Tweaking Mefisto: cables and tips
Mefisto is pretty responsive to changes in your setup, which makes it fun to experiment with different cables, tips, and sources. While keeping my player the same, I tried out various combinations of cables and tips to see how they affect Mefisto’s sound and technical performance.
My first reaction when swapping out the stock Eletech cable was honestly a bit surprising – those significantly more expensive Eletech cables didn’t necessarily make my experience with Mefisto any better.
Anyone who’s read my stuff before knows I’m all about synergy between the earphone and cable being the most important thing. Just because a cable costs a fortune, uses fancy metals, or comes in beautiful packaging doesn’t guarantee it’ll make your earphones sound better. In fact, after this little experiment, I can tell you that some very pricey cables in my collection actually made Mefisto sound worse to my ears.
Thankfully, that’s not the story with Eletech’s new $2,000 Parnassus Series cable, the Odyssey. Dressed up in gorgeous Roman-inspired hardware with silver-toned inlays, Odyssey looks almost as good with Mefisto as the stock cable does. It features 24AWG, 4-wire construction using a blend of three custom alloys – gold-silver, gold-copper, and silver-copper – all cryogenically treated and mixed in the “golden ratio.”
But honestly, the only thing that matters is how it changes Mefisto’s sound. Compared to the stock cable, Odyssey adds some warmth to the low end and gently lifts the lower mids to make instruments and male vocals sound fuller. The bass gets slightly bigger too, but trades away some of the decisiveness and punch I hear with the stock cable. Vocals become a bit more detailed and dispersed at the same time, with a touch more richness that adds an earthy character while sacrificing some sharpness.
Odyssey also affects the upper frequencies, smoothing them out a bit and lowering the upper midrange energy while keeping the extension and sparkle up top. This makes Mefisto sound slightly more relaxed, but also a fraction less precise – though Mefisto has precision to spare anyway.
While researching Mefisto for this review, I discovered something interesting: internally, it uses Eletech’s Ode to Laura copper cable for wiring up some (but not all) of its internal circuits. So naturally, I was curious to hear what it sounds like with the real deal – the $2,899 flagship cable itself.
It probably won’t shock you that OtL, as it’s commonly called, takes the stock Mefisto sound and cranks up the intensity. Resolution increases, treble detail gets more granular (in a good way, not harsh), and the bass tightens up even further – maybe a bit too much for my taste, since the already quick bass decay speeds up even more.
What I like least about OtL’s changes is the extra shine it adds to the upper midrange. This isn’t unexpected, but it occasionally throws Mefisto’s balance off on tracks that already have any upper midrange boost. To prove the point, I’ve already switched back to the stock cable, which gives me a bit less of OtL’s undeniable technical skill in exchange for a punchier, more musical sound that’s maybe just a touch less resolving.
In case you’re still tempted to try an expensive cable upgrade, Forté Ears has released a companion upgrade cable for Mefisto, aptly called Temptation. I don’t have one to test (yet), so I can’t tell you how it sounds, though looks-wise it resembles OtL more than Odyssey or the stock cable. What I will say is that it’ll have to do a lot more than OtL does for Mefisto to justify that $2,899 price tag.
A much cheaper way to fine-tune Mefisto is the humble tip swap. Mefisto owners are currently in an exclusive club – the first to get Eletech’s new (and not yet publicly available) Baroque Stage ear tips. This variation on Eletech’s excellent debut tips, Baroque, uses lighter-coloured opaque silicone that’s slightly firmer than the original, doesn’t squish as much in your ear, and opens up the bore even more to let in all that treble goodness (and potentially create a larger soundstage).
Here’s the thing though: I don’t like them. More treble means more sibilance and less bass impact, bigger stage be damned. I guess these might work well for big orchestral and classical music, but for my vocal-heavy library, they just don’t do it for me.
Not only do the original Baroque tips sound better – though not by much, given how wide bore tips always reduce bass impact – they’re also much more comfortable and look better with their black silicone that matches the earphone shell’s aesthetic.
As much as I like Baroque tips with other earphones, what a clarity-focused earphone like Mefisto actually needs (assuming you’re not some wild-haired treble head), especially with its potentially higher treble energy, is a deeper-fitting, narrower bore tip.
Enter SpinFit’s CP145, my go-to medium bore tips. Almost immediately, the bass comes through with added depth and weight, sibilance practically disappears, and while the soundstage contracts just a tiny bit, it sounds more natural overall.
For me, tips usually provide a more dramatic change in sound than cables that sometimes cost thousands of dollars more. In Mefisto’s case, a tip swap becomes absolutely essential given my dislike of the stock tips. As with any earphone, I recommend taking your time and trying lots of different tips, especially if you run into issues that you think could be fixed, whether they’re comfort or sound related.
Continue to closing thoughts…
