review of [old] AKG81DJ and test with [even older ] AKG77

 AKG DJ81 is one of my "newest" headphones but quite old as it was bought on 2017-8 It is a model that weas used for very short time and as tested with the very trebly models used on that time - a mini Sennheiser that has been used very long by my wife and then dropped in the dust due to cabling problem (the local technician advised us to replace that with newer instead of servicing that  ) she later used a model from China

For tat time the model has been left aside for very long time till last tow years when i decided to give tat to my daughter thinking that he sound was not so good for my ears.As noted in a previous post the model has been found while checking in Amazom on around 17 or 18 and finally has been ordered via the Italian site at only 18 Eu plus undefined low shipping It reached here in around 1.5 week AFAIK. The original price was around 40Eu but in an American site  it was priced at around 90USD  tat only 18Eu the  price is a real steal 

It sounded quite dull comparing to this Sennheiser model as also between i think the AKG 77 for that time , ie unclear and rather bassy 

note : the model as far as i checked the recent times is not available anymore  . it has been upgraded to the 180 DJ or something similar

 

As it can be shown the AKG 81 DJ uses a very long cable , around 2,5 m possvly good fro DJs  This is a supraural type that is kept over the ear 

A very nice design with radials of gray color . the earphones are also twisted by 120 degrees 

as with all models the arm can be detached a few cm . In the case of 81 there are something as griods that operate as 'stepped stops'  with steps of 2-3 mm The total length is around 2cm and locked by the pressure of the head Under it there is a mechanism to turn the speaker by left right but it by design can also be turned down up by a few degrees 

The design is totally plastic but there is a metallic blade in between on the over-head part This makes the arm to be rather stiff and pressy  into the head>it is also OK that after some time you adopt into that pressure 

 

The above photo shows the locking steps. All the design is very ergonomic and easy to be worn. 

Performance 

I have tested it with a older AKG model the K77 that is my replacement of the metallic 66 (again the it was littered sue to a bad technician to prefer replace than repair its cable Arghhh 

A messy table due to very many things. I recently bought a very cheap but very good audio switch with 4 ins and 4 outs from Ali at only 15Eu  (product link ). It really saved my life to continuously plug and unplug cables for testing sounds You see it over a box . Hoping to review it later There is a Q3 player with old test songs together with a personally made audio with 17 tone file to test heed- and ear-phones. At the opposite zide there is the K77 still  ion its plastic bag, even if that is used more than 7 years!

the idea was using te audio switcher in two ways : First by  cheeking the sounds in the sharer mode (connection as in the photo) and then in the switch mode - inverse cabling - to check the audio levels 

being too much adapetd to listen with the 81DJ it was rather uneasy to listen to the 77 as the sound was very different : same trebles , high lows and sub lows as part of the middle band is also strong over the 81 However after a more than 15 minutes my listening was adapted feeling better 

The original sound of 81DJ has some high deep and low lows over the voice and good highs. In other words it is quite and deeply bassy giving a feel of dead middles and upper middles

AKG77 was then heard wih better vocal and instrument presence intensifying them while listening to the music . Sound stage is the same . In many cases 77 get better in hearing but after more than 10=15 minutes the sound is felt rather "bad"  or tiring . This also  is song dependent 

Therefore the results are rather mixed , possibly due to being more accustomed to 81DJ Anyway this is my main headphone with sometimes more than 4 hours of listening.. 

Verdict : 4/5  and soon to add some analyis

KZ EDX the cheapest IEM !!

As you know I am a member of Aliexpress since 6 months ago . I have a made a few purchases since then with mostly cheap audio products . I also do also a lot of looking at various audio products and also receive lot of messages from the site

One of the most interesting things I have seen so far with lots of very positive reviews in both the internet and YouTube was the very cheap KZ EDX in ear earphone or IEM that costs just 5.8 Eu directly frem the KZ Store in Ali 

from the product page

Yes a very cheap model . The shipping costs are 1.7Eu that raises the total price to ca 7 that is still good. The shipping was smooth in the period when two other things ordered from Ali returned back to the stores , the one was due to delays from the seller and the second was never exported

The parcel had early the same problem but got rid of it very easy. It reached Athens in just 16 scanned but someone fogot to put it in to the  receiving box so it  followed a flight to Eire for 1 week then returned back to Athens !Just a few days after it was delivered by registered mail to my house, thank to the tracking services!

