[Guacamolly]

Been super happy with the mest line up. First was Mest MKii they where my first high end iem’s and later upgraded to the Indigo.

Super happy with the indigo and no current desire to upgrade them. With quality gear driving them the sound is incredible. I can imagine the multiverse mentor does sound better considering the price difference. $4500.00 is more that I can justify spending consider I already have the Indigo.

Have to say the Universal Emerald Version is beautiful and the new bone conduction driver looks interesting.

I was going to buy my new TT cartbridge and the seller had the multiverse mentor in his pocket. He let me tried it. The cable is more bulkier than the Indigo one, a bit to much to be comfortable for my liking. The sound was incredible without MSRP price tag placebo.
PS: my Mest mkii this morning, yummy

 

[Ufanco]

I was going to buy my new TT cartbridge and the seller had the multiverse mentor in his pocket. He let me tried it. The cable is more bulkier than the Indigo one, a bit to much to be comfortable for my liking. The sound was incredible without MSRP price tag placebo.
PS: my Mest mkii this morning, yummy

Beautiful mest mkii don’t see many of the Ukrainian special additions pics. Wasn’t there only something like 10 units made?

 

[pardonpardon]

Finally got around to playing with my newly received MEST MKIIs. Thanks to Andrew and everyone at @MusicTeck for their swift and impeccable service. I was seeing many praise for them throughout this thread, and now I get why.

A few impressions, before I write a more thorough review. I have to mention that 1) I paid 899$ + 50$ for shipping and customs fees. 2) I'm plugging my MMKIIs using the 2.5mm balanced cable to my trustworthy E1DA 9038SG3 DAC, which is a detail monster with quite a lot of power, I'm not even getting halfway through the volume knob before I reach my sweetspot (the threshold between 'hey, that's too loud' and 'if I go one tiny step above, that's going to be too loud). I have never seen that pairing mentioned anywhere else, so there it is.

- While I'm not a firm believer in breaking in newer pairs of IEMs, I do have to admit that they do sound slightly more open, slightly more far reaching after more than ten hours of playback than when I first put them in.

- I was underwhelmed by the bass on these during the first hour. I then realized that bass was presented in such a unique and clean way that I first felt like it was lacking. Once I found a way to insert them deeper and got used to my new toy, I was baffled at how low these things can go, and how strong yet clean the bass can present itself. Wow, wow, wow. My Blessing 2's bass next to this sounds smudgy and vulgar.

- It's making me wish some of my favourite records were better recorded, because when I whipped out the good, clean recordings, I felt what these puppies could do. Capable of insane holography and separation.

- I found a way to maximize skin contact with deep insertion and I wonder what I could attribute to the Bone Conduction drivers. It does sometimes feel like well recorded snares and some other well recorded details in the higher end of the frequency sprectrum make my ears sorta vibrate, like it's adding some slam to the whole experience, which I'm really enjoying.

- It extends very high, and yet, I never felt like it got to sibilance levels, even with certain records that would destroy my ear due to being too spicy with other IEMs (I'm looking at you Kids See Ghosts, I always dreaded that Pusha T's verse). It's as if these just correct everything. I feel like the Blessing 2 could reach higher than the MMKII, judging by how piercing it could get at times, and YET, the MMKII still feels more detailed and more extended.

- I experimented with a slight sub-bass EQ boost and found it was really not necessary. It would sound somewhat interesting on some records, and just like too much on others, even when boosted by just 2/2.5dB. I had to come to the realization that the MMKII is simply extracting what's there, with such an amount of precision that your can experience myriads of bass tuning and mastering. I can know say that my B2 was just produced bass, yes, fairly extended, but it was just bass, not the tonal characteristics of it, the little shenanigans. In essence, I'm experiencing the personality of each bass tunings. (Making me wish, once again, that more of my records would just be better produced / mastered.)

- To balance my last point, the thing is, even with okay recordings, or older, crackly recordings (I'm a big fan of classic 90s oddball house, which is usually fairly badly pressed and recorded), the MMKII sounds awesome, and makes everything catchy. It has even made me able to appreciate the finer changes in tone, timbre and texture from records to records.

I couldn't experiment with many eartips as I, well, don't have many different eartips. I'm using the Xelastec size SS as of now, and I'm very happy with them. Insane isolation, like nothing I ever had before, and I was using foam tips from Comply specifically for that purpose.

I tried UM's silicon tips, and didn't quite like them. There weren't any Comply tips in my MKII package, and the only one I have are too long and don't have a wide bore, so I'm sorta kinda questioning whether I should invest in some wide-bore shorter Complys to try them out or just be content with Xelastecs.

