BQEYZ Cloud

BQEYZ have provided this review sample to Audio Reviews Downunder for honest assessment, and we thank them for sharing their newest IEM.

Cloud is available for pre order on Kickstarter at significant discounts off full recommend retail. ($268 usd)

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...sive-air-assisted-vibration-tech-earphone-set

Specifications: BQEYZ CLOUD

Drivers: 1 Dynamic driver + 1 Passive radiator

Impedance: 32Ω Sensitivity: 110dB Frequency response: 7Hz - 40KHz



The light aluminium alloy body is quite small and understated. The nozzle is quite short and the fit is secure and comfortable with appropriate tips. It reminds me of the original Moondrop Chu with its muted dark finish and ease of fitting the ear. Using the provided "reference” tips I'd swear I was listening to a multi driver IEM. The sound is energetic but super well balanced.

Cloud comes with a leather feel case with a zipped closure and a reasonable size. It has two sets of tips, called reference and atmosphere.

The cable is a two core with a bit of heft to it but a soft feel. The terminations are elegant metallic finished items with a quality feel, but the neck slider does not want to cooperate with the braided cable itself.

DRIVABILITY
Cloud is easy to drive. 38 on my DAP. Harder to drive IEMs I raise that to 46-50. The Cloud has a certain synergy with Hiby R3 Saber 2022. Using the balanced connection the IEM is smoother and more emotive with details and nuances.



The sound

The implementation of the LCP diaphragm and BQEYZ’s passive radiator (flexible auxiliary diaphragm unit) mix of drivers has given the Cloud a unique combination of a balanced sound with a voluminous airy soundstage and a beguiling vocal presence.





BASS
Bass is punchy and solid with good speed. Mid bass is clean with more thump than slam. Sub bass is rolled off but still adequate. Changing to "Atmosphere" tips, bass improved. Did the clouds part? Not too sure. These earphones certainly have a ton of atmosphere. Last change. Penon Liquor black tips, my current fav. This nice. Very good weight and treble performance. Vocals very natural and first rate.

Treble

Treble is clean and well extended. It has a delicate and detailed quality. Easy on the ears. No problems if you are treble sensitive. And the quality of the treble, which is subtle, crystalline, and seductive.


MIDRANGE/VOCALS


This is a set to listen to vocals. Tone and timbre with both male and females are realistic and expressive. Vocals are pushed forward with energy as is the midrange. They have a prominence on the presentation that is captivating, involving, and dare I say, rather addictive.

Details and imagining.
Imaging is first rate. It's easy to pinpoint locations of instruments in the stage. There is also a corresponding excellent resolution of details in the mix. Small subtleties are present and easily heard. There is a lightness and airiness to the Cloud's sound that makes me want to explore my music catalogue.


Soundstage.

I'm hearing a reasonably wide stage with a good sense of space and left and right projecting. Certainly more than adequate for my tastes. The soundstage has also got good depth and air.



Conclusion
Again, I am surprised by the capabilities of this driver combination. It's equivalent to a good planar but with a subtle and full midrange. BQEYZ has a winner on their hands with Cloud. I’ve actually placed a kickstarter order for a set.

Introduction

BQEYZ - A brand whose name just seems like many different letters were put together randomly - is one of the many veteran players in the chifi world. They have been making a lot of iems with different driver configurations at various but still very affordable price points. Until last year, they were most widely known for their Season collection, where they have 4 iems that named after the 4 seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

Now, I have before you the latest iem coming from BQEYZ, the BQEYZ Cloud. It has a 10mm LCP dynamic driver and a 6.8mm passive diaphragm unit. At the point of writing this review, it is currently selling for 169$ on Kickstarter.

In this review, I'll go into detail on how the Cloud performs and compare it with iems in a similar price point.

Disclaimer: BQEYZ has sent the Cloud as a touring reviewing unit in Vietnam in exchange for an honest review and feedback. I did not receive any financial benefit as well as instructions on how to do this review. Everything I said in this review is my subjective opinion only.

Packaging

The Cloud comes in a small rectangle box. Inside of it is the iems themselves and a carrying case with all the accessories inside, other than the foam tips.

