Blon Fat Girl

Disclaimer:

• Keephifi sent this unit to me in an exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Rest assured that this review will be free from any bias/es as much as possible.
• The following remarks and observations shall be made and owned only by me.
• No monetary compensation is/was involved before, during, and after the period of creation of this review.
• Your mileage may (and always, will) vary.

Burn-in time: 5-10 hours per day, 5 days.

Source/s used:

• Hidizs AP80
• VE MEGATRON USB DAC
• Zishan U1 USB DAC (AKM Variant)
• Cyberdrive Feather DAC
• Non-HiFi smartphone (realme 5i, Samsung Galaxy On7)
• Local Files via Foobar and Roon, YouTube Music, Deezer, and Qobuz with UAPP.

IEM/Earbud/Setup configuration: Stock medium eartips, stock cable, any form of EQ or MSEB off, 40-60% volume, both high and low gain.

(For this review, I will be calling this as the “BFG”.)

Sound signature:
- Warm, v-shaped sound signature. Elevated lows, recessed mids, elevated highs. Decent sound for its price. The BFG follows the Blon’s house sound.

Lows:

• The lows here in the BFG are elevated and have a decent depth and slam. Its midbass is much more elevated compared to its subbass. Despite being midbass focused, the presentation is a little bit boomy as the decay is on the slower side. As a result, the BFG can handle EDM or bassy tracks but the bassheads on a budget may find its bass lacking on the bass heavy tracks, or those songs that are subbass focused.

Mids:

• The mids are warm and recessed here in the BFG and suffers a bit of extra midbass bleed, making the vocals a bit distant. However, the thickness and depth are still present and did not sounded thin at all. Upper mids are elevated and shows some sibilance on sibilant prone tracks. The “S” on vocals here are a bit emphasized here to my liking. However, the vocal presentation here are clear and loud enough and very capable for podcasts or movies.

Highs:

• The treble here is elevated and decently extended. However, when not driven properly, it may sound unrefined or may even be muted, particularly when used with a phone. Detail retrieval is below average here is the nuances are a bit harder to be heard than usual.

Soundstage, Imaging, and separation:

• The soundstage on the BFG is wide with average expansion for its price. It is wider than deep and lacks a bit of depth to my liking. Separation is decent here and degrades when tracks gets busier and more complex. Imaging is average and can present instrument and vocal positions fairly accurate.

Pros:

• All-rounder sound.
• Bass presentation isn’t as bad as what it looks in the fr graph.
• Decent mids presentation.
• Decent technical performance for its price.
• Clear microphone quality.
• Very good build quality. The shell is metal, the cable is thick and sleeved on the lower portion.
• Fit and isolation is good and can cater to smaller ears.
• Decent sound under 10 USD

Cons:

• Instances of sibilance are present on sibilant prone tracks.
• Instances of midbass bleed are also present.
• Lacks a bit of detail retrieval in this price point.
• Treble lacks refinement when not driven properly.
• Stock eartips degrade the sound.
• Product name is a bit intriguing and/or questionable.
• Packaging and accessories are lacking; a cable winder or a pouch can be a treat for everybody.
• May not be the best choice under 10 USD.

The BLON “Fat Girl” isn’t for everyone - particularly for those people who are into this hobby. I can see this being used by average consumers watching their podcasts or movies, or those people who commute and want to listen to music on the go and make this as their beater or EDC pair. Despite its questionable and intriguing name, the BFG isn’t as bad as what the other findings and inputs seem to be - or to my experience at least. It still sounds decent and very capable to sound good, It’s just that it isn’t “audiophile” enough for them to recommend to us people in the hobby, and I understand their point.


Pairing recommendation/s:

• Source: The BFG still is fairly easy to be driven off with a smartphone, if you want to lessen the sibilance or if you are fine with the unrefined treble.
• Eartips: The stock eartips degrades the sound. I recommend to change it with KB Ear 07 eartips or any eartips of your choice.

Thank you for reading!

