[Mimouille]

  You finally did the color change?

Yep, found a Titanium and sold the other.

  Great description. I feel the same. Sounds like you hear a good sense of balance- I do too.

Yes, me likey.

 

[ezekiel77]

  Hello guys,
 
I have been spending time with the AAW900...
 
...spacious yet full sounding (I suppose this is also partly due to the source), powerful yet controlled bass with great details, smooth mids, extended yet non aggressive highs.
 
Nothing to dislike so far. When I briefly compared with the DX200 pairing, it sounded more airy but lost some mids smoothness and thickness.

 
By any chance would it sound too "reference" or neutral for your liking?

 

[Mimouille]

   
By any chance would it sound too "reference" or neutral for your liking?

Nope

 

[DrGraceW]

  Just received my W900 today. I'll reserve subjective impressions for the time being, but here are my measurements (raw/compensated):
 

 
If you've been following my measuring adventures, the W900 is undeniably the highest extending IEM available today. That almost dubious claim of extension to 20,000Hz is pretty accurate, at least on my rig.
 
Glamour pics to come once my camera is charged and the sun is up

These treble measurements look delicious

 We meant what we said
 
Given the coupler type and insertion method of CIEM, it is nearly impossible to achieve exactly the same graphs on different gigs. Even on the same gig, different iteration of tests will have minor differences. But @crinacle 's graph is very close to our own measurement and it certainly reflects the design intent.

 

[vhsownsbeta]

@DrGraceW can you please clarify any internal differences between custom and universal versions? There has been talk of DD 'chambers' and tuning filters that may or not be present in one or the other.
 
Can you please also expand on your 'design intent' with W900? Thanks!

 

[DrGraceW]

  @DrGraceW can you please clarify any internal differences between custom and universal versions? There has been talk of DD 'chambers' and tuning filters that may or not be present in one or the other.
 
Can you please also expand on your 'design intent' with W900? Thanks!

The demo unit at the audition event has a 3D printed chamber created for the dynamic driver to improve low pass filtering efficiency and hence less interference with high frequencies. It is removed at production stage as its purpose has been replaced by a tweak on the sound bore, which produced a similar and more consistent result.
 
The tunable filter is only applicable for the custom version as for now. For the guys who received their custom W900, you will notice a purposely placed hollow space at the nozzle. It is reserved for placing that filter. We will ship them at a later stage as soon as we have the tooling done. The intended effect will be to alter how the treble and upper mid present itself by controlling the resonation chamber size. 
instead of simply using acoustic filters to adjust amplitude in these frequencies, we felt it is more fun this way.
 
We tried to implement it on the universal version but there is just not enough space. Interestingly, you may instead try rolling tips and depending on how the tips pushes again your ear canal, the result can be entertaining too.

 

[vhsownsbeta]

The demo unit at the audition event has a 3D printed chamber created for the dynamic driver to improve low pass filtering efficiency and hence less interference with high frequencies. It is removed at production stage as its purpose has been replaced by a tweak on the sound bore, which produced a similar and more consistent result.

The tunable filter is only applicable for the custom version as for now. For the guys who received their custom W900, you will notice a purposely placed hollow space at the nozzle. It is reserved for placing that filter. We will ship them at a later stage as soon as we have the tooling done. The intended effect will be to alter how the treble and upper mid present itself by controlling the resonation chamber size. 
instead of simply using acoustic filters to adjust amplitude in these frequencies, we felt it is more fun this way.

We tried to implement it on the universal version but there is just not enough space. Interestingly, you may instead try rolling tips and depending on how the tips pushes again your ear canal, the result can be entertaining too.

Thanks for the reply.

So can we assume at the basic configuration without filters there will be no technical differences between custom and universal? Do the filters just 'flavour' the sound and move it away from the baseline or are they required to actually achieve what you intended with W900?

 

[DrGraceW]

Thanks for the reply.

So can we assume at the basic configuration without filters there will be no technical differences between custom and universal? Do the filters just 'flavour' the sound and move it away from the baseline or are they required to actually achieve what you intended with W900?

Technically there is no difference btw the 2, however, the different wearing methods will dictate the actual hearing perception to have slight differences. Yes, without the filter, aka the 'default' setting will be a good baseline to gauge W900's performance. The design intent was simple to start with, we got curious and want to see what upper limits do these BA drivers have, and when these limits are reached, how it will affect the listening experience.

 

[vhsownsbeta]

  Technically there is no difference btw the 2, however, the different wearing methods will dictate the actual hearing perception to have slight differences. Yes, without the filter, aka the 'default' setting will be a good baseline to gauge W900's performance. The design intent was simple to start with, we got curious and want to see what upper limits do these BA drivers have, and when these limits are reached, how it will affect the listening experience.

Thanks for the clarification. Now to choose a design 

 

[jelt2359]

 
Thanks for the clarification. Now to choose a design 

I believe there are some special faceplates that AAW is offering only for the W900...

 

[crinacle]

Review is up.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/aaw-w900-custom-in-ear-monitor/reviews/18026

 

[ezekiel77]

  Review is up.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/aaw-w900-custom-in-ear-monitor/reviews/18026

Good work!

 

[noplsestar]

Review is up.

http://www.head-fi.org/products/aaw-w900-custom-in-ear-monitor/reviews/18026

Thanks for that! The AAW W900 is a CIEM and the others in the comparison are universal IEM's (as seen on the pics). Do you think - let's say the Jomo Samba's bass would get e few plus points if they also would have been CIEM's? Because you know, another tip another characteristic, no? (Did you use foam tips?)

 

[crinacle]

 

Review is up.

http://www.head-fi.org/products/aaw-w900-custom-in-ear-monitor/reviews/18026

Thanks for that! The AAW W900 is a CIEM and the others in the comparison are universal IEM's (as seen on the pics). Do you think - let's say the Jomo Samba's bass would get e few plus points if they also would have been CIEM's? Because you know, another tip another characteristic, no? (Did you use foam tips?)

 
Possibly. I used stiff stem tips that worked best with my ear canals, basically just silicone tips. Samba's demo unit can be inserted rather deep so I think I squeezed out every last ounce of bass response out of those IEMs...

 

[ChrisSC]

@crinacle: thanks for the review! How does the W900 respond to EQ? Is it possible to tune its subbass to match the W500?