Another opinion on another forum. Glad to see itās also good for people that jam Reggaton/HH (I donāt do much).
Edit: Oh, just realized itās @Jman841 lol
Another opinion on another forum. Glad to see itās also good for people that jam Reggaton/HH (I donāt do much).
Edit: Oh, just realized itās @Jman841 lol
soā¦ first impression on the Mele ! 1 hr of ab between them and the bl03.
thay are amazing for me, really. they are warm, no fatigue at all, finally an iem that gives vocals the respect they deserve ! a bit forward vocals just how i like it.
male vocals does sound better then females on these but not something tremendous.
overall great impact, sound is full and everything feels in such harmony.
i do miss just a little bit of sparkle and details which is probably what makes the difference on female vocals.
overall much better then the blo3, Mele suits like a glove to my music (95% at the time) which is rock, metal, acoustics.
i just want to see a higher tier level of these with more details and a little bit more sparkle.
after buying the bl03 after GGBA recommendation that defiantly made me happy and another purchase of the tape pro by his recommendation that made me ā¦ well lets say they are aweful, specially with the high price tag. the Mele is just spot on for me, thank you for making these ! and please work on higher tier version of these !
*forgot to talk about build and everything -
super light weight, feel sturdy, BY FAR THE MOST COMFORTABLR IEM IV TRIED, they just vanish in my ears. cable is not the best iv seen (well for 50 bucks its pretty good) but does behave well and crinkle free. overall nice packaging and for 50$ i donāt think there is a better value out there.
Reading all the posts here made me want to pay extra just so I could lay my hands on Mele faster. Even the e1da 9038D, that I ordered just for Mele, got here before Mele. Finally got it delivered yesterday.
Iāll be honest, I was underwhelmed at first. Everything sounded meh. My world fell apart. I really wanted to love this set.
Everything changed when, after reading something on a forum, I flashed 9038D to tube mode. Everything I read here made sense. Been enjoying all the song recommendations. Keep them coming please
Was that Short Bus?
Apparently these have a bit of OI sensitivity
Glad you enjoy.
This. Iād advise people to use lower OI sources. Those who own beast desktop amps, try on the the dac only.
My sets seems more detailed on my w2 than on my dap, which has bigger OI, altho thereās not much or a difference.
Glad you enjoyed it! Congratz and welcome to hfgf!
I tried quit a bit of my tip collection from Final type E to Fiio tips (one of the better OEM ones), small bore to large bore and honestly I think I prefer the Azla crystal tips on the Mele.
Everyone hears different, thatās a curse and a beauty of the hobby. Every earcanal is also different. As long as it works for you, you should use it!
Iām a total noob. Those words went over my head haha
P.S. nice knowing you train combat sports too
You donāt mean the tanchjim prism! Do you?
Prism is 600usd. HBB said same sq same price
Low OI = Low output impendance. Itās a combination of not too powerful sources or powerfull sources that are designed for less sensitive stuff like iems. That means usually low powered sources have low OI, unless their quality is bad. High powered sources with low OI are harder to find, since they are design for on ear headphones.
This is one of the reasons dongles and daps are common pairings with IEMs.
Edit: I should explain a bit more regarding Mele tho. There was some people on a community called short bus that were having problems on Mele treble. They heard no treble (like cymbal strikes) and I was hearing the opposite. Once one guy switched to a portable amp, there was light. So yeah, thereās that.
Iām a bit worried about Meleās lack of treble sparkle/extension. Has someone tried EQing the 15kHz region up yet? Would be interesting to see results
Clarification; Headphones dont care much about having low OI or not. Thats because they usually have a lot higher impedance than iems, therefore they arent sensitive and wont have hiss nor FR changes due to the OI.
(this is why you can use pure or hybrid tube amps with headphones without getting any noise or hiss, unlike with iems.)
(Its not hard to find sources with high power and low OI if its a desktop amp
but definitely a pain (very expensive) for portable sources.)
I should have tagged you to explain it better than me. I know jack sh*t about sources. Just if they are pitch black or sound good š¤· thanks bro
Iāve tried PEQ with Qudelix-5k. Mele seems to respond well! Obviously you donāt get a completely transformed sound, but it helps a bit
Did U listen to massive attack yet? ācome near meā is quite the listen
Love MA. Iāll leave another recs here. The album āThe Golden Ageā by Woodkid. The tracks āRun boy, Runā and āI love youā are my favourites
Ok, here we are. After having spent a few month buying stuff an dlistening to stuff, after having viewed a dozen of HBBās reviews, and after 2 months in this forum, I feel ready to publish my first review of the Mele !!
For starters, I encourage you to go and check my profile: I explain where I am in my audiophile journey, where I come from soundwise. I think it could help you explain why I say some things I say.
So, without further ado, letās go!
Hardware
I wonāt talk about the box because A) few people really care and B) those who do care have already got intel elswhere (and C) Iām lazy).
Aesthetically, the shells look great; I love this grey metal, and the BGGAR logo on it really adds a little something. The faceplate, in white, is neutral; I was affraid the golden part would be too much, but it is not, and the faceplate appears more white with a few sparkles than he other way around.
