At first I didnāt enjoy the lack of thump. Turns out that the thump is actually fatiguing/distracting when I go back to DDs.
Another quirk is that I listen at much lower volumes no problem. Once you give planar a long enough chance, itās very hard to ignore what they bring to the table.
I thought long about what would be an upgrade from the timeless and did a lot of research. I went with the Mest Mk2 over the Monarch, but share a lot of your sentiments. I donāt find it to be a lot more resolving. I would say the Mest is at least on par or even better, but for me the bigger difference is HOW they present the details. The timeless to me is very in your face with details while Mest sound overall more organic and replays details more effortless, when it encounters details.
I think āobjectivelyā speaking the Mest is the better set, but the Timeless does things the Mest doesnāt do. The upper harmonics of voices are a little bit too recessed on the Mest for my liking and just like you I sometimes think my Mest may be broken. I also got a chance to listen to the ThieAudio Excalibur, which I (just like with the Mest) liked better than the Timeless overall. But there is one thing I learned about Tribrids so far:
I never really cared for sources and found the timeless to sound great on everything, even though many reviewers said, that the timeless needs a good source. This was true for all IEMs until I tried my first few EST Tribrids. The resolution on the Mest suffers a lot imho when paired with an non ideal source. That may also be the issue you experience with the Monarch. I found the apple dongle to be a good pairing with ESTs (but generally everything with an output impedance <0.5 Ohm should work where as 0.9 Ohm is too much).
This is interesting. Admittedly Iāve never tried the Monarchās through my apple dongle, only through the BTR3K. Maybe Iāll Give it a shot?
I tried the Mest Mk2 with a BTR5 and found the apple dongle to deliver significantly better results.
Thatās shocking to me. I will check it out tonight once I get home!
maybe ā¦. Just maybe
I think the clarity (and hence perception of details) of the planar IEMs are unmatched due to the coherence of a single driver. The difference is whether you like the tuning or not. Just my opinion and ears though.
i can probably talk more about it in DMs, but planars are hard to explain the detail or timbre of, even when i had a tin P1 i didnāt notice much of the difference in how things sounded (but then again i dunno if my LG can power that thing)ā¦ so at best find a place with good return policy
I think the MEST MK2 was a non-insignificant step above the Timeless in overall resolution. Less coherency sure, but the mid range clarity and detail was stunning on the MEST, as well as treble air.
Can you give me an example of something you hear, in a song, in the MEST but not on the Timeless?
I donāt own either at this moment, but I did own both at the same time 4 months ago.
What I can say is that the MEST MK2 is more detailed in every frequency area by sheer brute strength upheaval. That many high quality drivers that specialize in their own area will do that.
Voices were so easy to track and delineate with your mind, they floated in front of you. When driven properly, the clarity is such that it almost closes the lid on the curiosity jar - the fog that separates you from the music is almost completely eradicated. How little smearing is left at this point, I asked myselfā¦
The thing that made me sell it was the overall clinical signature that prevented me from connecting with the song in its totality. It was marvelously technical however.
I canāt second that.
Is the mest more detailed? Maybe, but to be honest I canāt perceive a big difference. If you take the bass for example: I like the Mestās bass better and think the bass is one of the drawbacks of the timeless (but still on a high level). But since the timelesses bass is so dry, it is easier to perceive details.
Voices are what bother me probably the most with the Mest. They sound great, but are very quiet compared to the timeless. So if you want to listen to vocals on low volume levels, the Timeless is better suited for that if you ask me. I like the Mest for louder listening, which is needed for clear and loud vocals, but then it is paired with very loud instruments stealing the show to some degree.
Can the Mest clear fog and smearing? Well if there is fog and smearing in the record, no currently existing IEM is capable of getting rid of that. Your best bet would be some machine learning DSP from 20 years into the future.
Just my 2 centsā¦ as I said: sometimes I wonder if my Mest is broken 
I should have prefaced that I always EQ to my preference, I absolutely agree with you that the MEST is lacking energy in the mid area where the voices are. But with Q, I had great success in restoring that energy.
Timeless is detailed yes but so flat and 2 dimensional. MEST detail include its holographic 3D capabilities because IMO it is an aspect of detail that makes something sound realistic and correct.
Its like the Timeless has lots of raw detail on paper but not all of it is āusefulā detail for someone like me who detest a flat presentation.
Looking at the cost it better in my opinion. I find it refreshing that it better. I will not spend that much for it but itās nice to kk ow if I did I be rewarded. 
The iems can only replicate what is there. They can not refigure the engineering.
As a classic rock guy, I would agree with this 100%.
Thanks, you may have explained something to me. I donāt normally find a big difference, but I havenāt ventured into EST sets. I find the EST tonality a bit odd, so I am being very picky about what my first tribrid will be.
I definitely agree with this. I really like planar timber, and enjoy the Timeless, but it has a flat imaging effect, and I think over time the S12 and Olina have grown on me more. We all have personal preferences, and that is fine. I am finding that I listen to Timeless less right now, but that might change in a few months too.