The accessories included a cleaning brush, a 2 cores cable with 3.5mm termination, two types of eartips in three different sizes. The Atmosphere tips have a short and normal bore width, whereas the Reference tips have a similar length but with a wider bore. Overall, a decent amount of accessories are included for you to enjoy the Cloud.

A small nitpick on my part though. As much as I like the presentation, I would have prefered a plastic tip holder instead of a metal one. For 2 reasons. 1, by using a plastic or paper tip holder, you’d decrease the production cost by a bit (every small bit of money counts) and 2, if it’s a plastic tip holder, I won't have to worry about the shells getting scratched up when put in a case. With the current metal holder like this, I'm afraid that it may scratch up the shell during use

Design/Build quality/Comfort


The Cloud shells are made out of aluminum with an anodized matte finish in a gorgeour teal color. I dont think I've ever seen a teal colored iem before, so this is a really nice change of pace from my usual black/silver color iem.

The shell feels light yet very sturdy. The construction of it seems to be nicely done too. I would like to compliments BQEYZ for adding a chamferred edge around the faceplate, so that it’s not as easy to scratch up and loose the anodize finish overtime.

The shell shape actually reminds me of the Tripowin Olina, but luckily during my test, I did not encounter any condensation issues.

Cable wise, I'm LOVING this cable. It’s a coaxial mixed cable with single crystal copper and silver plated copper as transmitting material. Although it’s in a simple colorway with nothing fancy hardware, the cable is crazy soft, especially for the earhook, which in turn makes the Cloud more comfortable to wear.

As for the shell comfort and isolation, the Cloud has an average isolation but is quite comfortable to wear. I can wear this for many hours straight with no hot spot in my ears.

Sound impression:

Source: Poco F3+UAPP, Dell laptop + Foobar 2000

Dac/Amp: Chord Mojo, EPZ TP50, E1DA 9038D, Hiby FC6

Cable: Stock

Tips: Divinus Velvet, Spinfit W1, EPZ prototype tips

Tonality: Neutral bright

When first listening to the Cloud after a 50 hour burn in period, the first word that comes to mind was “light”. As in the bass is on a more polite side while the midrange and the treble are the star of the iem here. It’s forward, but not fatiguing on the ears.

Bass

As the tonality would suggest, the bass of the Cloud are on a more neutral side. It’s not entirely flat as the graph has already suggested, there are some mild bass boost, but there’s not much. The bass seems to only appear when it is called for. It has a subbass over midbass presentation, with the subbass being gently rolled off.

By using “Chameleon - Trentemoller” and “Why So Serious - Hans Zimmer” as my subbass test tracks, the Cloud shows great proficiency at handling the subbass drop. The subbass texture was fine, there’s no sense of clipping or dragging behind, but you will not meet some head rattling, bombastic moving type of bass drop.

The transition from subbass to midbass is quite linear. Midbass punches are there, but not very authoritative. In rock songs, kick drums don’t pack a lot of force behind them. The plucking of double bass can be felt, however the sustaining pitch and lingering vibration are quite subpar.

With drum instruments like Taiko drums and Chinese traditional, they have a natural timbre to them, each separate hits are easily felt, however the lingering sense is just not much, like they decay a bit too fast. I would have liked for them to be a bit boomier.

All in all, it seems the Cloud is going for a more monitor type of bass.

Mid

Even with that low of a bass boost, the midrange does have some warmth feeling to it. As a whole, I would describe the midrange as clean, clear, smooth and energetic. Female vocals are sublime and the star of the Cloud. Adele, Celine Deon sound vivid and lively without feeling harsh. The contrast between the neutral-ish bass with high pinna gain makes their high notes stand out even more, putting them into the front stage. This is the main reason for the light and delicate sensation on my first listening session.

That being said, with Diana Krall’s “Autumn in New York”, at 1:41, the “AUtumn” just pops into my head all of a sudden, with such high intensity that it makes me startled. So I think this really depends on the mixing and mastering of each songs

Male vocals on the other hand is not quite the Cloud’s strong point. Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble doesn’t sound quite as lush and full bodied.

Instruments like piano and violin have a natural tone and timbre. The noteweight actually seems fine, although they do not feel very dense and have very little coloration to them.

Treble

The treble here is quite nicely done. It’s airy, sparkly without sounding too peaky. It’s energetic, but not as pronounced as the upper midrange. The passive radiator must be doing something right, as the treble felt really smooth and highly refined compared to many other 1DD iem, which makes the guitar distortion quite a treat to enjoy.

