Big name in portable music players, and moreover in luxury audiophile music players (models reach 4,000 euros), the Korean Astell & Kern is diversifying more and more.
After several high-end wired headphones, the brand has just announced its very first true wireless, the UW100.
Classic shape and without ANC, but its on top?
If it is difficult to form a definitive opinion only in photo, the UW100 are not particularly original on the form. The tactile back,
faceted, barely contrasts with the rather cold approach to design. Everything is very classic at first glance, from the general shape of the headphones to the box. Above all, we can deplore the absence of IP certification.
But the biggest criticism may well come from the lack of active noise reduction, an extremely rare feature for a model at 300 euros. Astell & Kern has a parade for this, as it advertises that the passive reduction (created by the end caps) is the ” best available
on true wireless “. A point that can be defended, if this reduction is as effective as that of the Shure Aonic Free. In addition, a four-position Ambient mode (sound feedback) is available, and adjustable from a dedicated smartphone application.
Positives on Bluetooth
Although all is not rosy on the form, the Bluetooth part is already much more ambitious. Powered by a Qualcomm Bluetooth 5.2 QCC5141 chip, the UW100s are compatible with the very modern AptX codec
Adaptive, while integrating the Multipoint connection (connection to several
devices simultaneously).
Another particularity is the use of a dedicated converter (DAC), in this case an AK4332 model from the Japanese brand AKM. Usually, true wireless uses the Bluetooth chip directly for the conversion.
The icing on the sound cake, Astell & Kern opts for a balanced armature transducer, and not a classic electrodynamic transducer. On paper, this type of loudspeaker is much more efficient in the treble, but often less “ample” in the bass.
The Astell & Kern UW100 will be available very soon, for a price of 300 euros.
Source: Astell & Kern press release
2