BLON X Z JOJO REVIEW

>>I am brazilian and I speak portuguese, so forgive my english, I’ll use translation tools to help<<

INTRO:

The Blon company, in collab with the headphone reviewer “Z Reviews”, has brought to the community the new Blon Z JoJo. The earphone is an upgrade from the BL05S model, which now receives the tuning from the aforementioned reviewer.

The Blon X Z JoJo was sent by Linsoul, one of the main distributors of Blon products, as well as several other brands and audio products. For those who don’t know, Linsoul is the same DD-Audio Store on AliExpress, so I’ll also put the links of both to make easier.

Price: $49 USD
Color: Purple
Cable: No Mic

Blon’s previous reviews: BL07 (only portuguese)

LINSOUL store:

https://www.linsoul.com/

https://amzn.to/469l38j

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dd2kR2B

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dmu2OMn

SPECIFICATIONS:

Single DD: (1) 10mm Dynamic Driver (DD) per side

– Frequency range: 20Hz – 20kHz
– Sensitivity: 106dB SPL/mW
– Impedance: 32Ω
– Termination Plug: 3.5mm (straight design)
– Connectors: 2pin 0.78mm QDC
– Cable size: 1.2m (detachable)
– Cable: OFC copper silver plated
– Shell: Zinc alloy + gold plated 18K
– Earphone weight: 7.8g (one side)(without eartips)
– Cable weight: 28.7g
– Total weight (packaging, iems, etc): 106g
– Packaging size: 10.2cm [H] x 8cm [W] x 3.5cm [D]

UNBOXING:

Blon X Z JoJo Unboxing – Video made for Instagram Reels on @iemsandmusic

PHYSICAL ASPECTS:

Let’s start with the eartips. At first, you can see in the unboxing that there were 3 types of eartips, however, there were 2 types in white that seem to be the same eartips, but they aren’t the same! They are very similar but have some differences, one has a dome shape and the other a cone shape. They are simple but functional eartips, so, in this case, I believe it’s possible to find the ideal sound & comfort of the Z JoJo with the stock eartips, I didn’t see the need to acquire extra eartips (of course this is a very personal decision). Note that all 3 types are silicone and have the same nozzle diameter. I chose the white eartip with a cone shape to do the review – in size M.

Cable. In the aesthetic part, it matched 100% with the IEM, and in hands it’s much more beautiful than in photos and videos. Now, in the practical part of the thing, I found that it presented itself as a thick cable for the IEM project, and it even gets a little heavy. It’s a good cable, and thenit will be a matter of taste, I thought that for this IEM, it could be a thinner, lighter cable. The positive points that I can mention are that it is very resistant, great for wrapping around the hand to store, it didn’t present microphonics, it doesn’t get “memory” (wavys), and it doesn’t tangle. The chin slider works 100%.

The earhooks were perhaps the less positive part of the cable for me, this is because I had the feeling that there was a pressure point on the back of my ears. This is very subjective, but I believe that their curvature, combined with the weight of the cable, probably generated this issue. The IEM connectors have the detail of being QDC type, and the internal shape is rectangular (i.e. the KZ QDC will not fit here). You can change the cable for a 2 pin 0.78mm non QDC, but it will expose that part where the pins enter.

Fit & comfort. The fit was something interesting, more precisely the moment of inserting the IEM. I have to insert it vertically, and then rotate it to the horizontal, then it fits just right. Also, after doing this it fits very well, 100% stable and accommodated in my shells. There are no protruding parts outside the ears, it’s a very straight IEN on the sides (faceplate). I found the insertion average, and the isolation good. I confess that this process of rotating the IEMs to fit may have given me the correct fit, but it is annoying to have to do this every time you use the IEM.

In terms of comfort, it started with the issue I mentioned in the paragraph of the earhooks, this in the first auditions I did, then I understood that bringing the earhooks closer to my head, this issue disappeared. Positive points in the comfort, we have: the IEM has an anatomical design, I think it can be good for small ears (since I didn’t have a pressure point with the shells). The weight of the shells needs an observation: I think they are still within the acceptable, this is because it’s an IEM made of metal, but isn’t a light IEM if we compare with others of resin, to mention, Tin C3, or even the Kiwi Ears Cadenza, then the Blon Z JoJo will be left behind in the “weight” aspect.

Accessories. Included accessories, came a fabric bag to store the IEM. The fabric looks like old potato sacks (I don’t know the name). I think a semi-rigid case would be more interesting, I think it’s more ideal for storing and transporting the earphones.

SOUND ASPECTS:

The sound of the Blon X Z JoJo I understand as a V-Shape. It is less V-Shape than the Blon BL07, which in my opinion was a IEM with the representation of what we could call “extreme V-Shape”. Here in the Z JoJo it’s possible to say that is a traditional V-Shape, with a bass boost and highlight in the treble. The Blon Z JoJo is an IEM that in my understanding brings a lively and fun sound.

