[Remior]

I have tried the mod... not for my taste. I prefer way better the Stock ones.

Measurements.... Green= Stock Red=Mod

 

[Slater]

I have tried the mod... not for my taste. I prefer way better the Stock ones.

Measurements.... Green= Stock Red=Mod

Nice, thanks for the FR measurements!

I guess for those that are treble sensitive or sensitive in those frequency areas, it may not be for everyone.

Myself, I love the reduced veil across the board and the increased details. The Blon is so cheap, it’s easy to have 2 sets depending on the mood or genre - 1 modded and 1 stock.

Anyways, thanks again for taking the time to share the graph.

 

[MrJohnRambo]

What u describe - the crinkling sound when inserting the IEM inside, is probably driver flex. The recoil issue when inserting could just be due to the eartip being compressed and reexpanding inside the ear, though some driver flex gives a clicking/recoiling sound sometimes.

Well most manufacturers will claim that driver flex doesn't damage the dynamic drivers, though I have seen a few anecdotal reports on headfi and audio sites that after a particularly bad case of driver flex, the dynamic driver died after that.

Have u tried another cable with your IEM?

Well FWIW, I realize driver flex can be reduced to some extent by these few methods:
1) Use foam tips instead of silicone tips, works sometimes for me. Probably cause the foam is porous and lets air escape thru the foams rather than going into the IEM shell.
2) Driver flex seems to be due to a too tight seal in the ear canal, and sometimes using another eartip (silicone) that has lesser isolation/seal may reduce driver flex, though at the expense of isolation. Try a variety of different ear tips if you can, some tips give more driver flex than others.
3) Try opening your mouth and pulling down the earlobe before inserting the IEM, this opens the ear canal a bit for more space to insert the eartip, and hopefully some air can escape during insertion with the bigger diammeter of the ear canal.
4) Insert the ear tip slowly or not too deeply initially, and slowly make fine adjustments to push it in.

I'm having this problem.Exactly!

Sometimes the left one just stop to play. So i wait 3 hour and the sound return.

I dont know if the sound have changed after that but i have the feeling that the left side one dont sound as good as before, its have less high. I dont know what to do.If i have to open the IEM to clean or not but that is annoying me aff.

 

[Robigy]

I have tried removing the mesh, the midbump was gone, clarity was increased, but the highs were a bit too much for my taste so i cut a a bit of foam and inserted it into the nozzle, this kept the good things but tamed the highs i think it’s something to try if you find the Blons a bit veiled, also play with how much foam you add into the nozzle

 

[tgx78]

I have tried removing the mesh, the midbump was gone, clarity was increased, but the highs were a bit too much for my taste so i cut a a bit of foam and inserted it into the nozzle, this kept the good things but tamed the highs i think it’s something to try if you find the Blons a bit veiled, also play with how much foam you add into the nozzle

Yep I can confirm this.
I just tried with tiny bit of cotton ball behind the mesh (aftermarket one) and it is best sounding yet (balanced frequency + clear).
Timbre is even better now. wow.

Cheers!

Edit: My URBANFUN YBF-ISS014 should arrive soon and I will be shocked if it sounds better than this tweaked Blon.

 

[Robigy]

Yep I can confirm this.
I just tried with tiny bit of cotton ball behind the mesh (aftermarket one) and it is best sounding yet (balanced frequency + clear).
Timbre is even better now. wow.

Cheers!

Edit: My URBANFUN YBF-ISS014 should arrive soon and I will be shocked if it sounds better than this tweaked Blon.

Yeah, it seems to me that the air cannot escape fast enough from the enclosure with the stock filter/mesh, thus creating a tube like resonance around the midbass frequency

 

[IEMusic]

Yep I can confirm this.
I just tried with tiny bit of cotton ball behind the mesh (aftermarket one) and it is best sounding yet (balanced frequency + clear).
Timbre is even better now. wow.

Cheers!

Edit: My URBANFUN YBF-ISS014 should arrive soon and I will be shocked if it sounds better than this tweaked Blon.

Could anyone please share some pics of these mods?

 

[tgx78]

Could anyone please share some pics of these mods?

there are few pics if you go back 5-10 pages.

you will need these first

 

[Slater]

I got an even easier mod for you guys. It’s more precise, more consistent, and cleaner than just stuffing the nozzle with cotton.

The downsides to cotton are 1. it’s inconsistent to get a proper density and fill. And 2. small cotton dust and fibers become detached and fall onto the driver diaphragm. These downsides are not desirable at all.

This mod is made especially for the Blon owners that tried the nozzle mesh mod and feel the treble is a little too much. Or those that were afraid to try the nozzle mesh mod for fear that the treble might be too much.

There’s a guy on another popular audio board (which I cannot link to or specifically mention on HeadFi because that site is banned from discussion here). Anyways, this guy modded his JVC HA-FD01 (a carbon nanotube dynamic earphone) by rolling up an alcohol pad and inserting it into the JVC nozzle. This allowed the treble peaks to be tamed while not causing loss of detail. It’s like the best of both worlds; like having your cake and eating it too.

