[MezeTeam]

I emailed Meze about the issue with the coating coming off and I got the following response....

"Thank you for your email. I'm really sorry to see there are some wear off on the Rai Penta, unfortunately, the warranty does not cover wear and tear."

Any suggestions as to how to respond to this? They are advertised as having a "high endurance anodized surface" so the fact that it comes off under very light use (seriously - I haven't even been wearing them as I have been running them through a burn in programme on my phone) should constitute some sort of breach of the trade description. I'm fairly good at challenging stuff, just could do with a steer on the legal aspects if anyone has any experience of applicable regulations, e.g. how to frame an argument that this is a manufacturing defect rather than wear and tear.

@DavidS11 did you get a response from them? Was it the same?

Yes I have the standard response from Meze too - it’s wear and tear and normally not covered under warranty but we are willing to replace it if you send it back to us directly to Romania.

I have not decided yet to send it back. What are the chances of it getting lost in the mail at my own risk, condition of the replacement, and that it will still wear off again or something else.

My unit is still working fine except for the eye sores. I don’t know what else my options are.. Obviously I can’t sell it. I might just ignore it or just sand the whole damn coating off... or I might just move on and jump ship to another brand...

Dear @HippyChick and @DavidS11

We didn't receive any report from our dealer on similar instance so far, and we couldn't determine the real cause until our engineers can examine your Rai Penta in our facility. I think the best arrangement will be to submit your IEM to us through your Meze dealer as warranty claim, and we'll inspect the earphones and determine the best options.

Meze will standby our products and provide the best support to our customers, and if this is something that can be improved through refinement of our production process, we certainly want to do that as early as possible. So if you haven't contact your dealer about this already, please check with them. If you need help in due course, please feel free to PM me.

 

[leaky74]

I'm surprised to hear about all of these issues with wear. I've been taking mine out with me regularly for the past month and there hasn't been any signs of wear at all.

Also surprised - I’ve got a good couple of hundred of hours through them, built up at home, work and out and about - not a mark on them.

Whenever stored in the case, I have used one of the Campfire double mesh pouch thingys I had laying around.

 

[TooPoorForHiFi]

An interesting Read...

Crinacle's Cliffnote on the Meze Rai Penta

 

[rantng]

An interesting Read...

Crinacle's Cliffnote on the Meze Rai Penta

That’s strange; I hadn’t heard of comparisons to the Fidue Sirius before, but I do remember thinking to myself after reading about the Rai Penta that it sounded like the Sirius. With that said though, I have a terrible time getting a good fit with the Sirius so if they do sound that much alike I would be very interested in the Rai Penta as the Fidue is a great IEM (when I can get a good fit). I’ve only read the first two paragraphs of crin’s article though so I’ll reserve any further comments.

 

[buonassi]

I agree with some of what crinacle said. But imaging, in particular, I find to be excellent - contrary to his opinion. The thing is, that coming off of a neutrally tuned IEM, it's hard to get into the Rai Penta, which can in fact, sound "boring" and seem lacking in technicalities. Case in point: I spent today jamming out to Fearless SF8 I picked up. It's a great IEM, and worthy of the "A" rating he gave it. But it has some drawbacks of its own. My biggest gripe is how it hisses with everything (more so than Andromeda). But changing to Penta immediately after SF8 was NOT a good experience.

It DID sound boring... and that is because of the warmer upper bass (and attenuated upper treble) that seems to weigh down the presentation at first, making it sound like a blanket is covering speakers in front of you - sounds rolled off on both ends perhaps. It's only boring until you acclimate to it and realize that the upper bass has a lot of texture and warmth that makes music very enjoyable.

I'll give him the credit he's due as he is an expert given his exposure to IEMs and the time he's put into his measurement and ranking foray. But.... it's just one man's opinion at the end of the day.

 

[Hanesu]

That’s strange; I hadn’t heard of comparisons to the Fidue Sirius before, but I do remember thinking to myself after reading about the Rai Penta that it sounded like the Sirius. With that said though, I have a terrible time getting a good fit with the Sirius so if they do sound that much alike I would be very interested in the Rai Penta as the Fidue is a great IEM (when I can get a good fit). I’ve only read the first two paragraphs of crin’s article though so I’ll reserve any further comments.

I agree that the finding of the almost identical graph of Sirius and Penta is mysterious and might be based on engineering similarities (for whatever reason).

