I just got my OG MEST a few hours ago (thanks to
@SoundJedi ), and after some critical listening, here are my immediate impressions A/B/Cing between MEST (stock silicon tips), Variations (Spinfit CP155), Tea (Azla Sedna Earfit regular):
- Power requirement: Variations > MEST > Tea
- Clarity: MEST >>> Variations > Tea (Veilness: Tea > Variations >>> MEST)
- Sub-bass: Variations >> MEST ≧ Tea
- Mids: MEST > Tea > Variations
- Highs: MEST >>> Variations ≧ Tea
- Male Vocals (Billy Joel): MEST ≧ Tea > Variations (in background)
- Female Vocals (miwa): MEST (sharp) = Tea (natural) > Variations (in background)
- Naturalness: Tea > MEST > Variations
- Sound stage: Variations (auditorium) >> Tea (excellent front-back stage) > MEST (near)
- Imaging (Yosi Horikawa): MEST >> Variations ≧ Tea
- Technicality/separation: Variations >> MEST > Tea
- Coherency: MEST > Tea > Variations
- Lower slam/punch: Variations > MEST ≧ Tea
- Upper slam/punch: MEST > Tea ≧ Variations
- Detail Retrieval: MEST >> Variations > Tea
Sound Signatures (by personal enjoyment rank):
- MEST: W-shaped / clarity beast / fun / coherent through all frequencies / sometimes peaky treble / upgraded Tea
- Tea: Neutral W-shaped / fun / warm (compared to MEST and Variations)
- Variations: L-shaped / sub bass monster / technical / mid-scoop vocal loss
Test Tracks:
Boogie Wheel - Superwoman
Billy Joel - Just the Way You Are
miwa - ヒカリへ (THE FIRST TAKE)
Yosi Horikawa - Bubbles
Camo & Krooked - Loving You Is Easy
Running off iFi Zen DAC v2.
To be honest, I think the three of these IEMs form a great trinity of endgame IEMs. The MEST is like a massive treble upgrade of Tea, and both tunings are headed the same direction. Variations’ tuning is the outlier here, but Variations is a monster in terms of frequency and instrument separation, although sacrificing the vocals a tad bit. Also, the sub-bass is unbeatable among the three. If Tea is the base for the other two, MEST adds more and more towards the upper frequencies to achieve the complete package, whereas Variations stretches all frequencies apart and adds a clean and punchy sub-bass that’ll rock your brain.
I’d still recommend that everyone should at least try Variations once to get the taste of that sweet, sweet technicality and sub-bass BOOM BOOM BAP. But my ears are more for the Tea tuning, so the Variations might be going soon. Yet in the one month + that I’ve spent with the Variations, I had great joy over its uniqueness. If it weren’t for the EQ for my personal taste, it would have sat on the same throne with Tea as Thanos and Lady Death. Now MEST is the single king there, with Tea as the queen at its side. MEST and Tea are of the same bloodline, Variations is the beast from the East.