Cool, please do that.
I trust memebers here more than most reviewers 
and at the price range these are in, it is good to know as musch as possible.
2 Likes
Mehā¦ Iāll just post everything here. There are just my posts/replies to the member. Iāll post this here since Iām getting asked this a lot so maybe we can point anyone here with my impressions that would like to read them.
ā¦
Great questions. Iāll try to answer them.
All the Moondrops have the exact same shell and nozzle sizes.
The Monarch and the Variations have the same tuning style. A huge sub bass shelf (much more than the Tea) cutting down very early into the mids. The mids take a straight line into the pinna gain and the est drivers in both sets produce near treble perfection with clear detail with no sibilance or harshness.
The Monarch shell is just a bit too big for my left ear.
The Variations is around $230 less than the Monarch and the last I knew, youāll be waiting about a month and a half till the Monarch gets to you from the time of ordering depending on where you live in the world.
I really donāt have a top pick. So much comes down to the individuals library and how they want to hear their music, or how they imagine their music might sound. Weāre just getting into (different) territory. I think lots of individuals out there are dreaming of something that doesnāt exist. For instance, for the quality of sound the Tea puts out for $300 bucks, to move up to the Monarch, youāre not actually getting $430 dollars worth of improvement to equal $730. The Monarch delivers est drivers for treble which I feel are a clear improvement but the overall tuning is just more extreme. The Monarch adds additional drivers in the areas where it needs it to pull off itās more extreme/higher contrast tuning and retain as much detail as it has (the Monarch is very detailed). But to outright call it better isnāt right. Itās different. As long as you prefer it more, thatās all that matters, but nothing is downright better here when all of these IEMs are mostly all sharing the same drivers and driver technology. They are just tuned differently.
I actually wouldnāt rec the Monarch or Variations to people who listen to certain genres of music. The Clairvoyance is actually the more agreeable tuning for most genres of music. But in comparison, the Clairvoyance is not nearly as detailed as the Monarch, but then again, some people donāt care too much about detail. Iād describe them like thisā¦
Sub bass emphasis tuning - Monarch, Variations, Dusk
Safe tuning/most agreeable and closer to harman - Clairvoyance, Excalibur, Oracle
Unlike all other tribrid tuning - Xenns Up
Generally neutral tuning - Blessing 2, Mest MKII
I havenāt a/bāed the Monarch and Variations so I donāt know. Iāll just say they sound very similar and any difference will come down to personal preference.
For your music preferences, the Monarch or Variations will be the upgrade from the Tea youāre craving. Both will give you even more sub bass with better detail and impact with est treble which in my opinion is simply superior to BA treble.
If youāre interested in slam, look no further than the Dunu Zen. I just sold mine to a forum member who went through a lot of IEMs before he finally realized thatās what he was looking for. Since heās heard it, he hasnāt been able to stop talking about it and thanking me for the rec.
Thereās a pro version coming out at some point, thatās the only reason why I decided to give mine up for him. He also asked me to sell it to him.
The Variations sub bass extension moves closer to the mids, so it will have more energy for kicks below 200 hz. All depends on the source. I didnāt realize the sub bass shelf were essentially identical. I thought the Variations had less sub bass. I always considered the Monarch sub bass elevation to be too much, but it is done so well, I love it and miss it when listening to anything else.
They both sound almost identical. The Variations feels a little bit thicker in the low end and the treble sounds smoother. The Variations feels more cohesive. The Monarch sounds overall more detailed slightly more crisp with higher contrast in imaging.
9 Likes
Hi hope everything is going great! I was curious what tips you prefer with your mest? I just got mine in yesterday and as far as the tips that come with it I think the azla tips sounds the best but get uncomfortable after a hour or so.
with my MEST MKII Iām currently using the stock sedna (those with the blue stem), I have tried the Xelastec but didnāt like them.
have also tried some other tips, but the stock sedna seems the most comfortable for my ears.
Ok thanks! I didnāt know if spin fits would be a good alternative or something else.
I have tried Spinfit cp100 and cp145, soon will try cp500 and Sedna light (ordered).
cp100 and cp145 sound really strange, there is a slight boost in the bass that ruins IMHO the very beatiful bass linearity of MEST, and most of all there is a very strange spike in the upper midrange that make listening for long time very fatiguing (for me at least).
Spinfits are v-shaped.
They look circular to me. 