After a few days of rather personal difficult situations i devoted some time o test it. 

 

This is its box . the buds are separated from ithe cable for better protection 

All the inside box in a short view. BUds with the standard middle tips, plus small and wide tips . Plus the cable .Plugging the cable was a bit difficult to me as it required much force and care .

The cable has been ordered with microphone . its very possible to use it with my smartphone instead from the other cables the plug uses a full plastic plug base below the wires. I finally after trying several times managed to plug it into the monitors 

There are two  info sheets inside one of them is the users guide and a guarantee sheet. It is completely written in English that is NOT typical wooden Chinglish but neither poor English! THis little guide is the best insider on audio i ever read reffering not only on how the noise effect into listening but also how long you can listen to high level sounds before having any ear fatigue , the burn in that is nearly not necessary but also on how this can be installed into the ears. These guys are using a very poor text language but they are very good professors . They requite to recruit a fluent translator

I cannot use the middle ear tips. They are too small to my ears and the sound is not only leaked but also lack of  the essential bass . The wide replacement ones were very difficult to even slide into the earphones tube and finally i preferred to use a rubber foam replacement of T400 Comply clone. it was much easier to damp into the sound tube.   

The final connection!

After this i started my review as below:

The First time listening with some music with extended frequency range on the Q3 player: sibilant
for total time of 10 minutes

Second time after 6 hours listening to the same song : not so sibilant ! (just burn in? ) 

Finally it was taken by my wife who for the first time thought faster on how it is put in the ear!

More experiments from the technicians view

Sound magic  vs KZ  using parallel listening that is listening to the same audio channel and using them AM bud in the left ear and KZ in the right :  KZ sound is 15.2 db higher than the Soundmagic as measured later after recording them both via a microphone in my smartphone . The very highs are quite higher as also the basses 

Here is a screenshot from the program without normalization. you see how huge is the audio deference. Describing that  in terms of drawing with -10 to 10 where SM is only -10 and 10 for only KZ sounds are termed into  point 8

By separate listening and adjusting the sounds to be in the same level , EDX has higher bass and higher trebles than the SM These sounds are extend to the higher part of the high band . Graphically this sounds as like this way 

Click for more

The thick line shows the middle of the hearing that is the nose as you an see all the sound goes to the KZ with little more adding in the very high sounds Most times the bass difference is not so 'visible' to the ears.

verdict : Technically the IEM is quite good with near sibilant audio Concerning the price it is more than good . 4.5/5 

This is the funniest response i have seen in Amazon as any one can understand on the layout of the review . 10-40KHz as frequency response as referred . Really  the 20Hz was audible to me even if this so low frequency is not so easy always to be heard ! 20 Ha is the lowest frequency that a human ear can listen. This is the same with 40KHz  The best ears can listen up to 20'K'Hz. 

JBL C100Si How can a JBL earphone cost only 8.5?

 Just 8.5 Eu ? Can this can be true for a company making the most powerful and high quality audio equipment? ? 

JBL i one of the latest companies I know wince this century . There are a lot of models sold from tis company in the local market together with Marshall especially in the big chain stores with high tech. Many of their products are priced a least 25 Eu as the Bluetooth speakers Go 2 series and the plastic headphones at Eu 29 These are the cheapest items  in the local market

I was quite curious  on ow this company wit the highest quality products could sell earphones at so lowe prices. 

As with last times, the price was found in ali -where else?- from the  JBL site. It is located in Hong Kong.