I did try the Complys I have, and while it seemed to very, very slightly lift the bass response while not destroying the upper end, it did shave off some sparkle, and also made the soundstage much more claustrophobic and messy.

All in all, I'm loving them, a lot. And I can say with confidence that this is the end of the road for me. I'm not going to look for an upgrade from here because it doesn't make sense to me. I absolutely never said that before btw. I knew the Blessing 2 where a next step, and that I wanted to eventually work my way to TOTL. And this it. My next audio-related investments will go into building myself a big pair of DIY speakers from Troels Gravesen, and DIYing some nice amps to go with them. I have quenched my thirst of amazing audio on the go.

 

[emdeevee]

Finally got around to playing with my newly received MEST MKIIs. Thanks to Andrew and everyone at @MusicTeck for their swift and impeccable service. I was seeing many praise for them throughout this thread, and now I get why.

A few impressions, before I write a more thorough review. I have to mention that 1) I paid 899$ + 50$ for shipping and customs fees. 2) I'm plugging my MMKIIs using the 2.5mm balanced cable to my trustworthy E1DA 9038SG3 DAC, which is a detail monster with quite a lot of power, I'm not even getting halfway through the volume knob before I reach my sweetspot (the threshold between 'hey, that's too loud' and 'if I go one tiny step above, that's going to be too loud). I have never seen that pairing mentioned anywhere else, so there it is.

- While I'm not a firm believer in breaking in newer pairs of IEMs, I do have to admit that they do sound slightly more open, slightly more far reaching after more than ten hours of playback than when I first put them in.

- I was underwhelmed by the bass on these during the first hour. I then realized that bass was presented in such a unique and clean way that I first felt like it was lacking. Once I found a way to insert them deeper and got used to my new toy, I was baffled at how low these things can go, and how strong yet clean the bass can present itself. Wow, wow, wow. My Blessing 2's bass next to this sounds smudgy and vulgar.

- It's making me wish some of my favourite records were better recorded, because when I whipped out the good, clean recordings, I felt what these puppies could do. Capable of insane holography and separation.

- I found a way to maximize skin contact with deep insertion and I wonder what I could attribute to the Bone Conduction drivers. It does sometimes feel like well recorded snares and some other well recorded details in the higher end of the frequency sprectrum make my ears sorta vibrate, like it's adding some slam to the whole experience, which I'm really enjoying.

- It extends very high, and yet, I never felt like it got to sibilance levels, even with certain records that would destroy my ear due to being too spicy with other IEMs (I'm looking at you Kids See Ghosts, I always dreaded that Pusha T's verse). It's as if these just correct everything. I feel like the Blessing 2 could reach higher than the MMKII, judging by how piercing it could get at times, and YET, the MMKII still feels more detailed and more extended.

- I experimented with a slight sub-bass EQ boost and found it was really not necessary. It would sound somewhat interesting on some records, and just like too much on others, even when boosted by just 2/2.5dB. I had to come to the realization that the MMKII is simply extracting what's there, with such an amount of precision that your can experience myriads of bass tuning and mastering. I can know say that my B2 was just produced bass, yes, fairly extended, but it was just bass, not the tonal characteristics of it, the little shenanigans. In essence, I'm experiencing the personality of each bass tunings. (Making me wish, once again, that more of my records would just be better produced / mastered.)

- To balance my last point, the thing is, even with okay recordings, or older, crackly recordings (I'm a big fan of classic 90s oddball house, which is usually fairly badly pressed and recorded), the MMKII sounds awesome, and makes everything catchy. It has even made me able to appreciate the finer changes in tone, timbre and texture from records to records.

I couldn't experiment with many eartips as I, well, don't have many different eartips. I'm using the Xelastec size SS as of now, and I'm very happy with them. Insane isolation, like nothing I ever had before, and I was using foam tips from Comply specifically for that purpose.

I tried UM's silicon tips, and didn't quite like them. There weren't any Comply tips in my MKII package, and the only one I have are too long and don't have a wide bore, so I'm sorta kinda questioning whether I should invest in some wide-bore shorter Complys to try them out or just be content with Xelastecs.

I did try the Complys I have, and while it seemed to very, very slightly lift the bass response while not destroying the upper end, it did shave off some sparkle, and also made the soundstage much more claustrophobic and messy.

All in all, I'm loving them, a lot. And I can say with confidence that this is the end of the road for me. I'm not going to look for an upgrade from here because it doesn't make sense to me. I absolutely never said that before btw. I knew the Blessing 2 where a next step, and that I wanted to eventually work my way to TOTL. And this it. My next audio-related investments will go into building myself a big pair of DIY speakers from Troels Gravesen, and DIYing some nice amps to go with them. I have quenched my thirst of amazing audio on the go.