The resulting mod was extremely effective. So effective that a modded pair was sent to engineers at JVC in Japan for evaluation. JVC was so impressed with the mod that they actually created a whole new version of the HA-FD01 based around the modded filter. It was sold through Massdrop as the HA-FDX1.

I tried the same mod to the Blon, and all I can say is it’s basically Blon perfection.

To do the mod, you still need to remove the stock hybrid ‘sandwich’ nozzle screens, and obtain the $0.10 replacement plain stainless nozzle screens.

That is outlined here:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/blo...ressions-thread.916702/page-182#post-15531900

And yes, the proper size of nozzle mesh is listed at that link, as well as where/how to buy them.

Next you need to obtain a 2-ply alcohol wipe. The kind that you rub on your skin before an injection is given. You cannot use the 1-ply type, as they are way too thick. The 2-ply pads are basically a 3”X1.5” rectangle that is folded in half to make a 1.5”X1.5” square from the factory.



You can buy them anywhere and everywhere. Even get one for free from a Dr office, hospital, or health clinic. Or ask any diabetic, nurse, doctor, pharmacist, or paramedic. They will give you one for free, trust me. But you must open the wipe up and inspect it to make sure it’s the 2-ply type that can be unfolded.

Let me repeat that: Get. The. 2-ply. Type. Only.

If you can only one the thick fuzzy 1-ply type, then keep looking until you the 2-ply type.

Once you have your 2-ply alcohol pad, all you do is remove it from the package, unfold the wipe, and let it air dry on a table for a few hours. Then it’s all ready to use.

Next you take sharp scissors and cut the dried alcohol pad into a 4mmx12mm rectangle. Like this:



The size must be precise. You can play with the length some. Just don’t go longer than 18mm or you will dampen too much treble. And don’t go shorter than 12mm or it won’t really do anything noticeable.

Next, carefully roll up the filter, like this:



Then insert it down into the nozzle with sharp tweezers. It will ‘spring’ open and fill up the nozzle. Once inserted, it should look like this:



Here’s a closer shot.



Also, you don’t want to jam the alcohol filter down as far as it will go inside the nozzle. You want to insert it so it’s juuuust barely under the stainless nozzle mesh (once the stainless mesh is reinstalled). Look for a little shelf flange section that’s machined into the inside of nozzle; that’s what the stainless screen will sit on. You want the alcohol filter to be just barely below that little shelf flange part.



Also note that the center of the nozzle is not blocked in any way by the alcohol pad roll. All the rolled up alcohol pad filter did was make a more narrow opening, where the inside circumference of the nozzle is lined with the alcohol pad filter. The bulk of the sound from the driver is still free to come up through the hole in the center of the alcohol pad filter.

Finally, you install the new stainless nozzle mesh you obtained earlier.



And that’s all there is to it!

Enjoy.

 

[redrol]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are killing it slater!! I have 4 pairs of blons and I think i wanna do this. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Slater]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are killing it slater!! I have 4 pairs of blons and I think i wanna do this. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I think people will like this better than just swapping out the stock nozzle mesh.

Don’t get me wrong, swapping out the stock nozzle mesh does remove a veil that is pulled over the whole sound. But it does make the treble a bit more peaky in a few specific areas (as recently shown).

This mod fixes that. It still lifts the veil, making the Blon sound clearer. But the treble is kept basically where it is in stock form.

That’s what I mean when I say it’s the best of both worlds. It’s freaking gooooood

 

[Makahl]

I got an even easier mod for you guys. It’s more precise, more consistent, and cleaner than just stuffing the nozzle with cotton.

This is especially for the Blon owners that tried the nozzle mesh mod and feel the treble is a little too much. Or those that were afraid to try the nozzle mesh mod for fear that the treble might be too much.

There’s a guy on another popular audio board (which I cannot link to or specifically mention on HeadFi because that site is banned from discussion here). Anyways, this guy modded his JVC HA-FD01 (a carbon nanotube dynamic earphone) by rolling up an alcohol pad and inserting it into the JVC nozzle. This allowed the treble peaks to be tamed while not causing loss of detail. It’s like the best of both worlds; like having your cake and eating it too.

The resulting mod was so positively effective, that a modded pair was sent to engineers at JVC in Japan for evaluation. JVC was so impressed with the mod that they actually created a whole new version of the HA-FD01 based around the modded filter. It was sold through Massdrop as the HA-FDX1.

I tried the same mod to the Blon, and all I can say is it’s basically Blon perfection.

To do the mod, you need to remove the stock hybrid nozzle screens, and obtain the $0.10 replacement plain stainless nozzle screens.

That is outlined here:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/blo...ressions-thread.916702/page-182#post-15531900

And yes, the proper size of nozzle mesh is listed at that link, as well as where/how to buy them.

Next you need to obtain a 2-ply alcohol wipe. The kind that you rub on your skin before an injection is given. You cannot use the 1-ply type, as they are way too thick. The 2-ply pads are basically a 3”X1.5” rectangle that is folded in half to make a 1.5”X1.5” square from the factory.



