If you want very powerful sound with a good helmet and transients, like Zen, but with better images and a semi-flat scene, very tight bass with good subbass, tireless treble, guess what I would recommend? 
Mest Mk2? 
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MK2 I havenât listened to them 
. What did you not like about this technical marvel?
KZ Zex Pro?
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KZ Zex Pro are amazing. They can hardly be defeated. They are the Ńop of technology 
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Speaking of which, you gave me an idea after your reply on the UM thread, why donât you make a spreadsheet ranking of the IEMs you own @nymz ? Just a thought, although it depends if youâve got time. Youâve got a great set of standards for ranking stuff
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I have a personal excel list. I can share it, but I always like to avoid drama in here, so I never did.
Im a special snowflake, I like what I like. People will see it as either good or shit. It is what it is. I can think about it tho 
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Well they are amazing and in the top of the foodchain, but they just didnât connect to me. They didnât feel 100% natural and not the best mids Iâve heard for my library. For others it will be 100% end game.
Keep in mind my experience with it was very short and i almost bought it twice, but then I fell in love for other stuff. Also I cant justify the price for it
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I say: fuck it⊠stir up that shit 
But seriously⊠while some people put probably to much value in ranking lists like Crinicaleâs I guess most people here understand, that in the world of IEMs rankings/reviews are pretty subjective and a ranking list is a quickly digestible way to understand one single individualâs taste and one way to discover new IEMs. I am sure I donât share your taste, but would still like to see your list 
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I will put up tomorrow/weekend
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So the long anticipated comparison between @nymz old Teas and my new set could finally be done since I received them few minutes ago.
Upon listening Adele - Hello on multiple replays, doing A/B, trying to find difference between both sets, I came to the conclusionâŠ
BUY TEAS!!
Disclaimer: Iâd advise to buy only from Linsoul as it seems that this new batch/revised QC is the right one. Other AliE sellers (there are 3 or 4 I think) might have old stock and bad batch. My set was bought during 11/11 on AliE from DD Audio
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Tchoo tchoo hype train is back
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So what you are basically saying is that ther is no difference? Such a relief!
Customs in the national post office in Poland are probably close friends of those in Portugal, as my set is in my city (like 0,5km from me) for more than 1,5weeks with no sign of moving. And duty is to be paid for sure, so my cheap mind lost again - if ordered from Linsoul directly via DHL I would have them 3 weeks ago for the same cost in the endâŠ
But damn, this waiting made me eyeing the option of buying another set: DUNU EST 112 for 330$, new MEST for 740$ (here waiting for opinion of PopinTeddy) or AAW x Custom Art 4+2 for 375
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Yes, I A/B multiple times, using same tips, same volume and couldnât hear any differences between both sets.
Yeah customs are shit these daysâŠespecially after all these new EU changes that happened in July, I think things were processed much quicker before.
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If this is true, an order follows! The tea party continues! The show must be forever⊠
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Funny that you mentioned me, because I just got the MEST a couple hours ago and was ready to give my impressions comparing to Variations and Tea here. So here we go:
Upon immediate A/B/Cing with MEST (stock silicon tips), Variations (Spinfit CP155), Tea (Azla Sedna Earfit regular), here are my first impressions:
- Power requirement: Variations > MEST > Tea
- Weight (IEM alone): Variations >> MEST = Tea
- Clarity: MEST >>> Variations > Tea (Veilness: Tea > Variations >>> MEST)
- Sub-bass: Variations >> MEST ⧠Tea
- Mids: MEST > Tea > Variations
- Highs: MEST >>> Variations ⧠Tea
- Male Vocals (Billy Joel): MEST ⧠Tea > Variations (in background)
- Female Vocals (miwa): MEST (sharp) = Tea (natural) > Variations (in background)
- Naturalness: Tea > MEST > Variations
- Sound stage: Variations (auditorium) >> Tea (excellent front-back stage) > MEST (near)
- Imaging (Yosi Horikawa): MEST >> Variations ⧠Tea
- Technicality/separation: Variations >> MEST > Tea
- Coherency: MEST > Tea > Variations
- Lower slam/punch: Variations > MEST ⧠Tea
- Upper slam/punch: MEST > Tea ⧠Variations
- Detail Retrieval: MEST >> Variations > Tea
Sound Signatures (by personal enjoyment rank):
- MEST: W-shaped / clarity beast / fun / coherent through all frequencies / sometimes peaky treble / upgraded Tea
- Tea: Neutral W-shaped / fun / warm (compared to MEST and Variations)
- Variations: L-shaped / sub bass monster / technical / mid-scoop vocal loss
Test Tracks:
Boogie Wheel - Superwoman
Billy Joel - Just the Way You Are
miwa - ăă«ăȘăž (THE FIRST TAKE)
Yosi Horikawa - Bubbles
Camo & Krooked - Loving You Is Easy
Running off iFi Zen DAC v2.
To be honest, I think the three of these IEMs form a great trinity of endgame IEMs. The MEST is like a massive treble upgrade of Tea, and both tunings are headed the same direction. Variationsâ tuning is the outlier here, but Variations is a monster in terms of frequency and instrument separation, although sacrificing the vocals a tad bit. Also, the sub-bass is unbeatable among the three. If Tea is the base for the other two, MEST adds more and more towards the upper frequencies to achieve the complete package, whereas Variations stretches all frequencies apart and adds a clean and punchy sub-bass thatâll rock your brain.
Iâd still recommend that everyone should at least try Variations once to get the taste of that sweet, sweet technicality and sub-bass BOOM BOOM BAP. But my ears are more for the Tea cult tuning, so the Variations might be going soon. Yet in the one month + that Iâve spent with the Variations, I had great joy over its uniqueness. If it werenât for the EQ for my personal taste, it would have sat on the same throne with Tea as Thanos and Lady Death. Now MEST is the single king there, with Tea as the queen at its side. MEST and Tea are of the same bloodline, Variations is the beast from the East.
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where do you get a MEST for 740?
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This is a trick, there is a polish retailer Audeos having MEST OG currently on sale for 4500 PLN (basically 1150$). But this is price including VAT, I am having my own company as well, so I could buy it for the price without VAT + reduce the taxes for this investment from my income and I end up with 740$ net.
This is fully legal as I need equipment to communicate with my clients, only thing missing is cable with in-line mic and I am fully set.
The thing is that buying on company is different than buying personally from customer protection point of view and reselling that further is not an option, so that is why I hesitate. That and also because it is 700+ freaking dollars for a pair of headphonesâŠ
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Two things that sound surprising from your short impressions - soundstage in MEST being the smallest, where I normally heard it is full of air 4D like soundstage. Hmm, but it does not necessarily mean it is wideâŠ
2nd is that from your description it does not seem like MEST is so WOW above the rest, but more like a little step up and sideways from the other. The law of diminishing returns?
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