The 8k seems to be an artifact of the coupler, as the Cloud does not sound like it has much sibilant at all. With “Caravan - John Wasson”, cymbals strikes and hihats sounds natural with the attack and decay, have great shimmering, yet it didn’t sound too splashy or crunchy. From 4:30 onwards, all the percussion instruments are greatly reproduced with high intensity and briliance, yet do not sound overbearing at all.

Technicalities

Soundstage wise, the Cloud is decently wide with not much height to it. It’s airy, yes, however with songs that have spatial cues that rely on the bass to convey, the Cloud doesn’t give me that quite out of the head feeling.

Imaging is good, with whatever headroom left by the soundstage. Instruments in orchestra tracks has good positioning, although the layering is not the crispess/sharpest.

Using “Bubbles” and “Swashers” by Yosi Horikawa, the Cloud showed me that it has a better micro dynamic rendering than macro dynamics.

Source pairing:

The BQEYZ is a relatively easy to drive iem. Even with a 3.5mm single ended cable, when pairing it with a dongle like EPZ TP50, the Cloud does not feel like it’s lacking in dynamics or underperforming at all. When using it with a stronger source like the Chord Mojo, the treble response seems to be even smoother with slightly more colored mids, but it’s very incremental.

But overall, when it comes to sources, you don’t need much to fully enjoy the Cloud.

Comparison

1/ BQEYZ Wind

Brother from the same mother, the BQEYZ Wind. Different from the Cloud, the Wind has a 1DD and 1 Bone conduction for the bass region.

Soundwise, the Wind has a bassier and darker tonality than the Wind. The bass on the Wind is denser, has more body and lingering sense to it. The quantity is not that much more on the Wind, but with the BC, the bass felt a bit more organic and immersive.

Midrange wise, both of these sounded great for different reasons. If the Cloud brings you this lively, energetic and delicate midrange, the Wind gives you a warmer, more colored midrange with an edge more realistic in acoustic timbre. Lower midrange has a bit more texture and layering to it. Female vocals sound more sublime and velvety with the Cloud.

Treble is easy, the Cloud’s treble just sounds better. It sounds brighter, smoother, better articulate in the attack and decay of percussion instruments. More refined. For whatever reason, there’s this darker edge around the Wind’s treble, making it sounds safer but less engaging as a whole.

Soundstage wise, the Wind is noticeably wider due to that semi open faceplate design. The imaging was kinda blurry, but at least there’s more breathing room between orchestra instruments.

Overall, it depends on one's preference. If you’d like a decently textured bass, well layered midrange with great timbre and dark-ish treble, pick the Wind. Whereas if you’d like a neutral bright iem, with an open, energetic and engaging uppermidrage with an airy yet smooth, not too peaky treble, pick the Cloud.

An additional thing I would like to mention: The Wind thrives more with better, stronger sources from my testing. When using the Wind with an additional amplifier, the bass seems to be liven up more.

2/ Simgot EA1000

Both of these iem have a similar configuration, which is 1DD and 1 passive radiator. The main difference is that the passive radiator that was used in the EA1000 is for the bass region, whereas the Cloud’s PR is for the upper mids and treble region.

Sound wise, I would say the Cloud is just a straight up flatter-or more neutral- Simgot EA1000.

The bass has less thump, less authority on the Cloud. The bass texture is noticeably better on the EA1000, almost like it has that 3D sense to it. The dynamic swing, the plucking of bass guitar or doublebass, the drum hits sound really nice on the EA1000. The bass texture on the Cloud is not bad per se, the Cloud’s bass still sounds very natural and realistic in timbre, but when standing in front of the EA1000, I don't think many can compete with the EA1000’s quick and highly technical bass response.

The midrange on the other hand, sounds a bit more forward on the Cloud. Both of these iem have what I'd called a bright leaning upper midrange. With a lower bass amount, the upper midrange stands out more on the Cloud. Female vocals sound more captivating and emotional on the Cloud, whereas the EA1000 sounds a bit harsher, brighter and more prone to sibilance. Horn instruments like trumpet have more bite on the EA1000, but sounds more realistic on the Cloud albeit with not much warmth.

