AAW Nebula One
A review.

 
 
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Tracks Used In The Review:

Kinderspiele by Esther O  from Five Songbirds – A Reference Collection
Hotel California (Live) by Eagles, from the Hell Freezes Over – The Reunion album
A Case of You by K. D. Lang  from the Hymns of the 49th Parallel
Eye Of The Storm by Scorpions from Return To Forever album
Faster Than The Speed of Night by Bonnie Tyler & Meat Loaf from Heaven & Hell album
You Are Loved (Don't Give Up) by Josh Groban from A Collection album
Revolution Roulette by Poets Of The Fall from Revolution Roulette album

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Almost five years ago, my friend Jay Tana and I had a brief discussion about the future of universal headphones.  We projected then that budget-fi will eat up the mid-fi’s market share.
 
Recently, we are seeing this trend unfolding.  USD 100.00 products are giving the midtier products a run for their money.  A perfect example is this open-back universal monitors from Advanced Acoustic Werkes (AAW), the Nebula One.   Although getting old now the One still regales and engages.  What made it more relevant now is the introduction of its sibling, the Two.  Immediately, as with real human siblings, comparisons are made.
First things first.  I’ve had the One for more than four months now.  Despite owning several headphones, the Nebula One managed to get decent ear time simply because it is comfortable and easy to drive.
 

 

 
 
Packaged in a rectangular black box, this AAW came with 6 pairs of silicon ear-tips, a rubber carrying pouch, an inflight and a ¼ inch adapters, then there is the usual user’s manual and warranty card.  The zippered carrying case has travelled with me in the past three months.  It has withstood some rough handling in hotels and airports. 
The flat disc driver cabinets are akin to the Dita Answer driver shells.  Due to the One’s vented back it is almost half as light as the Dita but may be just as comfortable, if not, slightly more so.  Problem arises when using the One outdoors because it just doesn’t seal.  Open-back design is more suitable for use indoors or on a relatively quiet bus-rides.    Inflight, the Nebula sounds acceptable but I was easily distracted by the movements of the passengers around me.
 
I suspect that most people won’t find an issue when it comes to wear comfort with this IEM.   They might when it comes to the cable though.  Yes, the cable tangles easily and has at times taken me a minute or two to disentangle it.   Over time, the sheathing becomes a bit sticky.  Beyond that little objection, I find the PTT microphone to be at best tolerably sensitive for mobile telephony, with barely audible microphonics.  Its right-angled 1/8 inch gold-plated plug looks and feels sturdy enough to outlast the cable to which it is attached.
Another thing that behooves mentioning is the ear hook guides.  Out of the box, my impression was it looked thin, ugly and poorly made.  I have since changed my opinion about it.  It is adequately fabricated with practical pliability.  And precisely because it is wire-thin, it makes itself scarcely felt when worn.
 
 

 
SOUND IMPRESSIONS
 
PRESENTATION
 
You must be thinking, open-back must have a wide stage, right?
Correct.  It does.
 
However, as post-War affluence grows, people’s experience in this hobby has also been defined by how hifi home rigs sound.   The openness of the AAW Nebula One is dissimilar to those hifi setups.  The vented back whilst giving it a freer sound, also takes away the room feel of the stereo image.   Anyone who’s had the chance of auditioning hifi systems with proper bass absorber panels and room acoustic treatments, know that the image reproduced isn’t that of a boundless open-field.  It is defined by the size of the room.  That is the stage that we have come to acclimatize.
 
Whether good or bad, the One isn’t like those hifi systems.  There were times when I found the sound quite liberating.  Then, there were also times when I found it wanting serious forward depth.
 
Recently, a friend in this hobby also asked me if it sounds like a miniature Sennheiser HD800?  No.  The 800 has a more distant feel.  Its sound source has the psychoacoustic to render it coming from outside the headphones.  The Nebula being in-ear, is way more intimate.  Having tested the newer Nebula Two, the midrange (particularly the vocals) has been tuned to sound a little farther back; thus giving it an illusion of depth.
 
Instrument separation is very good with the warmth acting as a thread that ties everything together. 
 
 
 
ARTICULATION
 
For a titanium-plated dynamic driver priced at USD 100,  the Nebula One certainly deserves admiration.  However, its bumped up midbass (around 200 Hertz) often drags its feet.  Though by no means a permanent fixture, the heightened midbass when it does rear its head, really stays.  In K. D. Lang’s “A Case Of You” (FLAC 24/192), the opening piano has sub-harmonics flying all over the place.  Midbass adds weight to the notes but One prolongs the decay, making the midbass linger and resonate in ear, and at times, it does give the impression of poor-timing and blurs the image.
 
