Diamond Melee Quality - Is This Worth It?

[Enerchi]

Here is a finger shot (Having HUGE difficulties uploading photos... grrr...)

 

[armywife13]

Enerchi-your pictures are awesome!

 

[Brownie22]

Enerchi and armywife13, your bands are so beautiful! Would you be able to tell me how high they are in mm?

Thank you!

 

[Enerchi]

Hi Brownie,
I am TRYING to upload another photo for you ... but it is stopped somehow. Oh, how I get so frustrated with technology!
I think my height in MM's is less than 3mm's but I am measuring with a ribbon tape measure and I am NOT accurate!
I really love my new ring! it is beautiful and sparkly and works perfectly with what I was wanting for a 1/2 eternity band. I have NO regrets purchasing with IDJ. I am very happy with my choice.

I hope you will be too, when you decide which vendor to go with.

 

[armywife13]

I would say mine is about 2.2-2.5 mm high. I asked them for the lowest setting.

ETA-it looks like a black spot on one of the diamonds in the first pic, but it is the reflection of my phone!

 

[Brownie22]

Enerchi and armywife13, thanks for the pictures!!

 

[armywife13]

The height will also depend on the type of setting. An enclosed basket like mine can be set very low. Trellis, u-prong, or open baskets require a little more height.

 

[Enerchi]

Mine is a u prong setting and I'm sorry but I can't seem to upload a photo. You can search my name for the IDJ Uprong 1/2 eternity and view it that way. Sorry. On iPad at the moment...

 

[Brownie22]

Enerchi and armywife13, thank you again for the pictures and additional info. I spoke to IDJ and they said they can definitely set the closed gallery ring lower then the open gallery.

The only concern that remains is the spacer. I found a very small spacer at .75mm but does the spacer have to be a certain size to work? I'm wondering if the .75mm will be so small that it sits under the prongs of my Ering without providing any buffer.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/74654824/14k-rose-gold-ring-extra-skinny-stacking

In the picture below hopefully you can see how there's already sort of a natural space between the bands. My wedding ring can slide up right under the Ering but typically it doesn't sit that way on my finger. Would a small spacer even do anything??



Also, I don't know if this means/changes anything in terms of wearing/choosing a spacer but my prongs pretty much start at the base of my ring.



I feel like I'm trying so hard to make this work that I'm on the verge of giving up and just keeping what I have since it won't eat my prongs...

 

[onedrop]

brownie: I understand your frustration. There are so many little details to be considered, that it can be vexing to sort everything out and make a decision. You could just stick with what you have, but then the same problem exists...you don't like your eternity band. I think you should go for the new eternity band, because clearly that is what will make you happy with the situation. Plus the only decision left is the spacer, and that's not a big deal.

Here is a link to a thread showing how other PSers wear their spacers, which should give you and idea of what to expect: https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/pics-of-spacers.169568/

You'll see that some are wider, thinner, diamond, plain, etc. I think the type of spacer you choose is personal preference. You could probably go ahead and order your eternity band, order a couple of spacers (most are inexpensive) from places with good return policies and see what works for you.

ETA: It seems that because the prongs on your e-ring come down very low, I think you'll likely have the scratching issue no matter how low the profile of the eternity band. But then again, you never really know until you wear them together.

 

[Laila619]

In stones that tiny, I would save the extra money. IDJ's melee will still be gorgeous.

 

[FancyDiamond]

Enerchi and armywife13, thank you again for the pictures and additional info. I spoke to IDJ and they said they can definitely set the closed gallery ring lower then the open gallery.

The only concern that remains is the spacer. I found a very small spacer at .75mm but does the spacer have to be a certain size to work? I'm wondering if the .75mm will be so small that it sits under the prongs of my Ering without providing any buffer.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/74654824/14k-rose-gold-ring-extra-skinny-stacking

In the picture below hopefully you can see how there's already sort of a natural space between the bands. My wedding ring can slide up right under the Ering but typically it doesn't sit that way on my finger. Would a small spacer even do anything??


