Review: AAW Canary – Overcoming Gravity

AAW Canary

Sound:

This is my first IEM using an electrostatic driver, hence I was very excited to finally receive them and after I did, I was hooked on the signature. Not because these tweeters are just something else, but because of the presentation as a whole from Canary. It creates a nicely balanced and coherent sound, that to me has a tuning that plays it safe. Let’s dig a little deeper. The following impressions are based on sessions with the Lotoo PAW Gold Touch as main on-the-go source and other pairings to draw a general conclusion.

Canary has a well layered and superbly controlled low end section. It reaches deep into sub-bass with decent rumble, has good energy and power. Bass has good definition and just the right amount of air in it for an organic and dynamic-driver typical sound. It’s not the fastest out there but it has a nice size and weight.

It can definitely throw a punch when needed, but at the same time it doesn’t mean that softer analogue bass will be presented with too much drive. The contrary is the case here. Canary certainly knows how to reproduce any kind of bass. On many occasions I found myself drawn to the low end for its chameleon-like adaptability. Mid and upper-bass are placed slightly in front of the signature, giving them more exposure. The entire bass response has good texture and resolution, but you due a softer surface it might not be the most resolving out there.

AAW Canary

AAW Canary

Midrange is slightly recessed, but it doesn’t give the impression of having an overthrowing bass to cover up center-mid instruments. Vocals do sometimes appear further back than I’m used to from other monitors though. This counts for higher male vocals mostly.

To me, midrange has a good balance between smooth warmth and detailed and airy. They seem to be sitting right in the middle. There is almost perfect body in each instrument, where every note has good richness in them. Which is especially audible in the higher midrange segment. Here you can really hear the rich density of the notes. If you’re listening to a lot of instrumental or singer/songwriter I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised how the Canary can make them sound. Guitars, wind and string instruments sound particularly gorgeous to me.

Treble has good energy and brings out many details. Highs are rich and have good body, there is no harshness in them and I was happy to find the air, typical for electrostatic drivers, in the Canary’s top end. There is one thing about the treble that isn’t up my alley. At times it can sound a little disconnected from the rest of the signature. It doesn’t come up the entire time, but on several occasions I found highs to be separated too much.

AAW Canary

AAW Canary

On a technical aspect the Canary is a good performer. It has good resolution and texture. Layering is a point where I think the Canary does exceptionally well, as it definitely knows how to place different layers on top of each other. Instrumental separation is also good, where musicians are held together with a slight fuzz in the air. It does not possess a deep dark black background but rather blends the picture slightly.

The sound stage does come with good dimensions in width and depth, but I find depth to be the star here. Where the Canary might need something extra in my opinion is the ability to stay focussed in complex situations. Meaning the skill to reproduce big bands and orchestras with
higher accuracy when there is a lot going on.

Canary is not a very critical monitor, it does make less well recorded tracks listenable and hence can be considered a forgiving IEM. It handles many genres well, but exceeds with Funk Rock, Punk, Classical Rock, Techno, IDM, Glitch and other electronic styles but also Jazz and Soul. In my opinion it’s a fun to listen to sound that excited me in various situations. In my time with Canary I have rediscovered many albums to which I have not listened in quite a while, most of them Funk, Industrial and Classic Rock, but also some EDM and Grunge.

More about Canary after the jump.

4.5/5 - (155 votes)
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A daytime code monkey with a passion for audio and his kids, Linus tends to look at gear with a technical approach, trying to understand why certain things sound the way they do. When there is no music around, Linus goes the extra mile and annoys the hell out of his colleagues with low level beatboxing.

4 Comments

  • Reply June 14, 2019

    majid

    plz comparison canary vs hyla te5b.

    • Reply June 20, 2019

      Linus

      Hi Majid,
      sorry for the late reply.
      don’t have the 5B, can’t compare them. sorry.

  • Reply October 17, 2020

    Rahul Singhal

    I’m a sound engineer so my hearing is my livelihood. I’ve just started researching headphones (again) and much of what I read is opinion and mostly unsupported assertions. Can you point me to some research that supports your comments regarding the superiority of using over-ear headphones. ” Supra-aural earphones don’t send sound vibrations directly into your eardrum

  • Reply December 23, 2020

    susu

    My Canarys must have any issue because mids are horrible, worst I’ve ever heard, bass is lacking hard and soundstage is narrow. LCD-i4 sounds much, much, MUCH better, is night and day difference. I would have rate these 7 out of 10 to be generous with AAW.

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