THE PLUS:
-Beautifully balanced warm energic W shape signature
-Lush and textured timbre
-Good male and female vocal presence
-Versatile and safe but not boring tuning
-Speedy enough treble with good snap
-Good bass presence and impact
THE MINUS:
-average technicalities
-average resolution and definition
-average soundstage and imaging
-lack of treble air and sparkle
-lack of bass extension and rumble
TONALITY: 8/10
TECHNICALITIES: 7.5/10
CONSTRUCTION: 8/10
SOUND VALUE: 7.7/10
BQEYZ is a Chinese earphones company with a solid fan base but still understated in the western world. Unlike lot of less professional IEM companies based in China, BQEYZ is known for both their unique craftmanship and high tuning skill. As well, they patent their own drivers, the last one being a quite revolutionary dual Piezo-dynamic driver that they use in their flagship earphones call BQEYZ SPRING.
Lately, they upgraded this driver for a LCP (liquid crystal polymer) diaphragm in there 13mm dynamic driver and use it for the Topaz DD+piezo hybrid IEM I will review today.
Priced 90$, the Topaz enter a very competitive sub-100$ market. Let’s see if they can stand their ground in thi review!
CONSTRUCTION
BQEYZ go from all metal earphones to half plastic metal built for their Summer IEM and do the same for the Topaz which have a very similar built. It’s an alluminium back plate with front resin plastic body that seem thick and sturdy. They are very light and comfortable, and overall quality is more than decent even if I personally prefer either all high quality resin plastic or all metal construction. The nozzle is made of metal as well and is big and short. 2pin connector are slightly recessed in the body, which permit secure and precise connection.
The included cable is of good quality too, it’s a 4 cores silver plated with a strudy metal plug. Nothing to complaint at this price.
PACKAGING is well done, with a nice presentation and generous amount of accessories which include good quality carrying case, 6 pairs of silicone eartips and a cleaning brush.
SOUND IMPRESSIONS
TONALITY is a balanced W shape, with a warm tilt to it and energic upper mids and mid treble.
BASS is slightly boosted, mostly in mid bass region, it’s well textured and have good grip in attack that benefit bass line presence and definition. Kick drum is punchy, yet a bit lacking in roundness and speedy slam. Separation with mid is hit or miss, if it’s just an acoustic bass line, the extension will go downside and keep mids clean enough, if it’s bass hitting, you can have bit of bleeding-veiling, but not in a disastrous way, since it will embrace and thicken timbre in fact. Lower extension is quite linear, which explain why i can enjoy bass line even if they aren’t the most vibrant, resonant or rumbly. To my ears, this bass presentation is very versatile and have enough punch to make rock, electro, jazz and near all type of music sound lively and exciting. We can say it’s between fun and mature bass here, but fan of sub bass boost or basshead will need 5db more boost.
Mid range is pure BQEYZ target, it’s boosted in presence and texture, have an upfront presentation and dense timbre and favorize female vocal over male vocal. It’s isn’t overly bright and not sibilant. Female vocal have beautifull breathyness and full bodied presence, it’s free of sibilance so quite safely tuned for a BQEYZ compared to let say Srping 1 or 2. Cohesion is organic with bass and treble and don’t feel unbalanced or more energic than rest of dynamic response. Sens of openess isn’t magnify, so instruments and vocal feel centered in the stage. Resolution is OK, but far from crisp or very detailed, so a bit warm in that regard. Attack isn’t edgy but have good note weight, not alot of decay or resonance after impact like with piano so a hint dry. Violin sound crisp but a bit thin. Surprisingly, this is one of these rare IEM that deliver both male and female vocal in a full bodied lush way, even if not mid centric in tonality the vocals tone is natural and presence is focus, tending to capt the attention of listener.
TREBLE isn’t what we could expect from a hybrid DD + piezo IEM, it isn’t like the Spring serie at all, way smoother than this, in fact, near dark on top. This remind me their Summer IEM but with a hint more crunch and texture. But don’t be fool by the organic balance , since to me the fact we can’t really tell their a piezo in there is a sign of good tuning and drivers implementation. In fact, when we go into critical listening, we discover fast snappy highs on top and even a hint of extra air and layering. More I focus on highs more i find them impressive. BQEYZ tell me the piezo cover whole 6khz to 20khz section, I believe them even if it doesn’t mean they tune it to be present in this whole range and feel more focus on 8 to 12khz section where snap, texture and attack edge occur but not so much sparkle, brilliance and decay. The highs have fast sustain and decay, so when I listen to electronic with lotta percussions rythm like IDM or House music, the result is excellent, very lively and snappy. Like with ”Touch” track from Yoshinori Hayashi, it feel like Topaz is tuned for this very track, we have the fast thumping, nice synth layering and the percussions really caught our attention, attack is very fast and well controlled, and highs feel full and nuanced in texture, not half cook yet this is a simple track, so with more complex and busy music presentation will not be as clean and fastly lack of air. Where the highs don’t impress, it’s for instrument like clavichord or acoustic guitar, which have good texture and crunch but lack proper brilliance and sparkle resonance.