Also, I don't know if this means/changes anything in terms of wearing/choosing a spacer but my prongs pretty much start at the base of my ring.


I feel like I'm trying so hard to make this work that I'm on the verge of giving up and just keeping what I have since it won't eat my prongs...

Brownie,
Since I do not have a 0.75-mm spacer, so I cannot comment, but I can give you my thoughts about my own spacer.

I wear a 1mm platinum spacer between my E-ring and U-prong full eternity (or 5-stone U-prong). I have the same concern as you regarding the adequacy of a thin spacer for protection, so I purposely moved my rings to check for any possible contact. Occasionally the thin spacer dips below while my E-ring pops up a bit. If my spacer were a little thinner, there would definitely be contact. Therefore, although the gap from the 1-mm spacer is not as "invisible" as I prefer, I feel very safe (completely worry-free). Besides, from a distance, all people notice is only the bling from the diamonds (instead of the spacer ring).

In addition to providing protection, the spacer eliminates any restrictions on the height and style (open or closed) of my stacked rings. Before I got my U-prong eternity ring, I was considering the BGD's bead set eternity ring, since I was told that the corner metal would prevent contact and thus eliminate the need for a spacer. After I got my U-prong eternity and am now wearing it with a spacer, I am glad that I ended up with my current combination. I prefer to see more diamonds than metal in my rings and also the scalloped edges of the round diamonds.

Another benefit of the spacer is to prevent/minimize spinning, as it adds to total width of the stacked bands. Oh did I mention that the spacer can also act as a wedding band? In summary, a spacer ring is a must.

For your reference, here are photos of my rings with the spacer.

 

[Brownie22]

onedrop, thank you for the link. It's helpful to see a lot of different options for spacers. I definitely need to figure out what I want to do. I'm typically an indecisive person and this is no different

Laila619, thank you, I am starting to lean toward IDJ

FancyDiamond, Beautiful set! Thank you for all your thoughts. I don't love the gap a spacer creates but I'm trying to warm up to the idea of it if it means getting wedding band I love.

I'm also starting to toy with the idea of just buying the eternity band for my right hand and then wearing it alone on my left when I don't want to wear my wedding set (that's not often though so I'm not sure!!) It's such a pain that my ring fingers are not the same size on both hands

I can't thank you all enough for your help and thoughts as I try to figure things out.

 

[mitsui4]

Not worth it in my opinion.

I have seen IDJ's PS quality Melee and it is very similar to Tiffany and other high end retailer melee. BUT it is not hearts and arrows perfect melee where every.single.stone looks identical to the one next to it. I've owned that melee as well in a ring. For me, I don't like the way the hearts and arrows exact melee stares at me. Having several of them with the exact same face in a row is very... weird. Very stepford wives. Seriously each one looks exactly, in every single way, like the one next to it. IDJ's melee by contrast gives you very similar light return but avoids that look. You still get arrows but it's not as prominent.

For me, it's about relative light return, and balancing savings against relative . I would totally sacrifice a small amount of light return for that much cost savings. But also because I actually don't like the look of hearts and arrows melee in eternity bands and rings with a lot of melee over 5 points.

Brilliant words of wisdom.. I have a five stone ring done with IDJ and is certainly as good as my ering GIA HCA 0.9 one.
Both rings in pictures shown are from IDJ~~!! Btw can't tell you how much I enjoyed working with Yekutiel..
It is so blingy.. Let me find some photos to show OP/TS (thread starter) the blings of IDJ and what 'pricescope' quality meant,
I totally vouch for IDJ quality (especially like what Gypsy said, the price aka cost saving is so much more worth it):

 

[thediamondshopper]

I know this thread is a bit dated but I thought this might help future onlookers. I compared two melee samples for a customer for some very elaborate watch "bling" the first 1.5mm VS perfect hearts and arrows the second standard local 1.5mm VS melee. I find the difference considerable in person and definitely feel they earn their 40-50% higher price tag. Though because the non ideal melee are usually cut deep to up the weight the overall difference if you are using specific sizes is reduced a bit.