 

 

Total delivery time : 60 days relatively late but usual time in the covid period . She solution to the problem is clear : Plastic design instead of using metal materials ! But still the price is very low 

It was sent into a quite bulky pack of around 50x30 x15 for keeping the earphones box as safe as possible ... a kind of accordion  of air filled plastic airbags

 

These are all the things included inside the box : Double Info sheet mentioning Harman Kardon the first refers to security reasons of using it and the second for littering into waste . More than 40 languages are included into the folded paper except Greek.  Earphones are bonded with a twist tie nearby the plug and finally a set of tips of two types of width .The standard tips were OK for me 

BTW i was not sure that Harman Kardon is the mother company .This was one of the most HiFi system makers of the 80-90s

The cable is normally thicker than the typical earphones cable at around 1.4mm , similar to the RG14 AWG cable in  thickness. Your typical  smartcontrol is very simple just a push with the brand noticed in the button and the new diagonal designed earphones similar to most smartphone companies of today

Unfortunately the king is naked - lol . Many HIFi models offer the audio plug with a small plastic cover.  

 A nice closeup of the earphones It seems to me that the microphone is the mini hole under the tip BY the way these holes exist in both earbuds but also  in the control panel in the rear side under the button  

Operation 

This is just a typical earphone? Just testing the sound is very huge similar to the headphones . I had the typical AKG81 DJ near that and tested both . The sound was as strong as the AKG headphone. Moreover the sound has more trebles than the 81DJ! 

Using the smartphone : Thai music is very clear with a but a little loss in basses
The same for the official Greek and Chinese music channels via Youtube
I have a lot of playlists from the SE Asia

Listening the same in the mini PC : bassier with little more treble The volume level is just 10 out of 15 volume steps with my standard Sennheiser headphones HD497.

Testing a song with my Amoi DAP and PC : nearly identical except the little higher bass in the PC (<3db )

Parallel listening between Soundmagic and JBL earphones. with SM in the left ear and JBL on the right ear for the same audio channel

Testing with my ear linear Soundmagic  E11c HIFi earphones using the parallel listening method and in A/B (changing earphones) : JBL has a little higher audio level than the SM (<3db ) but the sounds are quite treblier with little more bass .This is the typical U curve most earphones use today .

 

 This is on how the inbuilt microphones respond to a series of tones to form a curve JBL has smoother curves.

As in result the earphones are a real bargain for that price not only good for using them with smartphones but also i many other uses that need some natural by design increase of audio 

Rate 4/5 The only i could not like is the plastic design that makes the price lower than the normal as with the Soundmagic Surely SM is more sturdy and time resistant then the JBL

Inkax HP31 Bluetooth headphones

After some time I finally won to replace my Ninsheng BY model with a better model that has not the quasi 3D sound. As noted there the previous model and its 'house siblings '  have the common of "spatializing" the sound into 3D and enhancing the basses and the middles. That means making a head full of low freq sounds and make me crazy !

This new model coded as HP31 comes with very nice design includes the same features: cabled  and wirless connectivity , SD card reader FM radio and microphone.

This is now the nicest model i have. It comes with aluminum blade as armature of ca 3 cm in eash side very nice color a. It is the flagship model of the Bluetooth of the companys headphone models . 

As you can see the blade is around 3 cm and relatively big speaker that is over the ear.  Nice leather like isolation over all the arm and mid heavy for just 200 grams 

 Hmm just 1 gram lower than 200! It doesn't matter so much 

In contrast with the other models the P31 has only 3 buttons with enhanced operations. the middle button powers on and off, stop music , while the two others do 2-3 operations : change the mode of operation , scan the radio, control the volume and jump to the next /previous song 

and the SD card slot 

In order to pick it the seller left me also check between a few company models company before picking it . The sound is quite bassy but with rich trebles and cross checked at the same time with mine AKG81DJ which has a bit narrower sound range(above the 10kHz part )  using the Q3 Tescun player recorder with test songs !!

Sound 

As with most typical Bluetooth models  tested.  HP31 has quite deep basses that extend a bit to the normal voice band with audio range that covers up to 20 kHz A that is an extended U type curve with narrow lows.

Its most important feature excludes 3D sound ! This is the reason i took them! I now feel much better listening for indefinite time.

Interesting to notices  the voices frequencies are more linear than in Bluetooth mode

In SD card mode the sound is very close to the Bluetooth curve 

Bluetooth mode 

Tested with the mini transmitter and the latency is around 0.2 seconds  this is possibly due to the transmitter latency . use also with the digital TV receiver with very good audio.  

Cross Checked with Awei :more trebles NO 3D sound !

