VE Bonus IE came out in late 2019 as I remember. As for today, I think it’s still worth the asking price of 20$. Although it’s on the bassy side for my taste, the mids and treble performance are very good for an IEM in this price range. It certainly deserves an mmcx mod to take its place in my collection. With better colour and less bass of course 🙂 Let’s get into it.
Opening this one is not easy. VE did a good job here. After heating the joint point with my hand torch and trying to be polite with an opening tool sticking in between the front and rear cavities I had no luck. My hands were not strong enough to pull them out while it was hot. So I used two pliers (with some cloth between two metals). Even to be able to turn two parts is not enough you have to pull them to opposite sides. After some more tries and some small defects on the shell, they finally come loose.
Prepared the cable length and solder on the tip. Applied sanding with the Dremel tool to take out all the paint on the shells.
The hole is smaller than the mmcx connector so I have to make it bigger.
I also made the back air pressure hole a little bigger, around 0.5mm more, to test the sound for slightly less bass afterwords.
Another problem was, that the back shell is not large enough to apply the nut from inside. So I used an old trick. Cut the nut in half and jammed it in between the mmcx connector and the shell and tighten it up. Tested it afterwards with good force, it’s rock solid.
Also applied some glue around the mmcx connector (inside) to prevent any air leaks.
Soldered the cables to the connector.
Put a tiny red gasket between the mmcx connector and the shell for the “right” IEM.
Closed the shell and tested for sound. I’m always so happy when sound comes from the IEMs after the first try 🙂 After closing the shells I applied some more sanding for a more metallic look (and feel). I always like this old metal look, with some scars on them. I used to mod old motorbikes once. When Turkey was a more normal-like country.
After some more listening, I realized that making the back hole slightly bigger worked for less bass, the soundstage also felt a bit more wider. But interestingly the overall sound felt better than the original, maybe the cable + mods, maybe it’s just in my head 🙂
After some more sanding and polishing, this is the end result.
How does it look?
Thanks for reading.