Bass:

Quantitative: The bass of the Z JoJo ranges from moderate to high level. For my taste, the amount is great, neither lacking nor surplus. Is it an IEM for bassheads? Look, I would say there are IEMs with more bass than these here, so maybe it wouldn’t be an ideal indication, but I believe that even bassheads wouldn’t feel frustrated with JoJo’s bass. The IEM has a good presence in the sub-bass and mid-bass, although the mid-bass region is a little more present (at least in sound, it doesn’t seem to be in the graph). It has good extension, and I didn’t feel any roll-off.

Qualitative: JoJo’s bass is clean, controlled, defined, has good speed, and has good impact. The impact has a dry and more delineated characteristic, that is, the kick of a drum you hear in a very precise and defined way. I believe it was the frequency that I found to be the best of the IEM, the bass sounds don’t muddle and present themselves with good clarity within the recordings. They aren’t boomy bass, they aren’t bloated, and they don’t invade the mids. Furthermore, they are versatile bass, which combine with more acoustic or electric instruments.

Mids:

Quantitative and Qualitative: The mids of the JoJo are partly recessed, but fortunately they don’t confer excessive recession to the sound of the IEM. Voices, for example, present themselves clearly and transparently, while the snare drum sounds a bit softer, without aggressiveness in the beats. They are very interesting mids, they bring comfort without losing detail and airy. Whispering voices and flutes you hear the detail of the air coming out of the vocal cords/mouth of the singer and coming to life.

Voices: Certainly the male/lower voices won the battle here. It wasn’t such an expressive victory, but, as the IEM has more prominent bass, this ends up benefiting this type of voice. Very true I think it could have more texture here, I feel that as the bass has a dry characteristic, then it doesn’t add much texture and nuance to the more guttural voices. Female/high voices cannot extract their maximum potential. In addition to male/lower voices, the IEM will also play well the “medium” voices, that is, neither too low nor too high.

Treble:

Quantitative: Here in JoJo’s treble, I understood it as being sometimes moderate, sometimes moderate to high. This is because in some circumstances (recordings), the treble presented itself in a more highlighted way. In my view, this was the less positive point of the treble. The IEM it came very well from the bass, then from the mids, and here in the treble they have this oscillation. It may be that someone never hears this that I reported, because the person’s music library doesn’t have recordings that show this characteristic. For example, I was listening to some Samba recordings with half-moon tambourine, carillon, rattles, and then in some of them the sound of these instruments showed an extra highlight, but when with voice & acoustic guitar songs, this detail didn’t appear. The treble has good extension, and I didn’t feel any decay roll-off.

Qualitative: JoJo’s treble is lively, defined, has good details (although I think it doesn’t reach a level of micro details), and has good airy. As I said in the paragraph above, I think that in some situations they present themselves in a colored way, and this left – for me – the impression of the sound being more artificial. The sparkle at times sounds “normal” and at others sounds “thin”, making the instrument sound more crystalline. At least for me this detail didn’t bother, or make the presentation fatiguing, only that it makes the sounds distance themselves from a coherence with the real (for my ears). They aren’t strident treble, they aren’t harsh, and they also didn’t present sibilance with the songs I tested.

Soundstage: The stage of this IEM I found average. Here everything is average, in height, width, and depth. Fortunately, the presentation doesn’t sound compressed or as if it were close to the eardrum, the amount of spatiality here makes the IEM do its job acceptably.

Imaging: The instrumental separation I found good. Much because of this more detailed treble, and also because the IEM has a cleaner and more controlled sound, without sub-bass dominating the presentation, so, it is possible to have a good definition of the instruments and their respective positions (remembering that the separation can also vary according to the recording and other processes during musical production).

Driver Flex Test: The conclusion is that during all the time I was evaluating the IEM, it didn’t present the noise of driver flex.

Amplification. I used the DAP FiiO M11S to do this evaluation. The output used was the 3.5mm and the DAP in High Gain mode. The Blon x Z JoJo doesn’t need dedicated equipment to play correctly. IEM very easy to play on any source. With the DAP I put it at 65% of the 120% available (a number even smaller than with the other IEMs I’ve been testing). I tested it directly on my notebook and it played easily. I also tested it directly from my smartphone and it was also good.

Music is subjective, so below is the list of some musical genres that I personally think that was better with this IEM. Remember that were only few genres and few artists tested. If I describe that one genre was better and the other don’t, it doesn’t mean that you can’t listen to your favorite music genre with this IEM and love it. So, here goes:

Better:

Hip Hop
Reggae
EDM
POP
Rock
Blues
Metal
MPB*
Bossa Nova*

*Brazilian musical genres.

Not so much:

Classical
Samba*
Jazz