Non-affiliated link here: https://keephifi.com/products/blon-fat-girl?_pos=1&_sid=499816ad2&_ss=r&variant=39839864913966

Additional Photos here:

Packaging/Build/Comfort
The packaging is minimal and there’s nothing much to be said about it. A box consisting of the earphone itself and eartips.

Build quality is commendable for the asking price and nothing much to complain about. Comfortable to wear for long sessions as well. Cable seems to be fairly solid and will last for some time if handled with care.

Source
Macbook Air M2 -> Apple Music -> Blon FG
Hidizs AP80 Pro-X -> Blon FG



Sound Impressions
The sound presented is fairly balanced to my surprise,
The bass is punchy but not overly boomy. It has got a good texture,not exactly tight bass but acceptable for the asking price. Nothing to complain about the bass here. I am not using the stock eartips as they don’t really fit me that well. Tend to drop off.

Mid range doesn’t sound that colored to my ears,vocal positioning is not too forward nor laidback. Male and female vocals have good texture to them,while I'd appreciate it if the male vocals sound a little thicker,they’re not bad overall. Female vocal at times sound a little grainy/brittle to my ears,not the most pleasant experience but acceptable.

Treble is not harsh and smooth,sufficient energy for the details to present themselves,but don’t expect this to be a detail monster tho. Never sibilant nor harsh.

Soundstage is slightly wide (a little out of your head),average height and depth,nothing much to complain about for the price. Imaging however does suffer a little during complex songs,such as Slipknot’s People = crap,pinpointing the instruments is a little difficult as it is unable to render the layer properly. For general songs,you’ll be fine.

Driveability
Easy to drive,it will sound reasonably loud even straight out from your phone’s 3.5mm jack. It does perform a little better with better sources of course.

Final Thoughts
On the first initial listen,they really sound good,but after you spend a little more time with it,you will then realise that it is actually just another IEM that exists in the midst of many other IEMs. I like BLON 03,that is the only product that I personally find that 's a big hit and kinda rattled the budget market. FG is not it.

To me,FG is something which you can use as a daily beater,or the moment where you don’t really care much about technicalities and just want to listen to music,FG will be that.

*All thoughts are of my own and i am not under any influence nor receive any monetary compensation for this review. FG was sent over to me by Mei Liu from KeepHifi,a big thanks to her.

Link to purchase the Blon FG (Non Affiliated)
Blon Fat Girl KeepHifi Store

Okay it should be said there seem to be inconsistencies with this model some seem to be decent and balanced while others are bass heavy. I have another on the way but for now ill review what one I have.

The BLON is a decently made fixed cable IEM with a single DD it's made of metal and has some weight but not too much is felt in the ear. The FG comes in a tiny box with 3 sizes of the awful BLON tips unfortunately there is no pouch we are used to. The FG is comfortable but smaller ears might not think so.

Sound:
My Pair presented Balanced a surprise for sure as I was expecting it to be bass heavy.

Bass was punchy but not overly boomy the bass did have good depth but lacked texture and was smoothed over in details. Tips did help this but not by much.

Mids sounded neutral for the most part but weren't the most detailed. lower Mids had warmth while upper had a little brightness.

Treble was polite and non-harsh it lacked energy but still had enough details to be acceptable.

Soundstage was a little above aggrege with decent imaging but did suffer from congested tracks and bass heavy music.

After thoughts:
I listened to the BLON fist before the little Q I wish I hadn't the Little Q destroys it completely in this price range. The FG is either a safe boring IEM or as others have said a poor bass heavy mediocre failure. I will admit I liked it at first coming off listening to my SR80i for a week maybe the FG sounded better on the Gryphon and Go Bar but ultimately it is just another safe tuned IEM in a sea of better choices. I was going to give it 3 stars but after revisiting mine and seeing that its inconsistent I give it 1 , Im a Blon fan I hope the new one is good as I've liked most of their stuff.

The Blon Fat Girl have been sent to me by Linsoul in exchange for the publication of this review. They have not requested that I say or do anything specific, however it is always worth considering the fact that these IEMs have not cost me anything, no matter how unbiased I try to be.

As always, I will leave a (non-affiliate) link to these IEMs via Linsoul on my blog, as it’s the least I can do.



