[Fat Larry]

You are absolutely right - nothing wrong with the comparison. But what is being called out is that, beyond personal taste (and, well, that is everything in this game!) it is unlikely that a $50 iem will perform better against the general class of $500 IEMs. Of course, there may be some horrible pieces of $500 trash that can get trounced by a $50 surprise. As my dad used to tell me, ANY team CAN beat any other team on any given Sunday…. just don’t make a habit of betting on it.

I have seen somewhere on here, someone claim that the BL-03 competes with the Beyerdynamic Xelento, which i think were around 1k rrp when they came out. That is the BL-03 being claimed to stack up against an IEM around 30x its price. While i've heard both, i can't a/b them to verify such a claim but it does go to show that there is some wild crap being slung around here.

I believe none of these comments are supposed to undervaluate your opinion and I sorry you feel that way.

I can see the point in comparsions with the reference points (even with dusk) - it might be useful for people like me, who already own some good stuff, and looking for a joy in a good looking budget gems.

But its not very helpful for the larger audience which, I believe, would only benefit from more direct comparsions, like Blons / Aria, or something around this price.
There's no reson to expect an entry level IEM to actually compete with the 300$ bracket holder.

Yes but a lot of people will come on here and make just such claims. As price to performance ratio really has shifted over the last decade it can be expected imo, everyone is looking for the next BL-03 or GR07. Price to performance has become both a moving target and a smoke screen that hype merchants can hide behind while throwing up subjectivity as a defence to their questionably motivated claims.

I can't tell if it's actively disingenuous or just attention seeking hobbyists lost in self delusion, but this place, and especially the new wave of budget chi-fi seems to be driven by this at the moment, though perhaps its always been like this and i am just being exposed to it more over the last 12 months as i've come back into the space.

I guess that is the insidious nature of modern social media marketing. It can leave quite a bad taste in the mouth.

 

[jsmiller58]

I have seen somewhere on here, someone claim that the BL-03 competes with the Beyerdynamic Xelento, which i think were around 1k rrp when they came out. That is the BL-03 being claimed to stack up against an IEM around 30x its price. While i've heard both, i can't a/b them to verify such a claim but it does go to show that there is some wild crap being slung around here.


Yes but a lot of people will come on here and make just such claims. As price to performance ratio really has shifted over the last decade it can be expected imo, everyone is looking for the next BL-03 or GR07. Price to performance has become both a moving target and a smoke screen that hype merchants can hide behind while throwing up subjectivity as a defence to their questionably motivated claims.

I can't tell if it's actively disingenuous or just attention seeking hobbyists lost in self delusion, but this place, and especially the new wave of budget chi-fi seems to be driven by this at the moment, though perhaps its always been like this and i am just being exposed to it more over the last 12 months as i've come back into the space.

I guess that is the insidious nature of modern social media marketing. It can leave quite a bad taste in the mouth.

I remember liking the BL-03, but I have not been motivated to listen to them in a long while. I have a few $100-$500 IEMs, and maybe I will put the BL-03 up against them just to see. I am skeptical, but willing to give it a shot!

 

[Fat Larry]

I remember liking the BL-03, but I have not been motivated to listen to them in a long while. I have a few $100-$500 IEMs, and maybe I will put the BL-03 up against them just to see. I am skeptical, but willing to give it a shot!

I'd be keen to hear your impressions.

I also like my BL-03's but seldom use them due to fit and lack of isolation. They also don't do everything well being v-shaped, IE: voices.

 

[omegaorgun]

One of a few gripes with HBB is he has a limited set of music genres that he uses for testing.
I thought he over hyped the Blon, definitely not S class, closer to what Crinacle said at about a C.

I also wonder how he tuned it? Have a hand in the inside design, driver selection or was given samples and picked one.

 

[Fat Larry]

This isn't a reflection on the Mele, but I wouldn't trust the guy as far as i could throw him. Can't listen to his word salad reviews either.

 

[jsmiller58]

One of a few gripes with HBB is he has a limited set of music genres that he uses for testing.
I thought he over hyped the Blon, definitely not S class, closer to what Crinacle said at about a C.


I also wonder how did he tune it? Have a hand in the inside design, driver selection or was given samples and picked one.

Yeah, I think that I agree, again going from memory. I will put spending some time with them on tomorrow’s to do list.

If I were to be generous to HBB I would say that with the BL-03 he was hyping it for the non-audiophile crowd, or at least he should have been. The vast, vast, vast, vast majority of people might think head-fi and audiophile refer to kinky bedroom acts, and for most people the tonality of the BL-03 would be extremely pleasing at a pocket-friendly price.

