The Ultra Cheap IEM Thread

Blon BL-05 was provided to me free of charge by AK Audio store. I was given a limited time to publish the review, thus this review was written with outside pressure, this may have affected my judgement on this product.

Introduction-
We are all familiar with Blon’s BL-03, a much anticipated in ear monitor from last year. Does Blon-05 live up to the hype of it’s previous generation, the well hyped Blon BL-03? Blon BL-03 itself was a very controversial IEM in the market, you either loved it or hated it. One thing which I know for sure, is that Blon-03 required some some serious time investment to make it suit you. Did Blon-05 follow the same path?


Photo reference: original package contents of Blon BL-05

Unboxing experience-
We are greeted by the already familiar slim and long box, which has the authentic and infamous “Belief, Letmusicburn, Oppoty, Nevergiveup”, apparently that is the true meaning behind the company’s name, BLON. There’s nothing too special about the unboxing experience, just a basic package with nothing fancy, you have to keep in mind the price range of this in ear monitor.
At first when I opened the package, I thought that the eartips were covered in human hair. However it appeared to be “flakes” from the white piece which holds the in ear monitors.

Something to point out is that I have received two sets of accessories, the ones which arrive with the stock Blon BL-05 (original accessories), and an extra package which has foam tips and two sets of extra cables (two sets of silver plated cables). It should be clear that when buying the normal Blon BL-05 package, you do not get the extra accessories.


Photo reference: The extra accessories which I received

Accessories-
Usually you should not expect crazy accessories from a budget set of in ear monitors, I also strongly believe that it’s better to include less accessories than include more accessories with crappy quality. I strongly stand behind this. This is the case with BL-05… except it doesn’t include many accessories. In fact, it’s almost identical to the accessories included with the old BL-03. It comes with the same canvas pouch, which features BLON branding on it, the same 0.78mm 2-pin cable. There are two sets of eartips: one set of S/M/L small bore eartips, and another of S/M/L wide-bore eartips.

Build quality-
I believe the build quality of the housing shell of the Blon-05 is by far it’s best feature, at least from the build quality aspect. It’s made out of metal with a chrome finish. It follows the same chrome look of the previous Blon BL-03, except this time it features a completely new shape and look. It features a gold accent on the face of the housing, it’s shaped like a “key hole”, it’s raised and features the brand name, including the labelling for “left” and “right”.
By now everyone should be familiar with the cable of the Blon BL-03. Blon decided to follow the same path and include the same cable with Blon BL-05. It’s the worst, awful quality and feel, just a big turn off. It’s certainly not built to last, especially looking at the two “fangs” at the Y-splitter, which will certainly break off with enough usage. The 3.5 mm jack is angled, housed in cheap plastic… which doesn’t feel pleasant. I wasn’t impressed with the complete lack of metal in the cable, the whole cable is made out of cheap plastic.
There is no driver flex, which is always a good thing. Driver flex can me a very large problem, I myself cannot stand it, it’s possible my ears are sensitive to it. When I experienced drier flex on IMR R2 Aten, I never touched them again, but maybe it was a faulty unit, I haven’t confirmed that. So this is something which I never overlook, I greatly appreciate that Blon didn’t have this issue.

Design and design features-
Blon is going in the right direction with the design choice, because the looks are very nice with the BL-05, a sleeker and sharper looking in ear monitor than BL-03. The design reminds me of the Terminator franchise, especially the T-1000, played by Robert Patrick, the chrome, shapeshifting Terminator reminds me of the smooth chrome finish of BL-05. I can definitely see Arnold Schwarzenegger rocking the Bl-05.
The design features are pretty standard, as mentioned above, a flat, 90˚ 3.5 mm jack, and there is a protruding 2-pin connector. That’s it in terms of the design and design features, there is also a single vent on the inner side of the housing shell.