It might just be me mental on my part, but I think the BCD feels more effective with both crystal and xelastic, compared to foam. The isolation is effortless with these azla tips and UM.

 

[aleopold]

Finally got around to playing with my newly received MEST MKIIs. Thanks to Andrew and everyone at @MusicTeck for their swift and impeccable service. I was seeing many praise for them throughout this thread, and now I get why.

A few impressions, before I write a more thorough review. I have to mention that 1) I paid 899$ + 50$ for shipping and customs fees. 2) I'm plugging my MMKIIs using the 2.5mm balanced cable to my trustworthy E1DA 9038SG3 DAC, which is a detail monster with quite a lot of power, I'm not even getting halfway through the volume knob before I reach my sweetspot (the threshold between 'hey, that's too loud' and 'if I go one tiny step above, that's going to be too loud). I have never seen that pairing mentioned anywhere else, so there it is.

- While I'm not a firm believer in breaking in newer pairs of IEMs, I do have to admit that they do sound slightly more open, slightly more far reaching after more than ten hours of playback than when I first put them in.

- I was underwhelmed by the bass on these during the first hour. I then realized that bass was presented in such a unique and clean way that I first felt like it was lacking. Once I found a way to insert them deeper and got used to my new toy, I was baffled at how low these things can go, and how strong yet clean the bass can present itself. Wow, wow, wow. My Blessing 2's bass next to this sounds smudgy and vulgar.

- It's making me wish some of my favourite records were better recorded, because when I whipped out the good, clean recordings, I felt what these puppies could do. Capable of insane holography and separation.

- I found a way to maximize skin contact with deep insertion and I wonder what I could attribute to the Bone Conduction drivers. It does sometimes feel like well recorded snares and some other well recorded details in the higher end of the frequency sprectrum make my ears sorta vibrate, like it's adding some slam to the whole experience, which I'm really enjoying.

- It extends very high, and yet, I never felt like it got to sibilance levels, even with certain records that would destroy my ear due to being too spicy with other IEMs (I'm looking at you Kids See Ghosts, I always dreaded that Pusha T's verse). It's as if these just correct everything. I feel like the Blessing 2 could reach higher than the MMKII, judging by how piercing it could get at times, and YET, the MMKII still feels more detailed and more extended.

- I experimented with a slight sub-bass EQ boost and found it was really not necessary. It would sound somewhat interesting on some records, and just like too much on others, even when boosted by just 2/2.5dB. I had to come to the realization that the MMKII is simply extracting what's there, with such an amount of precision that your can experience myriads of bass tuning and mastering. I can know say that my B2 was just produced bass, yes, fairly extended, but it was just bass, not the tonal characteristics of it, the little shenanigans. In essence, I'm experiencing the personality of each bass tunings. (Making me wish, once again, that more of my records would just be better produced / mastered.)

- To balance my last point, the thing is, even with okay recordings, or older, crackly recordings (I'm a big fan of classic 90s oddball house, which is usually fairly badly pressed and recorded), the MMKII sounds awesome, and makes everything catchy. It has even made me able to appreciate the finer changes in tone, timbre and texture from records to records.

I couldn't experiment with many eartips as I, well, don't have many different eartips. I'm using the Xelastec size SS as of now, and I'm very happy with them. Insane isolation, like nothing I ever had before, and I was using foam tips from Comply specifically for that purpose.

I tried UM's silicon tips, and didn't quite like them. There weren't any Comply tips in my MKII package, and the only one I have are too long and don't have a wide bore, so I'm sorta kinda questioning whether I should invest in some wide-bore shorter Complys to try them out or just be content with Xelastecs.

I did try the Complys I have, and while it seemed to very, very slightly lift the bass response while not destroying the upper end, it did shave off some sparkle, and also made the soundstage much more claustrophobic and messy.

All in all, I'm loving them, a lot. And I can say with confidence that this is the end of the road for me. I'm not going to look for an upgrade from here because it doesn't make sense to me. I absolutely never said that before btw. I knew the Blessing 2 where a next step, and that I wanted to eventually work my way to TOTL. And this it. My next audio-related investments will go into building myself a big pair of DIY speakers from Troels Gravesen, and DIYing some nice amps to go with them. I have quenched my thirst of amazing audio on the go.

Thank you for sharing your excellent observations. As many have said after 3 days there is a noticeable improvement in sound. The bass and soundstage seemed to deepen for me.

I started with the silicon tips and have moved to the Azlas which are quite good once i found the right size.

I find these IEMs are so revealing the make me question my source and what something better than a Hiby R6 2020 could sound like.

 

[Guacamolly]

something better than a Hiby R6 2020 could sound like.

