Yeah. And I speak my mind without wanting to be an ass. For example, I equally enjoy Mele, IE600 and FH7. Sometimes I even prefer Mele over expensive IEMs. I don’t care how much it costs or what people say, the important thing is that I like it. 
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I experienced this with Tea2. It sounded better at high volume but rather dark and boring at my normal listening volume
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I don’t know if you ever tried the OG tea, but the phenomen is even worse with those: there is no treble to stop you grinding the volume up; just a little more… and a tiny bit again… if i push it further, i will enjoy it even more…
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This^ Same with the OG EJ07. Scaling monsters 
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Absolutely spot on description of hearing Swashers on Ripples! 
It’s like your whole head is enveloped in the sound of those waves with the female vocals.
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UP and P1 Max are right there with the OG Tea with regards to this. I can crank all three to high volumes and listen for hours.
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I would add the IE200 in there too.
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Nice to know I am not alone on the “these sound better just a little louder”. The OG Tea really did that for me, as does the Tea 2. Olina might be the cheapest set that gets me to do that ( I am listening to the Olina SE as I type this ).
I have to resist the urge to drop money on the UP, but I know that I would love them. The fact that @MMag05 and I have almost identical tastes makes the appeal obvious to me. Sadly my budget is a bit tighter after buying a house last summer.
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You should have added an iem budget in the loan 
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I didn’t even think of it. 
After living in LA, the Omaha home prices made me lightheaded. My current home would cost about four times the amount in the area I was living last summer.
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My Literal First Impressions of the Aful Performer5
I’ve just had them in my ears for about a half hour or so, and couldn’t help but doing some light A/B work with them. Here are my actual first thoughts:
- I almost started to think these were overrated garbage: These are VERY tip sensitive. They can get a little filmy in the upper end, or too boomy in the low end with a bad tip selection. Get your tips and seal right, though, and they’re fine.
- These are giving me Sony N3 vibes. Much like with the N3s, I’d say they are simply tuned very well. Bass is done well, mids are done well, treble is done well. They do nothing special, but they have no holes in the tuning for my ear.
- The soundstage criticisms are real. These have almost no soundstage, it is a narrow “in-your-head” box that the music plays in.
My first impression is that if I needed to monitor because I was a musician, these could be a set that I’d grab and feel like they’d do the job well. As far as music listening…I dunno
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Should you ever be able to beg steal or borrow a ticket to see Agnes Obel live then do so, Sublime!!!
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If it can be compared to the N3, how would it compare to the Fan 2? Besides having worse/no stage, which is sadly a dealbreaker.
The Fan 2 and N3 had very similar roles for me of playing everything, strong mid-bass and a warm lilt.
For me, Fan 2 is well beyond both of them. It’s got the best mid-bass I’ve heard in an IEM.
P5 is more sub-bass over mid-bass though the mid-bass is still plenty satisfying. For my ear and listening, P5 is closer to Serial than Fan 2, but doesn’t have the sauce in the sub-bass Serial has.
None of this is to say P5 is BAD! because it is anything but. I think this might be the safest $220 you can spend in the hobby, and if you want a more forward presentation then this is a no-brainer.
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I appreciate this, thanks!
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Normalized to 300Hz, this is a fair representation of how P5 sounds to my ear.
It has a sub-bass quantity and not bad quality, it’s more forward in the mids, and more energetic in the treble than Serial to memory. They sound more similar than dissimilar, but Serial has a quality in the sub-bass that is special. And it is smoother in the upper end.
I could see a universe in which some people would find the two as good compliments.
Comparing them to the Simgot EA500, which is my preferred safely tuned IEM at the moment, it gives up some sub-bass extension (which I don’t miss, personally), and actually splits the difference between Serial and P5 in the 5-8k range.
