clarity is below Susvara / TC level but it resolves 98% ... this could possibly improve with angled pads
. So yeah, good amplification is key.
I think it's a slighlty misunderstood headphone, because it's efficient to drive it is being tested from all sorts of gear, and even between higher tiers of gear Bliss KTE to HA300MK2 with Elrogs to a loaded AN VSS it scales massively ... and I doubt most reviewers run it on that class of gear
TL;DR ... spoiler alert, is scales a lot : )
Context :
- I'm a 1266 TC and Utopia guy, I had Susvara for a year, tried a few different stacks and sold it bc it didn't gel with my listening habbits, I do appreciate it's strenghts and sound though.
- I run May + Bliss -> HA300MK2 with Elrog and CV181T2 drivers, I also started using my Audio Note Vindicator Silver Signature (that's a long name ... AN VSS for short) a somewhat legendary 2A3 speaker power amp ... as a headphone amp ...
So that's the level of gear I will be comparing here. I will also add that I owned Empys for a year a few years ago and was running them on much lower class gear (Chord Hugo 2 etc.) and I loved them, so that was one of the reasons Elites were always on my radar even though I own arguably higher rated sets already.
Here we go :
- I prefer Suade pads (not angled, need to order those), to Hybrids on this gear. Suade sounds more balanced and natural, but keeps the bass going strong on my stack.
- I absolutely had to use the Lavri Grand cable, copper doesn't do it justice restricting air and low level detail
- From my amps I would rate Bliss KTE to be around 6/10 pairing, HA300MK2 (Elrog + Psvane CV181T2) 8.5/10, AN VSS (Psvane WE275B (2A3 equivalent), Psvane ACME 274B rectification and Full Music 6SL7 driver) 10/10 pairing.
Until I tried my VSS (which is the best pairing I had for 1266 TC as well), I was going to say that Elites are a bit bland and not as detailed as the rest of the pack, but AN VSS really pulled out the performance from them. I can safely say that these can be more resolving than Utopia, and lose out to the 1266 TC only a small margin ... they don't have the piercing clarity of the TC, but they do make up with great full mids, sounding very coherent and having great timbre. TC is technically superior (and from memory Susvara as well), but, the difference from good amplification is really not that big, not big enough to care that much for me, and Elites are a really good daily driver (like my Susvara was when I owned it).
Comparisons using the best pairings I've heard :
- vs TC (both using AN VSS) - TC wins on most fronts, but not by much and Elites sound more neutral, reference, with better mids, better timbre, still impressive bass and imact. But overall I have to give an edge to TC, it's a more impressive set overall to me.
- vs Utopia (utopia from HA300MK2) - Utopia has more impact, more dynamics, but Elite edges it out on speed, textures, stage coheerence ... Utopia can have really good timbre so that's neck a neck. Overall I would say Elites are more technical, Utopia gets more bombastic from the right amplification. Utopia can also be more reference from SS amps, but I really don't find it engaging that way at all, so that's why I only use it with tubes.
- vs Susvara (from Ferrum stack and Holo stack ... from memory) - Elites are actually surprisingy close to how I remember Susvara, technicalities are on par, Susvara has better layering and clarity (not by much though). Elites obv have more impact, bass, mids are a toss up, possibly Susvara taking the cake for vocals, treble is a toss up. Generally Elites are quite reference (in comparison to the above), but Susvara is even more referenece. If you want reference, you want Susvara, if you want ... kinda reference ... but with some musicality and slam injected at the cost of 10% of technicalities, then Elites are that headphone. If you EQ Susvara to have similar bass (I used to experiment with this as most Susvara owners do), then it loses more technicalities than vs Elites ... so for good bass and impact Elites offer more technicalities than EQed Susvara.
Some things that sound great on Elite : Drums ! bass in electronica, Jazz where you can feel you are in the room
What doesn't sound so great : Large epic orchestral pieces with busy arrangements, Symphonic extreme metal
TL;DR most things sound really good, but they can fall apart a bit with the most demanding mixes ... but so does Utopia. TC and Susvara though will take anything and laugh in the face of most extreme mixes ... each at a cost though.