Good luck with that

 

[pardonpardon]

I'm curious to know more about amp pairings with the MMKIIs. I've always been used to dongles, albeit very good ones, but I wonder where a bigger, perhaps even desktop setup could bring the MKIIs.

Anyone would like to chime in?

 

[Vedemin]

I'm curious to know more about amp pairings with the MMKIIs. I've always been used to dongles, albeit very good ones, but I wonder where a bigger, perhaps even desktop setup could bring the MKIIs.

Anyone would like to chime in?

I have AB tested the MEST Mk1 Japan edition with Qudelix 5K against Chord Mojo 2, there might have been a miniscule difference of like 1-3% but that's about it and that alone might have been placebo. I didn't test big setups though.
It's absolutely not worth the money for what you get but if you have nothing better to do with your money, you can try it. Plan accordingly however since I absolutely guarantee you that selling your dongle and Mest Mk2 and getting an Indigo and Apple phone adapter is gonna be a whole another level of difference than buying whatever amp you can buy. They might make some difference but the money spent on them is almost always better spent elsewhere.

 

[kadinh]

I absolutely guarantee you that selling your dongle and Mest Mk2 and getting an Indigo and Apple phone adapter is gonna be a whole another level of difference than buying whatever amp you can buy.

Wow that’s saying a lot!

 

[Alan Billington]

I'm curious to know more about amp pairings with the MMKIIs. I've always been used to dongles, albeit very good ones, but I wonder where a bigger, perhaps even desktop setup could bring the MKIIs.

Anyone would like to chime in?

I’ve had Mest 1, Mest 2 and now Indigo. I also moved up from dongles (good ones) to now the Chord Mojo2 & Poly.

Personally I found the step up from dongle to mojo2 in particular to be huge. Gigantic. The M2 (often used in desktop mode nowadays) offers layering, dynamics, transients that a dongle doesn’t even start to unpick.

The differences this brought to my Mest 2 were really big. I went from dongle to mojo 1 (which was a big improvement but I knew I’d need to upgrade) but the biggest improvements came in the mojo2 Mest 2 pairing.

Yes I’ve now moved up to Indigo and again there’s a notable improvement over Mest 2 but I think personally the gain from a dongle to a mojo2 (with poly) or similar mid tier desktop setup would be a lot bigger. IEMs are not the logical partners for desktop setups clearly.

Good luck

 

[Zap67]

I'm curious to know more about amp pairings with the MMKIIs. I've always been used to dongles, albeit very good ones, but I wonder where a bigger, perhaps even desktop setup could bring the MKIIs.

Anyone would like to chime in?

I listen to the Mest2 with LP W2 131 and with Mojo 2, I'm very satisfied

 

[Strifeff7]

I have AB tested the MEST Mk1 Japan edition with Qudelix 5K against Chord Mojo 2, there might have been a miniscule difference of like 1-3% but that's about it and that alone might have been placebo. I didn't test big setups though.
It's absolutely not worth the money for what you get but if you have nothing better to do with your money, you can try it. Plan accordingly however since I absolutely guarantee you that selling your dongle and Mest Mk2 and getting an Indigo and Apple phone adapter is gonna be a whole another level of difference than buying whatever amp you can buy. They might make some difference but the money spent on them is almost always better spent elsewhere.

Agree,
it's a hard fact that not everyone could live with it,

 

[Ufanco]

I'm curious to know more about amp pairings with the MMKIIs. I've always been used to dongles, albeit very good ones, but I wonder where a bigger, perhaps even desktop setup could bring the MKIIs.

Anyone would like to chime in?

I found with mest mkii and indigo they scale well with better gear. I'm using tube amp with mine and enjoy the SQ improvement. The main issue with tube amps is most don't work well with IEM’s due to the low Impedance of iem’s. Using a hybrid tube amp is normally a better match.

With the mest mkii I was using a xduoo ta20 with 12bh7 tubes and sound was good. I since upgraded to a wells dragon tube amp and indigo imho the sound is fantastic and super happy with that setup.

Recent picked up a new streamer and using it with the ares 2 dac and couldn't be more happy.

 

[maegnificant]

Hey people, happy new year! My refurbished Indigo is still in the classifieds for a good price if anyone is interested!

 

[Rolu]

Here is a little trick for you DIYers willing to experiment. I took a Final Audio Type E tip and trimmed the nozzle barrel back by about 3/8's of an inch. This allows the tip to go much closer to the nozzle. Look at the pictures.

The reason I did this is because the Final Audio Type E tips are by far the most comfortable tips imo but too bassy and not enough resolution due to the extra long barrels. So I shortened the Barrell and it now has more detail, texture, zero bloom, and I just love it. Highly recommended if your willing.

What cable is that?
Also, did the shortening of the tip increase the treble back up? This earphone with stock tips is hot for me.