BQEYZ Summer: Hot, Cosy It Up Tonality

Hello mates and welcome to another review of an IEM that I've been interested and  looking forward since it was announced a few weeks ago. I know that you are familar about BQEYZ products in this blog  as I review their previous offerings like the resurgent popularity of their good old KC2 and their widely acclaimed Spring 2 as I give them a positive rating and highly regarded on their product offerings due to their build quality and mature audiophiliac tuning. As I have patiently waiting the release of this particular product from them and now I have obtain it and very excited to use them and listen to some of my favourite tracks. Now that I will share some of my subjective insights on this product.

I'm here proudly to introduce their latest product, The BQEYZ Summer. As we know that their previous series were named after a type of season which is Spring and now we have the Summer. It seems that they do name their flagship product line based on seasons, maybe we will expect a Winter or Autumn on their upcoming, future products. We know that BQEYZ is a well-respected Chi-fi brand that gain a good reputation and admiration from audio enthusiast forums due their build quality, a different approach on their implementation of driver in their product like tri-brid which is unusual and very few Chi-fi companies implement them and you can only find them on from top-of-the-line audio brands and outstanding mature tuning but I digress.

Anyways, let's go back to BQEYZ Summer IEM, This set is tri-brid driver consists of their custom BA, a new 13mm DD tech consists of polyurethane (PU) diaphragm and liquid crystal polymer (LCP) film and a new improved 5-layered Piezoelectric driver. This set-up is also found on its previous predecessors like Spring 1 and Spring 2 but this one is tune differently compare to its Spring cousins.

The new 13mm DD is quite interesting as these new material promises a faster bass transient, reduces excess vibration, improving signal process fidelity to be more sound natural and dynamic on both lows and mids, better rigid structural yet less weight. Then the custom BA by BQEYZ and the Piezo are both working in tandem to deliver a transparent, bright, cleaner responses on upper mids and treble. The current price offering of BQEYZ Summer is US$ 129.00 in online stores.

The Summer IEM shell is made of translucent and opaque high quality resin with some small amount of glitters that is robust yet very light. This is the lightest and less chunky shell among the BQEYZ products which is quite suprising on their decision to go in this direction, from premium looking, thick-shelled CNC-milled aluminium to feather weighted, minimalist design resin shell. This IEM has two colour options to choose from, the smoky black one and light blue one. The nozzle of this IEM has average length made of silver coloured brass and its fitting is deep enough and it is very cosy and comfortable to my ears as it sealed well on the outer ear canal which benefit for slight better sound isolation from external noise in the surrounding. As I observe the IEM, I found that it has a 3 pinhole-size vents on it for releasing air pressure from the inside.

The packaging of The Summer comes with medium-size, grayish sky blue cardboard box with small print of BQEYZ in top-left and a medium-size print "Summer" at the center. The contents inside are a pair of the IEMs, a high quality 8-core single crystal SPC white cable, 6 pairs of black and white silicon eartips in three standard sizes and all them are atmospheric eartips that you will found from their previous flagships ( lthe metal plate eartips organizer is not there anymore), a medium-size grey IEM leatherette case ( quite a downsize from Spring 2's leatherette case), a small brush for cleaning the nozzles, a velcro cable cable lace and some paperworks like warranty card and simple instruction manual.

The stock cable of Summer feels very premium to touch as it is very supple and soft in my hand. It doesn't entangled and very sturdy for daily usage and longevity

The scalability of the Summer is very easy and adequate enough as it has an average impedance rating of 32Ω and high sensitivity rating that can be driven through low powered source such as smartphones, tablets, PC and laptop though it will be more benefited on high quality hi-fi DACs and amp as it will show its true potential.

The Summer has balanced, mild U-shape tonality with elevated and enhanced bass , balanced to linear mids and some lift and emphasis in treble.

And now, I'll describe the sound characteristics of each audio frequency range based on my hearing perception.

LOWS/BASS:

I describe the bass of this one as very punchy and has well-defined power. It has precision, impact and intensity as it reveal the depth extension on its sub-bass which shows ardently slam and definitive roll and rumble. The midbass quantity has  a thick density as it is still sounds  balanced as it tends to avoid on being overly excessive that it might bleed on the mids. The bass kicks sounds life-like,  pounding and sustaining while bass guitar sounds attested to its tune as it show its broady and resonant nature especially on fretless, tapping, slapping and picking techniques in rock and metal tracks. Bassheads will definitely love the bass quality of this one as it engaging and impactful.