Intro…

I really can’t start this review any other way than with the name of the IEMs. I haven’t read any reviews or comments about these IEMs but I am guessing that this is something that has already been commented on by many, all I am going to say is that I don’t think the name is a very good choice, no matter how much you want it to be remembered. Yes, there are probably a lot worse names out there but still, I’m sure Blon could have come up with something better. Let’s just call them FG.

I just said that I haven’t read anything about these, which is true, but I do remember them being launched recently as an ultra budget set, coming in at around 10€, which is probably within the top 5 of the cheapest IEMs I have ever reviewed.

So let's see if they are any good for such an extremely cheap price.



Presentation…

There is not a lot to say in this section, I mean, what can you expect for this price?

A simple box containing the IEMs with their fixed cable and a couple of spare tips. That is it, but again, we can’t ask for more.



Build and aesthetics…

The build of these is actually not bad. It’s not stellar (did I mention 10€?) but it is completely made of metal and the attached cable is not the worst you can get, even in higher price brackets.

The size and shape are going for a smaller bullet type style, similar to something like the Quarks or the Tanya, but a little bit bigger then either of those. They are sort of reminiscent of the Koss KEB90 but without the angled nozzle.

As far as comfort, they are not bad either. They aren’t small enough to disappear inside the ear but aren’t overly large either, so I really don’t have too much to complain about at this price.



Sound…

Before getting into my opinion of the sound, let’s look at a graph of the FG compared to my personal preference target. Also, at the same time let’s add the BL03, Blon’s most successful model, to the graph.



(all IEM measurements can be found on achoreviews.squig.link)

Ok, now, for those of you that know what to look at on a graph, I don’t think that you will be surprised at what is coming. For those that prefer my subjective findings…

There is an elevated bass range that is something that I don’t personally care for. Usually I would break this section down into subbass and midbass but I feel that there is no real need here because the IEMs don’t do a great job of distinguishing between them.

Looking at the graph, you can see that there really isn’t much difference in the bass zone between the FG and BL03, in fact, the BL03 has slightly more. However, the big difference is in the quality of the bass. The whole low end just seems to merge into a large… I’m actually looking for a word to best describe this here… maybe “blob” would be a valid description.

There is just an overall lack of definition and clarity in the bass section, making things feel congested.

As we move into the mids, we have the opposite problem. Instead of a large blob, we have a large hole. There is a space in the center of the tuning which is where the mids should be, and they are just not there. I can’t say the mids sound bad, in fact, I played some simple mid focused tests and the mids aren’t terrible, but bring back anything that has lows or highs (we are getting to the highs!) and the mids just fade away into the shadows.

And the highs. The highs are over elevated and not elevated enough, all at the same time. There is a mismatch of frequencies happening in the upper ranges that can really create a weird sensation with instruments in these frequencies. There are peaks, including a fairly large one at my dreaded 5kHz range, which just present a treble that sounds… again searching for words… wonky?

Sound stage and image placement is very difficult to judge, well, actually it’s quite easy to judge negatively, as the mass of bass, lack of mids and random treble, all contribute to things not sounding like they should nor where they should.

Details… Well, I imagine you can guess.



Conclusion…

Blon really made a name for themselves with the BL03, a set of IEMs that was loved by a lot of people. I don’t mind the BL03 even though they are not something I highly praise as I preferred the BL05s, but that is a personal opinion. Since then they have released quite a few models, some quite “off the wall”, but none have really had the success of their first model.

I’m afraid that I can not relate anything from the FG to the BL03. While I may not have been the biggest fan of the tuning of the BL03, it’s performance is fairly decent, whereas I have struggled to not be more negative in this review towards the FG.

I really don’t like leaving negative reviews, as I feel that this hobby is so subjective that somebody is always going to like things that I don’t. That might also be the case with the FG, who knows, but there are just so many good alternatives out there, even at the same price (and sometimes even cheaper), that I really can’t see the point in owning these IEMs.

(As always, this review is also available in Spanish on www.achoreviews.com and on www.youtube.com/achoreviews)