BQEYZ Winter Review

The BQEYZ Winter is BQEYZ's 4th and final iteration to a small series of IEM (around the 200-250USD bracket) that revolves naming their IEMs with the 4 seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. With each season of the IEM comes with different setups of their drivers, or should I say "evolves" through time. For winter, they are implementing a 12mm dual cavity DD + a piezo bone conductor, which is said to help with the mid and high frequencies. Specs aside, how does this pair fair with its contenders within this price bracket?

Foreword

1. The following reviews of IEMs will always be based on its own prowess relative to its price. When I say something about an IEM is good or bad, it will always be relative to how much is the retail of it.

2. I will be using DACs relative to the price of the IEM to review them. For this case, the M15 shall be used.

3. This IEM is being lent to me as a tour unit, thanks Edmund Chan and AudioMonsta for organizing the tour of the Winter

BUILD QUALITY & FIT

The build of the overall headshell is made from metal/alloy material that's CNC-ed, and coated with a matte black finish, with a turqoise-green metallic accent surrounding the border between the wavy accented faceplate and the body. The weight of the headshells are quite light and they do not post any issues in terms of weight, hence I can comfortably use them for hours.

Also before anything, let's give a moment of appreciation for BQEYZ for giving us a stock cable that actually feels nice to the touch. Eventhough it's only 4 cores, I can confidently say these can rival even certain basic aftermarket cables in terms of its hand-feel.

Fitment of this pair is decent. but I definitely needed third party tips to have better seal because the stock tips did not help me create any sort of ideal seal and isolation.

Ah yes the isolation.

One interesting take from this IEM is that due to the large vent holes, there will be no complete isolation from you and your surroundings. You know everytime when you talk while wearing an IEM and you talk you'll sound "underwater"? Well this has less of it.

SOUND

Source : Foobar 2000 -> Questyle M15 -> S.M.S.L. SH-6 Amplifier -> BQEYZ Winter + Spinfit SP145

Upon first impression, the BQEYZ Winter is an IEM with a neutral bright configuration. Although many are calling it to have a mild-V shape, personally I would say it leans more towards being balanced or neutral bright.

Other than that, one interesting note is the overall sound of this grainy characteristic to it.

BASS

The bass of the BQEYZ Winter overall is definitely on the tame side, and often I would use the term "subdued" due to the fact that in certain songs, the mixing of songs would emphasize more on the mids and highs and hence makes the bass less contributing to the overall experience of the song. Nevertheless, for people who enjoy neutral-right signatures, this would be familiar and right up your alley. Think of LETSHOUER S12 but less harsh overall.

• Kicks sound thumpy and airy, but does not have enough impact

• Subbass is definitely tamed down and lacking the amount of rumble and impact

• Tonal definition of basslines are smooth, clean, and full

• No signs of bassbleed

MIDS

tl;dr : open, transparent, dry.

Vocals :

• Male vocals - Leaning towards the cold side, in some occasions maybe felt a little veiled and hollow

• Female vocals - definitely still has that slight coldness to it but definitely less prominent compared to male vocals, There are instances of sibilance though

Everything Else :

I would consider the midrange the highlight of this pair, having a very opened feeling to it, but allowing you to feel more immersed - sounding clean, light, and soft overall. Again comparing it to the LETSHUOER S12s, imagine the harshness and aggresiveness are all tamed down, but not till the point of a KATO.

• Overall presentation of elements are never harsh and feel very bodied, but occasionally might have bloatiness

• This pair also has a decent amount of transparency in its midrange, but overall might sound a little dry for some

• Keys like grand piano definitely sound strong and more emotion than usual

• Strings such as violins and guitars will be accompanied with decent decay/extension

• Notes will sound hot rather than sibilance in certain cases where sibilance is expected

• Harmonics from gutiars will sound pleasant to the ears but with less strength than I would prefer (Polyphia)

HIGHS

This is gonna be my first time listening to something with a Piezo bone conduction unit, hence I'm not sure how much of the qualities I hear are from that, but nevertheless :

• Drums overall will sound more aggressive in this range and often times can subdue other parts of the track (e.g.: rock songs, math rock)

  • Hi-hats will sound slightly hot but only ever so slightly for trap type hats (fast hats)

• Microdetails in the treble region presents it self in a soft, rounded manner, rather than being too bright and sharp

• Pianos on this range also sounds heavenly and soft

• Treble extension is quite far than your conventional IEM, allowing hats and cymbals to have that sweet decay

  • However, when listening to rock songs having constant cymbals will cause track to feel hazy due to the crashes (treble bleed?)

  • There will also be instances where too much things go on in the treble region where the said haziness comes in and muddles with the whole track

TECHNICALITIES

When talking about technicalities, the one pair that can fairly be used to contend with this (price wise) is the Moondrop KATO. Straight out the bat, the thing I noticed was the soundstage of the Winter was significantly wider (but only slightly) and has this slight airyness to it. However, it overall feels like there isn't enough depth and width to it.

Imaging on this pair certainly is good where elements of tracks can be fully separated and distinguished from each other but starts to fall short when the tracks get more busy. I wouldn't say it sounds congested, but more like everything starts to sound like its slowly lumping together where borders of elements are getting less and less distinguishable.

Dynamics of this pair might be a little too skewed due to its more elevated mids to highs. Although the tuning of the Winter is indeed with very tame bass, the moment tracks become busy, you can feel the emphasis of everything on the mids and highs, whereas the bass is being pushed backwards. I certainly did not have enough hours to explain this more percisely but basically - the more busy a track gets, the more the low end gets subdued.

Nevertheless, having this type of dynamic technicality certainly helps in the detail retrieval range, where tracks with macro and micro details living anywhere at and above the midrange are being emphasized and pushed forwards. However, there are times when there are too many elements going on in a specific range, details will sound like its slightly merged together and not completely seperated.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, my personal opinion on this pair is that it definitely is reminiscent of the LETSHUOER S12 a lot, with overall more tamer presentation. However, I felt that there are certain places that it fell short, from the double-edged sword that is the treble extension causing tracks to "treble bleed", ; the overemphasis of mids and highs till it subdues the already tamed down bass ; the poor isolation due to the overly large vent holes - all of these just adds up until it you start to wonder, why are you paying so much for this?

With this type of price, I would say there are better choices out there for an overall better experience, but at the same time, giving it the benefit of the doubt - preference is important.

If your listening is within the realms of slow pop (Lana Del Ray, Anderson Paak) , soul (Sampha, Tom Misch), and whatever FKJ is doing, then I would say this is not a bad choice.