Well I just spoke on the phone with an IRL friend who got it today in the morning. He was fucking pissed because Cable didnt work on one side. He told me I was lucky not to order yet and that he will try to send back/resell. He is sad about the slam… says it’s not bassy at all. I’m guessing QC is the answer for the cables, not sure about the IEMs.
Also, keep in mind libraries and preferences. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. In the end, it’s about what the music and what makes you happy!
@luizgarcia Not only was the cable bad but the set was believed to be bad as well. I have a new set coming. I will update with reactions but none of this is good QC for Xenns if they were attempting to make a positive impression.
From what I learned from Linsoul, I’m guessing they are a small group. Definetly smaller than Thieaudio. I believe Linsoul are brand managers for Xenns and Xenns are responsible for delivering the product. I do not believe Linsoul has much control over Xenns. It was Xenns decision to change their name from Mangird.
It’s all pretty confusing, but Linsoul had to communicate the issues I had with my set with Xenns. I guess Xenns had to agree how to go about helping me. And Linsoul just relayed their feedback to me.
I am interested in hearing your impressions about a second set, mine gave me no reason to believe there was any QC issues and i still found the highs a bit dark and the bass lacking punch even when comparing to cheaper sets…
Many songs from Dream Theater are good for testing bass slam, but the one which really made it evident to me was “Reconciliation” from Pain of Salvation. Make sure you are listening to the original recording and not the remastered version though, the remaster has almost no bass compared to the original. This song has a double kickdrum which hits fast and hard but only a few sets manage to reproduce that with an actual slam.
My 2c. I have the OG MEST, and it handles all metal genres superbly. It is incredibly fast and detailed, with nearly unrivaled imaging. I think it’s probably weakest with heavy metal, where one often likes a warmer, “heavier”, thicker sound (at least I do).
I’m in New York so they didn’t need to travel far.
I’m away from home tonight, taking my dad into the hospital tomorrow, but I’m listening to the Mest MKII right now plugged into my IPhone (no amp) at maybe 60% volume streaming Qubuz at MP3 quality and could die right now a happy man.
I did some listening on my rig at home before I left tonight and the Mest is indeed next-level in every way from everything I’ve owned.
For anyone wanting to know my impressions, I can already say confidently, the Mest can handle everything in my library with authority. Including the fast transient prog metal stuff that most sets can’t pull off.
The Mest MKII graph is bullshit! It graphs as if it wouldn’t be bright, to the contrary, it is bright and ridiculously detailed. I personally wouldn’t mind if it was more relaxed in the treble, but I would rather retain all the detail and clarity it delivers. I was able to hear reverb trails more clearly than I ever have with any other IEM. On my D90se + A90 the Mest was quite bright, but tonight on my phone, the treble is a little softer.
The imaging, and soundstage are on another level period. It’s going to take me time how to accurately describe what I hear but as soon as I put them in my ears, I don’t know why I said it but I thought…. “Oh that’s cheating!”
Super early impressions, I have a lot more listening enjoyment ahead of me but I can already say everything about the Mest MKII has destroyed any expectations I might have had. This is already my favorite set I own.
Oh and @hawaiibadboy , I can hear the hi hats perfectly. Thank you for the rec bro.
IMO the best most authentic replay in the hobby. The more tribrids I try the more i KNOW that is in fact a quadbrid. It is so different.
Enjoy.
I hope pops is going to be fine.
It has to be…or it’s a tribrid and none of the tribrids touch it in my opinion.
The way the treble graphs v.s. how it sounds is another thing that points to something going on
Agree. The Mest sounds generally quite different especially in imaging vs all my other tribrids and I’m not talking about tuning.
I’ve been thinking about it and the way I want to describe it is if the imaging within the soundstage of the audio I’m hearing were physical, the Mest depicts the shapes more complete. Almost like I can hear into the soundstage and hear/feel around the audio event.
I might have failed describing it…, Attempt 2…
The soundstage in my other tribrids sounds like a fairly flat plain that may stretch out in front of me or wrap around my head. The audio events that occur within the field are generally flat shapes occurring in different locations on that stage.
The Mest stage is similar but instead of the audio events being flat and maybe even soft, the Mest audio events sound more dimensional themselves and sound more complete, as if they are complete dimensional objects within the stage.
So it’s not just about the stage width, depth and height, I can sometimes make out dimensionality of the instruments in the stage.
I’m looking forward to listening to my staging audio tracks to help me better understand what is going on in the Mest.
Differing dacs, amps, and sources/recordings obviously may add or detract from this effect.
This is where things get interesting in the higher end IMO. This is the kind of stuff that doesn’t show up on graphs and it’s notoriously difficult to describe which I think is why audiophiles who are into the higher end tend to get made fun of for using what some people consider flowery language. It’s also the kind of thing that makes me question the idea of diminishing returns. (Which is a scary thought.)
I haven’t heard the Mest but I think I know what you mean by this because I have heard it in some other gear.
I think this is 100% correct. Some recordings make if much more obvious and they kind of spoil you. Then I find myself being drawn to listening to well produced music because it gives me that extra dose of lifelike realism. Also I’ve heard some sources that I think increased this effect or conversely, masked it. I remember my RNHP adding to a sense of physical realism in my chain. (Why I want to buy another one because I miss it.) The next thing that I heard it with was the Chord Mojo. So now that I’ve upgraded my headphones to a higher level to be able to hear even more of this kind of detail I want to add the RNHP back in and see if I can bring this effect into even sharper focus. If that makes sense.
I’ll add that the soundstage effect was greater and more detailed on the D90se.
Another possibly less silly/more simplistic way of describing the Mest’s imaging and staging capabilities is to say that the Mest possesses a great deal of contrast to clearly define the audio elements within the soundstage. Adding greatly to the sense of detail, clarity and resolution the set possesses.
The bone conduction driver is definitely doing something to the presentation to make the Mest unique in its delivery and sense of absolute completion of delivering all the audio information it can.
That totally makes sense too. I think the idea of contrast is a good way to describe this effect. Like a picture with better contrast where the subtle changes in details of the light are more noticeable because they have such a wide range available to them and they are over a pitch black background with clear definition and space between each detail. Now take that visual and apply it to sound and this is one of the things I struggle to explain to people. Ha!
Very curious what the bone conduction brings to the table.
It’s also the kind of thing that makes me question the idea of diminishing returns. (Which is a scary thought.)