what headphones to use with astell and kern

At a glance

Expert'south Rating

Pros

• Incredible audio
• Piece of cake-to-chief bear on controls
• Nigh perfect isolation from racket

Cons

• Equalization software doesn't add together much
• Very big, probably too large for people with small ears

Our Verdict

Astell&Kern has a well-earned reputation for building audiophile-grade high-res digital audio players. At present it has surprisingly affordable in-ear monitors worthy of pairing with that loftier-priced gear.

Astell&Kern has a sterling reputation in the audiophile world, and so you have to recollect they carefully considered the decision before they put the A&Thou name on a pair of wireless in-ear headphones priced for a broader market. The AK UW100 utilize engineering science originally developed for the visitor's hi-fi gear and certainly qualify as a product that deserves the Astell&Kern name.

Building high-quality in-ear headphones is quite the challenge. Sure, there are plenty of cheap earbuds that will continue a Bluetooth connection and there are also plenty of listeners who tin't tell the difference or don't intendance.

This review is office of TechHive's coverage of the all-time headphones, where you'll find reviews of the competition's offerings, plus a buyer'southward guide to the features you lot should consider when shopping for this type of product.

When a manufacturer aspires to something better, they're usually tripped upward at the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) stage. About choose depression power consumption DACs to maximize battery life, but that trade-off severely limits the audio quality they can deliver.

Astell&Kern believes it has solved the trouble by tapping amplifier and audio circuit technology originally developed for its digital sound players. The AK UW100 uses an Asahi Kasei AKM AK4332 32-flake DAC to deliver a much better audio feel than the competition.

The AK UW100 also use Knowles balanced armature drivers instead of the dynamic drivers commonly used for standard in-ear headphones. Balanced armature drivers are known for their accurate music reproduction and they're a common feature in pro-level in-ear phase monitors.

Your eyes aren't deceiving you. The A&K AK UW100 are very large in-ear headphones.

Astell&Kern

Pattern

Each earbud has a pentagon-shaped confront with the speaker post protruding from the bottom of the earbud. They're not small devices by whatsoever stretch, but they sit down comfortably in the ear with the proper eartip. Users with very modest ears may detect them to exist too bulky, but AK UW100 earphones offering a distinctive expect that's in line with the other gear that Astell&Kern manufactures.

Dealing with dissonance

Astell&Kern touts its passive dissonance isolation (PNI) as an improvement over the active racket cancellation (ANC) virtually every other noise-cancelling wireless headphone uses. The company says it'south better at blocking racket in the mid and high ranges, whereas ANC concentrates on low frequencies and ignores everything else.

In do, PNI delivers an effective noise-blocking experience with none of the eardrum suck and music distortion common to fifty-fifty the nearly highly rated ANC earbuds and headphones. I didn't hear outside noises, and the music sounded similar there was no processing at all. This is a significant accomplishment. With these headphones, noise isolation is achieved physically, versus electronically, so there'due south no on or off land. Simply when yous do want to hear what's happening around you lot, yous can plough on ane of four iv levels of ambience sound.

The AK UW100 transport with five sizes of ear tips and so y'all can attain just the right fit.

Astell&Kern

Controls

I've plant that headphones with touch on controls tin can exist irritatingly choosy and very hard to master. That's non the case with the AK UW100—the bear upon controls here are ameliorate than whatever other headphone I've tested.

A&M'southward engineers used the pentagon shape of the earbuds to develop a slap-up solution. V flat panels on the surface that meet in a raised indicate on the earbud. That point is the location a user taps to command the AK UW100 earphones.

A single tap on the left-hand earbud engages ambience listening mode and a single tap on the right is supposed to break and restart play. You lot tin can also intermission music by removing on of the earbuds from your ear. This seems like an obvious solution, but credit A&Grand for removing one of the most frustrating pain points for anyone who'southward struggled with Bluetooth in-ear headphones.

The AK UW100 uses Qualcomm'due south QCC5141 Bluetooth chipset and support the latest Bluetooth standard: 5.2. Support for the aptX Adaptive codec promises 24-fleck streaming with compatible devices. The codec also promises to reduce latency.

Fully charged earbuds offer 6 hours of playback and up to 24 hours with a full charge to the case. That's non equally long every bit other popular earbuds, just information technology's an impressive number when you consider how much better the AK UW100'south DAC is. In a compression, a 10-minute charge will requite you 1 hr of playback. The instance charges with either a USB-C cable or wireless charging. The earbuds come up with five sizes of ear tips.

It's hard to believe the AK UW100 are Astell&Kern's first true wireless earphones. They sound astounding.

Astell&Kern

Telephone calls

Astell&Kern included two microphones in each earbud and uses vocalization technology from Alango that provides acoustic echo-counterfoil and noise-suppression technologies to improve telephone call quality.

You can pair the AK UW100 earphones to multiple devices at once and multipoint technology will allow you to watch a moving-picture show on your tablet but seamlessly answer calls to your phone when both are connected to the earphones.

Astell&Kern has developed an AK TWS app that's available from both the iOS and Google Play stores. The app gives an exact battery level for each earbud, allows you to appoint and disengage the Ambient mode, and ready its level. There's also an blaster and yous tin can conform the tap settings from within the app.

Playback

Aside from default mode, the in-app equalizer offers bass emphasis mode, high emphasis manner, song emphasis mode, and game mode. These earbuds are so perfectly tuned that I couldn't really figure out a reason to use whatever of the other equalization settings.

The AK UW100 offer an impressive amount of bass in that the bass is always present but never over-emphasized. These volition not accommodate anyone who's nonetheless in love with the original Beats tuning, but they're versatile enough to smoothen with almost every genre of music.

With a full charge, the AK UW100 will deliver up to vi hours of wireless playback. The charging case extends that to 24 hours.

Astell&Kern

Whether it was Max Richter's Slumber album, Moneybagg Yo & BIG30'south hip hop unmarried "Get!" or Roni Size & Reprazent's classic pulsate 'due north' bass album New Forms, the AK UW100 offered a booming low end while playing music that many earbuds just tin handle.

There's an impressive amount of detail when turning to a wide multifariousness of guitar music, such as Prince'south Originals album, Radiohead'south The Bends, Slayer'due south Reign in Blood, or Angel Olsen's My Woman. The designers have managed to striking a sweet spot that makes these a fantastic choice for anyone with wide gustation in music or even someone who'due south devoted to a single genre.

Summing up

The Astell&Kern AK UW100 true wireless Bluetooth earphones are an impressive combination of technology and sense of taste. The balanced armature drivers and high-quality DAC certainly contribute to the outstanding quality of these headphones, but it'due south ultimately the ears of the people who tuned the AK UW100 that deserve the credit for making these such an infrequent choice. They are truly special.

You'll be able to pre-order the Astell&Kern AK UW100 starting Monday, March 28. The earphones will exist available for purchase from authorized A&Grand dealers on April 11.

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Source: https://www.techhive.com/article/626387/astellkern-ak-uw100-review.html

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