Life doesn’t stop and neither does the audio market. There are multiple launches happening right now, sometimes of highly sought after products. That’s the case with the BLON BL-05 and the Tin HiFi T2 Plus, both successors to highly-successful models from the past year. The Gold Planar GL600 signal a new entry to the market, while the FiiO BTR3K is a follower to a successful Bluetooth amp.
The Tin HiFi T2 Plus are quite a radical change from previous earphones in the T2 line-up. That’s not only speaking of design, which is now less distinctive, but also in terms of tuning: the T2 Plus offer a less bright approach, placing more emphasis on bass. This means the T2 Plus have an arguably more balanced approach, one that should satisfy those who were looking for a T2 with a bit more bass. A review is coming up in the next several days, so stay tuned for that!
The BLON BL-05 are another example of a complete change in design. Compared to the previous BL-03, the BL-05 have a more traditional shape, but much less traditional choice of colours and decoration – they honestly look a bit tacky to me, but that’s up to one’s personal taste. The good news is that with the new design comes a fix to the issues with fit and comfort that the previous model had. In terms of tuning we’re not looking at very large differences; on the contrary, differences are minor and mainly consist in less bass presence.
The Gold Planar GL600 have an interesting story behind them. Apparently they’re made by the ODM who manufactures headphones for MonoPrice; they decided to launch headphones with their own brand undercutting the competition by using a very aggressive pricing structure. The GL600 appear to be really similar to the Monoprice Monolith M565 – there are a few differences, but it’s evident the two are related. I was told the GL600 I received is not a final production model, but a pre-production one whose tuning is not final. What I can hear is a dark signature which largely privileges bass and sub-bass, but without too large an imbalance.
The deceivingly small FiiO BTR3K is one of the many Bluetooth amplifiers that are flooding the market but it offers a host of interesting features in that small footprint. You see it in the pictures as I had literally just taken it out of the box – it still has the protective plastic film on it. What amazes me about the BTR3K is that it offers a lot of features and a decently large amount of power in very little space: it has balanced output, LDAC codec and USB DAC capability while being even smaller than the already compact Shanling UP2.
The earphones were provided by Linsoul, whereas the BTR3K was loaned by AMP3.