But in the end I feel it`s not all about graphs!

I am a Sirius owner and have compared it directly to the Penta in a headphone shop. It´s true that they have a similar sound and you most likely will like the Penta if you like the Sirius (I definitely do!).... but they still do sound different to my ears!
My impression is the Penta sounds a bit brighter with a bit more extended treble and slightly less bass and less "out-of-your-head" sound stage, while the the Sirius sounds a bit fuller (slightly more mid and less treble focus to my ears) and the same time definitely wider in terms of sound stage expansion (maybe also due to looser insertion).

Generally, I find it very interesting, that the Penta seems to be surrounded by similar contrary sound descriptions as the Sirius was at its time some years ago. Some have stated that the Sirius` sound is highly dependent on the coverage of its vents, depending on how it sits in your ears. I definitely agree with that. Since the Penta seems to have almost the same venting system inside the ear pieces (as Crinacle has stated) it will most likely have the same "problem".

For example, the Sirius`graph gives the impression, it is bass light ... but to my ears the contrary is the case (I hear even more bass than with Oriolus Mk 2).
And I can`t understand all the people that call the Penta rolled off in the treble, because to my ears it is not at all (the Sirius is a bit, though).

Well, just my personal impressions.

I`d say if you, like me, like the typical hybrid sound (Oriolus, IT04, Sirius, NC5V2 etc.) you cannot go wrong with the Penta. Most 4 or 5- driver hybrids share a lot of similarities with slightly different focusses imo. And for sure the Penta has the best ergonomics I came across with this driver combination!

Crinacle seems to have a another sound preference though. I love his approach and humor but I simply found his taste is different from mine. From my experience it is always good to stick with recommendations of people that have a similar taste as oneself. If you ask me, this is 80% of the whole earphone game. It`s all so subjective.

 

[jchandler3]

Two new toys to play with... I'll share impressions after I get some time with the balanced cable I ordered.

 

[betula]

An interesting Read...

Crinacle's Cliffnote on the Meze Rai Penta

I wonder what gear the reviewer was using to evaluate the Rai Penta and the Empyreans in such a profound way and come to this thorough conclusion.

I might get the Rai Penta in the upcoming review tour and then I can have a chance to fairly compare the TOTL Meze IEM to the TOTL Meze headphone.
Even if I am more into headphones than IEMs, I am looking forward to it.

 

[MezeTeam]

I wonder what gear the reviewer was using to evaluate the Rai Penta and the Empyreans in such a profound way and come to this thorough conclusion.

I might get the Rai Penta in the upcoming review tour and then I can have a chance to fairly compare the TOTL Meze IEM to the TOTL Meze headphone.
Even if I am more into headphones than IEMs, I am looking forward to it.

Thank you for signing up the Rai Penta Tour, that indeed is an unusual perspective to evaluate the Rai Penta that worth checking out. The only concern is Chord Hugo TT2 might be a bit over powered for Rai Penta hence defeated the purpose of the AB compare, because you are comparing them at a consistence but not fair (not optimized for one test sample) condition.

 

[MezeTeam]

Two new toys to play with... I'll share impressions after I get some time with the balanced cable I ordered.

Interesting, and a very nice photo.

That's a Q5S? or Mk2? Wander what the balanced cable might be? our 4.4 silver plated cable for Rai Penta?

 

[betula]

Thank you for signing up the Rai Penta Tour, that indeed is an unusual perspective to evaluate the Rai Penta that worth checking out. The only concern is Chord Hugo TT2 might be a bit over powered for Rai Penta hence defeated the purpose of the AB compare, because you are comparing them at a consistence but not fair (not optimized for one test sample) condition.

I can accept your reasoning, however the TT2 has low gain setting for sensitive IEMs.

 

[DavidS11]

The Rai Penta sound tend to lean on the warm side esp. the low end. Better to pair it with a brighter or neutral dap/amp.

Looking forward to the impressions from the review tour.

 

[DavidS11]

Listening to the direct sound from Heaven on a nice weekend... piped straight from the sound bores on a pair of shallow-insertion super wide bore tips

 

[leaky74]

Listening to the direct sound from Heaven on a nice weekend... piped straight from the sound bores on a pair of shallow-insertion super wide bore tips

What tips are they?

 

[HiFlight]

I have decided to part with my Penta's in order to fund another project. If interested, please PM me for details. Mint + extras.