Yeah, the replacements are fortunately available for purchase for the Mele at a reasonable price. The Moondrop Kanas Pro did not (at least early on) come with replacement filters, but if I understand it correctly after that experience Moondrop made the consumer friendly decision to include them in subsequent IEMs that use filters.
I feel like the channel imbalance issues are mainly due to condensation, and if you don't go through big changes in temperature you shouldn't need them. And I doubt you'll have high enough humidity in Germany. If in doubt you can get them later. I'm in London and haven't had any issues yet - I just don't use the Mele right after a shower.
Yes, these are a very well tuned warm IEMs - good quality and quantity of sub-bass and mid-bass, and nice timbre. Not fatiguing at all, and the shells are extremely comfortable. My only issues with them: 1. I would've appreciated more air/sparkle; 2. Does feel congested on busy tracks, but I think that's a limitation of the driver, and honestly this set performs very well for its price range. I only notice the difference if I A/B with a 250 USD set.
The Mele is a very good single DD. Every time I rotate my IEM's and come back to it I realise how good the Mele sounds. I've had no problems with the filter here in London, UK, and seeing that you can order some spare filters at the same time, I would say they are worth ever penny of their low price.
The quality of the stock cable is higher than the average. I would instead invest in eartips - you want wide-bore, like Spinfit CP100, to bring out the treble. HBB tuned with CP100, and most of the owners (including myself) seem to share the view that these sound better with CP100.
The stock cable is definitely OK, although I put on a TRi Through cable with JVC Spiral Dot tips as they tend to improve the sound of the Mele's to me. But we all have different tastes. The stock cable with a bit of tip rolling will find the sound you like.
https://www.mtmtaudio.com/
Aliexpress. Painfully slow but so far, knock on wood, all my purchases have made it to me.
Did you tried what i said? Its not about your city. Its about your listening style. One day/1/2 hour in your chair.. maybe ok. Running + drinking + 4-6 hours play = one week and K. O.
I mean, sure, everything is about how you use equipment. But even if the OP goes running with the Mele (I have TWS so I don't), drink (I drink hot tea and had no problems), use 4-6 hours a day (I've done this too, no problems), you cannot guarantee that the Mele will have imbalance. The only way you can convince others of this is to buy 20-50 Mele, split into control vs trial batches, and run through your exact usage, and get imbalance in >50% of the units. So, the facts that are relevant for the OP are: 1. Some people (don't know exact % but definitely a minority) have reported channel imbalance, 2. You can easily buy replacement filters if you ever run into this problem. So, going back to the OP's question of is the Mele worth it? I would still say yes, even though a small subset of people had channel imbalance issues.
"use 4-6 hours a day (I've done this too, no problems), "