... so those are my initail thoughts. Only a few days of listening, also need to get angled pads : )
Update :
Actually I just relistened some really extreme mixes from the VSS using Suade pads, and the performance is there. Layering and clarity is below Susvara / TC level but it resolves 98% ... this could possibly improve with angled pads
. So yeah, good amplification is key.I think it's a slighlty misunderstood headphone, because it's efficient to drive it is being tested from all sorts of gear, and even between higher tiers of gear Bliss KTE to HA300MK2 with Elrogs to a loaded AN VSS it scales massively ... and I doubt most reviewers run it on that class of gear
TL;DR ... spoiler alert, is scales a lot : )
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Yes, you do.
They are a clear improvement compared to the other pads.
ckhirnigs113
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- May 19, 2005
- Posts
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- Likes
- 4,201
@krude I strongly preferred the hybrid pads to the original suede pads. Now I prefer the angled suede pads to the hybrids. Like @betula said, you definitely need to get the angled pads!
You didn’t mention comfort in your impressions, but to me that also sets the Elite apart from many of the other TOTL headphones. Even when compared against the very comfortable ZMF lineup, the Elite still manages to be noticeably more comfortable, as least for my head/ears.
You didn’t mention comfort in your impressions, but to me that also sets the Elite apart from many of the other TOTL headphones. Even when compared against the very comfortable ZMF lineup, the Elite still manages to be noticeably more comfortable, as least for my head/ears.
krude
1000+ Head-Fier
Yeah I didn't mention build and comfort becasue everyone knows it's the best of all time
I focused on more in depth sound bc that's the thing that I think most reviews miss.Angled pads are on the shopping list
hurstnova350
New Head-Fier
New Elite owner here! They have replaced my LCD-2s and I am loving them so far. I did notice they took some substantial time to break in, to me they sounded right after about 200 hours. I also initially ordered them with the Copper Upgrade cable, but decided to get their Silver cable instead and I much prefer it (copper is for sale - PM if interested). I still felt like the Elites had a faint hint of veil on the copper vs silver. The silver cable sounds much more accurate and revealing to me - without being harsh.
Im currently using a Chord Qutest into a SimAudio Moon 230HAD AMP and while it sounds amazing, Im debating getting the TT2 next. I demo'd the Elites on a TT2 at CanJam - which is what made me decide to get them. I have heard however that Elites do better on tubes - so that makes me wonder. Keep the Qutest and get a Tube amp or just be happy with the TT2. In theory, I could add a tube amp to the TT2 later on, but that is a much bigger investment. I listen to mostly fast paced Metal music, so I do value speed and hard hitting authority.
Im currently using a Chord Qutest into a SimAudio Moon 230HAD AMP and while it sounds amazing, Im debating getting the TT2 next. I demo'd the Elites on a TT2 at CanJam - which is what made me decide to get them. I have heard however that Elites do better on tubes - so that makes me wonder. Keep the Qutest and get a Tube amp or just be happy with the TT2. In theory, I could add a tube amp to the TT2 later on, but that is a much bigger investment. I listen to mostly fast paced Metal music, so I do value speed and hard hitting authority.
No KNOTsense
Head-Fier
Congrats! Consider the Ferrum Oor/Hypsos combo. I used to have a TT2 before I upgraded to a Dave and I found that the Ferrum stack paired excellently with the Elite. Soundstage was improved some but dynamics were improved significantly. When I had to send my TT2 off for repairs I found that I actually preferred the Ferrum stack with the Hugo 2 more than with the TT2 solo.
hurstnova350
New Head-Fier
Interesting! I never would have thought that the Ferrum stack could hold a candle the the TT2 internal amp & DAC combo. You didn’t feel any loss of detail using the Hugo 2 with it ?
Also on a side note… would it be better to just save and get a used Dave vs TT2? (Assuming I’d be stuck with the Dave internal amp)
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hurstnova350
New Head-Fier
I prefer a warmer, thick, slam, and authoritative sound - with weight to it. I listen to mostly metal - such as Tool, August Burns Red, Rivers of Nihil.
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Dare I say that Empyrean would have been a good choice too. They really rock
hurstnova350
New Head-Fier
I tried them at the Meze booth, I actually didn’t like them. They were too less detailed vs the Elites for me. My LCD-2s sounded better to me vs them - but the Elites were a clear upgradeDare I say that Empyrean would have been a good choice too. They really rock
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