4 Likes
yes, bass and upper-mids/highs accentuated.
work very well on Oracle, especially cp100, not on MEST.
not sure this can be said in general for every spinfit, for sure this is the sensation for cp100 and - to a lesser extent - cp145.
Iām interested in your thoughts 
Iāve tried with these + the Xelastec provided with the MEST (+ some more not worth mentioning)
1 Like
Nice. Iād use whatever feels and sounds the best for you. Itās really personal preference.
4 Likes
I personally enjoyed the MEST MkII with Final E tips. They were comfortable and smoothed out the MkIIās sound a bit which is what I preferred
3 Likes
How would you compare the soundstage of the u12t, og mest, mest mkii? Iām a soundstage junky and looking for an IEM with a holographic soundstage.
Iām forgetting how U12T stages, because I donāt reach for any IEMs besides MkII customs, if that tells you anything. I donāt recall it being overly big or too small, but I do recall imaging being excellent. They were the first IEM to finally dethrone Campfire Solaris for me.
U12T is probably the best fit if your ideal is a neutral, natural soundāa reference type experience where everything is presented in a clean, well-balanced manner. Itās not at all ādryā or āclinicalā or any of the terms people use to describe tunings that favor neutrality to the point of sucking the life out of music. Just a very clean window into music.
OG MEST probably has the most holographic presentation, but it also has some (minor) issues. It doesnāt play well with all musicāthe first track I played on mine was āThem Bonesā by Alice in Chains, and that turned out to be kind of a terrible trackāthe mids lack energy, making that song far less energetic than it ought to beāit was boring. Still, other tracks can be amazing; MEST made a name for itself for good reason.
MkII upgraded the bone conduction to a dual-sided, full range driver. Honestly, thatās enough to make OG MEST obsolete for me, because MkII does play well with everything Iāve thrown at it. Although many have said they donāt get the ācrazy 3D thingā as much on MkII, itās definitely still there, and definitely still wild with certain tracks. I have a whole playlist of stuff that shows off MkII staging plus the subwoofer-like bass.
Personally, I found the MkII universals a little darker than I prefer, but my customs have a more consistent presentation (almost certainly because of more consistent fit) and a bit better treble performance. Theyāre āclose enoughā to perfect.
If holographic staging is your priority, MkII customs all the way. If you donāt want to jump straight into customs, get the unisāyou can always have UM reshell them later.
3 Likes
Could you possible screenshot that list for those of us with Qobuz
Could you possibly screenshot that list for those of us without Qobuz
Here ya go:
This is sort of an active playlistāitās curated for flow up to the Health + NIN track (āISNāT EVERYONEā). The rest of the tracks are tossed in there, and one of these days Iāll make an effort to tweak the order for flow. If I canāt make stuff fit, I have a second playlist for leftovers.
ā
UPDATE: I decided to build a Tidal Version of the playlist, and as I did I collected SongLink links for all the tracks:
- Simmer by Hayley Williams
- One More Week (Trip To India Mix) by Zac F
- supadupakulavibe by GRiZ
- Ruby Rap by Eric Serra [Fifth Element OST]
- Introduction by Kristofer Maddigan [Cuphead OST]
- Vertigo by Para One
- Letter from the Scallop Boat by Gwar
- Just Listen by Oceanlab
- Afterglow by Phaeleh
- Morning Prayer by Barty's Path
- A Poem For Byzantium by Delerium
- The Outside by twenty one pilots
- Ginger Lizard by Opiuo
- The Chemicals by Garbage, Brian Aubert
- THE PLAN by Travis Scott on TIDAL [Tenet OST]
- Golem II: The Bionic Vapour Boy by Mr. Bungle
- Supersonic (My Existence) by Skrillex, Noisia, josh pan, Dylan Brady
- Recursive self-improvement by How To Destroy Angels
- Transdermal Celebration by Ween
- Crush by Ethel Cain
- ISNāT EVERYONE by HEALTH, Nine Inch Nails [end of curated flow]
- One More Year by Tame Impala on TIDAL
- Long Legged Larry by Aesop Rock on TIDAL
- I'm Afraid of Americans (Nine Inch Nails V1 Mix) by David Bowie
- Gone (2021 Remaster) by Kosheen
- The Cisco Kid by War
- Feels Right by Biig Piig
- Falling Apart by Broods
- I Had This Thing by Rƶyksopp
- No Where by Rebel Souljahz [alternate selection by same artist]
- Oxytocin by Billie Eilish
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Right on man thank you i appreciate it.
1 Like
