[ziixtreme]

It's nice to have some inside knowledge on the latest products. Every iem make has their own wat to tackle problems faced. ++++ is something new that I've learned today. As for the ED usage, I am not a keen fan of ER4, bought one and sold it after 1 week. Not much to say about those. Either love or hate.
I am more of a Sonion 2389 fan. That sounds more musical to my ears. I also made something with CI dtec and swfk which was quite some challenge balancing the SWFK.

 

[ranfan]

how does the universal w900 look like? is it transparent or customizable? and does it cost the same as custom (raw) or less?

 

[DrGraceW]

It's nice to have some inside knowledge on the latest products. Every iem make has their own wat to tackle problems faced. ++++ is something new that I've learned today. As for the ED usage, I am not a keen fan of ER4, bought one and sold it after 1 week. Not much to say about those. Either love or hate.

I am more of a Sonion 2389 fan. That sounds more musical to my ears. I also made something with CI dtec and swfk which was quite some challenge balancing the SWFK.

Well, obviously the 'Acoustic back flow reverb' problem will not be on our priority list to tackle then. I certainly hope you can establish more info and possibly evidence about it. It will help us greatly in addressing it and also other industrial peers who you mentioned having similar problem. Maybe a wiki page about this syndrome will be good place to start.
 
Since we are at it, about ED vs 2300. I have a cool story to share. The below paragraph is purely hearsay and does not reflect opinion of myself or the company I work for and the authenticity is unwarranted. Basically just for the fun of an industry rivalry story.
 
There is this gentlemen who is many years senior to me in this industry, who has industrial customers consuming a certain type of driver by massive numbers, made by let's say 'K company'. They wanted an alternative to it just as pre-cautionery measure to counter monopoly. So this gentleman took samples to 'S company' and asked for a copy, and shortly after a new series were born. It is known in many products, these 2 drivers can be used interchangeably where 'K company' takes major share due to lower price and better reliability. However, smaller shares will still be given to 'S company' despite higher price and less support, since monopoly in a supply chain is not really a good idea. The buyers want to keep 'S company' around for as long as it takes, by giving business to them. As consumers, it will benefit in terms of quality and price in the long run too. There are new rises in BA manufacturers around the globe and it is absolutely a delight to see that.
 
You can say that 2389 is more musical to 29689, I will not comment on personal perceptions, you ear is yours. However, let's say loving and hating two very similar drivers and sound signatures at the same time is quite a paradox though. At least when we were substituting these drivers, no one complained

 

 

[Mimouille]

  how does the universal w900 look like? is it transparent or customizable? and does it cost the same as custom (raw) or less?

Same price, customizable.

 

[Anaken]

  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.

That sounds great - only heard about the tunable filters from this thread and unable to find further information on it. Sounds really really interesting.. so everyone who has ordered the w900 customs version will gett the filters at a later date?

 

[San Man]

@DrGraceW

Do you forsee a time when AAW will charge a lower price for the universal model compared to the custom model?

One would believe that the reduced amount of time/labor costs needed to make a universal model versus a custom IEM would dictate a lower price (as with most other manufacturers).    Do you have any insight on this?

 

[sonickarma]

Review of the excellent W900 CIEM
 

 
 
http://earphonia.com/earphones-iems-ciems/advanced-acousticwerkes-w900-reference-hybrid-ciem-extended-aural-immersion/

 

[DrGraceW]

  That sounds great - only heard about the tunable filters from this thread and unable to find further information on it. Sounds really really interesting.. so everyone who has ordered the w900 customs version will gett the filters at a later date?

Yes that is the idea.
 

  @DrGraceW

Do you forsee a time when AAW will charge a lower price for the universal model compared to the custom model?

One would believe that the reduced amount of time/labor costs needed to make a universal model versus a custom IEM would dictate a lower price (as with most other manufacturers).    Do you have any insight on this?

Thanks for the suggestion! Currently the universals are made using exactly the same technique though, which means despite not using ear impressions, the overall procedure is quite similar. Usually even when ppl are ordering universals, they want the same customization options just like the customs.
 
Currently, we are working on tooling on our Capri IEM, if we could do some modifications and allow sharing that tooling with W900, maybe we can create a mass produceable product. However, it is too early to tell at this stage. With injection molded ABS housing, the customization options will be severely lacking though, hmm tough call....

 

[San Man]

  Yes that is the idea.
 
Thanks for the suggestion! Currently the universals are made using exactly the same technique though, which means despite not using ear impressions, the overall procedure is quite similar. Usually even when ppl are ordering universals, they want the same customization options just like the customs.
 
Currently, we are working on tooling on our Capri IEM, if we could do some modifications and allow sharing that tooling with W900, maybe we can create a mass produceable product. However, it is too early to tell at this stage. With injection molded ABS housing, the customization options will be severely lacking though, hmm tough call....

Thank you @DrGraceW for the reply.

For me personally (and I believe a lot of others as well), I don't expect many options when it comes to universals.   In fact, I don't expect any at all.  Color options would be nice, but they're not a deal breaker for me.   If you sell black, I'm buying black.

I'm fortunate enough that I get an excellent seal with universals (I have good sized ears and canals), so I choose to purchase universals to save on cost.   If I want options, I'd gladly pay for customs.   However, not everyone wants to go through the trouble of making impressions, knowing there's a possibility that they'd need to be re-done and re-made by the manufacturer.   Add in the wait time to be made (and heaven forbid, re-done) and you can see the potential benefits to having a "plain Jane" universal that's "ready to buy" off the shelf.

I believe it would be beneficial to AAW to consider a plain, universal shell.  A color choice or two wouldn't be too hard on your end, but to the end consumer, the potential savings in cost and wait time would help sway sales.

Thank you for your time.

 

[tim0chan]

Yes that is the idea.

Thanks for the suggestion! Currently the universals are made using exactly the same technique though, which means despite not using ear impressions, the overall procedure is quite similar. Usually even when ppl are ordering universals, they want the same customization options just like the customs.

Currently, we are working on tooling on our Capri IEM, if we could do some modifications and allow sharing that tooling with W900, maybe we can create a mass produceable product. However, it is too early to tell at this stage. With injection molded ABS housing, the customization options will be severely lacking though, hmm tough call....
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maybe there should be a ready made universal made using the abs and a made to order universal made using the usual method

 

[DrGraceW]

Thanks for the suggestion! The Capri IEM tooling is done and we are doing tooling trials now. We will see how it goes with W900's innards
For anyone that's interested, this is the ABS base before surface treatment. They certainly fit great though.

 

[SoundArtillery]

Driving to pick up my new W900 on hold at FedEx. Love feeling like a kid in PJs on Christmas...

 

[SoundArtillery]

Wow, the fit on these is soooo nice.  I'm already enjoying these headphones so much.  First impressions are a bit of a relief.  The bass is still seriously impactful, but I can hear more detail in the notes that I was unaware of before.  That's interesting for sure.  Soundstaging is indeed large, but I don't feel like instruments are being stretched across my face which is a relief.  Obviously, I'm happy.  I think this will be a great upgrade from my W500.  
 

 

 

[DWbirdseye]

Maybe I missed it, but is there a chance for a stateside demo tour?

 

[Barra]

Maybe I missed it, but is there a chance for a stateside demo tour?

Well....... as a matter of fact, yes. I have been working with Grace and will be announcing a US tour next week and posting a signup thread. The goal is to start the tour the second or third week in March. It will include the W900, W500, and some new surprises. Will be announcing here and a few other places once the signup thread goes live.