Itās been a long time coming but better late than neverā¦ I guess.
Edit 6/29/2022: PLEASE READ MY QUOTE TOO. This doesnāt change what I think about the overall performance of the Timeless, but it is important for me to share nevertheless.
I will try to write a brief review of the 7hz Timeless.
Please take in mind that Iām not very experienced and I donāt consider myself an audiophile, but I am someone who tries to find the best ways to reproduce music with the things I care the mostā¦ Since most of the music I listen to is electronic stuff (plenty of DnB), I look after 2 things, resolution and good extended bass without loosing too much of the important caracterics of it, like texture and impact.
Tonality wise, I would say that I percive the Timeless as a mild V-shape tuning, wich I really like and suits most of my music library.
I will start saying the 3 major drawbacks of this set has. Soundstage is limited as many pointed out, but I have to say that I donāt care that much with the type of music that I listen to and I donāt know how much better soundstage can be in an iem because I have yet to try better iems in this regard. The other 2 things, wich sometimes I miss, are slam and timbre. Bass has all of the strengths I can think off, but lacks slam, itās not something extreme, itās not sterile, but with some kind of music you may percive this (it may be due to the nature of planar technology). Timbre is decent for the most part, but again, with some music feels kind of off (mostly acoustic or pure vocal music)
And here it comes the good partā¦ Oh yes, resolution, it has plenty. I think it is the best part of this iem. I hear details that Iāve never heard in any iem or headphone. Extension (both endsā¦ sub bass goes deep) and layering are excelent. Imaging is quite good (not perfect)
It is fast, crazy fastā¦ Since I listen to a lot of Drum and Bass, this is a caracteristic that nails this music just perfect, and I love it.
For me I would say that this set is like 4 of 5 starts if I have to give it a score. It is not pefect, but has many things that suits most of my music library just perfect. I would recommend this iem to those who listen to fast paced music like Trance, DnB, Metal, etcā¦ but not so much for those who listen to Acoustic or Rock. And if you listen to Hip Pop / Pop I think it depends on the track, it may or not be a good set for you.
IMPORTANT: tips change sound a lot (for me at least) The best āstockā tip for me was the blue one with yellow inner bore. Iāve got the Spinfit CP100 wich are more comfortable and keeps the tuning (maybe a little bit better) like the stock ones Iāve mentioned.
Other things to take in account for those who careā¦ Cable is not bad, it is just decent. I replaced mine for a Xinhs custom cable wich I love (thanks @nymz ). And the carrying case is cool, but not practical (it is heavy and it doesnāt have much room inside)ā¦ I just use the case that Xinhs provide with his cables.
Thatās allā¦ 
Sorry for my english, it is not my native language.
Iām a little bit sadā¦
After 7 months with the Timeless I started to notice a channel imbalance. Iām not quite sure if this started a couple of weeks ago or my set had this from the beginning. My guess is that it probably had this a long time ago, but with time it got worse or/and my ears got more refined and I can pick up this much more.
I donāt have a measurement rig, but as far I can percive, the left side has a probably like 2 or 3db more of sub bass and 1 or 2db more of upper mids than the right side. An easy fix (not good nevertheless) is to compensate to the right side in Power Amp (Android) just a little bit, it is far from perfect but it helps somehow.
If Iām just listening to music in a casual mood or medium to low level volume it goes unnoticed. But since Iām using my Timeless more and more, because quite frankly I love it when I listen to DnB (I tend to listen at medium to high volume when I want to go hard pumping
), it is quite hard for me to not be annoyed with thisā¦
And Iāll add a last thing wich it may or not be bad for some. As some people say, treble may get fatiguing after some time. In my case it is not really a problem because my listening sessions never goes beyond 2hsā¦ but I donāt know if this is a good set for treble sensitive people or someone who is going to listen for more than 2 or 3hs.
Iāll add this in my comment āreviewā I did like a month ago because I think people has to be aware of this.
This is hard for me, because Iām someone who tries to be always fair, and I really like this iem. The problem is that is hard to recommend this set if 7hz donāt rise the QC barā¦ I know that for many this is a ācheapā set compared to the top tier iems out there, but for me it was a lot of money (I live in Argentina and import taxes and shipping are quite high here, I ended up paying like 310usd for the Timeless)I do hope that 7hz listen to all the people who had QC problems and rise their game. Now that Dioko is about to be releasedā¦ be aware.
Iāll still daily use my Timeless and try to fix it with EQ by ear (not the best way I know)
@domq422 did you already compare hte btr3k vs apple dongle? Would love a second opinion on my hypothesis.
Nice write-up! Thanks for sharing!
@lilhm I have to be honest, I havenāt gotten the chance to compare the two. But I will get the chance today. Iāll definitely get back to you guys.
Hey, no tease and no show! We wanna see the goods
