Review: AAW W900 – Singaporean Hybrid

Package

My review unit came without any retail packaging. I received a small package with a hard plastic carrying box, my monitors to which attached was an Ethos silver plated copper cable by Null Audio, which is terminated to a 3.5 Millimeter stereo plug. Additionally I got a white micro-fibre cleaning cloth, a flight adapter and an ear wax removal tool. All pretty standard accessories. I don‘t know if retail units have anything else in their packaging, maybe they do, keep in mind, my pair was a non-commercial review unit.

The Null Audio cable is a very nice and flexible cable, that‘s lightweight and serves its purpose well. I however have replaced it rather early on with aftermarket cables I had lying around from plusSound, Effect Audio or labkable. We will take a look how they changed the sound signature of AAW W900 in the dedicated Aftermarket Cabling chapter of this review.

Build Quality

I have seen photos of other custom built pairs of W900 prior to receiving mine, and therefore I expected a big monitor, but when my package arrived I was not expecting it to be that big. Almost all my monitors are smaller than the W900 in terms of size. Only Lola is a tad bigger. That nine Millimeter dynamic driver alone takes a big spot in the internals of W900, so it only makes sense that AAW uses a bigger housing.
The custom IEM itself is made very well. There is not a single bubble in the acrylic I could find, no signs of leftover glue near the face plate, but small portions at the 2-pin sockets. Since they are of recessed nature I imagine getting them clean is a tougher task. AAW uses a shorter nozzle with a single bore design, where you can actually see the tubes in their full glory as they are not covered by anything. On the housing there is also a small hole, don‘t be scared when you see that, that‘s just the exhaustion port for the dynamic bass driver.

The shorter type nozzle is known for a higher wearing comfort. I however had my troubles to adjust to it, as it does offer a lower quality seal and fit for my liking. Whenever I wiggled my ears I lost seal already, they even were close to getting completely out of my canals when I did that. That was one of the reasons why I requested a refit only a week or two after I got my pair. I took new impressions and had my monitor checked by AAW to make sure all drivers are working as intended, which they were. Advanced AcousticWerkes was kind enough to enlarge my nozzle and to also thicken it a bit, so I have a better seal.

When I was in touch with AAW about my model, I didn‘t ask for a specific design, I just told them to surprise me. That‘s why my AAW W900 does not have two identically matching sides. The left monitor‘s shell is in pink glitter and the face plate is half wooden and half opaque pink with their logo in silver on bottom. The right side‘s body is translucent black smoke and had a carbon fibre face plate at first, but has been exchanged to a wooden one after my refit.

Sound on Page 3!