# BQEYZ Z3 BLUETOOTH CABLE



## acygni

https://penonaudio.com/bqeyz-z3-bluetooth-cable.html

Using the newer QCC3034 and AptX-HD, it looks like a great bang for the bucks on paper and should compete with bluetooth cables at similar price.

However, after trying it, I noticed it presents a good amount of white noise, like on a phone call or in cassette taps. I did not notice anything close to that with a Fiio RC-BT cable.

I was asked to take it apart and take some photos when I requested a return so I may as well also present them here in case anyone is interested:


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## GuywhoLikesHIFI

Hi, thanks for the heads up. Would you recommend the fiio cable? The TRN BT20S cable looks like a good option too.


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## acygni

GuywhoLikesHIFI said:


> Hi, thanks for the heads up. Would you recommend the fiio cable? The TRN BT20S cable looks like a good option too.


If you have to get a bluetooth cable the fiio is a good choice and if money isn't a problem for you look into the shure bt2 cable. I read the Westone ones also have noise.

But I am personally going for the fiio btr5


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## prophette

acygni said:


> If you have to get a bluetooth cable the fiio is a good choice and if money isn't a problem for you look into the shure bt2 cable. I read the Westone ones also have noise.
> 
> But I am personally going for the fiio btr5


I decided to try out a couple of AptX HD cables - the KZ cable and this BQEYZ Z3.  I wasn't expecting much from either at prices around $30 USD when other cables on Amazon are at least twice that price, if not much more like the Shure RMCE-BT2 and the Westone V2 cables at $150 each.  I started with the KZ cable and it honestly works very well.  There is a bit of hiss with the ZS10 but it's not too bothersome to me.  The biggest issue I have with it is that the cable I have shuts itself off after about 5 minutes with no audio going through it.  The cables are also pretty long and a bit unmanageable.  I solved that problem with attachable magnets I got on Amazon from a brand named MADD - the magnets are called Mband 2.  They're a little pricey but work really well to tame the long dangly cables.  I decided to take a chance on getting the Z3 from AliExpress because it claimed to support being connected to 2 devices at the same time.  I wasn't able to get this to work when trying to pair following the instructions in the user guide.  I could not get the cable to go back into pairing mode.  In fact, I would have concluded this is not a feature the cable supports until my husband called me and couldn't hear me so I disconnected Bluetooth on my phone to use the speaker instead.  When I got off the phone I noticed the red and blue lights were flashing as if in pairing mode.  I grabbed my tablet and paired it up with no issues.  And to my great surprise, when I turned re-enabled Bluetooth on the phone, it connected to that as well.  So although so far it does not seem to be good for calls, it does in fact seem to support multipoint connections and that makes up for the cables being too short to tame with another set of Mband magnets while in use.  I will probably attach a pair so that when they hang around my neck, they don't flop around as much.  But since it has a lower noise floor than the KZ and supports multipoint, I consider this cable to be a keeper.  At least until breaks.


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## acygni (Sep 4, 2019)

prophette said:


> I decided to try out a couple of AptX HD cables - the KZ cable and this BQEYZ Z3.  I wasn't expecting much from either at prices around $30 USD when other cables on Amazon are at least twice that price, if not much more like the Shure RMCE-BT2 and the Westone V2 cables at $150 each.  I started with the KZ cable and it honestly works very well.  There is a bit of hiss with the ZS10 but it's not too bothersome to me.  The biggest issue I have with it is that the cable I have shuts itself off after about 5 minutes with no audio going through it.  The cables are also pretty long and a bit unmanageable.  I solved that problem with attachable magnets I got on Amazon from a brand named MADD - the magnets are called Mband 2.  They're a little pricey but work really well to tame the long dangly cables.  I decided to take a chance on getting the Z3 from AliExpress because it claimed to support being connected to 2 devices at the same time.  I wasn't able to get this to work when trying to pair following the instructions in the user guide.  I could not get the cable to go back into pairing mode.  In fact, I would have concluded this is not a feature the cable supports until my husband called me and couldn't hear me so I disconnected Bluetooth on my phone to use the speaker instead.  When I got off the phone I noticed the red and blue lights were flashing as if in pairing mode.  I grabbed my tablet and paired it up with no issues.  And to my great surprise, when I turned re-enabled Bluetooth on the phone, it connected to that as well.  So although so far it does not seem to be good for calls, it does in fact seem to support multipoint connections and that makes up for the cables being too short to tame with another set of Mband magnets while in use.  I will probably attach a pair so that when they hang around my neck, they don't flop around as much.  But since it has a lower noise floor than the KZ and supports multipoint, I consider this cable to be a keeper.  At least until breaks.


