Astell&Kern AK UW100 Review

AK UW100 is first true wireless earbuds from Astell&Kern, world-class portable music player brand.

Specification and Features

Appearance

The AK UW100 is designed in a pentagon shape, the faceplate retains the concept of “Spread of Light” just like the brand’s music players. The earphones are medium sized. The sound pipe is designed to easily tilt into the ear canal.

The case of the AK UW100 has a beautiful design that is as premium as the earbuds. The top is also a Spread of Light design and the touch surface is easy to touch, not sticky.

Sound

If you have used AK’s DAP before, It should be known that the AK has a unique sound tuning feature for a long time. That has been taken to the brand’s first wireless earbuds, the AK UW100 as well.

Background : The first highlight that I can feel is the quiet background, which makes every piece of music reveal itself outstandingly.

Sound stage and dimensions: The AK UW100 has a moderately wide inner stage size. The depth of sound is good, giving a feeling of being enclosed in moderation.

It looks like a Crossfeed system that simulates the atmosphere and sound direction as if listening from a speaker. The advantage is that it has a great center stage position and also reduces hearing fatigue from listening to music for long periods of time.

Lows: The low tones of the AK UW100 are responsive to the genre of music. The bass is a large ball that spreads well with a deep bass with a real Guitar Bass feel, not Electronics Bass. The Bass Drum sound give a clear impact, the collision is tight and the vibration is quite good.

Singer voice: The singer’s voice is natural. The thick, soft texture conveys the details of the vocals perfectly. The sound position is centered and has a clear focus. Therefore, the image of the vocals appears to be complete, full of sound, without any ambiguity.

High tone: In the high-tone area, it produces fine details, both sparkling sound and clarity. It gives a feeling of harmony with the overall tone very well, so it doesn’t make you feel that the highs are too high or too low.

Overall: The overall tone is considered Rich & Smooth that provides sound characteristics similar to the original brand’s players. The voice is meticulous. It is clean and does not feel cloudy or blurry. It reveals the details of each piece of music perfectly. It cans listen to a variety of genres such as Pop, Pop Rock, Jazz, Vocal. Howevery, If anyone is a Metal line who wants to be aggressive, this AK UW100 is probably not an option.

Application

Astell&Kern has made an application to support this model as well, named “AK TWS” which available to download for both iOS and Android.

The appearance of this application is considered quite well designed because it is simple and uncomplicated.

Ambient Level Control : Ambient Mode can be adjusted to 4 levels which at the 4th level is likely to be liked by office who want to listen to their colleagues’ voices because they can draw the conversations of people around them closer to ears and are quite clear. It can be said that the 4th level is extremely brutal, like having a mic eavesdropping on gossip, haha.

Equalizer : The AK has a mode to adjust the sound in all 5 types but unable to choose custom. The five types are as follows.

Default Mode > default

Bass Emphasis Mode > bass emphasis

High Emphasis Mode > Emphasize the highs and the transparency of the mids.

Vocal Emphasis Mode > Emphasis on vocals and soften other sounds

Game Mode > Provides a more enveloping sound dimension, emphasizes direction and reduces delay.

Tap Setting : You can change the touch settings as well. But in the current version there are still not much options to adjust. We have to wait and see if the new firmware AK will open up options for us to customize more or not.

Update : Of course, we can update the firmware through the AK TWS application. When there is an update to add more features or develop in other parts, it’s convenient to press update.

General use

Wearing : The body of the AK UW100 is quite large. At this point, many of you who have small ears, the earbuds will protrude on the outside, suggest that you have to test yourself before making a purchase.

But if you can wear it, you’ll find that the earbuds are easy to put on and extremely snug. It can block external sound very decisively, even if it doesn’t have ANC system. You can hardly hear any sounds coming from outside. And as for the Shell inside, there is no sharp part to cut the ears, making it quite comfortable to wear. There is no sharp part to cut the ears in shell inside, making it quite comfortable to wear.

Test delay : After testing the sound, then turn to try some general use. For example, trying to watch various video content, whether it’s YouTube, Netflix or playing games.

For receiving streaming content, it can pass the exam comfortably without worry, the sound that comes out with the image that is viewed with the eye is exactly the same, very satisfying. As for the gameplay, it has been tested with common basic games like PUBG Mobile and AOV with the iPhone 12 Mini, there is almost no sound delay to be seen at all.

Controls: The touch system is very responsive and works fast. Each side will be able to control various functions as follows.

Right side

• Play/Pause > Tap 1 time
• Receive/End a call > Tap 1 time
• Decline a call > Double tap
• Next Song > Tap twice.
• Previous Song > Tap 3 times
• Volume Up > touch and hold

Left side

• Ambient Mode On/Off > Tap 1 time
• Ambient Level > Double tap
• Voice Assistant > Tap 3 times
• Volume Down > touch and hold

Single-sided use : AK UW100 can be used independently of both sides, so you can use it on the left or right as you wish. But there is one point that I think the AK cares a lot about this.

When we use only one left earphone. The system will change the touch to be like the right side immediately. Allows us to tap to play-pause music and answer-end calls without having to go to settings in the application.

Connect 2 smartphones at the same time: If anyone wants to connect to two smartphones at the same time, the AK UW100 can do the following.

1. Connect Bluetooth to the first device first. Then turn off Bluetooth on the first device.
2. Then go to connect to the second device.
3. Once connected to the second device, turn on Bluetooth on the first device and tap on the name AK UW100.

Conclusion

The AK UW100 is considered another True Wireless earbuds in the industry that can provide excellent sound details. In terms of shape and design, it is as beautiful as the AK has always been.

So, if you like listening to music with fine detail, delicate tones, mids and outstanding vocals, then this AK UW100 is just for you.