The Advar is the newest in renowned audiophile brand Meze’s line of high end In-Ear Monitors. While better known for their over-ear headphones, Meze is starting to make strides in the IEM Market. The Advar comes in at $699, and hasn’t been released at the time of writing this. I’m really excited to get my hands on these before they hit the market.
What’s in the Box
- Meze Advar In-Ear Monitors
- Case: Hard eco friendly leather carrying pouch
- Stock cable: MMCX connector ending in gold plated 3.5mm
- 5 pairs (SS, S, M, L, LL) Final Audio Type E ear tips,
- MMCX removal tool
- Cleaning tool
- User manual
Look and Feel
The Advar comes with simple yet impactful presentation. Only the IEMs immediately visible when you open the box, and everything else residing in the carrying case. The IEMs themselves are made from a solid stainless steel chassis with black chrome plating and CNC finishing. They look simple and streamlined, and have gold colored highlights. Although they’re on the smaller side, they still fit comfortably and feel solid.
Design
The Advar utilizes a single 10.2mm Dynamic Driver, allowing for a more focused sound. For IEMs, they have a wide frequency range that extends beyond the normal human range of hearing for textural listening. The chassis’ design is inspired by natural rock formations, while still taking ergonomics into account.
The Meze Advar has a frequency response of 10 Hz – 30 kHz and an impedance of 31 Ohms.
Soundstage
Advar has a soundstage with some nice width to it. Panning is noticeable when needed and the separation is natural sounding. Songs felt powerful and focused, less like they were surrounding me and more being presented to me. This adds energy to the mix, but also can sacrifice some dimension; a tradeoff that ultimately boils down to preference. I thought the dynamics were good and were assisted by good outside noise cancellation.
Lows
The low end on Advar can pack a serious punch when it needs to. The Single BA Driver makes it so you can feel low transients well, especially kicks. Everything I listened to sounded solid and had a present foundation, while still feeling natural. That being said, certain styles of mixing sounded better than others, and while Meze did a great job of minimizing it, there’s still occasional muddiness in some of the low-mids.
Mids
Advar’s mid range does a good job in bringing leads to the front. The mids feel balanced and help percussive elements really cut through. While it’s not as pronounced as the low end, it blends incredibly well and gives serious energy to the mix that makes tracks feel heavy, but never in a way that’s encumbering.
Highs
Due to its impressive frequency response, Advar is able to deliver some serious detail and airiness in the high range. Transients have a nice pop to them and the mix feels pushed to add a lot of brightness to the sound character. I can hear subtle tape hisses that I hadn’t heard before and every reverb tail has a special airiness to it. There were rare occasions when sibilance sounded exaggerated, but it wasn’t too noticeable and it fit the the mix and Advar’s powerful sound character.
Overall
Meze makes great products and knows exactly how to make them fit into a sound function. Advar packs a serious punch and can electrify any mix you put through it. While I’m not typically a huge fan of brighter IEMs, I still like the sound of the Advar. It manages to pull off a balance of power and smoothness gracefully. I would highly recommend the Advar if you need something to bring out a different side of your mixes. I can already tell these are going to do very well when they release.
You can buy the Meze Advar at Audio46
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