The IEM I like more than headphones - Mega5est

Measurement Index

How to read the new measurements:

The 10 stages of headphone measurements

00:00 - Intro
00:44 - Build, Design & Comfort
02:27 - Sound: Subjective
06:31 - Sound: Objective
08:33 - Conclusion

[dranek]

I received my set and just wanted to say that these are the real deal. Finally there’s an IEM that sounds detailed without being fatiguing. No shouty mids or scratchy highs. No weird BA timbre. Punchy bass from the biodyna driver. These just sound natural without noticeable coloration so you can listen to the music vs listen to some IEMs. These IEMs just get out of the way so you can plug your brain into some beats.

I know you’ve gotten some crap for hyping these up but I’m glad you did because I probably wouldn’t have tried these if you hadn’t.

[zenboy]

Great review dude, its very tempting, your description make these sound wonderful. I don't have a BA or EST based set yet, only planar and DD. But I am going to hold off a little to see how the IOAUDIO VOLARE stacks up.

[listener-reviews]

SO glad this is finally out. Mega5EST is MegaBEST!

[henryclaudia]

I have just bought a mega5est. I own the hype 4, the elysian pilgrim and some cheaper models. The mega5est just blew my mind. I loved the hype 4 but the mega5 has cleaner bass and is much clearer with stunningly clear and substantial vocals. The treble is beautifully extended and never harsh. The hype 4 is great until you hear the mega5est. The pilgrim falls behind both and really only shines with vocals. The hype4 has the most bass but it has recessed vocals. The mega5est has detail retrieval on another level. I am just stunned... hype justified...

[xavierxavierbid]

This is the most genuine IEM review ever
I ordered my Mega5est after watching this 2 times

[crelliseng]

Honestly, that is how I felt when I first listened to the IER-Z1R. They’ve been my default go to ever since.

[larrydunn]

I've never really considered low pinna gain IEM b/c I had assumed that low pinna meant recessed vocals. This vid inspired me to reconsider, in case I were wrong in that assumption I experimented today with my Canon2, 1up 1down switches... EQ to resemble the Mega5est... down 2db at 125 to get rid of the midbass hump, down 2.7db at 2k, down 1db at 4k, to experiment with relaxed pinna region. What a difference, in a good way. The vocals on the Canon2 are still forward, but they are more organic sounding and less sheeny. This lower pinna gain has the secondary effect of making horns sound more relaxed and enjoyable as well. Not sure if that is even realistic... not sure horns are supposed to be more relaxed sounding, but I prefer it anyway.

[marksr]

Have heard so many positive things about these. I'm very impressed by your review and even more amazed by your gushing over these. For me my end game iems will be around $600, what my budget can take. Maybe these are the ones....

[patrick]

Too bad my wallet is far too mega-empty for these.

[kimberly_lippington]

been a while since DMS reviewed an IEM.. was expecting a resolve's video hahaha

[eatdirt]

I don’t know why but I feel this way with the Mark Levinson 5909’s. I’ve heard countless high end headphones, but I just love how these sound, and prefer them to many more expensive phones. There’s just something about the sound signature that I gel with!

[akros]

Its a pity I don't have the name you have.
I have been saying the EST is good from the first gen model almost 2 years ago.
That one had EJ07M vibes.
Then the gen two came 10 months ago and that was better a magical seduction.
This version which i hopefully will have next week is a Gen Two with a little extra gravy so i can only imagine good it is.

[JoseFerreira-zbwh]

Seems like a new trend has been launched. This one, then the Dusk (dsp default tuning) and now the Dunu Davinci are all very similar (FR graph). "Relaxed Harman", they call it. I guess I'll wait it continues to trickle down to a more budget friendly price range. 😀

[XmvwX]

So...this is weird...

I decided to give these a try. I've spent about 15 years in the pursuit of the perfect IEM, so why not.
They arrived a couple days ago, and I've been doing some listening, and I found something very interesting. I'm just not sure if it was their intent...so...it's kind of weird.

I don't think these are meant to be listened to a high power source. It sounds like these were tuned for a general use audience, more specifically for folks listening to them on the common hardware they have, like a cell phone. And with most modern phones, that's a Snapdragon onboard audio setup that's, well, fine. It lacks a number of elements like appreciable power, dynamic range, and is kind of bad with sound stage separation and presence for it. But, it favors a product TUNED for it. And I think that's what they did.

