PW Audio No 10 Review

PW Audio No. 10

In this review we check out the latest IEM cable by PW Audio, the No 10. It’s their 10th anniversary edition cable that retails for $259 SGD.

 

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Disclaimer: The PW Audio No 10 was provided free of charge by Music Sanctuary. Neither Music Sanctuary nor PW Audio are site advertisers or affiliated with Headfonia in any way. Many thanks for the generosity and opportunity.

About PW Audio

PW Audio is a Hong Kong based IEM cable manufacturer started by Peter Wong, hence PW. Since 2010 he has been producing aftermarket cables under his own brand. PW Audio has brought us one of the best performing copper cables on the market. We have reviewed his 1960s cables two years ago already, since then they have stayed as two of my favourite cables in my inventory.

PW Audio’s range of cables goes far beyond the 1960s though. They offer a selection of different cables for different budgets. In total PW has nine different cable series. Their cables vary in material mix and AWG sizes.
They are best known for their full copper Century series though, with the 1950s, 1960s and 1980s cables. Their international distributors mostly spread around Asia, but there also is one US representative, for us Westerners.

To celebrate their tenth year in existence, PW Audio has launched a new cable.

About No. 10

For their tenth anniversary PW Audio has introduced their latest cable – the No. 10. Not much is known about it. The only information I could gather online and through Music Sanctuary is that it’s a 24 AWG cable with confidential wire material. Of course, with transparent sleeving you can peek into the inside.

The No. 10 consists of four individual wires in silver colour. There is no information whether that’s pure silver or silver-plated copper. My guess is latter. I found out through a picture of PW Audio’s HK distributor that it uses a fibre core. So much for that.

Music Sanctuary informed me a couple of weeks ago, that the price of the No. 10 would be 259 SGD. Which is the same as the No. 5’s.

My cable came with a 2-pin and 2.5mm balanced termination. Of course, there will be more options for configurations available.

PW Audio No. 10

PW Audio No. 10

Package

PW Audio’s cables come in a very basic box. There’s nothing fancy about it here. What you get, is the cable, a cotton bag and a leather cable binder. In the end you won’t need more than the cable itself, I guess. And for the price the No. 10 is going for, I don’t think anyone could ask for more.

Build Quality

The build quality of PW’s No. 10 leaves me quite puzzled to be honest. It seems to use a slightly thicker insulation than cables from Effect Audio for example. Which makes the cable itself less flexible in comparison. It’s not as stiff as the Torfa by Han Sound though.

My No. 10 came with a gold-plated 2.5 mm plug. On the edge of the barrel “No. 10” is engraved. Which I find to be a nice touch. The barrel is covered by a transparent heat-shrink with PW Audio’s logo on it. While that gives the cable protection, it also doesn’t look very premium in my opinion. When we move up towards the Y-split, which again is just a piece of heat-shrink, we’ll also find the nice wooden chin-slider. This one I like in particular. It’s small, light-weight and sure does the trick.

PW Audio No. 10

PW Audio No. 10

Left and right channels are marked on the aluminium barrels of the 2-pins. Red indicates the right channel and black the left. Both sides come pre-formed with clear heat-shrink. Personally, I prefer this solution to memory-wire. It’s more comfortable and flexible.

I never thought I’d ever mention something like that in a cable-review, but the No. 10 has a weird smell. Even after three months of use it still has it. It did get better over time though.

To summarize: the build quality has its ups and downs for me. Good is the chin-slider, no memory wire and the aluminium 2-pin barrels. Bad would be the use of heat-shrink and the stiffer cable overall.

The review continues on page two!

4.4/5 - (30 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.

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