[DynamicEars]

Dynamic Ears I don’t think piezos sound bad at all, I was bummed they changed the 05. The **** pro is fantastic and a staple in my rotation. The 05 sounds great to me I could never get 03 to fit ever...hated its looks. The 05 fits me well and sounds great to me....I have Starfield, Diamond (kbear) also.....my thing is multiple BAs, I really like that sound like my T800, and latest addition Fearless S8F’s!
My current favorite is S8F by a nose...lol.

Nope i didnt say that piezo driver is bad, just they are maybe more difficult to tune rather than DD or BAs and they have very airy native characteristics that sounded differently. I also have that deeteesix and the pro version too as well, and spring 1 and nx7pro and a6mini, all are using piezoelectric. I dont mind if the 05 come out with piezo as well just that will boost up the price even more, and chance of hit or miss will be bigger also. But in the end even they ditch the piezo, they boost up the upper mids along with reducing bass, they should just reduce the bass only and keep mids and upper mids tuning the same as near perfect bl03 tuning.

Waiting for @Slater to compare BL03 mods vs BL05.

 

[pfloyd]

Nope i didnt say that piezo driver is bad, just they are maybe more difficult to tune rather than DD or BAs and they have very airy native characteristics that sounded differently. I also have that deeteesix and the pro version too as well, and spring 1 and nx7pro and a6mini, all are using piezoelectric. I dont mind if the 05 come out with piezo as well just that will boost up the price even more, and chance of hit or miss will be bigger also. But in the end even they ditch the piezo, they boost up the upper mids along with reducing bass, they should just reduce the bass only and keep mids and upper mids tuning the same as near perfect bl03 tuning.

Waiting for @Slater to compare BL03 mods vs BL05.

There’s a Facebook post highlighting mod placing a 2mm square of 3M micropore on the nozzle of the BL05 yielding a curve like you mention, maintaining the BL03 mids with the reduced bass with chart verification, have some micropore on the way to try.

 

[Slater]

There might be a bass vent on the BL-05 as well.

Nice catch! Yup, that’s a bass vent

 

[baskingshark]

*** NEWS FLASH ***

I discovered something about the BL-03 today, that was previously unknown by the community.

I was carefully examining the BL-03, and I noticed that there is a fully functional bass vent right at the 2-pin plug.




This bass vent can get COVERED UP and sealed when the stock cable is used (or a banned brand that makes an upgrade cable using the stock plug ends):


However, when a generic 2-pin cable is used, the bass vent is fully UNCOVERED. This is due to the way the generic cable sits on top of the stock socket.


I tested this with different cables, and sure enough there is a difference. This difference is not due to the cable itself, but rather the vent being covered vs uncovered. I think this can explain at least why some people were hearing different BL-03 tuning, the (untrue) rumors of the different colors sounding different, etc. Some people said it had too much low end, others said it was too little, etc.

You can even test this with the stock cable, by partially unplugging the stock cable so that it unseals the vent. This proves that a stock vs 'upgrade' cable is not reason, but rather the bass vent.

The BL-05 has no such bass vent, and there is significant difference in the quantity of bass between the BL-03 vs BL-05:


Sure, the BL-05 uses a different shell and newer generation of driver, which does have some influence on the difference between the BL-05 vs BL-03. But the lack of bass vent on the BL-05 is a significant contributor on the BL-05 having less low end vs the BL-03.

Excellent observation!

I think the variation in the bass amounts that folks here report could be due to this for sure! But also the varying bass amounts are possibly partially contributed by QC issues (unit variance), and also since most of us are using different eartips (since the stock tips are generally ill fitting for majority of us).

 

[axhng]

Previously I only have the KZ c-pin 2pin cables which doesn't fit unless i mod the connector, so have been just using the stock cable. Just so happen I recently bought a pair of QKZ VK4 with very noticeable channel imbalance which made them useless, so I now have a spare cable that I could use with the bl-03. I was just thinking the other day that it sounded a bit nicer on those cable but didn't think too much about it. Now that Slater mentioned it, maybe it's due to that bass vent indeed. Even though I've had these for like 8 months or so, after doing the mesh mod + changing cable, it feels almost like I'm listening to a new pair of IEMs.

 

[JEHL]

Since I got no aftermarket cables yet I tried slightly pulling the stock cable out by like 0.5mm or so. Can't describe what it does to the sound as I'm not exactly a good critic. It does... something to the sound however.