MANY (most) IEMs benefit from a good DAC and available amperage overhead. There's very few I've used that don't benefit to some degree.

But the Mega5-EST is different.

It seemed tuned for a mid-fi source device. On a desktop DAC/amp, on a portable player with high power overhead, the MEGA5-EST is low frequency dominant. The bass driver is loose and tuned deep. It also doesn't specifically have the motor for it, nor the motor for high control and articulation when given power. It just gets kind of boomy. With a highly competent source, the bass is both unbalanced and oddly out of place with the rest of the presentation. You can EQ down the bottom end a bit to dial out a chunk, but then it loses that depth and needs more than a couple bands to really tune it well. It's oddly a bad woofer in this use case, and I'd think there'd be better options if higher end hifi was truly the target. But I don't think it was targeted for this. The IEM has a lot of clarity but is uncharacteristically thin in note versus other options. The transparency is high, clarity is high, it's clean but not analytical, not articulate, not super detailed. The sound stage is excellent, extremely good, especially with slight EQing to round it out for how my ears affect the response curve, although I could also likely tune this a bit with tip changes to dial that in. The bass may also be a part of that too. The too much bass driver without the motor to really back it up, the light and clean mids and highs that don't make significant use of high power sources, the level of detail forgiveness that softens lesser quality source material and artifacts, it all caters to being tuned for something else.

And that something else is a mid-fi source like a common cell phone or similar device. Lower power, lower dynamics, a flattening of the dynamic range and sound stage, weaker bass and especially deep bass, and all the little bits just come together on the MEGA5-EST. Every shortcoming on a high level source is a strong point on a lesser source. The cleanliness and thinness spreads out and sounds more natural. The bass especially balances out and the bottom end is no longer overpowering, nor tonally unbalanced. The tuning actually works with low power. It also acts like an automatic Loud feature because it will enhance at quiet volumes and then level off at higher volumes presenting a pretty consistent tonal and range response at a wide volume selection. More importantly, the motor and suspension design works well at low power. It retains good control and definition and doesn't get muddy and poorly controlled like a whole lot of other IEMs. It's GEARED for it, which is super interesting. It feels planned. It feels deliberate. I've listened to more than 50 different IEMs and none are configured like this. This feels like it was designed specifically for this consumer use case. Every aspect of the design balances out, sounds natural, and feels appropriate. There's many high end IEMs that scale really well with the source device, magical on a very high end source. But these work the opposite. They don't sound good on a high end source. They sound off and odd. But on a middle of the range source like a common cell phone, holy cow these dial right in to one of the better balanced and sounding IEMs on that kind of device. I have better IEMs that sound worse in that application.

So, yeah, it's kind of weird. And I'm really curious if it's by design. It feels like there were very specific choices made for very specific reasons and a very specific audience it was aimed for.

Weird right? But give it a try if you've got a pair and a variety of source devices.

[marcobert]

So glad I got mine before this hit, such a fantastic IEM. Glad to see it is getting the hype it deserves. Honestly, I have not picked up any of my other items since receiving my pair. If the honeymoon phase lasts as you suggest, I can see myself selling off my stable. I am curious to see if any other reviewers do an OG Oracle comparison. Lol, company likely did a WTF with all the orders rolling in after this was posted.

[camerondupuisbissonnette]

bought this and hes right this is the best thing ive ever heard

[cdotwu]

Would be interesting to hear Precog's take on this as well..

[Elrics_Allenn]

It's a great set of IEM. Baited by the measurement and compliments from everywhere and after I tried it myself, it was one of the most well tuned IEM I've tried.
Glad to see these half a grand priced IEMs like Mega5est and Dusk started to show TOTL tuning, can't wait to see the IEMs with TOTL tuning getting cheaper.

[the_king_of_normies]

There should be a mention of the stealth revision that was made to this. I've seen some people say that the new revision is worse than the original version. Would like to see DMS comment on this in youtube.

[Slyngelstaten]

The reason why I trust this review... Is that the claims he states are so wild, that if he was not completely sure that this was in fact the best product he ever tested "for him" the mistrust in his channel would be devastating.. And he would never risk that.... I'm in 👌😊