BLON B20 Planar Magnetic Headphones Reviews | Drop

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BLON B20 Planar Magnetic Headphones

Audiophile

FULL DISCUSSION

ds60

May 24, 2020

Verified Buyer

Pros overshadowed by heavy, oppressive, reverberating mids

Edit: I have raised my rating from 2 to 3 stars. I would really rate them 2.5 with how divisive I find them but half-star ratings aren't a thing 'round here. I purchased my pair on March 9th, a few days before @bisbille posted their review. I agree with everything they said, and I wish I had seen it before I purchased mine. Go read it if you want some context. (And yes, it did take over 10 and a half weeks for them to arrive!!!) Before I begin let me say that when I obtained the B20, the HE-4XX were my daily drivers. I was used to their rather neutral, sharp, airy sound; I prefer such tones so that I can then customize and EQ to tailor to a specific song or genre. So when I hear from people that the B20 are just like the Sendy Aiva's, and have this great soundstage, and kick the pants off of other similarly-priced and even higher-priced planars, and are a bit flavored but still neutral... After the glowing reviews from Zeos, independent sites, and even the reviewers here... I was on board and eager. But it seems my hype was misplaced. Let's start with the positives:

I LOVE the bass, it sounds good on any song I throw at it. Even down to 20Hz is very even and punchy. Great response and doesn't bleed into the mix at all. Out of the planars I have used it is definitely up there.
Center mids are emphasized, it feels like vocalists are sitting right in front of you. The sound really wraps around you.
Imaging for lows and highs is great, on-par with other open-back planars.
The design is very comfortable. They fit perfectly around my head, the band expands with enough tension to keep it in place but with enough freedom to not feel restrictive.
It came with the pads shown off in Zeos' review that he praised so much, the ones that ship with the Sendy Aiva's. They are also very comfortable.
Highs are clear and crisp, maybe a little bit bright.
The included braided cable is nice.

And on to the negatives:

The mids are a unique kind of muddy. They don't bleed into the rest of the mix, but rather they strongly overpower it. The design of the cups seems to cause a stretch of the mids to be reverberated back in a way that makes it feel like you are in a metal tube or underwater, like bisbille mentioned in the review I linked above. On some songs it sounds pretty good and adds a nice body to the mix, on everything else it sounds horrible and makes the mids excessively loud while the rest is drowned out. I think the intention was to make vocals and center-balanced sounds pop more, which it does very well, but at the expense of the rest of the mix. On the upside as I mentioned above, this does result in much more noticeable imaging/localization... though I can't help but muse with bisbille that it is "fake" and merely a byproduct of this effect. I get the feeling that everyone that raves about the soundstage is probably doing so in reference to this effect. The soundstage is much more close to the listener without much variance in that distance due to the reverb; It reminds me of a "small stone room" reverb DSP preset. This isn't inherently a bad thing, but I don't personally like it myself, and it's definitely not the kind of sound I expected from open back headphones. The end result, much to my chagrin, is that songs are very flavored and in some cases sound totally different:
Moonspell's "Serpent Angel" from Under Satanæ sounds like it's coming out of a pair of $30 closed-back headphones for the opening segment, and the rest of the song doesn't fare well either. The guitar and drums bleed together due to how muddled and loud they are. Sure, the song could/should have been mixed better, but other headphones I have tried it with manage to sound just fine.
Fleshgod Apocalypse's orchestral version of "Gravity" from King has a great feel to the drums and the cymbals, while the trumpets are just overpowering and ruin what enjoyment I was able to get out of the rest of the song.
"Left to Rust and Rot" on Red Forest by If These Trees Could Talk is another good example—the bass guitar sounds perfect and the hi-hat and cymbal hits are very spacious and defined. But the second the wailing, mids-heavy guitar kicks in, you can't hear anything else, and it even hurts my ears with extended listening. By the 3:55 mark the only thing I can hear is the smashing cymbals to my left and a random jumble of frequencies to my center and right.
Busdriver's "Unemployed Black Astronaut" from Fear of a Black Tangent is what made me realize what the reverberation was doing to the mix, and how truly noticeable it was. His vocal range mixed with the mellow guitar and distant violins all kind of just meshes together in a bubble around me... and not in a good way. There is no sense of distance and that leads to a lack of clarity. Where the HE-4XX are distant with the occasional closer pops of sound, the B20 are just... in your face, around you, all the time, and they never let up. This isn't why I buy open-back headphones!!
I don't have any physical equipment to measure this with, but the drivers/cups don't seem too fond of certain frequencies; either that or I got a defective pair. With most of the headphones I have owned or borrowed I am able to EQ these out (I use MathAudio Headphone EQ) but with these it is difficult.
In the left cup, sound is substantially lower at 190Hz, ramps up to about 2x louder from 800-840Hz, cuts out at 840Hz-900Hz.
Right cup substantially lower at 500Hz.
Both cups ramp down to about half volume from 1.5kHz to 2kHz, become incredibly shrill at 5k, cut out again at 8.5k, and everything past that is just a rollercoaster. I've been messing with it for hours and I can't get an even response.
The 2.5mm plugs are obnoxiously tight, and I can definitely see how people were able to knock them out of their sockets; you really have to push to get those things in! I am almost scared of following the same fate and damaging the plugs from how hard you have to push on them. One person I talked to suffered this issue within the first weeks of them arriving: https://drop.com/buy/blon-b20-planar-magnetic-headphones/talk/2648870
I am thoroughly unimpressed by the packing. They came in a generic, flimsy nylon/velour hard case that looks like it came straight from the nearest Walmart. No documentation, slips, or identifying information of any kind, only the headphones and cable. The case had three bubble wrap pouches, one that fit over the headphones and two that look like they were intended to go over each cup but were just jammed in there instead. The case was then placed inside a bubble mailer instead of a box. I don't know if it's because of this lax packing or because of the manufacturing process, but there is visible damage to the finish of the wood on the right cup where it looks like it took a hit, and scratches/smudges on the metal harness holding it.