Thanks for the input. In my case, I tried to use it with my phone and my computer and I had to re-pair it everytime I switch.

Fiio and shanling actually has some neckbands coming that actually has some decent dac/amp which are great alternatives.

And this for even more portability


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## prophette

acygni said:


> Thanks for the input. In my case, I tried to use it with my phone and my computer and I had to re-pair it everytime I switch.
> 
> Fiio and shanling actually has some neckbands coming that actually has some decent dac/amp which are great alternatives.
> 
> And this for even more portability


I've been tempted to buy the Fostex TM-2 but the price has kept me away and enough people have had issues with the TRN BT20s that I'm avoiding that one as well.  Hope this one is good.  Fiio has been on a roll lately.


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## gorman

acygni said:


> And this for even more portability


What model is this?!?


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## acygni

gorman said:


> What model is this?!?


Utws1 apparently.


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## gorman (Sep 18, 2019)

Thank you. Apparently MMCX only, unfortunately. It also uses the same chipset as TRN BT20S, Qualcomm QCC3020.


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## acygni

gorman said:


> Thank you. Apparently MMCX only, unfortunately.


There may be chance they will release a 2pin ver like with their silver cables if they really wanna compete with TRN and the other earhooks


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## gorman

acygni said:


> There may be chance they will release a 2pin ver like with their silver cables if they really wanna compete with TRN and the other earhooks


I'm surprised that Fostex still doesn't sell their TM2 earhooks independently from their IEMs.


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## acygni

gorman said:


> I'm surprised that Fostex still doesn't sell their TM2 earhooks independently from their IEMs.


Since they actually include the different connectors I think they see the earphones as the add on product rather than the other way arround. Still, it costs more than some mid upper range DAPs. I wouldn't pay more than $50 for this type of product personally.


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## gorman

Yeah, my point exactly. Too expensive for what it is.


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## LudoLVG

I was thinking of buying this cable. But does it have noise sound  ? 
I already own the trn bt20s that have noise floor. So don't want to be disappointed...
Thanks


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## Febri (Jun 18, 2020)

LudoLVG said:


> I was thinking of buying this cable. But does it have noise sound  ?
> I already own the trn bt20s that have noise floor. So don't want to be disappointed...
> Thanks


I can't compare it with BT20S, but I have KZ bluetooth cables (the 2nd gen one (black, aptx) and aptx HD one (grey)). The noise floor on Z3 is very very low, definitely the lowest from the 3 (with KZ aptx HD being the worst offender). I tested it using CCA C12 (the most sensitive iem in my possession) and I can only hear very very very faint noise on Z3. I need to concentrate to be able to hear it and not mistaken it with some other noise. I see some seller selling the 200mAh version (double battery live to 20ish hour and longer cable) so I went ahead and bought 2 more. Still need a couple of weeks before it arrives. Currently I have 2 of them (the 0.78 and mmcx variant) and both sounded the same.

I was really interested with BT20s but decided not to buy it since it lacked Aptx HD or LDAC and no volume control.

edit: as some people have posted later about the Z3 cable, it is possible that they have changed something, thus the audio quality can be horrible. Currently I advise anyone to stay away from this cable.


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## Febri (Jan 8, 2020)

A quick word about *the longer/20hr Z3 cable version. DON'T BUY IT!* The sound that come from this cable is a bit muffled/duller. It feels like they used some kind of noise suppression which ended up making everything duller. It does have a bit of noise, but probably a bit less than KZ 2nd gen BT cable. But if this is the cost of having low noise, I rather have KZ BT grey cable noise than this duller sounding cable.

*The normal one (short cable) is wonderful* tho, the best BT cable in my possession. Zero noise in my ear.

In case some people think I might have a defective cable, for each type I have 2 cables. MMCX and 0.78 for each short and long version. I'm using Tin T4, Blon03, TRN BA5 and CCA C12 for testing it.

edit: to be fair, some people might not be bothered by it. Just like some people can accept the different sound come from activating active noise cancelling or some probably just want a super relaxed sound, well, this cable might be right for you.


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## thefallenangelx

Febri said:


> A quick word about *the longer/20hr Z3 cable version. DON'T BUY IT!* The sound that come from this cable is a bit muffled/duller. It feels like they used some kind of noise suppression which ended up making everything duller. It does have a bit of noise, but probably a bit less than KZ 2nd gen BT cable. But if this is the cost of having low noise, I rather have KZ BT grey cable noise than this duller sounding cable.
> 
> *The normal one (short cable) is wonderful* tho, the best BT cable in my possession. Zero noise in my ear.
> 
> ...


