Blon is a company we all heard about pretty much. Starting from Bl03, they had managed to cater to various types of sound preferences. They even had ventured into overhead headphones – a field many chi-fi companies avoid to enter. Though it was mainly rebranding, the result was okay.
Now we have an iem from Blon with a mythical name*, metallic and odd shape (like a very loose sponge) in a world of 3d printed solid resin cases. Let’s look at it’s details.
*Prometheus is the self sacrificing son of Ancient Greek god xyz. He had brought fire from the gods halls to the average people. After the action is found out, he was chained to a rock and condemned to an eternal curse…An eagle was set to eat his liver over and over again.
Box, Specs and Contents
Box is a rectangle shaped combination of white and blue. Contents are not overly generous.
Model: BL-A8 (Prometheus)
Driver Unit: 10mm new lightweight diaphragm.
Headphone Socket: 0.78pin.
Impedance: 32ohms.
Frequency range: 20Hz~20000Hz.
Sensitivity: 115dB.
Cable Length: about 1.2 meters.
Plug: 3.5mm straight plug.
Cable
Very light gray of two braided lines. Connector, Y split and chin guard pieces are silvery metallic. Earhooks aren’t extending my ear and cable is terminated by the MMCX type of connection. Pretty okay in general. But a cable of higher purity cable would surely help.
Sound
Timbre is somewhat bright, not so natural and %10 metallic. But fun with it’s bass. Soundstage is wide for a closed back iem. And deep & somewhat high. Listening to Zimmer’s Live in Prague is a satisfying experience due to its staging capacity. Fresh air feeling is lovely. Layering is at the usual level for the BL line it belongs to. Separation is okay when there are only a bunch of instruments. But congestion is rising up whenever the traffic in the track is rising. (Or when 96 instruments are on the stage.) And making the separation suffer so selecting and tracking each instruments are impossible.
Punch is so so when unamped and unrolled with a larger eartip (so I suspected). Double kicks result in a semi muddy experience especialy when the record is not of top quality. Hits aren’t creating seismic slams on surfaces. This is both good and bad. Tonality is not it’s strength most of the time although mid is a little subdued result is a 3d imaging sadly not good. Vocals are in your face and separable word by word. Speaking of vocals, sibilance is not present at my sibilance test track but I suspect of sibilance (or near sibilance) when amped.
Bass isn’t bleeding. Slam and impact are the strong points of the Blon A8’s bass. Even with a neutral source – when the track’s frequency graph matter – bass is greatly ascending down and the bass enough for dubstep/edm etc are produced even at unamped scenario. A grin guaranteed.
Mid is the white stomach of this shiny and bizarre shaped iem. Upper mids have the risk of sounding sharp whereas lower mids have the potential to sound thicker than they should and reach near the level of boomyness. But the V in it’s experience is undeniable. This is a brand famous for its V frequency curve. And the satisfaction of bass guitar strings’ somewhat low frequencied sounds doesn’t reach me all the time. Did anybody say Alice Cooper’s Independence Dave? http://www.deezer.com/track/1257156622 or the bass guitar solo at 05:40 in http://www.deezer.com/track/422232392 I know its a bass guitar because I had watched the show. But A8..
Treble being not too artificial is satisfying for the Blon BL line. Keeping expectations at 35/100 for high frequency reproduction is healthy.
Amping Experience
Amping played a role like facelifting. This is good. Sibilance is not present when amped the power of matchbox sized Q5K. And basses tightened up. Now you see the real slam. Though not filled with ear exploding bass, their presences are obvious after meeting with juice.
Distance between instruments rose up. Attack is much improved now, as well as dynamics. Post rock genre is displaying it’s amped condition more from others. But Independence Dave isn’t complaining either. Cooper is singing nearer your face, bass guitar and others behind him are happily playing their roles. Tendency to boominess at lower mids have disappeared.
Blon A8 Prometheus Review Conclusions
This is the end of Blon A8 Prometheus Review. The Blon A8 is not disappointing if you know the brand and adjust your expectations accordingly. Though not a legend and while most buy for it’s sound and few may even keep it for its name and shape; Thank god for I am not living the artificial experience I had had with some old models of a brand.
While it’s not that bad, a little bit overpriced and best listened with additional power (50mV). Additional power is Q5K in my case. Dethonray ha-2 or Fiio k5 pro would be much more than necessary.
