I’m not the finest and most through connaisseur of the sub-$50 IEM bracket so I cant really offer a final word – and probably not even a semi-final one – about how BL05S fare towards their most direct competition. Limited to my direct experiences I must say I’ve been impressed: these things sounds very well, truth be told.
BL05 are not perfect of course – their main technical flaw is the missing sub-bass rumble – and probably not “mesmerising” either, yet a special word is definitely deserved by their technical capabilities at space and imaging rendering which I found really remarkable, and the very elegant compromised reached in the highs between livelyness and unoffensiveness.
Considering the total failure at stock cable and tips and the consequent need to swap them instantly, the price also didnt strike me either. As a pure example, final E1000 offer a better value for money (on a different timbre though!). But that being told, I find BL05S definitely recommendable.
I got this pair of WGZBLON BL05S as a review unit from my friends at KEEPHIFI (www.keephifi.com) entrusting me to an unbiased analysis and openhearted subjective evaluation, which is what I’m reporting here above and below. You can purchase BL05S at their store.
At-a-glance Card
| PROs | CONs |
| Good stage and very good imaging. | Missing sub-bass. |
| Nice punchy clean midbass. | Need to upgrade cable and tips. |
| Very nice compromise treble tuning. |
Full Device Card
Test setup
Sources: Apogee Groove / Questyle QP1R / Sony NW-A55 mrWalkman – Sedna Earfit Light eartips – Nicehck 16core High Purity Copper cable – lossless 16-24/44.1-192 FLAC tracks.
Signature analysis
| Tonality | BL05S’s timbre is neutral-ish with a modest bass bump. Tonality is a mild V (almost a U) with no excesses anywhere, and nice vividness. |
| Sub-Bass | Abruptly rolled-off, rumble is missing |
| Mid Bass | Very good speed/meat compromise – for my taste as least. BL05S are definitely in DD-buttery territory, with a bump-up in terms of loudness, but a speedier transient tuning avoids bleed/bloat into the mids, or keeps it at very reasonable levels. Texturing is above decent too. Softer silicon tips like final E-clears tend to dry-up midbass further, which might be welcome depending on personal taste and musical genre. |
| Mids | Mids are moderately recessed but well tuned nonetheless. Not lean, but not bodied either and especially not particularly textured. The higher end has a very modest tendance to glare out at higher volumes. |
| Male Vocals | Quite nice. On the lean-ish side, still close to “natural” sounding. |
| Female Vocals | Overall quality similar to male vocals, with the additional note of high registers tending to swish-up a tad sometimes. Not shouty nor screechy, but sometimes uniformity is a bit lacking. They also stay way from sibilance except some very rare times when they come close to it. |
| Highs | Well done, really. Much like midbass, here too I hear a very nice compromise, in this case between livelyness and polishing. High mids and Presence are vivid and quite engaging. After them there’s a a quick reduction but with some subsequent bump-ups which add some extra detail and especially air, all while never getting sharp let alone screechy. I do hear a veeeery slight metallic tint sometime but that’s it. |
Technicalities
| Soundstage | Stage is presented as nicely wide, and with a very good sense of verticality; depth is just hinted – although not zero. Specific sources like Groove make depth better but that happens with just about any driver |
| Imaging | Together with separation it’s clearly one of the best parts of the product. Within the limits of stage reconstruction it’s also not flattened onto the L-R axis as so many other IEMs in this price bracket do. |
| Details | Not a monster at microdetail retrieval, BL05S does anyway deliver quite some nice highmids and treble details when called for. |
| Instrument separation | This obviusly depends on source quality but beyond that separation is the other “above its price” point together with imaging. Instruments are correctly differentiated in all occasions, only in the most crowded occasions – both on bass and trebles – some in-between shades layers get partially pasted. But I honestly need to pull drivers costing way more from the drawer to do better. |
| Driveability | Extremely easy powerwise – even too much – output quality stays more than acceptable even when scaling source quality from my usual devices down to some more ordinary stuff like X3-III or a Meizu dongle – what mostly happens in such case is bass getting muddier and trebles less brilliant (i.e. the typical noise related effects). |
Physicals
| Build | Housings solidity and resistance are quite convincing. Design is very “stalwart”: love or hate it. |
| Fit | Can only be worn cable-up of course, and nozzles are not long. Non-short tips are required, longer ones do facilitate the fit, which is quite firm when set. Stock tips are just terrible. After the usual painstaking rolling session I found Sedna Earfit Lights are the best overall compromise for me also considering their relative length. Alternative choice for me are final E-clears. |
| Comfort | In my case it’s just OK. Not the most “disappearing once worn” housings, yet their shape is quite comfortable for me. |
| Isolation | Good, once properly fitted |
| Cable | An authentic piece of stinky crap, binned instantly. The good news is a cheap ($10-ish) Nicehck 16c High Purity Copper cable is perfectly adequate sound wise. |
Specifications (declared)
| Housing | Zin-Alloy die-cast shells, in a light-aquamarineish-green tint with golden inserts. |
| Driver(s) | One 3rd generation 10mm Carbon Diaphragm Dynamic Driver |
| Connector | 2pin 0.78mm |
| Cable | 1.2mm special (?) cable, with 3.5mm male angle single ended termination, with mic and remote |
| Sensitivity | 108 dB |
| Impedance | 32 Ω |
| Frequency Range | 20-20000Hz |
| Package and accessories | Soft carry pouch, 1 set (S/M/L) silicon tips |
| MSRP at this post time | $90,00 ($45,00 apparently “permanent” deal price) |