I am undecided in between the z3 single and double battery. Can you please better report on the differences?
In addition can you send a picture of the MMCX connectors, please? Need to check if these are ok with my IEMs.
Thanks


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## Febri (Jan 13, 2020)

thefallenangelx said:


> I am undecided in between the z3 single and double battery. Can you please better report on the differences?
> In addition can you send a picture of the MMCX connectors, please? Need to check if these are ok with my IEMs.
> Thanks



 
The build quality is similar/the same. The physical difference is the cable length and 3 bulbous thing on the longer cable vs 2 on the shorter cable. Also you have some kind of length adjuster on the shorter cable.
The sound quality is totally different. The shorter cable is basically perfect (within the limitation of the codec and the chip inside), while the longer cable sounded muffled. Maybe because of the longer cable or the higher capacity, they felt the need to filter the noise? And yes, you do hear noise when it doesn't play anything on the longer cable. The noise volume is really low and shouldn't be a problem for most people. The shorter cable is practically noise free.
To sum it up, the differences are:
-Cable length.
-Battery life. The shorter one probably has around 8 to 10hr, while the longer cable around 20hr.
-Sound quality. The shorter cable has a normal sound (similar to like when you plug your iem to a headphone jack) while the longer cable has a muffled/duller sound (basically your iem will lose its sparkle)
-Noise. Practically zero noise on the shorter cable while you can hear a slight noise on the longer cable.

Personally, if you care about sound quality, just ignore the longer cable. If you want 20hr battery life, you should check TRN BT cable. They have 20hr version, but using older chip, thus not aptx-HD. With how this Z3 longer cable sounded, you won't lose anything going to aptx. What's the point of having aptx-HD when the sound is muffled?

edit: I said practically zero noise, but it does have noise. It just that it is very low compared to the previous BT cables that I have and depending on the iem, the noise can be almost unnoticeable. If I use TRN BA5 or CCA C12, the noise is more noticable. With Blon-03 and Tin T4, it is almost unnoticeable. With KZ grey cable, you will definitely notice the noise regardless of your iem.


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## thefallenangelx

Febri said:


> The build quality is similar/the same. The physical difference is the cable length and 3 bulbous thing on the longer cable vs 2 on the shorter cable. Also you have some kind of length adjuster on the shorter cable.
> The sound quality is totally different. The shorter cable is basically perfect (within the limitation of the codec and the chip inside), while the longer cable sounded muffled. Maybe because of the longer cable or the higher capacity, they felt the need to filter the noise? And yes, you do hear noise when it doesn't play anything on the longer cable. The noise volume is really low and shouldn't be a problem for most people. The shorter cable is practically noise free.
> To sum it up, the differences are:
> -Cable length.
> ...



clear, thanks for the explanations.
From the pics I can’t clearly see if the z3 MMCX connector has round or flat groove, can you please let me know?


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## Febri

thefallenangelx said:


> clear, thanks for the explanations.
> From the pics I can’t clearly see if the z3 MMCX connector has round or flat groove, can you please let me know?


  
Hopefully these images can answer your question.


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## thefallenangelx

Febri said:


> Hopefully these images can answer your question.


Thanks!


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## thefallenangelx

Febri said:


> Hopefully these images can answer your question.


Do you know if it is supporting AAC?
I just received it, but volume is really low compared to KZ BT cable (last version). As well as power on and power off voice is barely audible. I’m using iPhone.

thanks!


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## thefallenangelx

I finally received it but volume is really low compared to KZ, shUre, Elecom...
I have to raise my iphone volume to 90/100% to get decent volume.
Also power off and power on voice is barely audible.
Is it normale?


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## Febri

thefallenangelx said:


> I finally received it but volume is really low compared to KZ, shUre, Elecom...
> I have to raise my iphone volume to 90/100% to get decent volume.
> Also power off and power on voice is barely audible.
> Is it normale?


I don't think it is normal. Volume wise, mine is not that different from KZ cables.
As for AAC, I tried to test it but since I'm on Xiaomi android phone, I don't think I can connect to it in AAC mode. I tried every BT device that I have that claimed to be able to connect in AAC, but so far zero success. When I switch to AAC, the phone switched back to default (I can switch to sbc, aptx, aptxhd).