Treble is another thing that’s easy to spot. Both of these iems treble are airy, well extended and highly energetic, but on the EA1000 with the red nozzle, the treble is noticeably peakier, harsher and more intense. Cymbals and hihats sounds more aggressive, with more splashy feeling to it. Together with the PR, the Cloud’s treble sounds noticeably smoother, more articulate but still manages to sound airy and snappy. The treble on the EA1000 sounds more jagged and rougher around the edges in comparison.

Technicality wise, the EA1000 edges over the Cloud to my ears. It has better macro dynamics, more detail retrieval (although the Cloud is no slouch either), it has more depth and height than the Cloud. Imagine is better on the EA1000 due to a more incisive, tighter driver membrane which gives this sharper sense on the layering.

Conclusion:

The BQEYZ Cloud is far away from my usual sound preference, but that certainly does not stop me from enjoying it. With a monitoring style of bass, a highly captivating midrange and well controlled treble region, the Cloud does stand out on its own, especially in a sub 200$ price range. Personally, the Cloud serves me greatly as a palate cleanser, a nice change of pace from the other iem in my rotation.

If you’re a vocal lover or are looking for a neutral bright iem, one that puts the female vocals into the spotlight and doing them justice, excels in conveying emotion with smooth yet detailed treble, I would highly recommend the Cloud. If you’re anywhere near bass head territory and sensitive to high pinna gain and treble, please look away.

That’s it for my review and thank you for reading.

TONALITY: 8.2/10
TECHNICALITIES: 8.5/10
TIMBRE: 8.5/10
SOUNDSTAGE: 8/10
IMAGING: 8.8/10
MUSICALITY (subjective): 8/10
CONSTRUCTION: 8/10
ACCESSORIES: 8/10
SOUND VALUE: 8.5/10


Intro

BQEYZ might be hard to memorize as a brand name, but they have been around for nearly 10 years now and I've never forgotten about them. This is an experienced IEM (only) company from China that doesn’t do things like other and propose rarely more than 2 products a year, this is due to great R&D time they put in their IEM making, they patent their driver like the dual DD-piezo find in Spring serie, or even bone conduction tech used in Winter and the fabulous Wind (1DD+1BC) that is my favorite release from them yet.

Today I will review their last IEM which is one of a kind of an ‘’hybrid’’ because in fact their 2 drivers but only one that is active, main one is a 10mm LCP (liquid crystal polymer) other one being a passive 6.8mm diaphragm that act in tandem with other driver for controlling air-transmission and suppress excess of highs frequencies resonance and distortion to keep musicality sweet and clean as well as improving overall clarity perception and attack control sustain-release.



Priced 170$, the BQEYZ Cloud promise ‘’Specially tuning for the human voice. Bright treble without harshness, high frequency extension is wide, three frequencies are not obtrusive, exquisite feeling is good. Vocal separation is pure, clean, and intriguing. Low frequency volume sense is moderate and good control, loose and elastic.’’

Let's see in this review if it fulfills its goal and delivers an enjoyable musicality as well as more than potent technical performance for its entry mid tier price.

CONSTRUCTION&DESIGN


The Cloud will not win prime extrovert beauty or originality contests, the construction is all metal and has a sober design, at least in black color while the cyan color is more unique and eye-catching.
Body is made of German 5-axis CNC aluminum alloy and has a smooth matte finish that doesn’t seem easy to scratch ( a plus for aesthetic durability)

On top of the 2 pin connector, my only perfectionist qualm is the slight gap around it. It would have been nice to make it 1mm more recessed and fully embedded in the metal body. Nonetheless, connection is secure, tight but not too hard to connect nor prompt to bent connector pin due to hard alignment, which is easy here.



The nozzle is made of metal, it’s short but not too short yet not really thinked for super deep fit, it’s angled and offers smooth comfort since IEM is not that heavy too, in other words, you can forget you were those after some time.
Like 99.9% IEMs today, these are thinked to be ear hook fit. Passive noise isolation is Ok, but if you listen at very low volume you’ll be able to ear roaring cars etc
.

