Actually, upon second inspection, is there a reason why Mele doesn’t have any elevation in the upper treble, ~15 kHz? And why there’s a sharp decline in ~6k and rise ~8k? I forget if HBB mentioned why he tuned this way…
Remove /reduce fatigue to his hears. Not sure about the rest tho. Im not sure I can hear past 16/17k anyway. Maybe was a decision about the driver capacity and air.
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Well since I’m not buying an IEM anytime soon, perhaps 2-3 months later (if I get good grades) so I can still look around and decide on my final choice 
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And you will get excellent grades not just good 
I will be excited to see your IEM 
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Thanks 
I’m excited for my first IEM as well!
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You can buy Yincrow X6 bud for super cheap (10$), you will be surprised how good it performs. It is also recommended by @Rikudou_Goku and @nymz here.
Buy an Apple dongle dac for your phone if you have spare money, best starter dac.
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Probably wouldnt recommend X6 for a pop/kpop playlist. Maybe RY4S Plus 32ohm or Faaeal Íris 2.0.
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Mele should handle the playlist easily, so I thought suggesting him a different cheap bud for fun.
Yeah but he already got sugested that on headfi. Hes been looking for a month now and he’s prolly looking into a couple months more of waiting. No point in buying cheap buds if he doesnt have a budget.
Also, in 2-3 there will probably be a “better” Mele or a Aria 2.0.
Anything will be better than his current apple buds tho plugged into the pc jack tho.
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I think this a reason. Driver quality can affects technical performance of an IEM. like the Aria, Aria can provide more clarity in the treble, but due to technical limitations, sometimes the treble sounds bit grainy and doesn’t seem natural. If the treble peak on Mele is increased even more, there is a possibility that it can cause sibilance or sounds plasticky. Rolling tips is one of the solutions to slightly change the desired sound frequencies
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Oh just wanna add something, I do have the apple dongle dac in my drawer. I can use it with my mum’s phone since she uses an iphone 
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Cool, sucks that your budget is limited. I convinced a bunch of my friends to buy LBBS, which is an end-game bud recommended by @Rikudou_Goku as well, 4 pairs ordered 
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Reason is I’m still a student and telling my dad an IEM that costs more than 50 dollars is pretty 
to him. Hence, an IEM (as a motivation) for me if I do get good grades.
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When I was on high school I was rocking Ipod classic with apple buds. Oh the good old days.
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That’s a pretty low ask, but I won’t judge. Good luck on your grades.
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The days where only bass matters
Yap. Overbl bloated bass with hard techno blasting on the way to school. Good old days man. I bet I had more joy than with my gear today.
And those ripped mp3 files from youtube lol
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This I can actually relate to. 
Yup, I also used Viper4Android and used its bass/treble boost function to boost my already V-shaped iem (Xiaomi Piston 2). 
Not that far from @luizgarcia famous EQ preset lol.
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So I thought I give one big impressions with a focus on korean female soloist tracks in this post. Might be a long one but I’ll try to make it an easy read!
Taeyeon ‘11:11’ instantly greets you with a wonderful soundstage of acoustic guitars from both channels with Taeyeon’s clear vocals in the mids. There is nothing much to highlight as this is already great to listen to right from the start. Her vocals are pretty clear and the acoustic guitar around it is such a pleasant tune until the end.
Taeyeon ‘Four Seasons’ at the 0:17 - 0:39 mark begins with Taeyeon’s vocals in the mids with the acoustic guitar at the upper left channel and the piano tune on the right channel with good imaging. The piano is slightly less pronounced with the guitar overlapping it a bit but it’s nothing to shout about.
At the 1:07 - 1:40 mark goes into the first chorus. The electric guitar in the right channel is quite pronounced and I am able to hear it well while her vocals isn’t being overshadowed by the instrumentals during the chorus keeping her vocals being the focus. One final highlight is at the 2:33 - 2:50 mark showcase the imaging detail of the Mele when 2 acoustic guitars played around while her vocals are still being quite detailed and lush.
Stella Jang’s ‘Villain’ is kind of a french jazz track. Her vocals and piano are mostly the focus in this track. She gave out such a pleasant vocal tune and manages to keep her vocal details clear on the Mele. At the 0:31 - 0:47 mark focuses on the piano and her vocals with the cello shortly joining afterwards which are quite balanced throughout. I believe this track really test the resolution of the Mele in terms of her vocals being quite forward and it manages to hold out well for the price. The details in the piano keys isn’t that great but it still holds out well!
Minseo’s ‘Is Who’ is a gypsy folk (or gypsy jazz? Not sure.) track. At the 0:25 - 0:36 mark, when the piano keys are the focus for a bit, the details of it kinda decays and got lost before transitioning to the violin at the 0:36 - 0:46 mark. The details on the violin is quite detailed and it showed wonderfully during the instrumental solo at the 2:50 - 3:18 mark following her vocal modulation.
Lastly at the 3:18 - 3:35 mark, showcases the details of her vocals scatting which wildly fun to listen to! I do can note that with better resolution IEMs, her scatting part of the solo would’ve been more fun to listen to!
IU’s ‘Friday’ is the first song to have thought me what sound imaging is all about. It’s also a duet song midway through the track so it’s good to know their vocal and instrumental seperations! At the 0:49 - 1:26 showcases the details of her vocals and the acosutic guitar range in the chorus and I suppose at this point, is one of the Mele’s strong suites!
At the 2:50 mark onwards until the end of the song is such a joy to listen to. It introduces the male vocals into the track and it blended very well together with IU’s vocals towards the end. One final highlight is at the 3:13 - 3:27 mark when you get to hear the details of the female vocal in the upper left channel and the male vocal is on the upper right channel with the instruments supporting it until the end. This track is very fun to listen to with the Mele and I bet other IEMs would sound wonderful as well!
And finally comes WENDY’s ‘When This Rain Stops’. This a very vocal and piano focused track. While I have said the details in the piano keys aren’t up to par in the other tracks, this particular one sounded somewhat better and maybe cause the piano tune isn’t quite as busy as the other tracks. Wendy’s vocals are quite clear and detailed but it could’ve been better with better resolution.
The best part is that there is no vocal sibilance at all which the FH3 had a touch of it while the FD5 clearly had it. This is the only song where I feel the Starfield and FH3 gets the upper hand, especially the details of her vocal vibrato throughout the entire song which wasn’t presented clearly on the Mele. This track gave quite a stress test on the Mele in terms of the vocals and piano key detail. It really showed, but when I’m casually listening to it or while I’m working, the song sounds just as good to me on the Mele.
That’s about it! Holy god this is a long one! Overall, I think the Mele did a pretty good job driving these tracks well. These tracks that I shared definitely benefit with better resolution but for the price, the Mele is pretty good! If I were to make it a slight upgrade mainly for this kind of tracks and the more lively kpop tracks like in my previous post, I would go for the Fiio FH3 as it’s a better all-rounder than the Starfield for Kpop and korean music ballads/OSTs in general.
That concludes my Mele impressions! It definitely ticks all the right boxes for my korean music listening needs! If you’re looking for a starter IEM with korean music library in mind, the Mele is such a great get for the price!
Since @hawaiibadboy tends to showcase live music from time to time in his videos, I’m gonna end my post by honoring the Mele with the Live Band Version of Wendy’s ‘Like Water’. Song starts at 1:31:
That concludes my post. I hope I am able to help in some way when deciding on the Mele! Thank you for reading and take care! 
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