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## mikp

I have a couple of the aptx hd kz ones, but ordered also these in both versions.

What I would like as improvement is hiss or the white noise, and the ear hooks. The kz hooks, length is not comfortable, so will see with these.  but 18$ shipped a piece why not.


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## thefallenangelx

Febri said:


> I don't think it is normal. Volume wise, mine is not that different from KZ cables.
> As for AAC, I tried to test it but since I'm on Xiaomi android phone, I don't think I can connect to it in AAC mode. I tried every BT device that I have that claimed to be able to connect in AAC, but so far zero success. When I switch to AAC, the phone switched back to default (I can switch to sbc, aptx, aptxhd).


Well the supplier said that in the newest version they added a resistance to lower the hiss.
But that, I believe, decreased the volume to A LOT. Again, for me volume is insufficient (tried with both Tri i3 and Shouer Tape).

as regards to AAC, I have an iPhone, but don’t know how to check if it working AAC or just SBC...


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## percivalpelagio

my bqeyz z3 arrived june 17,2020.i got the short cable version and im really2 disappointed.its sound is muffled and grainy.the sound of the earliest kz bluetooth cable is way better than this.unacceptable sound quality for a aptx HD unit.its better to have a bit of hiss (w/c will be masked by the music anyway) than listening to a lo-fi sound.it really is a lo-fi sounding audio gear


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## Febri (Jun 18, 2020)

percivalpelagio said:


> my bqeyz z3 arrived june 17,2020.i got the short cable version and im really2 disappointed.its sound is muffled and grainy.the sound of the earliest kz bluetooth cable is way better than this.unacceptable sound quality for a aptx HD unit.its better to have a bit of hiss (w/c will be masked by the music anyway) than listening to a lo-fi sound.it really is a lo-fi sounding audio gear


It seems that what you're describing is similar to what my experience with the Z3 long cable version. Personally I haven't bought another Z3 cable after that, so I'm not sure if the new short version also suffer the same problem as the long one (muffled, relatively high noise floor... it seems like they use some kind of noise reduction + noise gate).
After that I ended up trying 2 brand of bluetooth cables. One is Pizen and another one is DR-30 (well, the brand name is something else, but the product name is DR-30).
Pizen has good built quality and long battery life (240mAh battery), the sound is normal with higher noise floor vs my good Z3 cable. The noise floor is probably similar to the KZ grey cable (aptx HD cable).
DR-30... I bought 2 types. The shortest one (160mAh) and the longest one (500mAh). The similar thing between both is the control part, which also house the USB type C port! The short one cable is kinda similar to Z3 cable and the noise profile reminded me of Z3 cable (the good one, not the muddy one).
*DR-30* long cable (*500mAh*) is the best one! The noise floor is actually lower than Z3 cable and DR-30 short cable, basically not noticeable to my ears. I use it to drive Tri i3 and I didn't notice any noticeable reduction in sound quality (I didn't try to find any defect or something like that tho, it just that when I use it to hear my normal library I didn't hear anything sounded off). This BT cable is probably the end game cable for me until the newer Bluetooth audio standard appeared (yes, they already have a new standard called LE Audio which will need Bluetooth 5.2) which probably will require new hardware on both ends. Basically the BT audio haven't really change since forever (except for better codec) and LE Audio should change that (and hopefully say goodbye to that horrible headset/handsfree profile).

This is the link to DR-30 cable https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000604862252.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.5a1a4c4diM1XQJ or you can search for DR-30 cable on aliexpress. It actually has 3 different types, 160, 180*, and 500mAh. The 500mAh use a flexible neckband style that you can roll it up and easily put the cable in your pocket (it has some stiffness and will return to its shape). From the image, the 180mAh use a different style if neckband, thus not sure how flexible it is
*Although they said that it is 180, the spec on the image in the description says 160mAh, So it is possible that the 160 and 180 model both has 160mAh battery with the next band as the only difference.

Also I want to add something. It took almost 3 month to arrive. Hopefully it is just because it was being held back by the pandemic. Normally I get item from China around 30 to 45 days.


