Do you keep in mind the primary time you tried one thing apart from the crappy plastic earbuds that got here along with your cell gadget? I recall studying a discussion board submit on-line, shopping for a then spendy $100 pair of Shure headphones, and blowing my very own thoughts once I plugged them into my iPod Nano.
That’s the feeling you get if you leap from entry-level wi-fi earbuds like AirPods to a premium pair like the brand new Astell & Kern UW100. With glorious digital-to-analog conversion, bespoke drivers, and a modern design, I can see these being a straightforward entry level
for aspiring audiophiles.
It’s taken a while for high-end wi-fi earbuds to do something particular, moreover look higher than the variations from Apple, Samsung, and others. The UW100 show that we’re lastly getting higher sound for our further {dollars}, and so they would possibly make just a few audiophiles lower the wire when out and about.
Type and Perform
{Photograph}: Astell & Kern
If you happen to’re not into hoarding FLAC information and dropping hundreds of {dollars} on attractive digital gamers, it’s very probably you’ve by no means heard of Astell & Kern. The small audio model has made acclaimed digital-to-analog converters, headphone amps, and transportable gamers for the Rolex class for years, however solely lately has it taken the deep dive into higher-end mainstream audio merchandise.
With regards to each design and audio efficiency, the technological trickle-down is evident. Astell & Kern is prepared to promote merchandise for beneath $500 now, however the engineers are nonetheless unwilling to promote bad-sounding ones.
The jagged, gem-like exterior of every earbud instantly stands out amidst a bunch of wi-fi buds that seem like golf tees. They’re like one thing you would possibly spot in a Star Trek spinoff, doubling as fancy space-age communicators. That’s to not say the buds don’t feel and appear elegant, however until your private model may be very trendy, you would possibly discover them a bit flashy.
Such visible cues are par for the course from Astell & Kern, which makes use of jagged edges as a centerpiece of its design language. Nevertheless, the case is a bit massive and really plasticky, which I wouldn’t count on from buds that value practically twice as a lot as AirPods. I could dislike Apple’s primary buds, however the case is twice as modern and half the scale.
Regardless of having no ear fins, the UW100 match extraordinarily nicely in my medium-sized ears. I’ve been capable of take them on lengthy runs, do yard work, and customarily putter about with out ever dropping a bud. After all, that is partly a fluke: Except your ears are similar to mine, your mileage could differ. However so long as you don’t have small ears (these are on the medium-large aspect of the spectrum, however not loopy big), they need to suit you simply effective.
Effectively Sorted
Sound high quality is the true showstopper with the UW100, although. A 32-bit digital-to-analog converter and customized balanced armature drivers pair with help for the aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codec to ship the cleanest, most detailed audio I’ve ever heard from wi-fi earbuds.
A large soundstage and assertive (however not overly boomy) bass are aided by the headphones’ glorious passive noise isolation. At occasions, I swore these earbuds had energetic noise canceling, since they blocked out the surface world so nicely. This can be a proven fact that Astell & Kern’s engineers clearly acknowledged too; you’ll be able to activate Ambient mode with a faucet of an exterior contact sensor, and you will find your self utilizing it should you purchase these buds.