For tracks from the Swedish House Mafia or even the Poets Of The Fall, the accentuated midbass and forward midrange of the One is nigh perfect.  Save for the occasional bleeding into the midrange, the large and thick midbass is absolutely lovely.
 
 
 
TONAL BALANCE
 
If this were to be drawn in a chart, the resulting graph would probably look like a fat “n”.   Nebula One’s midrange, like Bruce Lee’s gait, the thrusted groin leads the charge, followed by the low-end kicks.  The treble range is largely focused on the low-treb push.  Roll-off occurs around 8 kHz.   In brief comparison with another hundred dollar IEM, the Suzaku EN700 from Simgot the One sounds more correct in its midrange presentation.  EN700’s is high-octave emphatic. 
 

 
 
“Kinderspiele” by Esther O. is quite engaging with the right-banked strings appearing palpably close.  Though crisp, midbass is prominently present in each pluck.  This is true in almost all kinds of stringed instruments played out of the Nebula.   It must be said however that the elevation in One’s midbass response isn’t anywhere close to the Sennheiser IE80’s zip code.   That, laid down, even with the a portable rig powerful enough to drive the 300-ohm HD800, there just isn’t enough sub-bass out of the Nebula One.
 
Josh Groban and Adele are my faves for this IEM.  They just pair exceedingly well for a mobile phone (iPhone 6S Plus and iPhone 7) source.  Groban is a slightly better choice than Adele in this but both demonstrably outperform more complex tracks.  The limitation of a single-driver IEM can be felt when playing heavy metal tracks.   Fast, bright and complex, the One fumbles and sounds rattled.  Moving to something less demanding, Bonnie Tyler’s duet with Meat Loaf in “Faster Than The Speed of Night”, the splashy cymbal crashes are crisp, dry and bright.  Tyler’s throaty voice rises above the din of percussions and strings.  If only the drums can hit harder and deeper… This IEM would be perfect for mobile phone use.
 
This roll-off in the lower midbass towards the sub-bass frequencies couldn’t be more obvious than when the newer Two is A/B’d with the One.  In Eagle’s Hell Freeze Over album, the oft-mentioned Hotel California played live onstage, has the first kickbass hitting at 0:00:33.  That first kick just isn’t deep enough to be satisfyingly real.   A/B it with the Two, the difference in bass response is starkly contrasting. 
 
 
 
TEXTURE
 
Because of the overstaying and overfed midbass, there are certain bass instruments that may appear to be smoothed.  However, owing to its forward midrange, vocals sound like they have the spotlight trained on them.  Impressively detailed and textured, One does midrange right.  In the highs, anyone with a low-threshold for brightness may find the occasional peakiness of this Nebula to be quite glaring. 
 
 
 

 
 
CONCLUSION
 
Less expensive but with performance approximating the midfi products, budget-fi IEMs are killing the mid-tier monitors.  Save for the abovementioned midrange quirk, I am perfectly happy with the Nebula One and iPhone 7 as my on-the-go music entertainment.   If only I don’t have the Two, the One would still be the one.

Project Palaios IONA (Rosewood)


 

 



 

 

 

 

It’s infinitely difficult to judge sources without qualifications.  Come to think of it, everything becomes relative to something else when the assessment involves terms like “better than” and “lesser than”.  Take the case of the new Project Palaios Iona portable amplifier. I have been very fortunate to receive a loaner unit with a Black Cow interconnect courtesy of Mr. Wong Kwan Wae of Singapore.  Both have been with me for a week before any appreciative or critical thought was allowed to congeal into judgments that I am now struggling to transmit to my laptop as comprehensible words.




Encased in cured and finely sanded Rosewood, the Iona couldn’t scream any louder its desire to be different.  In a world of metal enclosures, Iona sticks out like a Caucasian in the streets of Praetoria.   Measuring 3.5 inches x 2.13 inches x 1 inch (length, width, thickness), the amplifier looks thick but is a joy to hold.  I’ve heard of people complaining about the smooth metal surfaces of portable amps being too slippery in hand, the Iona’s cured but unpainted wood case provides plenty of grip.  The build and finish may hint of custom DIY but the feel is solid and smooth.




Because only one side holds all the ports and knob, there’s no mistaking which side is the front and which is the rear.  Topside up, the rightmost control is the volume pot; the middle 3.5mm jack is the headphone out terminal while the leftmost 3.5mm port is the audio line-in.  There is no dedicated power on button.  Turning the volume knob clockwise powers on the amp with the blue LED indicator sitting flush between the two 3.5mm jacks.



At the rear is a hinged battery door that is held shut (rather weakly) by two steel pins and a magnet.  Lifting the door reveals a connector for a 9v battery and the internal gut of the Iona.   Based on my one-week of usage, the 9v Alkaline Energizer battery lasted me around 17 hours before the blue indicator light started to flicker and the volume weakened.