SOUNDSTAGE is average wide and tall and lack deepness. Good amping power can help open up the 32ohm Topaz, but it will not gain in deepness. For big spatiality, the Autumn is way better.
IMAGING is average too, sens of layering is good but a bit compressed while static instruments positioning feel blurry and lacking clean space between them.
TECHNICALLY the Topaz are just alright, DD attack speed is slower than piezo as expected, yet we don’t get extra resolution crispness and brilliance or sparkle we could expect from a good piezo.
COMPARISONS
VS MOONDROP SNOW (1DD-80$)
The Snow is cleaner, clearer and more neutral sounding. Bass is faster in attack and leaner in response, not as opaque and textured and a bit less dynamic. Mids are biggest difference here, it sound wider, fuller and more open, as well it’s less recessed but a bit leaner in attack too. Seem like the Snow are more prompt to sibilance while the Topaz more at risk of slight shoutyness.
Resolution and imaging is notably superior with the Snow. Treble is more extended too, more snappy, airy and crisp, you have greater amount of clean micro details with the Snow. Soundstage is wider and deeper as well. Timbre is thinner, colder and with greater sens of transparency and less fuzzy texturing.
All in all, the Snow sound more technical and have cleaner resolution but isn’t as immersive and musical to my ears as the lusher and more energic Topaz.
VS TRI KAI (1DD-80$)
The KAI is warmer and more U shape, bass is less textured and more boomy and heavy in hit. Topaz bass is leaner in extension with better kick drum presence and definition. Mids are notably brighter and more textured with the Topaz, both male and female vocal are smoother with the KAI yet not as well define and resolved, especially in texture and for female it’s more upfront with the Topaz which make it easier to follow lyric properly. Overall timbre, tough brighter, seem more realist and full than the KAI. Treble of both these IEM doesn’t deliver plenty of details, it’s quite similar even if Topaz have a hint more bite in mid highs, KAI seem to offer more sparkle and brilliance here.
Soundstage is wider and deeper with the KAI. Imaging of both is a bit blurry, so i consider them equal.
All in all, technically speaking these 2 are on par while tonality is more energic but still warm with Topaz, I tend to enjoy vocal more with Topaz and feel the more energic mids and less distracting bass make it more maturely tuned and balanced.
VS NICEHCK YOUTH (1DD-90$)
What hit first is how warmer and more natural sound the Topaz, as well as denser in timbre, suddenly Timber Timbre male singer have a lush full bodied voice with rounded edge that make it so much more enjoyable than the Youth, so we have more lower mids as well as better rounded upper mids (less sibilant too), making mid range instrument sound fuller as well as more realist in texture. When it come to bass, Youth is slightly more boosted and resonant, it have more rumble sustain too as well as less thick textured and opaque density. Let say it’s evident the Topaz is better balanced, smoother too in treble which doesn’t put micro details on front and lack a bit of air and sparkle compared to youth yet it’s less trebly and fatiguing and make musicality more cohesive, versatile and enjoyable. Youth being a more agressive V shape tuning, hacve scooped mids that give the impressions soundstage is deeper and imaging better, yet the imaging is not realist as said before and all about highs.
So, the conclusion could be the Youth have better technicalities if they were better controled, which isn’t the case, so their no doubt to me Topaz is better tuned and have a more natural tonality as well as less shouty and messy presentation at they end too.
CONCLUSION
BQEYZ seem to evolve in term of tuning balance. While keeping an energic musicality, it is less prompt to sibilance or agressive treble spike like we can found in Spring serie before.
Since the Summer come out, BQEYZ offer safer and warmer tuning.
We can say the Topaz is a baby Autumn in term of tonality, with slightly inferior technicality.
While I can’t say the Topaz is the new sub-100$ budget killer IEM, nor that it offer technical performance that will surpass Tripowin Olina or even HZsound Hearth Mirror, I can say this is a well tuned earphones with versatile musicality.
If BQEYZ can focus more on technical performance for their next release, while keeping a lush organic cohesion in balance, I think it would be great.
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PS: I wanna thanks BQEYZ and the very kind Elle for sending me this review sample. Even if i’m a big fan of this company, i’m not affiliated nor have any bias about them. This is my 100% honest opinion as always.
You can buy the BQEYZ Topaz for 90$ here:https://www.linsoul.com/products/bqeyz-topaz?variant=42987803050201
No Borders Audiophile 
Really good read.
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