Then the included cable is very nice quality, I'm not sure yet if it can be selected in another termination than 3.5mm single ended, which will be a bit of a bummer and in all honesty i'm sold for modular cable now, but that could raise the price a bit. (i verify, you can select 2.5mm, 4.4mm or 3.5mm plug, so it’s great!)
Here it’s a 2 cores cable that uses ‘’a coaxial mixed cable structure of 40pcs*0.06mm single crystal copper wire and 38pcs*0.06mm silver plated wire’’. Built is very good, with flexible wire and overall light weight, it feels soft in hand and looks quite elegant. Sound transmission wise, it keeps the current transmission clean, to the point I use this 3.5mm cable with other IEMs.


Then for packaging, it’s very minimalist and comes in a small box with a small ecological footprint. Amount of accessories is generous enough, we have 6 pairs of silicone ear tips (short and long wide bore) and one pair of memory foam eartips. A cleaning too. The nice cable and a basic but big enough carrying case. Nothing to complaint here.



SOUND IMPRESSIONS



The tonality of Cloud is all but cloudy, it’s clean and bright neutral with slight mid bass boost and upper treble boost that add air on top as well as attack sharpness to transient which is quite speedy too.

Musicality wise it lean toward monitor speaker rendering where every instrument has well carved presence, rich and detailed texture and a very focused imaging that permit good trackin of instrument even in complex arrangement.

Due to the fullness of the midrange that can render both low and high pitch instruments and vocals with enough fundamental and harmonic balance, the CLoud avoid sounding plain cold, thin or analytical and achieve a mature musicality that can be called reference too, for once, at an affordable price.

This isn’t basshead IEM at all, we have quality bass over quantity here since the low end is fast and dynamic but does not deliver immense slam nor boost rumble sustain, vibrancy and resonance. In fact, the passive driver pulls out unwanted resonance that mimics natural release and rumble of the sub bass line. So, we have a round and punchy kick should it be acoustic or electronic instrument, this is something I find often lacking with overly U shape tuning that veil kick drum tactile roundness and soften it’s punch immediacy which isn’t the case here.
Acoustic kick drum sounds very realist, while not hard hitting basshead way, it does have well articulate punch when needed which take part of a balanced macro dynamic where nothing really dominates the mix apart perhaps upper percussions if intensely energic in the recording.
The electric bass lines are excellent in layering and easy to track, they aren’t very dense nor popping in the mix in a very tactile and authoritative way. They have plenty of grunt and bite in attack but not a long note release which perhaps underline a slight bass roll off around 40hz. This will make pure tone under 50hz hard to perceive as well as cello feeling scooped in lush infra bass vibrancy mix.
Cello is the only instrument with pipe organ that I feel the Cloud can’t restitute as realistically as other due to slight sub bass roll off.

The mid range is bright and clean with forward yet smooth vocal and instrument presence, the timbre is rich in details, not very colored with warmth but enough filled with lower mids density to make it round and smooth and quite natural overall.
The atmosphere is both open and focused, intimate, not hall like since center stage isn’t distant here, you are close to it without mixed into it which again remind me of good monitor IEM, think of a smoother and less bassy Acoustune RS ONE, it was a technical beast i was very found off apart the edgy upper mids that where too shouty to me, the CLoud isn’t shouty nor sibilant and each word are perfectly articulated for proper intelligibility, with the Cloud i can focus on singer lyric quite easily.
The cloud can cover a very wide range of vocal range from tenor to soprano, none will sound plain thin nor unbalanced in harmonic, the presence of those vocals is centered in the middle of the stage and has its own layer that can cohabit with other instruments without mixing up.
From Gillian Welch to Charlotte Day Wilson to Arianna Savall to Kurt Elling i can’t fault the tone and timbre of the vocal restitution, when it should be thick and breathy it is, when it suppose to be sharp and thin it is, it’s not ruin with sudden spike in some harmonic range as it often happen with harman target IEM for ex.
So this mean the piano sound clean and natural with proper note weight, it’s not overly thicken or warmed, nor too intense in upper harmonic loudness, in Shostakovich piano trio (Janine Jansen, Mischa Maisky, Lucas Debarque) i can follow easily the pianist singularity, their no boosted resonance of it’s not attack that would blur cello or violin, the 3 musician can be tracked with as much presence focus even when playing fastly.
The violin don’t sound scratchy or plasticky at all, its spot on on timbre realist which is rich in texture, the attack as a thick abrasive sustain to it the avoid overly loud stroke and keep violin sound envelope round and clean with just a notch of air vibrancy cream.
Mid range is extremely focused, not stretched in an anamorphic way that will make instrument feel oversized, it’s neutral in that regard too, some might find it lacking in wideness presence which can make vocal full envelope stage and listener but it would ruin this excellent imagery readability which can be summarized as monitor goes musical.