You can buy them anywhere and everywhere. Even get one for free from a Dr office, hospital, or health clinic. Or ask any diabetic, nurse, doctor, pharmacist, or paramedic. They will give you one for free, trust me. But you must open the wipe up and inspect it to make sure it’s the 2-ply type that can be unfolded.

Let me repeat that: Get. The. 2-ply. Type. Only.

If you can only one the thick fuzzy 1-ply type, then keep looking until you the 2-ply type.

Once you have your 2-ply alcohol pad, all you do is remove it from the package, unfold the wipe, and let it air dry on a table for a few hours. Then it’s all ready to use.

Next you take sharp scissors and cut the dried alcohol pad into a 4mmx12mm rectangle. Like this:



The size must be precise. Too big and you will dampen too much treble. Too small and it won’t really do anything noticeable.

Next, carefully roll up the filter, like this:



Then insert it down into the nozzle with sharp tweezers. It will ‘spring’ open and fill up the nozzle. Once inserted, it should look like this:



Note that the center of the nozzle is not blocked in any way by the alcohol pad roll. All it did was make a more narrow opening, where the inside circumference of the nozzle is lined with the alcohol pad filter.

Finally, you install the new stainless nozzle mesh you obtained earlier.



And that’s all there is to it!

Enjoy.

Nice! For anyone willing to perform this mod I highly recommend this pdf file made by someone on the OG JVC thread: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MGZ4CtFUV-O5fIkBjLMQVqqLbjGs2RcH/view (print it out at 100%) -- and how to use it: https://imgur.com/a/j14TxTI

It's a bit more precise and you can control better how much you want to tame the upper-mids/treble. (12mm lowest damping - 16mm highest damping). Also, I couldn't find the alcohol swab at that time and I've used teabag on my FDX1 as a replacement and it worked amazingly good as well (a bit more lively compared to the stock alcohol swab filters but that's for this particular IEM). Pic: https://i.imgur.com/iVEPtr8.jpg

 

[Slater]

Nice! For anyone willing to perform this mod I highly recommend this pdf file made by someone on the OG JVC thread: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MGZ4CtFUV-O5fIkBjLMQVqqLbjGs2RcH/view (print it out at 100%) -- and how to use it: https://imgur.com/a/j14TxTI

It's a bit more precise and you can control better how much you want to tame the upper-mids/treble. (12mm lowest damping - 16mm highest damping). Also, I couldn't find the alcohol swab at that time and I've used teabag on my FDX1 as a replacement and it worked amazingly good as well (a bit more lively compared to the stock alcohol swab filters but that's for this particular IEM). Pic: https://i.imgur.com/iVEPtr8.jpg

I actually played with the filter length. I safely went as high as 18mm long with positive results.

As you mentioned, I suggest starting with 12mm length. If more dampening is needed, you can bump up to 18mm length.

I also found out that the 2-ply alcohol wipe material is basically the same as the germ killing sanitizer wipes that are so popular now (the ones that come in a plastic can with a pop up top, and you can pull out 1 wipe at a time). Like Lysol wipes, Clorox wipes, generic store brand of sanitizer wipes, etc.

Obviously, with everything that’s going on right now those wipes are in short supply. You should also rinse the wipe with water before drying it out, to ensure that the disinfectant chemicals have been removed.

In addition, I also found out that the eye glass lens cleaning wipes that I use also employ a very similar filter material as the 2-ply alcohol pads.

They look like this:



So basically lots of options to obtain the proper filter pad material.

if you hold it up to the light, you should see a lot of light through the cloth. I checked some baby wipes that I had laying around and they were unfortunately much too dense to work. So baby wipes are a no go.

So if in doubt, hold it up to a light to check.

Alcohol pad:



Eyeglass wipe pad:

 

[baskingshark]

Yeah, I think people will like this better than just swapping out the stock nozzle mesh.

Don’t get me wrong, swapping out the stock nozzle mesh does remove a veil that is pulled over the whole sound. But it does make the treble a bit more peaky in a few specific areas (as recently shown).

This mod fixes that. It still lifts the veil, making the Blon sound clearer. But the treble is kept basically where it is in stock form.

That’s what I mean when I say it’s the best of both worlds. It’s freaking gooooood

Great mod Slater!

Do u by any chance have measurements/graphs of the stock BLON vs nozzle removed vs this alcohol swab mod?

And do you think the alcohol swab mod makes it sound similar to the BLON Cardinal?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Slater]

Great mod Slater!

Do u by any chance have measurements/graphs of the stock BLON vs nozzle removed vs this alcohol swab mod?

And do you think the alcohol swab mod makes it sound similar to the BLON Cardinal?

Thanks in advance!

Unfortunately I don’t have a functional FR measurement rig.

Maybe @Remior could do it, since he did the replacement nozzle mesh one at the top of this page

I will compare it to the Cardinal and let you know.