i am glad youre finding your way with the MEST.
youre not alone with these tip frustrations and worries about MEST. tip rolling with MEST has driven me totally crazy. unbelievable how much sound will change depending on tips with this IEM. What. thankfully i been returning tips that dont work to amazon...so bezos can pay for my tip rolling.
tip rolling is stupidly, frustratingly, extremely important for MEST enjoyment, and fullfilment of MEST potential. for anyone who still is going through this, here i have some tip impressions to try and help:
AZLA earfit light/light-short:
fairly comfortable. first settled on these as the best tips cause they have lots of wow factor. super detailed/extended high. plenty tight and nice bass. but after i stop going wow, i see that for me they have weak mids. horribly recessed. male vocals sucked behind everything, especially in songs with many elements. music with strings is weak no emotion. all was sounding hollow and just wrong. would have to turn volume way up to get mids and then high get harsh and its no good.
AZLA xlastec:
super comfortable. but too bad NO bass. this is crazy because bass on mest can be intense. xlastec are all mids and highs at expense of bass. not recomended.
in all AZLA tips i bought i tried like every possible size. for me, size/ depth of insert didn't make much difference. got good fits with MS and S but not as good as with spinfit smalls as i will tell you below.
random foamies i tried (Dekoni/Tennmak are the brands...no differece to my ears except dekoni softer/more comfy):
weirdly, foamies subdue bass too. not bad like azla, but after hearing the bass with AZLA earfits i missed having more bass, which i know MEST is capable of. plus foamies pain in my ass to put in, take out. also hurt my ears.
Comply with wax gaurd included with mest:
no. just no. so muffled was everything. no.
Spinfit c100 MEDIUM:
this is what i wear in other IEMs i have. with those IEMs c100 in medium incredibly comfortable and i love the sound. With MEST total disaster but gave me hope cause mids were there! but these make crazy amount of pressure with MEST for me. also makes everything little bit muffled. bass become huge, kinda bloated. lower mids stand out. kills highs. BUT i was not having problems with no mids. so I get...
Spinfit c100 SMALL:
since the nozzels on my other IEMS that i use c100 on do not go nearly as deep as MESTs, I bought c100 in size small to see. WOW! suddenly all my fear about MEST never working for me is gone. Bass and mids incredible. songs finally sound like what i think they are supposed to. very comfortable. insert deep without issue. only problem is if i compare with AZLA earfit, these Spinfit do not have same detail or magic in highs. and they lack "air" that other tips give. so sound is little dark, but overall, with c100 MEST is still the best IEM sound i ever heard, and highs are definitely not bad.
I have ordered Spinfit C145 in small...hopefully wider bore size than C100 helps with highs/makes them sound more like AZLA. AZLA bore for earfit short is 4.5mm...like c145. but c100 is just 4mm. idk if this will matter. but whatever. i will try it.
Symbio tip that's 3yrs old:
i do not know if you call this W or not. I bought it 3 years ago and never used it. it is a weird flat shape compared to other tips that are more cone shaped. this is perhaps the best balance of all other tips. i use size small. has good highs (better than spinfit). satisfying mids (not as good as spinfit). nice tight bass (more controlled but less amount than spinfit). problem is, this weird shape of them make it so after 10 minutes they hurt so bad. maybe i buy a new symbio w in small/medium to see. looks like they are made in more noraml shape now. unfortunalty not sold on amazon, so if i dont like i can't return. but maybe worth it for air and space between instruments that spinfits dont have.
Final audio not on amazon either so i have not tried.
will update once i try c145
if you disappointed with your MEST do not give up hope. just order crap ton of tips. it sucks. but very worth it when finally MEST sounds right.
hope this helps