Table of Contents
Introduction
Ah yes, the creator of gems such as “Oppoty” and “Letmusicburn” are now back with a new super-budget model (assuming that the BL-03 is only “normal-budget”), the $23 BL-01.
Most of you would already be familiar with the underdog story that is the BL-03, a sub-$50 IEM touted as a market disruptor and giant killer, though I personally wasn’t too impressed with it overall. BLON, tasting blood in the red ocean, then came out with the BL-05, the much anticipated successor to the 03 though unfortunately met with little fanfare and ultimately still overshadowed by the very model it was supposed to overshadow.
Now here we have the BL-01, which I assume is BLON’s capitalisation of their original business model: budget IEMs. Rather than go higher and higher the price ladder as they gain popularity, seems like BLON now seeks to recapture the magic of the BL-03 but at a cheaper price point.
So I guess now the question is simple: did BLON achieve their driams?
Product page: https://www.linsoul.com/products/blon-bl01
MSRP: $23
Driver configuration: single DD
This BL-01 was kindly provided by Linsoul.
Non-audio opinions
My unboxing posts are pretty much the only times I’ll ever talk about build quality, accessories and the like. I’m not really the person to ask about these things as I don’t really care about them that much.
Accessories: extra tips and a beige cloth bag.
Cable: 4-wire cable in a tight round-braid configuration. Feels pretty cheap and tacky to the touch.
Connection: extruded 2-pin. Per usual, would’ve preferred recessed 2-pin instead, but at least it’s not flush.
Build: two-piece full metal. Joined at the middle with a large seam that may be a weak point down the road, but outside solid and doesn’t seem like it would break easily.
Fit: better than the other BLON models, by virtue of the memory portion of the cable not being as ridiculously curved. Would still prefer that BLON eases up a little more on the curve, but it’s not completely unusable at the very least.
Isolation: average.
Initial impressions
- Probably the bassiest of all the existing BLON IEMs. Not exactly quality bass either; my qualms about the BL-03’s somewhat muddy nature is amplified on the BL-01.
- Still prefer the BL-03’s tuning overall; the BL-01 goes into “generic chifi V-shape” that I’m not particularly fond of. Not unlistenable, but not exactly a shining beacon for tonality.
- Technicalities aren’t too different from the BL-03. Not bad, but not good either.
- Main selling point of the BL-01 would be the price. It’s something that doesn’t sound awful if your absolute upper limit is $25, but don’t expect much else beyond that.
Measurements
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20 thoughts on “BLON BL-01: Unboxing”
Interesting. HBB’s graph showed less bass than the 03
I have this and the 03 and my 01 has way less bass than the 03. Like 3-5db less. Also it has better detail retrieval. Weird.
Could be the different fit/tip?
Did you measure or gauge by ear? I suspect the decay is faster on the 01, which makes it sound thinner. The bass on the 03 sounds fat because the decay is longer.
Is there any chance you could measure the 01 with the mesh in front of the driver taken out? Removing the mesh helped a lot with the 03.
you can say that this one has less oppoty and driams
Ah, basically another gacha run? I don’t think I’m going to purchase 10s of BL-01’s to unbox them, switch tips and cables, removing filters etc just to find that one “Badazz” sound.
My BL01s have way less bass than the BL-03. I’d say everything else seems about the same. It’s my estimation that the BL-03 is better than the BL01 to the exact dollar amount that it’s more expensive.
It concerns me though if yours are more bass-y than the BL-03 (which it clearly is, you’ve got the measurements to back it up). It suggests more unit variance than there was on the BL-03 (which again, we have measurable evidence the BL-03 was a little all over the place). It’s hard to recommend a product when you don’t actually know what the person you’re recommending it to will receive
The quality control seems just as bad with these as it is with the 03. I personally didn’t like the 03 either because on my unit, the bass was way too prominent and muddied up the rest of the frequencies. I feel like it was the only headphone I could really tell how bad the attack was. Stuff like this is why I really hesitate to recommend stuff like this.
Seems to be unit variation. My unit matches Crins exactly. Less resolution, and same bass. BLON BL03 all the way for me. Had high hopes for this unit and was hoping for less bass but not on mine. They are heavy and actually don’t fit as well as the BL03 on my ears funny enough.
I don’t know why but my set has even less treble. So it just sounds like a \ shaped tuning not even V.
Tried one from a friend. This one has less sub-bass than the 03. From a short listening period, other frequencies sounded very similar imo. But on some small details, I like the 03 more.
I guess my set had some issues.
BTW as for the graphs, if you use the BLON 03 S2 from the tool, that looks closer to what I am hearing from my 03.
Weird. Like the rest, my bl-01 also has less bass than my bl03. The mids and highs are about right though.
Just received my Blons 01 and they sound great, coming from Tin hifi P1 it is something good about them.
The BL-01 has less bass than the BL-03; (I had 3 of them);
The BL-01 is better in every aspect and it fits the human ear, which is a good start.
Couldn’t agree more – I don’t quite get Crinacle’s harshness towards the 01 here. To me the fit is fantastic, built is solid, cable is not ‘fancy’ but extremely nice to use, the soft earhooks are great too.
And in terms of sound I find them mindblowing for the price. Sure the don’t have the resolution of a kilo-buck multi BA monitor, but the tonality is great! I’d take a bit off the top, but not much, and that’s it. The dynamics and staging are amazing.
Based on the IEMs I’ve heard, I’d have to spend a LOT to get something I’d enjoy more than these so far. Likely close to a thousand – And even then I know several IEMs at that price, I’d prefer the BLON over, because I actually enjoy listening to it… Can’t quite put my finger on the magic of it yet, but I think it is in its tuning and dynamics.
I think Crin rushed to judgement on these. Out of the box, they are pretty harsh, but after breaking them in for around 12 hours, they sound significanty better. With some Final Type E tips, the 01 sounds pretty great with no major issues across the board. And for only $25 bucks, right now I think these have to be the best value in IEMs, period.
I agree, the bass on BL 01 has less bass but more tight and have short decay compare to BL 03.
CrinipOO…love ya man. The issue is that because of possible variances between manufacturing…….none of us can adequately subjectify the real signature. It could go slightly one way here and another way there. So even though I own the 03, 01, and 05S’s….I’m too scared to even try to compare LOL
Crinpai, is this better than the MH755? Or is that still budget king?