The shells are very lightweight; i tend to think that the bulky Aria bring a more premium feeling, but the Mele donāt feel sheap either; and being lightweight carries some advantages. And speaking about advantages of being lightweight, yes, the Mele are very comfortable to wear. The combination of weight and fit make them comfy.
The cable that comes with the shells is a god match aesthetically: the colors match and the dicreet BGGAR logo on the Y splitter is a nice touch. I must say though that storing the iems in a small kliptsch carrying case doesnāt seem to please the cable very much, as it keeps a memory of the torsion it has inside. Maybe with a bigger case, it would be more well-behaved? Anyway, it is not a major hydrance for now: the cable doesnāt stay straight, but it doesnāt twist on itself either.
SOUND - bass
the low end is the star of the show with Mele. It slams hard, it slams fast, it slams precisely. I havenāt encountered any set with that much slam, and it is very pleasant. feeling the back of your head being thumped by the sound really adds for immersion in dynamic songs. For example, the infamous āthrillerā song by M.Jackson really awakens with Mele.
Same thing with āanother brick in the wallā by the Pink Floyds: the drums and the bass guitar finally get the space they deserve. We can thank HBB and his library for making him tune the Mele with these forward sub-bass and mid-bass.
On busy tracks like āRoad of the Righteousā by the dropkicks murphies, where you have drums and guitars from 0:20) and then men voices in the same spot, Mele stays precise and separates intruments enough for the track to stay listenable (which is not an easy task with such a band).
SOUND - mids
Here is the weak point of the Mele for me: first of all, male and female vocals arenāt treated equal. In āThe girl with the red balloonā by The Civil Wars, the womenās voice is recessed, bringing the manās voice a little bit too much forward.
The female voice is even more hidden in āSmack my bitch up by prodigyā because the bass level is off the roof in this song; this fact is clear at 3:03 and 3:49.
The low end of Mele being forward, my ear couldnāt pick up some details as well as Iām used to. For example, I had a hard time earing the chair cracking in āSkinny Loveā by Birdy (0:26 and 0:38) whereas I get it well with my usual gear (Aria and HE400i). The same goes for people chatting at the very beginning of āFly me to the Moonā By Hotel De Paris (good luck finding this one on streaming servicesā¦).
SOUND - treble
The treble on any gear is a complex thing to tune, beacause it not only bring fundamentals of some intruments, but also carries the harmonics of the mids. having a dip or a spike in the wrong spot can ruin any tuning that was good otherwise. Concerning the Mele, I have the feeling that the tuner went for a safe bet. The treble is less pronounced than the low-end, and is really smooth. That takes away many risks of sibilance and disturbing stuff.
On her first album, birdy had intimate recording sessions: the girl, her piano, and one mic. That can be heard because you can spot her foot depressing the pedals; because she plays piano while she sings, she doesnāt think a lot about her mouth placement; that results in a recording that has sibilances on each and every, s, t and even d pronouciation; you can count them from the first refrain at 1:04. The producer, knowing his stuff, had certainly tamed these sibilances when mastering, but they stay quite obvious on the track. On the Mele, the sibilances are still hearable, but are really tamed.
You also get sibilances with ālāĆ©tincelleā by Merzhin, but for different reasons. And with Mele, you almost donāt hear them anymore.
On another spot, the cymbals almost always sound right: they are never agrssive to the ear, nor too forward in the mix
But this smooth and safe tuning has a toll too: many tracks loose details. The drums can also be less forward because of that; I noticed it on ālāĆ©tincelleā by Merzhin, and with āTHe Legend of Zelda 25th anniversary Medleyā By Koji Kondo : the drum that enters at 1:13 is veiled and not forward enough to support the rest of the harmony.
SOUND - technicalities
I think I lack the experience to really speack about technicalities. I donāt have tried enough iems, and my reference gear is an open headphone that I donāt find hyper āstage-yā. imaging is good, but it didnāt make me fall of my chair. stage is, for me, on the small side. transients are good, on par with many other DDs in this price bracket (Aria included).
Deathmatch - Aria
The Aria is my main IEM for approximately 1 month now. It doesnāt really moves me, but it is the more efficient I have with what I look for. The general sound signature of the Aria is a āsafeā slight V, where the bass is a little bit boosted to try and make it fun, and the treble is up too in order to bring details forward. It makes the vocal region being a little bit recessed.
On the comfort side, the fits are quite similar (i.e. good), but the weight of the Aria make it less forgettable during listening sessions.
On āSmack my bitch upā, Aria uses the bass/low-bass only as a support for the song. ON mEle, Bass and sub-bass are the amin protagonists. On āSomething you might likeā by Puggy, Aria bring the hand-clapping events more forward (1:31). There are small high tics at 1:03 that are way more earable with Aria than with Mele. In the Girl with the red balloon, the man and woman voices are more balanced between each other. The female voice is more nuanced, and both voices are well separated. On the Mele, everithing is less clean on this track.