MIDS:

The mids are slightly recess on this one but it is still deliver a forward, clean and still retain its linearity with some warmth on it. The texture density of vocals are on average quantity as both male and female  will have different outcome based on their vocal range capacity. The male vocals are a little bit overshadowed compare to the females as the latter taken the advantage technicality due to some emphasis on the upper mids. The male vocals are more on a  leaner side  and in between or eclipsed in some tracks that percussive and rhythm instruments are more prominent but still retains its resolving details and clarity that harmoniously mix well on the track. The female vocals are more lively and transparent as it show more details and etherealness in the mix. I feel the particularity of high octave vocal range as sonorous and resounding. The rhythm and percussions instrument are even more eminent and distinguishable as I feel the snares hits very intimate and natural. The guitars (both electric and acoustic) sounds more refined and crunchy with tons of detail and air on it as I hear it more convincing toward natural. The piano keys sounds rounded and pleasant. The BQEYZ Summer somehow deliver decent quality on mid segment as it still retain its smooth and precisely characteristic.

HIGHS/TREBLE:

The treble quality of this one is leaning towards bright but somehow I felt some smoothen part (toning down some peaks) somewhere in presence sector on treble region just to avoid the harshness and sibilance. Despite of some soft refining on upper mids/lower treble, it still has that sparkle, clarity and show some good amount of detail retrieval. It still has an airiness and a good extension as I still hear that quality of cymbals strikes as it is convincing to be a natural sounding, snappy as tersive and has that speedy transcient.This will be have a good rating or passable mark by trebleheads and enough to be appreciated by treble-sensitives who still look for a good treble quality in their tracks but still depends on their tolerance.

SOUNDSTAGE AND IMAGING:

This is truly one of the strongest points of Summer. It has that expansive wideness and depth of soundstage as if you will feel that you're in big concert hall ( they are even wider than KC2 and Spring 2). The imaging is superb and highly commedable on this one as I can hear it clearly and accurately to determine the directional panning and dynamic signals, pinpointing the placement of instruments and vocals and sensing the spacing and separation on each instrument and the layering is even precise and detailed in each row. This kind of representation on this technicality give me some spacious, 3d-holographic feel vibe.

As I put my verdict here, BQEYZ Summer offers a different tonality flavour compare to its predecessors, This is indeed very impressive on their part despite of almost the same tri-brid set-up from their previous flagships, BQEYZ managed to overhaul on it to sound distinctly and have a contrasting tonal character. If your looking for a set that is fun and musical tuning then this is what you are looking for. A high-end balanced sounding IEM at affordable and decent price.

Pros:

- Easy to drive even to decent sources.

- Impactful and authoritative bass.

- A lightweight, High quality resin shell that fits comfortably and offers good isolation.

- Superb dynamic tonal bass quality.

- Quantity Soundstage, Quality Imaging.

- It has a high quality stock cable.

Cons:

- Looks cheap to someone on first impression. ("Looks like a FH3 but in a cheap plastic shell")

- Limited colour scheme options to choose from.

- BQEYZ Spring 1 and 2 fans might find its mids and  treble quality were somehow subdued and underwhelming on their liking.

- Midcentrics will be probably to look somewhere else as they will feel some lacking on texture and less note density on mids frequency.

- If you are a BQEYZ fan who loves their premium built CNC- milled aluminium shells on their IEM then this will be quite a shocking to you.

P.S.

I am not affliated to BQEYZ nor receive monetary incentives and financial gains as they provide me a review unit for an exchange of factual and sincere feedback from yours truly.

Once again, I would like to thank Elle Zhou for providing this review unit, I truly appreciate on her generosity towards me and other reviewers.

**Note: Changing eartips (from "Atmospheric"(Bassy) stock tips to "Reference"(Vocal tips that was included in Spring 2 but surprising absent on the Summer's included accessories )do some rectification to have some modest improvement on mids **

PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS:

MODEL: BQEYZ SUMMER

DYNAMIC DRIVER: 13MM

IMPEDANCE: 32Ω

SENSITIVITY: 107dB

FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 7-40KHz

CABLE LENGTH: 1.2M

PIN TYPE: 0.78MM 2-PIN CONNECTOR

PLUG TYPE: 3.5mm /2.5mm/4.4mm

DRIVER UNITS: 13MM COAXIAL DYNAMIC DRIVER + 5-LAYERED PIEZO ELECTRIC + CUSTOM BALANCED ARMATURE