Astell & Kern’s new UW100MKII earbuds features a redesigned acoustic chamber for improved wireless playback
The buds will be available for purchase from early October 2023 for £269/ $280.
Image: Astell & Kern
Korean hi-fi specialist Astell & Kern has unveiled the AK UW100MKII, the second iteration of its AK UW100 true wireless earbuds that boasts a “refreshed ergonomic design” and an “improved wireless playback”.
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Building on the brand’s philosophy of delivering natural sound, the UW100MKII is said to offer A&K’s most advanced true-wireless sound to date with an embedded 32-bit DAC, a full-range balanced armature driver, and the addition of aptX-Adaptive support.
According to Astell & Kern, the buds’ acoustic chamber has been redesigned to enhance the overall sound quality and improve its wireless playtime. The new model also features a more advanced circuit design to ensure a more stable connection and vastly reduce sound distortion and excess noise.
Like its predecessor, the UW100MKII is equipped with Passive Noise Isolation rather than active noise cancellation (ANC). The new earbuds are also built with Qualcomm’s cVc Generation 8.0 (Clear Voice Capture) for extra clear and stable call quality. The technology supposedly keeps background noise to a minimum in noisy environments, and enhances the user’s voice to produce consistent, crystal-clear audio.
In addition, easy-to-use touch controls ensure a seamless, hassle-free listening experience when using the AK UW100MKII. Simply tap to switch between functions to play music, answer calls, ambient mode, adjust the volume and more.
As for battery life, the power system in the AK UW100MKII has been redesigned to increase wireless playback time to 9.5 hours of continuous playback, and a whopping 29 hours of playback with the charging case. And while the size of the charging cradle has been reduced dramatically, the AK UW100MKII achieves an impressive one hour of continuous playtime from only a 10-minute charge.
For hassle-free connectivity, the AKUW100MKII features Google’s Fast Pair Service to automatically connect the earbuds to Android devices using Bluetooth Low Energy. All you have to do is open the cradle near an Android device and the earbuds will enter pairing mode, connecting instantly. There’s also support for Multi-Pairing and Multi-Point functions which allows you to pair the earbuds to and switch between multiple devices at once.
Finally, users can customise the UW100MKII using the Astell & Kern app, which offers an adjustable 10-band EQ to alter the sound of the earbuds while also enabling listeners to reconfigure the touch controls of the earbuds and change the ‘Ambient Mode’ levels.
The AK UW100MKII will be available for purchase from early October 2023 for £269/ $280.
Learn more at astellnkern.