On āNolita Fairytaleā by Vanessa Clarton, the drums thumps really hard with Mele; given the style of the album, I doubt this was intended; I will say that the bass is too forward on this track too, masking the main part of the arrangement. The Aria, with this track, has a too thin vocal part: the already high voice of Vanessa lacks body.
On the other hand, the song āApocalypse pleaseā by Muse sounds its best with Mele: the singerās voice is more full, more thick, and the bass region carries the energy this track needs.
On āthe real slim Shadyā by Eminem, the Aria loose because it brings sibilances in the track, with a lack of thump needed for the kind of track.
Conclusion
Here is the tough part. I have to sum up all the mess I threw up there in a intelligible and sensible paragraph. I have to answer to the question āis Mele good?ā as honestly as possible, but I have to wary about my lack of experience, and I must avoid the trolls. So, the Mele, would I buy it if I hadnāt already did? I think the answer is no.
Since I look for a way more analytical set, I canāt say I love this iem. For me, the Aria is a better all-rounder because, despite its sibilances, it doesnāt favors some parts of the vocals too much, and let me hear more details in the tracks.
I must admit that at first, I regretted my buying. The sound signature of the Mele was so different from what I was used to it disturbed me. But then, with listening time, Mele grew on me. I began to spot little moments where it did better than what I heard before. Then I spotted tracks that were more fun, or even sounded as I expected them to (āanother brick in the wall(part 2)ā really is a track I felt lacked bass and thump with anything I tried before).
The Mele is a good set. It is very musical and fun. It takes the Legacy of the BL-03 and brings it to the next level. I could recommend Mele. Iād rec it to anyone with a similar library as BGGARās (Pink Floyd, Eminem, Dropkick Murphys, M.Jackson and Queen where the tracks where Mele performed better than Aria), who value easy listening and a good bass quantity. Out of my head, I can already think about 2 people around me who would like this set).
For Myself, Iāll keep Mele at home, where it will be used for movies, tv shows and sleeping set. Aria will stay with me. Iāll bring them everywhere I need music.
In the meantime, Iāll try to get used to different sound signatures, refine my tastes with cheap sets, and then go up in budget to improve technicalities (that Iām really eager for, coming from the HE400i)ā¦ unless I go directly mad and buy the 7Hz Timelessā¦
BONUS 1 - jazz
I heard ātenderlyā by Louis Harmstrong while writing this, and god his voice sounds sooooo good with Mele!!
BONUS 2 - about the DX3pro
After my 1st test session performed with my topping DX3 pro V2, I plugged the Mele in my ES100. Once I launched the music from my tablet, the set sounded way more neutral to me. I checked the EQ, which wasnāt on. I wondered what could have happened and wrote on this forum. I was beginning to blame my DX3Pro and its 10 Ohms OI (that is huge compared to many amps nowadays) and prepared mentally for a change of dac-amp combo.
I tested again 3 days later on my PC and foobar, A/B testing (not blind though). Iām glad to say I spotted no difference at all. That means that my feeling was only psychological. I blame my comparisons with Aria that made me focus on low-end. I focused on it so muched that when my mind stored the information, It did it with a huge distortion. So when I listend to Mele again after 15 minutes, my brain expected a huge quantity of bass and did not get as many, thus the impression of more neutrality. My god, the human brain is so tricky and interesting!!
I think it depends on the headphone/iem. Some keep the same FR with higher IO some FR varies with higher IO. The Senheiser tend to sound better on tube because otl tends to have higher IO. Legacy 5 is another example
I have no clue of the science behind why and how it happens. Would be interesting to see if someone is able to test it in order to see how mele reacts to different load.
Nice work @hawaiibadboy! I just got mine in the mail. These are the lightest metal IEMs Iāve owned and they fit great, plus theyāre easy on the eyes. I got the lowest end cable and itās perfectly fine, it even has a chin slider.
The stock tips donāt seal for me and consequently sound kinda harsh, but I get why theyāre wide bore and shallow fit. Iāve got some SednaFit Xelastecs with similarly wide bore and shallow fit, plus they seal. With those, the tuning sounds great and more or less what I expected.
Iām listening to some Stevie Ray Vaughn right now and loving it. Thereās a strong bass presence, more mid- than sub-bass focused. Bass strays a little forward of the vocals, but not unlike what I hear at a lot of live shows. Guitars sound great, as do Stevieās vocals. The lead is clear and present but stays well away from shout.
Cymbals and other treble focused stuff is maybe a little on the thin side, but smooth and mostly realistic, avoiding the kind of peakyness thatās typical at this price point. I donāt hear a ton of air and so I donāt get a lot of room feel, but the benefit is that it avoid the haze I hear from stuff like the Starfield that has s big peak up there. With this treble, even Stevieās poor early live recordings remain perfectly listenable, which I appreciate.
This is still all early impressions, but compared to the Starfield this is a no brainer for me. Similarly great build and comfort but much lighter and better cabled. Mele sounds as natural as the Starfield, but less smoothed over and way more engaging. And itās half the price.
Well done!
P.S. I donāt tend to notice certain flaws until Iāve been living with a set for a while, so take this with a grain of salt, but the basics are all immediately obvious and in good order here.