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## Toastybob

Febri said:


> It seems that what you're describing is similar to what my experience with the Z3 long cable version. Personally I haven't bought another Z3 cable after that, so I'm not sure if the new short version also suffer the same problem as the long one (muffled, relatively high noise floor... it seems like they use some kind of noise reduction + noise gate).
> After that I ended up trying 2 brand of bluetooth cables. One is Pizen and another one is DR-30 (well, the brand name is something else, but the product name is DR-30).
> Pizen has good built quality and long battery life (240mAh battery), the sound is normal with higher noise floor vs my good Z3 cable. The noise floor is probably similar to the KZ grey cable (aptx HD cable).
> DR-30... I bought 2 types. The shortest one (160mAh) and the longest one (500mAh). The similar thing between both is the control part, which also house the USB type C port! The short one cable is kinda similar to Z3 cable and the noise profile reminded me of Z3 cable (the good one, not the muddy one).
> ...


Thanks for reporting about the DR-30 500mAh, I'm interested in it now too. How is the microphone quality? I hope it's better than the Z3, which I gave up on for calls because half the time people say they can't hear me. Also, can the DR-30 do multi point pairing?

I was finally able to pair two devices with the Z3 by pairing device 1, turning device 1 Bluetooth off, waiting for pairing, then pairing device 2. I'm not sure why I couldn't before. Maybe I turned the Z3 off and on again when it wasn't necessary.


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## Febri

Toastybob said:


> Thanks for reporting about the DR-30 500mAh, I'm interested in it now too. How is the microphone quality? I hope it's better than the Z3, which I gave up on for calls because half the time people say they can't hear me. Also, can the DR-30 do multi point pairing?
> 
> I was finally able to pair two devices with the Z3 by pairing device 1, turning device 1 Bluetooth off, waiting for pairing, then pairing device 2. I'm not sure why I couldn't before. Maybe I turned the Z3 off and on again when it wasn't necessary.


Sorry for replying really late. I had a busy transition from working at home (because of the pandemic) to back working at the office.

For pairing, I didn't really noticed any difference between all the cables that I have (back from the old KZ bluetooth cable). Having said that, I don't really remember the specifics about how I got to pair my cables to the devices, but every single of them can pair (and remember) up to 2 devices.
As for microphone quality, I haven't got the time to compare DR-30 and the DR-30 500mAh, but I have received several phone calls while using the 500mAh version and nobody have complained about not hearing my voice (not a single of them have asked me to repeat what I was saying). Since I use Xiaomi phones which has a built in voice call recorder, when I listened to it, I think it sounded fine. When the voice is not clear, it seems to be caused by the background noise cancelling or something like that but overall it is usable. I can imagine in a random noisy environment it might have a bit of trouble but then it is probably the same as other cable using Qualcomm chipset.

Right now I'm using the cable with Legacy 3 and I'm noticing a slight bit of hiss compared to Tri i3. It isn't distracting in any way but I just want to point that out since when I used i3 I wrote that I can't hear any noise.
A bit OT, I use L3 right now because it is lighter and fit really well. Sound wise, I like the i3 a lot more than L3. I have no problem wearing the i3 for a whole day, but L3 just fit my ear like I'm not even wearing it.


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## mikp

heres another type
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/400...earchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_


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## Febri

mikp said:


> heres another type
> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/400...earchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_


From what I see, the main difference between 5125 (used in this cable) vs 3034 (used in the cable I mentioned in my previous post) is that 5125 can use aptx adaptive (which should be better with latency and maintaining connection vs aptx HD) and ANC. They say it has better noise reduction because of the ANC although it doesn't have a button to enable/disable it. I assume it is better noise reduction for voice call tho, otherwise if it's always on, the battery life will not be that great and I certainly don't want to enable ANC all the time because of the drop in quality when ANC is enabled.
I probably will wait for something with next gen BT which should enable high quality audio input and output at the same time so potentially you can use compatible BT headphone/cable for something like gaming.
Anyway, there is also a BT cable with the same form factor and battery as that 500mAh cable but using this 5125 chipset. I probably won't buy it, but if I'm in the market to buy a new BT cable with a big battery, I'll probably by that. Hopefully they don't mess with the sound (nobody should be subjected to the Z3 long cable sound).


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## mikp

I have a few of these, kz and trn aptx only, and kz and z3 aptx-hd. The z3 has a slight hiss with the zs10 pro, but none with some other buds. The z3 seems fine enough for me to not spend anymore right now.

I really dont like the type with hard plastic that hugs the neck like the trn. And with the kz aptx-hd..did they get the cables real cheep, way too long.


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## Toastybob

mikp said:


> heres another type
> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/400...earchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_


That has a good review already, with comments on the noise.


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## mikp

Toastybob said:


> That has a good review already, with comments on the noise.



I did get this one, no little hiss with the zs10 pro. So I gave the z3 cable to someone that did not have hiss with their buds.


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## jant71

Anybody think of trying this one...


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