With my laptop : the laptop sound is unfortunately quite bassy but the results are OK and can be used for long time listening. Tested  in stream radio and in Youtube and is heard very well The same with remote radios from the Kiwi Net used by radio listeners and radio amateurs. This model can replace my standard headphone Sennheiser HD493 used since mid 2000s in other gear . The HD493 was repaired the last month but the technician damaged its sound linearity and i feel it now as also 3D

 

This is the typical options when he headphones are paired. IN headset mode  the sound is heard monophonic 

IN the bottom of  the control panel there is a typical 3.9mm stereo audio socket. 

 

Zoom to watch the  full photo . as you can see the lower part of the higher band is slightly lower.They re recorded in the same volume 

The above audio by amplitude

Distance range with BT gear
It can connect up to 7 meters with half meter wall
Around 12 meter direct length 

Radio: The only drawback as with other models which produce monophonic  sound and poor reception. I think that if the radio could have a terminal to touch the metallic armature the reception could be quite better for sure! 

SD operation : It plays all standard audio formats : WAV MP3 and WMA .Sound is quite bassy as in Bluetooth mode. Changing files is a bit awkward with continuous use of the next back buttons for 1-2 seconds to select the song in sequence, It does not play songs in the exact sequence.

Battery : this is its worst point . its battery lasts only 3 hours as tested so . Upon that i returned back to the seller the headphone only for a item only change but they denied. This company is bond "to their protocol" or the typical procedure disregarding to adapt to the reality As therte is no space in the house i always litter the box and separate all the accessories just in the case they will be used. I use it alone with  my standard accessories in a bag. its very possible that this battery will be expired very soon.
Its funny that after charging it to the full for 3 times without using it after , it operated for 5.5 hours continuously and still having more in its battery...It finally lasted 6 hours.

Verdict :8/10 it has a very good though bassy sound with the most typical features of its category . Very nice ergonomics  and design Its main use ids for remotely listening various TV programs 

Addition post-21 and 22
using it in another home with irregular shape and a fireplace in the middle reception was very problematic , with self-cancellation of signal while moving the head acrross the  room wall 

Just think a room of ca 6m long x5 m with a space of 2x2 missing in the right part (entrance ) . Inthe left part of the room there is a fireplace of 1.5x1.5 m in the middle of the room. This is  what i can suspect making propagation self cancellations :  the fireplace and the design of the whole saloon

Blon03 testing and comparing with SM E10c and Inkax EP01

 Blon 03 is my latest catch ,bought from a Ali seller after two more items bought earlier

The first is a Nintaus DAC player (tested long ago ) and little later a BT earphone set Ezear that operated for very short time  and then died

I had already read many reports from various sources before ordering it with very good reviews and kept a few screenshots with its frequency response . A u shaped in ear earphone with rather low levels of bass and trebles and good idea to replace my nearly linear sounded Soundmagic  E11c (upgraded E10 with microphone. AFAIK this model  won the award of WhatHiFi  on 2014 and possible its newer model for its sound )

Blon costed that time (Jan 21) at around 21EU pus shipping only a very good bargain price with  Microphone cable . At the time of writing (2 May 21) the seller hugely increased the price into 45Eu but at 9/5 the price was restored again to 21!

It has been received around 2.5 months after the order and tested immediately showing  bad audio I immediately told the seller and the next days i designed a drawing showing them its  grave shaped response curve. the person in communication was rather unable to understand and started unnecessary questions by reduplicating my requests.  It sounded with no bases but with increased lower trebles  that stop in their middles. 

This is nearly how it sounded in a graphic form. There is a peak on 3 kHz but the remain part above 5 kHZ was rather nil

After that I left them aside and tested a few times later with the same response and asked other users experience . All of them were very enthused with its sound. In the meantime the correspondence with the company was oriented towards faulty the Bluetooth ear pads. 

The user guide uses very good and comprehensive easy to use engish. 

Two weeks  after I made a minimal experiment by replacing  the thin tips with wider ones (T). They were the tips as provided by the  Soundmagic model  . It standard tip was replaced by a foam Comply^TM   clone type. It adds some more bass than the standard tip including deep bass.