 

[jsmiller58]

This isn't a reflection on the Mele, but I wouldn't trust the guy as far as i could throw him. Can't listen to his word salad reviews either.

I used to closely follow HBB’s reviews and did get a few IEMs that I really like out of it. One of my favorites is the Fearless S8F which Crinnacle also really liked. But HBB went off on a few too many tirades that weren’t my cup of tea so I mostly stopped watching. I am sure others get a lot out of his videos and reviews, and I am happy for them and him.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

One of a few gripes with HBB is he has a limited set of music genres that he uses for testing.
I thought he over hyped the Blon, definitely not S class, closer to what Crinacle said at about a C.

I also wonder how he tuned it? Have a hand in the inside design, driver selection or was given samples and picked one.

Agreed. His music genre is limited to mostly American Rock, so that we would need to keep in mind maybe it doesn’t work for, say European Electronica, Neo-classical, etc. but that’s how he gained vast majority of non-audiophile profile followers, the demographic targeting is making sense.

My guess is it’s only FR based, not like to the extent of impluse response, transient response, Equal loudness contour etc

 

[AmericanSpirit]

I used to closely follow HBB’s reviews and did get a few IEMs that I really like out of it. One of my favorites is the Fearless S8F which Crinnacle also really liked. But HBB went off on a few too many tirades that weren’t my cup of tea so I mostly stopped watching. I am sure others get a lot out of his videos and reviews, and I am happy for them and him.

If you liked Fearless, I’d recommend check out GS Audio thread, it’s the OEM’s private brand, where Fearless sourced their IEMs. Less goodwills, more valued series of line ups for GS Audio

 

[omegaorgun]

Agreed. His music genre is limited to mostly American Rock, so that we would need to keep in mind maybe it doesn’t work for, say European Electronica, Neo-classical, etc. but that’s how he gained vast majority of non-audiophile profile followers, the demographic targeting is making sense.

My guess is it’s only FR based, not like to the extent of impluse response, transient response, Equal loudness contour etc

As long as the audience understands that. I'm personally not a fan of reviewer and vendor crossovers for obvious reasons, and a few have done it. It sort of defeats the point of watching a reviewer.

 

[nymz]

This is his target audience.

 

[nymz]

Guys, thanks for all the inputs yesterday, but I've been busy with work and I also received Variations, so there goes the time.

I'd like to keep a friendly reminder that I have no business with HBB or Linsoul. I really think Mele is a great IEM for the price. To me, they are competing in the 100-200usd bracket. As I stated around and around, My Teas (300usd) murder Mele.

When I told @darkgod5 that I thought was stupid to compare it to Dusk, it's because Dusk is 1 tier above (and also an hibrid). I didn't mean to make fun of anyone's opinion, and I feel sorry if that was the case.

I only care about music. I think it has a slot in the market, and gets my rec. It's not in my collection to compete with my pricier stuff. It's there because is a great rec and for a great price. I love the tuning. Couldn't care less who tuned it. HBB, Zeos, DMS, Crin, the Pope, whatever. If it's good to my ears, I rec it and I'll explain why.

As seen above, his target audiance is the guys that would afford a blon-03 because it was cheap and good for the price. To me mele is the Blon-03 v2. You pay double, but get the upgraded version, because it improved the worst characteristics but kept the best of it.

It's also true that he tuned it to his library, and as AS said, American Rock is the best fit. I also posted some lists and videos to show what other good genres are good with it and if people keep want, I can keep giving examples.

Can't wait for more opinions on these forums, as you never should only believe in the opinion of ONE guy, either me or HBB, and sorry once again if I offended anyone here.

 

[Ace Bee]

Frankly, it's almost not fair to pit a single DD against a hybrid or multi-BA iem. There are major differences, like coherency and separation - which can be invariably better on one than the other. On top of that, comparing a iem that costs $50 with a iem that cost $330, 6 times the former, and claiming that the latter is better than former, cannot be justified by any means. I would have understood if the comparison was with something like Ikko OH10, OH1S, BQEYZ Spring 2, NiceHCK Lofty, Moondrop Aria, Starfield - etc. Those would be more than justified even though some are more than double the price. But Blessing 2 Dusk is really not justifiable.

 

[nymz]

 

[nymz]

Also, I might suck it up and grab Oxygen since I really wanna try them and I'd like to give people opinions on what HBB considers to be the upgrade from Mele. It might help some people out here!