Despite its positives, the impact of the negatives really makes it hard to recommend the B20. The... interesting reverb and the the variant frequency response take away from me the most important part of a pair of headphones: how they sound. Ultimately, if you like louder mids and highs, and like your soundstage to be close and all-encompassing, with well-defined bass and crisp highs, I have a feeling you'd love these. I've asked a few people and results have been either "love it" or "hate it", split among those that like warm, loud mixes and those that prefer more neutral, flat mixes, respectively. I bet they'd sound better paired with a tube amp, but I do not have one on hand to test with, and I personally don't like warm tube sounds anyway. If I had to give a simple explanation I think they sound closer to a semi-open or closed-back set rather than open-back. Since the return policy only covers Drop Studio items, I doubt I will be able to get my money back on these. I do not feel like I got a good deal here. Support has offered to give a refund for this item. No matter my varying feelings for Drop their customer support has never let me down. I'm very happy to know that this will continue. FYI: I compared and judged the B20 utilizing the XtremPro X1 USB DAC/amp @ 24bit 96kHz, Micca OriGen+ USB DAC/amp @ 32bit 192kHz, and Massdrop THX AAA 789 amp unbalanced 3.5mm output + SMSL VMV D1 USB DAC @ 32bit 768kHz. I tested without EQ, with MathAudio Headphone EQ, and with Headphone EQ and Thimeo Stereo Tool. Any up- or down-sampling was performed with soxr with the default high quality settings. Edit: I ordered the HIFIMAN Sundara's and, I have to say, the B20's do not hold a candle to them in terms of sound clarity and cleanliness. They are incredibly subtle and nuanced, letting every flicker and pop of sound become plainly audible without overpowering any other frequency. This is the open-back planar experience I was so hoping for. And, if I crank up the gain on the amp and notch the bass up, I am able to get cleaner bass than the B20, though not as naturally punchy. Songs with punchy bass definitely do punch, however, and I can always run a DSP behind it to improve sub-bass and add more dynamics to songs that lack it. I'm not much of a bass-head if it wasn't apparent but it's nice to have the option, especially when it sounds this good.

(Edited)

Recommends this product? No

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