Review: Shozy & AAW POLA39

Shozy Pola 39

In this article we’re reviewing the $1,050USD Shozy and AAW POLA39, the 2nd version of one of my 2019 highlights.

Disclaimer: The custom version of the Shozy & AAW POLA39 was sent to us by Shozy and partner directly in exchange for this review. The unit doesn’t need to be returned as far as I know.

Shozy & AAW

Both of these companies have been getting popular fast lately and they’re both releasing really great and affordable products. Their gear is being talked about all over the web and so I’m sure you have heard about them before. But let’s give both companies a short introduction:

Shozy: For years, the team has been researching into acoustic design, circuitry design and material implementations, diligently striving for engineering excellence and accuracy in sound reproduction. At Shozy they share the same passion for music as their customers.

AAW – Advanced Acoustic Werkes: AAW leads the premier In-ear Monitor market with its distinctive innovations on driver technology. AAW designs some of the best balanced armature with dynamic driver hybrid systems in custom and universal in-ear monitors. However, their miniature planar magnetic and electro-static driver systems are truly state of the art technology in the portable audio world, unmatched by competition. Each of the AAW In-Ear Monitors is handcrafted by our technicians with the most meticulous quality standard. We are the Mechanics of Sound.

We’ve reviewed Shozy and AAW gear before such as the Hibiki, the Hibiki MKII, the Canary, the Nightingale and the regular POLA. We’ve also looked at AAW’s gear such as the W900 monitor.

POLA History

The Shozy and AAW collaboration IEMs so far all have been a huge success and so it was time for something else, something new: the POLA.

POLA was the world’s first Electrostatic Hybrid IEM, with an internal amplifier and interchangeable cable system. That results in a theoretical 10Hz-100kHz FR on paper and all that packed in sleek metallic chamber! Does that sound sexy enough for you?

Actually, POLA is the little brother of AAW’s Canary IEM. The Canary is at the summit of AAW’s ideology of fusing the best traits out of dynamic woofer, precision balanced armature drivers and newly developed electrostatic super tweeters.

We liked the universal POLA so much we put it on our list of recommended universal IEMs to buy. Will the new POLA39 make it to that list as well? Let’s find out.

POLA39

The Shozy & AAW POLA39 is the 2nd generation electrostatic iem/ciem, so basically a revision of the original POLA.

POLA39 is developed with a simple objective: to optimize vocal performance utilizing ultra-high frequency extension enabled by Sonion electrostatic drivers. POLA39 has an ACG genre optimized tuning and according to Shozy that means: lush mids, fast and deep bass impact and extremely transparent treble. To make this possible they are using a new, fast, responsive proprietary 10 mm high-flux dynamic driver as well as dual electrostatic drivers. The original POLA sports a 13MM Graphene (carbon allotrope) dynamic driver and ElectroStat drivers.

POLA39 also comes in a smaller housing than the original model, so that it would fit more ears. This time for us this is no issue as we received a custom version of the POLA39.

New is also the venting design and the stainless steel nozzle on the universal versions. As before the universal POLA39 comes with a beautiful mother of pearl design face-plate. For the custom version you have a whole series of customization options, which you can check out at the bottom of the POLA39 page here: http://www.shozy-hk.com/pola39

As before, the units still come with the Symphonym OCC copper cable, as well as a premium wooden case / collection box.

Technical Specifications

Configuration: 2 x Electrostatic, 1 x 10mm Dynamic driver

Frequency Range: 10Hz~100kHz

Impedance: 12Ω

Sensitivity: 101dB

Cable:  Symphonym Tiburon

The review continues on page two of this article, click here or use the jumps below.

4.5/5 - (30 votes)
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Lieven is living in Europe and he's the leader of the gang. He's running Headfonia as a side project next to his full time day job in Digital Marketing & Consultancy. He's a big fan of tube amps and custom inear monitors and has published hundreds of product reviews over the years.

2 Comments

  • Reply December 5, 2020

    TU

    I’ve heard these, I don’t understand all these superlatives from the author, to me they sounded extremely dark and muddled. Nice midrange but the treble was so understated it was distracting.

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