The treble of Cloud is extremely refined in the sense it extends far but not in a spiky, splashy or harsh way. It’s clean and crisp and superbly controlled free of resonance blur after cymbals attack or guitar release.
Again, the passive driver sucks out the unwanted resonance that can induce shouty attack or splashing amplification when reflected to the acoustic cavity.
It’s a lean and edgy treble with effortless micro details that isn’t forced on the listener like with overly analytical or bright IEM, hardcore treble head will not be satisfy with this controlled energy in fact but I applause this since their not too much salt and pepper on top, it’s just the natural flavor fully restitute in high resolution.
With the Cloud, the treble ‘’wow effect’’ is on the long run, you’ll discover new details in your track but perhaps at second listen, it don’t force the listener to be critical yet when i want to find the percussions they are all there, fully restitute, thigh and round in attack and brilliant as they should but the sparkle don’t amplify with release, it get soften with inherent brilliance of metallic string or percussions instruments.
The attack lead isn’t hard and edgy, yet keep its sense of immediacy and note weight without the need of an edgy delimitation of presence, the attack sustain release is elastic and thicken and tight without a long decay, so the top is keeped clean free of resonance mix of mutual cymbals or high pitch instrument attack.
Those percussions stay well layered in the back, easily trackable whatever their speed, it add macro dynamic dimension as well as permit polyphonic ensemble with let say violin quartet playing together to stay well layered in their own singular transient without mixing harmonic peak together due to cleaned resonance.
The brilliance and sparkle is there but cut short in decay too, it’s a sharp and short brilliance that permit acoustic guitar complex play to be easily readable, fans of classical guitar and well classical i general will be delighted of how natural texture and very detailed are acoustic guitar fingerpicking as well as non distorted are the chord stroke of both electric and acoustic guitar.

The soundstage is round and closed around the listener like being in a studio or in front of 2 monitor speakers angled toward the listener direction at less than a meter than him. You're very close to music with those Cloud without mixing up into it. It’s not very wide or tall but has a good sense of depth.

The imaging is a highlight of the Cloud even if it’s not in an overly analytical or aggressively bright way, the transparency of each sound layer is very good and while position isn’t the most spacious in lateral separation, it’s easy to pinpoint each instrument on the small stage.



COMPARISONS



VS MOONDROP KATO (1DD-190$)

The Kato is warmer and a notch more U shape in balance, it has thicker muddier sub bass, more mellow punch and less good bass and mids separation (more warmth).

The bass is sloppier and chunkier as a whole where both bassline and kick mix together to offer a mellow slam where Cloud is more thumpy, as both clearer kick and bass line presence, rounder and better controlled punch.

So the mids sound less clean but a bit thicker while Cloud mids are cleaner and crisper as well as more transparent. Attack speed from bass to mids to highs is notably faster, tighter and snappier with the CLoud that don’t have hazy note resonance that steals air around presence of instrument and percussions.
Mids of Cloud are brighter and have slightly more upper mids energy, yet it's less noisy in timbre, less euphonic and colored for female vocals which are a bit lusher with Kato but overall mids is darker too and can deal with complex busy tracks as effortlessly as Cloud.

Treble is from another league with the Cloud ... .Kato sure feels super cloudy on top! In fact,comparing some tracks I can clearly hear that some sound info disappears with Kato like half of the percussion feel erased, as well the attack is more sloppy so the percussion impact accent is lacking, making it hard to follow the rhythmic section properly. Then we have the upper treble roll off stealing air, snap and sparkle that the Cloud delivers way more.

Soundstage is a notch wider with the Kato, while taller and deeper and cleaner with the Cloud.

Imaging is from another league with the Cloud. I can track instruments and separate them in soundscape more easily due to higher resolution, better attack control and cleaner spatiality.

All in all, the Cloud is notably superior to Kato in term of technical performance from imaging to attack control and speed to resolution and treble extension, as for musicality, mids are a notch lusher and more laid back with warmer Kato while Cloud is more neutralish bright and vivid and ultimately more captivating to listen to.