If you wanted a safe IEM that plays most everything, I’d send you to the EA500 all day
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My Very Lazy, I’m Not Going to do the Whole Song And Dance Impressions of the 64 Audio U6t and Unique Melody MEST Mk II
So thanks to @sonofholhorse, a few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to demo and spend some time with two kilobuck IEMs: the 64 Audio U6t and UM MEST Mk II. Considering the very low likelihood for me to own sets of this price tier, this was an invaluable opportunity to expand my knowledge base, and pin down what I like and what I’m willing to pay for. With that in mind, I’m going to hit what I think with a quick pro/con list.
64 Audio U6t
PROS
- Has tuning filters that can take you from a very bassy, immersive sound signature to a more neutral, upper-midrange focused signature.
- At it’s heart, it’s still a warm, musical signature
- Better with female vocals than male
- Killer soundstage with balanced filter: fair width/height but fantastic depth. Layering/separation are very good
- With bassiest filter, is much more immersive; gives up a little soundstage for superior imaging capabilities
CONS
- Ultimately more of a jack-of-all-trades, master of none set. Bass filter is closest to special but what it does best can be replicated by other sets
- Fit is weird because of the nozzle type. Certain tips can sit too deep on the nozzle and be uncomfortable
- Could use a touch of extra tuning to find the most clarity/resolution possible
- Price-to-performance and diminishing returns hit this set hard
This is a pretty good sounding IEM, that didn’t really bring anything extra to the table that made me go “oh wow!” I think with the bass filter, I can hear something that makes sense why this costs what it does, but it’s not for me.
Unique Melody MEST Mk II
PROS
- I do not know if I can tell you what the bone conduction driver actually does in this set, but this has legitimately potent bass. Gives set a warm, thick tonality.
- Midrange sits forward if that is your sound preference.
- Very immersive, but not fatiguing, sound overall
- High level dynamics and imaging capabilities
- Has room for loud-volume listening/good volume scaling
CONS
- The warm tonality could be a negative for some
- Vocals don’t quite stand out with the very forward midrange, both males and females could do to step forward over instruments at times
- Soundstage is only average, nothing much to stand out in terms of width or depth
- Technicalities are very good but not top-of-class. Kind of expect more at the price range
Overall, I’d take the MEST II over the U6t. MEST does live up to the hype I’ve heard about it, though not so much that I think it stomps other sets. This plays music extremely well but I can’t fathom paying full MSRP on this. While A/Bing MEST with Aful Perfomer5, I would come to the conclusion that MEST is better, and P5 has similarities with it, but is just that extra 5% or so below MEST. Now is that little something extra MEST brings to the table worth the difference of $1300 to $220?
Absolutely not, in my opinion. But having been able to hear a variety of IEMs and earbuds that are sub-$300 and I’d vouch for any day, I’d have to find an IEM that I fall pretty instantly and irrevocably in love with, to be able to say this is worth it. I’d absolutely take P5’s “good enough” over MEST II, even though if you asked me which one replays music better, I’d tell you MEST.
I guess I’d say that’s where I stand on the over-$500 price bracket so far. I’d never say I would never pay that much for an IEM, but so far I don’t think I’ve heard the set that would inspire me to go that high up in my budget. I’m more than satisfied with my Fan 2s, but I’m going to keep my mind open, to seeing if something more expensive can make me have a “I just saw Jesus” moment.
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I don’t know what you need to buy to have " I saw a Jesus". Probably STAX set with non functional safety grounding on the shell
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But to be honest - in my experience with MEST it is exactly as you describe. If I stretch it it would maybe be max. 10% in random non quantifiable scale (replaying music?) over anything in type of Cadenza and any other competently tuned and technically skilled set (probably reaching even TE Zero etc).
I bought mine for 600$ so much better than 1300$ (though this value is probably not the money anyone bought MK2 for in recent year as it is constantly on sale somewhere in between 900-1000$), but still objectively not worth the money.
Do I regret it? No. Is it my default set of choice? Hell yes, I would not sell it in any predictable future. It is just how in my opinion return of investment scales in this hobby.
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