Claiming an earphone, ‘Best under 50$’ at the verge of 2019 is now a difficult job, especially when Chinese audio brands continuously filling the market by budget earphones without even showing some mercy to their previous ones. I have tried many of these budget earphones, but strangely they are all same under different shell designs. Recently I have received another budget earphone from Penon Audio for review which is MaGaosi BK50 and after using it, surprised why I haven’t tried it before?

Specifications of MaGaosi BK50

• Type – In-Ear Straight,
• Color – Gold,
• Driver – 1 Dynamic and 1 Balanced Armature,
• Sensitivity – 101dB / mW,
• Frequency Response – 20-20kHz,
• Impedance – 32Ω,
• Material – Anodized Aluminum + Walnut wood shell,
• Cable Type – Fixed,
• Cable Length – 120 cm,
• Mic – Yes (3 Button),
• Plug – 3.5mm Gold plated Straight,
• Weight – 30 g.

Product Link – Here

What’s inside the Box of MaGaosi BK50 ?

• MaGaosi BK50 earphone,
• 3 pairs of Red medium bore silicone ear tips (S/M/L),
• 1 Pair of Black wide bore silicone ear tips (M),
• Carry pouch,
• User Guide & warranty card.

Presentation

MaGaosi BK50 comes inside a relatively big box. The top of the box shows the branding and a colored image of the actual earphone, MaGaosi also clearly mentioned the sound signature of BK50 on the top of the box which is almost correct. The backside of the box, all the specifications have been printed clearly. The earphone, tips have been secured with foam inside the box. All other accessories placed under that foam. So the presentation is simple but the box could have smaller.

Build

Build quality is good, especially the IEM part. IEM shell has been divided into 2 parts, the front matt black nozzle side is made out of anodized aluminum and the backside is made out of walnut wood. On the wooden part, another champagne gold aluminum plate has been used only for aesthetics. MaGaosi BK50 is an open back earphone; the opening at the backside is covered by aluminum grills. The front nozzle is long and angled; the diameter of the nozzle is 5mm and also covered with fine dust grill. Cable quality is decent. Not very thick nor too thin. The cable has a soft rubber finishing, and easy to tangle. Both Y splitter and 3.5 mm plug are sleek and the 3 button mic button quality is decent too.

Design

MaGaosi BK50 reminds me 1More triple drivers, design, and color-wise they both have lots of similarities. MaGaosi BK50’s design is good. The combination of the wood and champagne gold aluminum ring is eye-catching. From 3.5 mm plug to the Y splitter the same color scheme has been maintained too. BK50 is not an over-the-ear style earphone which is very common nowadays. There is only a flaw in the design, i.e. the front nozzle doesn’t have tip lip.

Source

While listening to MaGaosi BK50, I have noticed that BK50 loves powerful sources and quality music sources. BK50 is not that easy to drive but can be driven by smartphones at around 80-90% volume. With high-end sources and powerful AMPs, the BK50 is a different beast. With poorly mastered tracks MaGaosi BK50 is less-forgiving, so good quality music files are must-have. I have used Dethonray DTR1, Fiio Q5 and Ibasso DC02 with BK50 after 50 hours of burn-in in this review.

Comfort, Noise Isolation & Tip Selection

MaGaosi BK50 is comfortable to wear, once you get a proper fit. The supplied tips are good but I have used some third party tips like Spinfit CP240. Noise isolation also good. Wide bore tips and narrow bore tips have an important impact on the sound which I have described in the sound part so tip selection depends on the listener.

3 Button Microphones

MaGaosi BK50 has a 3 button in-line control with a microphone. Microphone quality is good, but with Android in-line control supports are limited. Middle button single-click for play/pause and double click for next track but three-click doesn’t support previous track function. Rest two-button only works as the volume control.

