Review: Shozy & AAW POLA – HOLA

In this article we’re reviewing the Shozy and AAW POLA, one of my 2019 highlights already.

Disclaimer: The Shozy & AAW POLA 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 and the Hibiki MKII. We’ve also looked at AAW’s gear such as the W900 monitor.

POLA & Canary

The Shozy and AAW collaboration IEMs so far all have been a huge success and so it was time for something else, something new, and that’s what we’re looking at today: the POLA.

POLA is 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 only the little brother of AAW’s upcoming 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. The Canary will be featured soon on your favourite review website. You can find all about the new model here:

https://www.aaw.me/collections/universal-in-ear/products/canary-isobaric-electrostatic-universal-in-ear-monitor

Pola

Pola is the end result after a year of product research and it houses a large and fast 13MM Graphene (carbon allotrope) dynamic driver which is pushing a lot of air in combination with the latest ElectroStat driver. So you’re getting a miniature version of a traditional speaker with a super tweeter so to say.

The universal POLA IEM sells for $800 from both company’s shops and for £699 in the UK over at the AudioConcierge. There is also a custom version available which is selling for $900. Even though the universal POLA is a universal though, you can choose different faceplates. The CIEM version of course id fully customizable.

So what makes POLA so special? Well, it’s all about the technology used/developed by Shozy and AAW and we’re of course talking about the dual electrostat super tweeter.

Powered by the cutting-edging miniature electrostatic tweeter technology, POLA employs a six micro gram, gold plated membrane held against a plate charged up to 400 volts. The electrical signal voltage is amplified up to 100 times via a built-in miniature transformer. The electrostatic attraction and repulsion effects induced by music signal triggers the membrane to produce acoustic pressure.

You can find POLA’s dedicated product pages on both of Shozy’s and AAW’s websites right here:

http://www.shozy-hk.com/pola-1/ (order here: http://www.shozy-hk.com/hibiki-1/pola-electrostatic-hybrid-iem)

https://www.aaw.me/products/pola-electrostatic-universal-in-ear-monitor

Technical Specifications

• DUAL crossover, vented design for optimized dynamic driver performance. TrueXross 2 Way Crossover
• 10Hz-100000Hz mega wide band performance
• <0.5% Total Harmonic Distortion
• 12 Ohm low impedance
• Dual bore design*Specification and internal parts for Custom Version is slightly different to accommodate changes when switching from universal to custom housings

Build Quality & Design

As we’ve reported before when we reviewed Shozy and AAW units, the build quality is really good. The last few years the whole sector has immensely improved when it comes to build quality and you just can’t afford to deliver crap anymore when you’re charging $800USD for an IEM.

The body’s shell is dark but it’s see through at he same time. Hold it into the light and you’ll be able to see the special drivers sitting inside. The faceplate closing is very thin but it’s perfectly executed, the body is bubble free and flawless and the nozzle is connected to the body without any traces of glue or whatsoever. POLA looks and feel slick and the nozzle even has the AAW logo on it, just looks so sexy. Did you know that the nozzle is rhodium on copper?

The recessed sockets are smoothly integrated in POLA’s body and switching cables is easy. While switching cables I did notice that both of the sockets swing a little from left to right but it seems to be normal for POLA. Everything works perfectly fine though and it has no influence whatsoever on the sound.

The universal design itself is simple and we got the typical brown wooden faceplate option the brands are promoting this model with. As you can see on the Shozy website, there is a whole set of faceplate colours and options to choose from. Like I already said in my first impressions article, I do plan on getting these transformed in a custom version as soon as this review is published. And then there design wise of course are a whole lot more options.

That being said, I actually quite like the classic design of the classic wooden faceplate POLA, it oozes style with the beautiful wooden structure.

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