The same time I was also testing the sound . Each step of replacements provided a better stage towards  sound excellence The wide silicone tip corrected the sound curve towards what most reviewers know but still the trebles were 'bleeding trebles but bassier' to my ears comparing to the SM E11  . The foam tip provided even better sound with deeper bases. All these tips complied with the standard T400 size

 

copy photo from the sellers page

The model has been then compared with two more models for this review  :

• My main SM/ Soundmagic E11c ie the E10 with built in microphone with Comply eartip.
  
• A Inkax EP01 model of only 8.5Eu with same eartip It was  found from the local market Also with microphone
  
• A 3.9mm audio splitter  cable with two outputs 
• Q3 my standard type recorder and player.Sounds are from my personal Malay  music collection  with increased trebles and the Chinese test songs included in the sold Nintaus SD card but copied in my Amoi player . I m a fan of Asian music sine my birth
  

 

a bit messy table with the earphones and the connectivity cabling

 

 My results were very good:

Soundmagic shows a relatively bassy neutral sound. Cross testing them with sounds from a Tescun Q3  player and 2:1 splitter cable shown
(a) mini increase of basses over SM
(b) mini  increases of low trebles again in Blon
(c) SM has  some sounds that are near to the 15 kHz that are not audible in the BL
(d) same sound stage
(e) similar audio and span in parallel stereo listening with buds of the same channel The sound is shifting by 2/10 towards the BL that means around 1.5-2db* (read below for the process)

The frequency response complies with the drawings  noted by other reviewers 

from primeaudio page

-Inkax shown a bit higher and extended trebles over the BLON and lower basses. When using the (e) test the sounds the "correlation distance" is +3 for the basses to -4 for the higher trebles

 

      The above picture is the frequency response of these three earphones as recorded with a Aufgeld dynamic microphone in my smartphone, using a file with a set of 17 tones from 20 to 17 kHz as  played in the same volume in the Q3 in a totaly noise isolated room . Just open the photo in a separate widow to study them
Νοτιce that such type microphones is a compromise of testing earphones. They dont respond so well in lower frequencies but i think still  they can do partially the job in the mid and higher freqs. This is a simple amateur approach to get some  simplified frequency responses the easy way   The professional approach costs more than 6000 Eu.

-----

Verdict  4/5 : The Eu 21 BLON is still a very good earphone that goes the job very well but still cant compare the nearly neutral Eu45 Sound magic.  

 APENDIX

------My parallel listening idea--- 

this is my idea  : the same audio channel  with different bud in each ear.
I tried to keep as deep possible the buds in the ears

 

A further notice on the photos above  . It was a rather funny experience to use these earphones. it took some time to get accustomed with these weird cables.I preferred not to turn the cable around the ear in order to remove and put it again asap.

Notice:* this idea is very simple :  putting buds of the same channel from both earphones in your ears Therefore  you get a monophonic  sound that is heard over  your nose if volumes are identical. Any variations of sound volumes in frequency components  can shift this point towards the higher sounded bud. You can now think of an linear axis with 0 for the middle point (nose) and -10/10 for each bud In the following photo the INAX are in the left ear and he BLON in the ear at right

TRN vs BLON 

replacing the ST1 with the BL03 bud for test

Now adding towards TRN ST1 that seemed to be very close to the BLON03 by chance, i tested them with the A/B switch with the following results:
ST1 was heard with a rather "flat" sound that introduces a sudden raise on the higher treble band towards to the ear . this is the band part that BLON cant play
BLON seemed to be quite richer in sound with a sudden raise on the 3 kHz band 

Graphically using the BLONin the right ear and TRN in the left ear the graphic can be shown roughly with  this picture

--------

I have made this idea many times over the years before testing various earphones

I would like very much if you comment below in this review with your opinions and my interesting I hope graphical method

 

 

Addition : after finding the bug with the BLON 3 that was simply the mistaken use of the mid- bud and changed into the widest tips, the sound  was clearly much better and didn't fell from the ear. The buds with the wide 'sponges' offered even bassier sound with near to AKJ  headphones audio quality Checking them with the Inkax model i found them to be quite treblier with both buds: their standard  silicone tips and also with the large 4.5mm tips !