Do you bear in mind the primary time you tried one thing apart from the crappy plastic earbuds that got here along with your cell machine? I recall studying a discussion board publish 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 bounce from entry-level wi-fi earbuds like AirPods to a premium pair like the brand new Astell & Kern UW100. With wonderful 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, in addition to look higher than the versions from Apple, Samsung, and others. The UW100 show that we’re lastly getting higher sound for our further {dollars}, they usually may make a couple of audiophiles reduce the twine when out and about.
Form and Function
Photograph: Astell & Kern
If you’re not into hoarding FLAC recordsdata 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 just lately has it taken the deep dive into higher-end mainstream audio merchandise.
When it involves each design and audio efficiency, the technological trickle-down is obvious. Astell & Kern is prepared to promote merchandise for underneath $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 may 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 type may be very fashionable, you may 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. However, the case is a bit giant and really plasticky, which I wouldn’t count on from buds that value almost twice as a lot as AirPods. I could dislike Apple’s fundamental buds, however the case is twice as modern and half the dimensions.
Despite having no ear fins, the UW100 match extraordinarily nicely in my medium-sized ears. I’ve been in a position to take them on lengthy runs, do yard work, and customarily putter about with out ever dropping a bud. Of course, that is partly a fluke: Unless your ears are equivalent to mine, your mileage could range. But so long as you don’t have small ears (these are on the medium-large facet of the spectrum, however not loopy enormous), they need to fit your needs simply advantageous.
Well 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’ wonderful passive noise isolation. At occasions, I swore these earbuds had energetic noise canceling, since they blocked out the surface world so nicely. This is a undeniable 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 in the event you purchase these buds.
