[seanc6441]

It depends,

With the back vents covered (by foam), BS-1's soundstage suffers and only a bit better than White Ling. With the back vents unobstructed, BS-1's soundstage is indeed noticeably bigger than both White Ling and BK. However, the opposite is true for mid-range texture which improves with the vents covered and degrades with vents opened. As far as overall balance goes, I think BS-1 is better than White Ling for sure. But I personally would rate the White Ling slightly higher mainly because I don't find BS-1 excels in any particular area (even though the overall balance of all aspects is pretty good). I guess you can say it lacks just a bit of wow factor for me.

I think with the vents covered the mid bass and low mids take an emphasis and uncovered the treble becomes airy and indeed the sound is more spacious and the sub bass is a little more prominent.

I think you can regain some texture with thin foams like the aliexpress ones which unlike the monk foams, do not smooth out the sound as much. Or use thin foams and cover the vent as it will be more breathable than thick foams (tried this now, it`s a nice balance between texture and spaciousness) giving you some breathing room but also some low mid texture.

I think the imaging and depth of sound is above average which I would consider as this buds best feature, but it has some tonality flaws in stock form.

I do agree though that overall it's an all rounder rather than a specialist, which is more impressive for people who want this as their only premium earbud but less impressive for people with many looking to find more niche earbuds for different uses.

Although at the price of $99 I think it´s a high performing earbud with the right tweaks.

 

[mochill]

Dragon 2 plus will be epic

 

[Merlin-PT]

First, we need to take note that Samsara is a series and not just one model - there are actually two models that bear the Samsara name, the 300ohm and the 500ohm. Between them, 500ohm Samsara is the better sounding of the two and pretty much about the level as a flagship ToTL, while 300ohm Samsara is about a top second-tier. White Ling will be more comparable to the 500ohm in overall quality and the main difference is that the 500ohm Samsara is very smooth overall while White Ling is has a more forwarded presentation (though still fairly smooth overall). This makes White Ling a bit more detail on the mid and treble, but less 'grand' in overall presentation.

I don't have any of them, so I really don't know, but I was under the impression the samsara models were 300 and 600 ohms, weren't they both released after k500?
Could you please order them by your personal preference (k500, samsara k300, k600)?

 

[HungryPanda]

I prefer K's 600 above my K's 300 and K's 300 above my K's 200

 

[Merlin-PT]

Is your k300 the normal version or the samsara k300?

From K's, I only have:
K300 old driver (normal version from early 2017 - not samsara)
k300 new driver (normal version from 2018 - not samsara)
k300 pro
k64

From these I prefer k300 old driver, they are much more detailed.
The others still sound good, but are much less detailed, maybe I got lucky in the 1rst k300 I got.
From what I remember, I didn't like k64 much, never used it again.

 

[jrazmar]

Any link for a complete review of Shozy BK Blue/Limited Edition? I might get one from Penon. Does the cable make any difference in sound?

 

[ClieOS]

Any link for a complete review of Shozy BK Blue/Limited Edition? I might get one from Penon. Does the cable make any difference in sound?

Yes, the cable makes a difference in sound, given it is the only difference between the regular and the limited edition BK. However, as I have somewhat said before, double the price doesn't equal to double the goodness.

 

[ClieOS]

I don't have any of them, so I really don't know, but I was under the impression the samsara models were 300 and 600 ohms, weren't they both released after k500?
Could you please order them by your personal preference (k500, samsara k300, k600)?

600ohm is actually not the Samsara series. AFAIK, Samsara series only has 3 models, the 300ohm and the 500ohm (sometimes it is also referred as the 520ohm), plus the one with the shiny metal wrapping on the housing, which has no official English name. K series has K300, K200 (discontinued), K64, and K32. I don't have the 600ohm so I can't tell you much about it.

 

[golov17]

https://m.intl.taobao.com/detail/detail.html?spm=a2141.7631565.0.0&id=557799084201

 

[jrazmar]

Yes, the cable makes a difference in sound, given it is the only difference between the regular and the limited edition BK. However, as I have somewhat said before, double the price doesn't equal to double the goodness.

Thanks ClieOS. So based on your personal listening time so far, where will you place the Blue BK in your ranking? You have placed the Balanced BK so high up there with the Champions. Did it change now that you have heard the likes of Liebesleid, Poseidon, the K's Black Ling or the Dragon 2 among others? If the Blue BK has its place up there at the top, I might finally have my first TOTL earphones. The Moondrops are not accessible for me except the Black Ling but AE doesn't accept Paypal. Hope you can provide some info on this. Thanks.

 

[ClieOS]

A regular balanced BK is still among the best, though maybe not THE best. I think so far I'll say the same for BK blue. There are certainly some area that it has improved upon the regular BK, but at the same time it also loses a little bit of magic that BK has on somewhere else. All and all, the improvement has some trade off. I'll write a more completed comparison tonight.

 

[jrazmar]

Thanks ClieOS. So you're probably right about the price markup not being proportional to the increase in sound quality + some trade offs. Curious about these trade-offs. Also wondering if the cable upgrade has increased soundstage. Looking forward to your write up about the Blue BK. If you can include something about the regular BK on single-ended mode on your overall ranking, that would be very helpful as well.

 

[XP_98]

Thanks ClieOS. So you're probably right about the price markup not being proportional to the increase in sound quality + some trade offs. Curious about these trade-offs. Also wondering if the cable upgrade has increased soundstage. Looking forward to your write up about the Blue BK. If you can include something about the regular BK on single-ended mode on your overall ranking, that would be very helpful as well.

+ 1

 

[noknok23]

https://m.intl.taobao.com/detail/detail.html?spm=a2141.7631565.0.0&id=557799084201

it seems K's 500/520 wasn't released on aliexpress... I will ask some seller if they can sell it

 

[Townyj]

Whats up all, been a while