Review - Blon T3 (sub 50€)

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Also available on YouTube in Spanish: Acho Reviews YouTube

Let me start out by saying that the Blon T3 were sent to me by AK Audio, a seller on Aliexpress, who requested that I post a link to the product on their store in both the review published on the Acho Reviews blog and also YouTube.

Here is the link to the product via their store: https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005001524810635.html

No other requests have been made and I will be as open and sincere as always but it is worth noting that these IEMs were sent to me as a gift by the seller.

Intro…

I recently reviewed the Blon BL05s, in which I made a reference to Blon and how they became popular with the BL03, so I am not going to go into all of that again, if you would like to read the BL05s review, you can see it here: Review - Blon BL05

The Blon T3 are an even more economical option from Blon, not that the BL03 are expensive by any means, and can be purchased for around 12€. That certainly places them in the ultra-budget category and while the KZ EDX that I reviewed recently were an amazing 5€, these are not much more expensive (ok, yes, they are double the price, but you get what I mean).

Presentation…

The box in which the T3 are presented is a smaller version of the same box the BL03 and BL05s etc. The front has the same message that is well known by now, with its “oppoty”, “music and driams”.

The packaging is obviously very basic, more than the EDZ, but the contents are actually a little more complete than the KZ option, containing 5 sets of tips in total and a velcro cable tie which always comes in handy.

Build and aesthetics…

The shape of the T3 is a little different to what I am used to, however, it does sort of rmind me of the BL03. The shape sort of resembles the shape of the QCY T5 bluetooth earphones I reviewed, with cables sticking out of the bottom.

The IEMs are made completely from metal, which is a nice touch at the price, with ventilation ports both on the back of the shell and on the interior side, just above the nozzle.

The cable is permanently attached and while it is not the best cable in the world, it doesn’t tangle much and seems adequate enough to do its job. To be honest, as I can’t swap the cable, I can’t comment whether it has any negative effect on the sound or not.

The T3 I received have an inline microphone which works adequately for calls and talking to the assistant. The microphone also has a button that works to answer calls and summon the assistant, along with volume +/- buttons. The presence of the volume buttons is something that I like, seeing that we already have an inline mic, they are pretty useful.

As far as aesthetics, the version I received is in gun metal, there is also a version in silver, and is exactly the same colour as the BL03. They are not going to win any beauty awards but I don’t find them too ugly, in my opinion of course.

Sound…

The first thing that struck me about the sound was the bass. I started off by using my usual foam tips and found an excessive amount of bass that seemed to drown out the remaining frequencies and make everything sound loose and undefined. After trying a few tracks, I decided to try out some different tips and in the end settled on a set of silicon tips with a pretty rigid and wide core. With these tips there is still a clear presence of bass but it doesn’t seem quite as uncontrolled as with the foam (or smaller core) tips. My impressions are based on using these tips.

The extension down into the sub bass range is fairly extended, with what seems to be a slight boost as it gets lower. This gives plenty of rumble on songs that take advantage of these frequencies. However, it does give the impression of being uncontrolled rumble, on occasions overpowering other bass frequencies and making them sound undefined.

The whole of the bass spectrum is elevated, giving songs with lots of bass more that I would actually prefer in this range. In fact, the quantity of bass should be enough for any bass head, however, quantity does not equal quality. In the case of tracks like “I Fink U Freeky” by Die Antwoord, there is a lot of bass, as is the case with almost all EDM tracks I have tried. But... the bass is very bloomy and loose, making all bass hits last longer than they should. It leaves me with the impression of listening in a club without many people. Listening to “Royals” by Lorde reminded me of certain car setups that I have experienced in parking lots.

Moving on to the lower mids, there is bass bleed, as is to be expected. WIth the quantity of bass that these IEMs have, added to their looseness, it would be impossible for them not to invade the lower mids. If listening to music that doesn’t really have much in the bass department, such as tracks that are simply an acoustic guitar and drums, it still seems like there is bass present. This obviously makes all instruments seem warm but they are too warm for the timbre to be considered natural in any way.

Through the center of the mids, there is a reduction in their presence but they don’t really seem to come back even when reaching the higher end of the mids. Voices always seem to be hidden behind instruments that, at the same time, seem to be hidden behind bass and kick drums that just sound wrong. Only certain notes of pianos seem to be able to break through a little.

I tried out acapella songs, such as “Down to the River to Pray” by Alison Kraus, and even though there are only voices, even then they seem to lack presences. There is a blanket of darkness laid over the whole choir of voices.

Even when moving up into the highs, there doesn’t seem to be any sign of a climb, or at least not enough of one. There is no real air or brightness to these IEMs, making everything seem dark, as I said, covered by a blanket. I am not really sure how far these extend in the treble as I just can’t hear the treble clearly.

Speed, detail and definition is something that I don’t think I even really need to get in to, as the description of sound should be enough to guess that these are not detailed IEMs. Syaing that, I will say that they do not “fall apart” on complex songs, they maintain the same overall sound and presentation, without getting any worse.

As far as sound stage and image placement, they are pretty narrow with not much off to the sides. Using “Letter”, the pencil sits at the left for a while, without really moving, then there is a narrow space in the center where the image placement seems to be fairly decent, until it moves slightly to the right and sits there again for a while. Listening to “La Luna” by Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra, there is really not much space for the instruments to spread out and “Bubbles”... no, just no.

Conclusion…

I am afraid that I did not enjoy my time with the Blon T3. Yes, it is true that these IEMs only cost 12€ but I feel that the KZ EDX did a much better job for even less.

The main issue is the bass, which is overpowering and undefined, resulting in it drowning out the rest of the frequencies and any chance they had of doing a good job. I really struggled to give any opinion at all on the remaining frequencies because they just weren’t clear enough to know what they were doing.

To be clear, just because I do not like the sound of these IEMs, doesn’t mean that it is the same for everybody. There are people that I know who would love this amount of bass and wouldn’t even worry about the rest, if you are one of those people, then give them a try, they are only 12€.

I am sorry that I can’t give these a better review, as I really enjoy finding decent options at ridiculously cheap prices, but even considering the price, these are not one of them.