VS SIMGOT EA1000 (1DD+1 passive radiator driver-220$)

The EA1K is brighter, more W shaped in balance and more analytical in the treble region which has more air and sparkle but more resonance and risk of splashing too.

It’s really a pumped up Cloud we get here, the bass hits harder and has more sub bass resonance and lower mids veil due to this, rumble is more vibrant and densified by this resonance where Cloud has better control but dryer bass line.

One would think more bass would equal more note weight for the mids but it isn’t the case here since mids are thinner and lighter with EA1K but piano will have longer decay as well as a bit more energy in harmonic intensity so attack lead don’t feel as well rounded as the more neutral Cloud which has more natural lower mids warmth.
Cloud upper mids are softer, vocal are lusher but not as wide and transparent in presence, they are less prompt to shouting and sibilance even if quite forwards. Mids are more edgy and detailed with the EA1K, it sounds more open and crisp but not as natural in timbre.

Then the treble is more energetic, vivid, airy, sparkly, snappy with the EA1K but a notch more splashy and exciting in dynamic as well as spiker, less smoothly balanced and rounded with the rest of the sound spectrum. Another proof that graphs don’t tell anything about true dynamic energy since both these IEM graphs are very similar but don’t sound the same at all. EA1K is notably more upfront and analytical in highs, percussions will dominate the mix more easily than the leaner macro dynamic of Cloud, acoustic guitar will sound louder with more emphasis on brilliance and longer decay too with EA1K.

The soundstage is notably wider and deeper with the EA1K.

The imaging of both is on par but due to more analytical tonality of the EA1K percussions and higher pitch instrument will be easier to track but not as clean and accurate in placement so for proper monitoring I will still use the Cloud.

All in all, EA1K is not as smooth and well balanced tonaly wise, it feel more spiky as well as harsher in upper mids and treble which can induce greater hearing fatigue at loud volume, then for technical performance, even if more excited in attack than more controlled Cloud, the treble extended further, resolution is slightly superior, we have more air flow too and deeper (yet boomier) bass. As always, female vocals which IEM i prefer and the Cloud deliver more natural and smoother vocals so i will choose this one.

CONCLUSION


The BQEYZ Cloud is probably the most refined and neutralish sounding IEM release by this talented (and underrated) IEM company.
Smoothly bright and near neutral, those IEM is a statement of clear balanced sound that polished any harshness peak with its secret cleaning tool: the passive air transmission driver, that is everything but gimmick here ... .at least for fine capricious ears like mine.

These are barely not colored, yet the musical brush stroke is fluid and organic as a whole, clean but not cold sounding, with awakened enough bass but a mid centric twist as well as a treble response I've never heard before.

BQEYZ promise vocal specialist performance and they sure fulfill this whole mid range naturalness with forwards but full of substance male and female vocal that are highly intelligible and perfectly carved and forwarded in an intimate and holographic spatiality that i summarize as : monitor performance meeting musical enjoyment. As a female vocal lover, i feel at home with the Cloud and was happy to enjoy variety of vocal range too including some harder to present correctly like raspy vocal of Jessica Pratt, all this free of sibilance, treble resonance or splashing, bass mudd or shouty or trebly attack intensity.

Yes, the Cloud is gourmet for mature audiophiles that seek reference grade musicality at an affordable price with excellent resolution, nice bass line presence, fast round mid bass punch, open forwards mids and crisp and brilliant treble free of boosted intensity.

Only thing I would love more is a slightly bigger soundstage, perhaps a hint more sub bass density and well, even more sparkle cause I never have enough, nonetheless, this would make those a whole different IEM.

Fans of HZsound Mirror or BQEZ Winter seeking for smoother balance without sacrificing technical chops, I think the Cloud is worth your attention.

Highly Recommended.






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PS: I want to thanks BQEYZ for sending me this review sample without any fear about kind of Pros and Cons i can include since they truely care about audiophile feedback, as any serious audio company should. As always, i don't have direct affiliation nor any $ compensation for hours put in this review. The Cloud will not take a pround part of my more than 100 IEMs collection.

You can pre-order the CLoud on Kickstarter here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...isted-vibration-tech-earphone-set/description