Two dynamic drivers (2 in 1), and 7 balanced armature drivers ((2 in 1 + 2 in 1) + 1 + (2 in 1)), four-way crossover (taken from DM8 – 8 BA model) for dividing the sound into four different channels, but 3 sound tubes that we see in the nozzle (in DM8 we have 4 sound tubes for each separated channel). Verdict: BGVP may have forgotten to connect treble channel output at the nozzle. 🙂
I know, they did not, they combined all the balanced armature drivers that serve for midrange into one. “Hey, what’s all this fuzz?” you may ask. I just wanted to express my feelings when I first listened to BGVP NS9. I had high hopes for this one, 7BA remember? They decided to tune NS9 this way, “The ns9 is suitable for basshead so if you are looking for boomy and exciting bass, do give it a try !!” quote from their Facebook page.
Specs:
Drivers: Sonion E50DT (2 in 1)+ 1 Knowles RAF-32873 + 2 (2 in 1) Sonion FDK-60718 + liquid silicone coaxial dual dynamic driver
Socket: MMCX
Shell: five-axis CNC acoustic cavity + 3D printed inner structure
Frequency response range: 10Hz – 40kHz
Impedance: 20 ohms
Sensitivity: 107dB/mW
Distortion: <0.5%
Impedance is low, sensitivity is high, so we can say NS9 is a mildly sensitive IEM. It can be powered from a regular headphone jack of your phone, or laptop but better pair with a good DAC for maximum sound quality. The gear I used is Khadas Tone2 Pro 4.4mm balanced out, connected to my PC streaming from Tidal both HIFI and MQA.
BGVP NS9 seems like the follower of their earlier models DMS series which had 1DD+6BA driver configuration in an alimuniım metal shell. Comes in a fairly classic box signed by BGVP, 3 sets of vocal tips, 3 sets of balanced tips, 1 pair of foam tips, 1 pair of wide-bore tip which is plugged on the IEM, same kind of case which is strong and big enough to store the earphones.
The cable is 4-core braided in 2 colors and is 5N OCC silver-plated copper, which feels very nice and soft in hand, with no tangling or whatsoever. The only downside for me is the stiff ear-hooks, I like them on the softer side too, but it’s a matter of taste, some like this kind more. You can choose the connector type while ordering the BGVP NS9, I chose 4.4mm balanced type, 2.5mm balanced and 3.5mm unbalanced are other options.
“The BGVP NS9 has three different styles of music performance, you can change the nozzle anytime to fit your sound preference, balanced, low frequency and high frequency suitable.”
Nozzle filters are a different story. They supposed to change the sound but in reality, they don’t affect that much as you can describe them as high, low, or balanced, very minimal difference. They are different meshes with different numbers of holes on them. And the worse part is they do break, I can’t put the red filter anymore because it got loose, can’t screw it on the nozzle and I tried changing the filters 2-3 times only.
But I find the solution, the best filter is no filter at all 🙂 I ripped off the mesh from the balanced filter, which is the tall one of the three, and used the wide-bore tip to able to get the most clear and detailed sound from NS9, the bass became more polite too. So my testing was made this way, keep that in mind please.
Sound
The sound coming out from the BGVP NS9 is very genre-dependent, meaning on some tracks you get good results, on other tracks you want to get them out of your ears. Who does not like bass, right? But that amount of bass, not my taste. Even there are 7 BA’s for mids and treble combined, the bass is always the main actor in the game. Change On The Rise – Avi Kaplan, Bad Guy – Billie Eilish, two of my bass test tracks, my hand goes immediately to the volume knob of Tone2 Pro to decrease it. Now I know what bass head means 🙂
I love treble, controlled treble, gives more clarity and stage to a track as my perception, and more detail, with help of the upper-mids. On NS9 that treble can come forward sometimes depending on the track, which you enjoy, but most of the time struggles to rescue itself from the dominant lows.
I love balanced-sounding earphones, NS9 is not one of them. Mids are laid back, I mean way back. Now the good stuff, when there is no bass to overpower, vocals are good, but depending on the tonality of the singer, so there are exceptions. When there is no overwhelming bass, acoustic tracks (and maybe Jazz too, I never listen to) are enjoyable.
Soundstage is above average, even better on some tracks, depending on the recording. Separation is good too, if! there is no bass to shadow the instruments of course.
Conclusion
Do you like deep, powerful, and heavy lows? You will be very happy with BGVP NS9 for sure. For the rest, there are better alternatives out there for sure.
I would like to thank HiFiGo for providing this review unit, it’s been a hard but honest journey.