Comfort-
Out of the box, I thought that it had a very bad fit and seal. This is either because I haven’t broken the ear guide in, or because of the stock eartips… which were a useless fit for my ears. Not one had a good seal, it’s only after I put in the black foam eartips that the seal and fit improved. However after some time spent with it, the overall comfort wasn’t bad. The fit is in between, neither deep, nor shallow. On the other hand, the seal with the foam tips is very nice, not vacuum-tight, but nice fit. Blon BL-05 is suited for long listening sessions, proposing no discomfort issues after longer sessions. This isn’t the most comfortable pair of in ear monitors which I have tried, but it’s definitely not the most uncomfortable, far from that.

Sound-
Low range-

Low frequency range has a considerable extension, however doesn’t have full body and weight, which are both much appreciated. I especially found mid-bass to lack definition and texture. Sub-bass delivers a pleasing rumble. Let’s take for example Hanz Zimmer’s “Why so serious?” at mark 3:30. Sub-bass can be felt, felt being the key word. You can feel it pulsing and “breathing”. However at other times, such as the beginning of Arctic Monkey’s “ Do I wanna know?”, there is serious lack of thump and definition of the bass, the track loses most of it’s original energy due to it. While the low frequencies are extended, at times the lack of definition is very noticeable.

Mid range-
One of the first things which I have noticed when using the BL-05 is that it appeared to be shouty and thin in the mid range. With my first listen, this is the aspect I noticed straight away. Mid are noticeably recessed, this is no surprise because it has a V-shaped sound signature. I found the thin sound characteristic quite a problem, making them suck out of music, almost making them completely non-musical. To support these statements, let’s take a look at the classic “Bohemian Rhaphosy” by Queen, this track usually has a lot of energy behind it, it’s definitely one where you can notice many elements and characteristics…at the end of the day, Queen barely could put together the song due to the amount of layers Freddie had in mind. Focusing specifically on Freddie’s vocals in first third of the Bohemian Rhapsody, most of Freddie’s energy isn’t there. Where there would usually be body in his vocals, with the BL-05 there isn’t. The upper-midrange is well presented with good presence/edge, however there is a noticeable lack of musicality at lower-to-moderate volumes, which I did find to be a problem. Mark 2:17, when Freddie goes on to sing “…face the truth” is a specific part where this is clearly noticeable. Overall not impressed, pretty fatiguing and tinny sound characteristics in the mid range, and this is a no no for me.

High range-
This is the aspect which I appreciate the most with the BL-05. It delivers nice sparkle and top end where needed, while staying away from piercing. I did find it fairly unusual that the highest top end is somewhat rolled off, usually Travis Scott’s track “Stop trying to be God” is a reference I use for particular harshness, especially at mark 5:20 where Stevie Wonder’s harmonica hits its peak, and at this particular mark it didn’t have the sparkle which it should have. While the highest top-end doesn’t have the sparkle to deliver those frequencies, it did bring out the lower pitch frequencies of the high end. This track in particular just lacked the delivery which was supposed to be present, however, on a good note I did find the treble response to be quite pleasant. The treble is present, and it is presented well.

Soundstage-
I found the soundstage to be fairly narrow, and this combined with the previous weaknesses, it just finished off the job… in a bad way.

Conclusion
While the Blon BL-03 was much hyped, I can only see that hype train to have been forwarded onto the BL-05. Did BL-05 live up to that hype train? I wish I could say yes, but unfortunately I found the overall experience quite average, even below average at some points. With the market moving and evolving so fast, it’s very hard to put out a successful product. You always have to be two steps ahead of everyone, otherwise you just get buried in the sea of products which do not stand out. You can imagine that when there are thousands of fish in the sea, if you are among these fish, you must stand out, otherwise it will be very hard to attract somebody to pick you. Is Blon BL-05 a bad product? I wouldn’t say so. While there are definitely some aspects which could be improved upon, BL-05 itself isn’t a bad product, but it’s hard to recommend it when there are so many choices out there, and each one of these products has their own characteristic which makes it stand out. Blon BL-5’s lack of standing out features is the biggest disadvantage. Overall not my cup of tea.

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