 

 



 

 

 

 


During the week that I had the Iona, I was also given the opportunity to borrow Ajay Santos’ Apex Glacier for comparison.  Both the Glacier and the Iona are warm-sounding amps but the latter sounded about two or three notches closer to the neutral or flat frequency amplification than the Apex.  I had the feeling that the Apex was tuned to have a bell-shaped frequency response curve while the Iona had a near-flat V.  



That said, Iona is undeniably warm.  Now I am of the opinion that whenever people speak of warmth they refer to that bit of fuzzy thickness in the mids and mid-bass regions.  Mid-bass looseness is also quite prominent in the Iona as that was the first thing that struck me when I plugged in my AKG-K3003, driven by my AK100.  I tried pairing it with the Yamaha EPH-100 but found the inherent mid-bass bloat of the Yamaha was given even more push.  The same effect can be heard on the VSonic VS01 but the mids sounded fuller than when paired with the FiiO E17.  The Black Cow interconnect that it came with was quite good in pushing out the mids while keeping the treble smooth.  It sounded a bit like the mid-centric Van Den Hul sans the penchant for sibilance. 

 

 



 

 

Over the course of a week, I have tried to use the Iona with the following: 

VSonic VS01

Beyerdynamic DT 1350

Beyerdynamic DT 770 LE

Sennheiser HD 800

Yamaha EPH-100

AKG K3003


 

 

Given my preference for clarity and detail, the tandem upon which this review is based was the AK100 + Iona + AKG-K3003.  Sub-bass was tight if only a bit wanting in both quantity and slam.  Mid-bass bloomed rather loosely giving that initial impression of bottom heft and warmth.  Mids and vocals were the areas where the Iona did its magic.  Not nearly as thick and forward sounding as the Glacier, this woody baby gave out textured and resolving push that makes my K3003 lose a bit of that metallic zing, rendering them analog-like.  Bee Gees’ “Alone” with its almost falsetto vocals came off fuller than straight out of the Astell & Kern dap.

 



 

 



Generally speaking, I find it sounds closer to the iBasso D42 which costs twice its price than to a FiiO E17.  In its pairing with the DT1350 it shares with the D42 the same superb separation but with a reduced soundstage.  Treble air is also a bit lacking but otherwise, I find the Iona’s tonality more akin to iBasso’s than to FiiO’s.  In contrast, my DT1350 enjoyed has harder-hitting bass when driven by the E17.  Please understand my hesitation in employing the term "lush" in describing how the vocals are presented through the Iona.  There are just so much body and details that may be ignorantly lost in that oft-repeated adjective that I loath to use it here. 



I'd rather temporarily abduct and deploy the terms vigorous and dynamic if only to stay away from the much-abused one-term-descriptions.  However, the Palaios Iona is, at the end of the day, a rather midcentric amplifier.  Its midrange is vigorously more dynamic than FiiO's and iBasso's.  Each belting voice is made more forceful and visceral by the contrast of how subtly and nuanced it can make a low guttural hum.  There's a drawback though to having a soundstage of that size.  Midrange presentation often sounds a bit congested.



If only I can end this review at where it shines the brightest, the Iona would be given at least four stars out of five.  Despite tolerable treble roll-off starting at around 12 kHz, it was the audible scatter at the tail end of cymbal hit that really marked down what would have been a great score for this wood amp.  High hats, cymbals and on occasions, even high-pitched piano sounded as welcoming as the shrieks of a petulant child.  Oh no, it is not sibilant.  This amp operates nowhere near that neighborhood.  In fact, it is one of the only two amps that I have tried with the K3003 that didn’t require the AK100 to be EQ’d.  It is that smooth.



Aye, smooth save for the faintly-audible scattering in the decay of trebles.  My co-admin Frances Haw, M.D.  suggested this line: "It is the tailend of a decay that refuses to go gracefully into the good night."  I have tried using the Iona with Sony Walkman’s new flagship, NW-ZX1, and got the same result.  Also paired it with the iBasso DX50 and found that to be present as well.  It is not obvious but if you listen closely, you hear it.  A friend who has only recently started in this hobby gave it a listen.  He didn’t notice it until I pointed it out to him.  

 



 

 

 

Regardless of the qualifications, the ultimate end of any review or assessment is to find its place in the dichotomy of binary human judgment.  1s and 0s.  Black or white.  Good or bad.  Buy or pass.  This is where a frame of reference becomes invaluable.  Compared to other products in the entry-level segment, this amp has the following advantages:



- Wood case

- User-replaceable battery

- Lightweight



How does it scale in the value-for-money meter? At US $ 125.00 (excluding battery, shipping and handling), the Iona shoots off the scale and should be considered a better buy than most entry-level portable amplifiers.