Tracks/ Albums used with MaGaosi BK50

• Tales of America – J.S. Ondara,
• 21 – Adele,
• Brothers in Arms – Dire Straits,
• Robbie Robertson – Sinematic,
• Daft Punk – Random Access Memories,
• Michael Jackson – Thriller,
• Ed Sheeran – ÷ (Deluxe),
• Fleetwood Mac – Rumours,
• Fleetwood Mac – Tango In The Night (Deluxe),
• Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of The Moon (2011 – Remaster),
• Back To Black – Amy Winehouse,
• The Beatles – Abbey Road (Remastered),
• The Best Of Nina Simone – Nina Simone,
• This Is Acting – Sia.

Sound

MaGaosi BK50 is a warm sounding earphone and the tuning is almost ‘V’ shaped. As you can see the frequency response graph, the midrange is not totally recessed so I can say it’s almost ‘V’ shaped.  A proper L & R channel matching also can be seen in BK50 too. Let’s discuss further the sound part.

Bass

The size and material of the dynamic driver are not mentioned anywhere, so speculating the lower frequency response, is not possible before using it. Once you start listening to MaGaosi BK50 the lower frequency part suddenly jumps on your senses and the experience is mind-blowing. The combined performance of the sub-bass and mid-bass is really great. The rumble in the sub-bass area is heart-melting in the tracks like ‘Family Man (Extended Guitar Version)’ by Fleetwood Mac. Mid-bass warmth with super-fast speed and accuracy turn BK50 into a very fun sounding earphone. With good sources, BK50 could be a great choice for bass lovers.

Mids

Mid-range is definitely recessed, yet not placed too backward. First of all, no bass bleed in the midrange is present which is a great thing. Lower mids are more recessed than upper mids. The 1khz boost presence in the midrange makes the string instruments sounding crisp. The 3khz boost in the upper midrange turns vocals especially female, sound more energetic. The texture is present in both male and female vocals, songs like ‘Shanghai Blues’ by Robbie Robertson and ‘Set fire to the Rain’ by Adele sounding way better than any traditional ‘V’ shaped tuned 100$ IEM.

Treble

The BA driver model is unknown, and most probably responsible for the highs. The drop between the 4Khz to 8Khz is responsible for less sharp trebles and the peak in the 10khz range makes MaGaosi BK50 a less spicy but sparkling earphone. Songs like ‘Human Nature’ by Michael Jackson sounding airy transparent. I am personally treble sensitive and always avoid KZ IEMs for their sharp treble presentation but BK50 managed to please me with a moderate sparkling treble reproduction.

Soundstage & Imaging

The soundstage & Imaging is extremely good. The stage is not extremely wide but enough to create a holographic experience with well-mastered tracks like ‘ I don’t want to know’ by Fleetwood Mac. May be depth is low by width and height is present. The imaginary stage is also very good, in some particular songs I can feel the vocals and instruments paying from different areas of my room, by simply closing my eyes. MaGaosi BK50 has managed to perform well in busy tracks too.

Comparison with MaGaosi BK50

I have tried almost 10/15 sub 50$ IEM this year, and yes some of them are very good like BQEYZ KB100 and BGVP SGZ-DN1S but still, there are some areas where they lack. Some of them are not capable of presenting good sub-bass, some of them suffer from rolled of treble but MaGaosi BK50 just nailed all of them with an overall good presentation. I am not going to compare BK50 with any popular budget earphones because they are too many such and I don’t have all of them or the particular one, which you want to BK50 to be compared with.

Conclusion

MaGaosi BK50 is definitely a good sounding earphone. It has satisfied all the requirements to be a good sounding earphone. For anyone searching for a non-over-the-ear good earphone under 50$, BK50 is a great choice.

Palash

Graphic Designer by Profession, and Music is my hobby. Can’t recall when I had started digging the Audiophile rabbit hole, but this Website was created in 2019 to showcase my passion for music. I am not an Audiophile, I call myself a Music Enthusiasts and my goal is to pass that enthusiasm to my readers.