Edit: I'm liking this whatever I just did.

 

[baskingshark]

I know graphs don't tell the full story, but it is strange that the BLON BL-05 (red) is thrashed in a lot of reviews for the harsh upper mids, but Tin HIFI T4 (green) is generally well regarded (in fact the Tin T4 may have less bass than the BL-05 and the ears may hence perceive the frequency spectrum as a whole for the T4 to be brighter as such).

I've not heard the T4, but possibly T4 may have better technicalities or other areas of improvement over the BL-05?

 

[twice2]

I know graphs don't tell the full story, but it is strange that the BLON BL-05 (red) is thrashed in a lot of reviews for the harsh upper mids, but Tin HIFI T4 (green) is generally well regarded (in fact the Tin T4 may have less bass than the BL-05 and the ears may hence perceive the frequency spectrum as a whole for the T4 to be brighter as such).

I've not heard the T4, but possibly T4 may have better technicalities or other areas of improvement over the BL-05?

Its probably because the BL05 is always compared to BL03. Buyers of T4 probably know that theyre getting a neutral/mid forward signature.
There are also big differences in 5k and 10k regions present in the measurements which can affect the whole perception of shouty vocals. I would usually lower the volume of T4 a little to prevent the shouting. I did not like the T4 sound.

I can name another example of "same graph/different reviews" with the Shuoer Tape / Singer. They have like the same signature but the reviewers hate the Singer while the Tape is well reviewed. I love the Tape but did not hear the Singer. A big difference between these models should be the drivers and possibly the placement of the drivers. Then again we all have different ears and tips fit differently, but the Singer has several bad reviews.

 

[baskingshark]

Its probably because the BL05 is always compared to BL03. Buyers of T4 probably know that theyre getting a neutral/mid forward signature.
There are also big differences in 5k and 10k regions present in the measurements which can affect the whole perception of shouty vocals. I would usually lower the volume of T4 a little to prevent the shouting. I did not like the T4 sound.

I can name another example of "same graph/different reviews" with the Shuoer Tape / Singer. They have like the same signature but the reviewers hate the Singer while the Tape is well reviewed. I love the Tape but did not hear the Singer. A big difference between these models should be the drivers and possibly the placement of the drivers. Then again we all have different ears and tips fit differently, but the Singer has several bad reviews.

Very good points! Though if anything, based on Crin's graphs, the 2 - 4 kHz bands (which I consider to be upper mids) are mostly the same, whereas the T4 has an even boosted lower treble at 5 kHz all the way to 8 kHz, with lesser bass than BL-05. Shouldn't that make the T4 even "shoutier" than the BL-05?

I just got my BLON BL-05 yesterday and yeah I agree the upper mids/lower treble are somewhat harsh. I found this area could be tamed somewhat with a micropore mod (use 3M tape and cover part of the nozzle mesh, but do not cover it entirely if not the sound will be muffled). I thought the upper treble on the BL-05 wasn't that bright actually.

I'll definitely be skipping the Tin T4 then, thanks for your feedback on the shoutiness. But yeah, I think u hit the nail on the head, I think most who were expecting the BL-05 to be a spiritual successor of the BL-03 were disappointed the BL-05 was not tonally similar to the BL-03.

 

[IEMusic]

Its probably because the BL05 is always compared to BL03. Buyers of T4 probably know that theyre getting a neutral/mid forward signature.

I agree. The T4 can have harsh upper mids, but I expected it. The BLO3 has no harshness anywhere.

 

[DynamicEars]

Actually a lot of people have mixed review about T4 that being shouty too, and about QC of connectors. And the T4 is shadowed by Moondrop Starfield.

 

[FastAndClean]

 

[Hinch]

)

Nice catch! Yup, that’s a bass vent

Block off that vent via micropore tape for more bass. Works a bit like the KPE mod.

 

[Slater]

Block off that vent via micropore tape for more bass. Works a bit like the KPE mod.

Actually, blocking that vent off will result in LESS bass, not more bass.

For more bass, you would want to block off the FRONT vent with micropore tape:

 

[Sebulr]

Actually, blocking that vent off will result in LESS bass, not more bass.

For more bass, you would want to block off the FRONT vent with micropore tape:

I tried that with a bit of blu tack, still didn't like it. Quite a nice headphone with some eq fu. 3db off the 3k peak, and it's a good headphone.