[FeedYourHead]

He could have made just as good a product without the Aiwa brand, but the name certainly helps putting his company on the front page.

Sounds like a smart business decision to me. In any case, it certainly isn't cheap chinese junk with a nice brand name slapped on it, as I have proven.

Thanks for the reflections. I am a bit disappointed tbh - or not disappointed, just expected something different. After the brand's so desired earphones from the past from the V series to the even more rare X series on ear stuff I was a bit hopeful that they'd come up with something that resembles - even if a bit - to the oldies. This is totally new stuff, modern stuff, recent stuff. I guess if it is cool than bene. I am interested in the new ARC headphones. Please share your opinions about it here. The Prodigy - I'd buy but it is in-ear. And I'd like earbuds, not in-ear....

Apparently the pre-order round of the ARC sold out in less than 24 hours... Pretty impressive for a small company selling a $200 pair of headphones that aren't even on the market yet.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FFFT8G3

 

[ClieOS]

Sounds like a smart business decision to me. In any case, it certainly isn't cheap chinese junk with a nice brand name slapped on it, as I have proven.

Maybe it is not junk, the rest is however less clear.

 

[nofarewell]

Sounds like a smart business decision to me. In any case, it certainly isn't cheap chinese junk with a nice brand name slapped on it, as I have proven.


Apparently the pre-order round of the ARC sold out in less than 24 hours... Pretty impressive for a small company selling a $200 pair of headphones that aren't even on the market yet.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FFFT8G3

I don't doubt the Arc-1 is stellar. In fact I want to order mine in September.

 

[AmericanEDC]

I’m not a big fan of IEM’s so I don’t own the Prodigy-1’s but I’m a very recent owner of the EXOS-1 and so took a chance and pre ordered the Arc-1’s with delivery estimated Aug 23 - Sept 7. They are only in the hands of beta testers right now.

I’ll add that they offered a 3 year warranty, return, upgrade. No company does this. The CEO/CTO Joe Born is fully engaged with his customers which really instills a level of trust in my opinion. Personally they could have named the company anything. The Aiwa name is a bit of a mess as I’ve read about the various international licensing arrangements.

It is sort of cool that it’s a recognized name on the label. But it could have been named Sansui for all I care.

 

[Zapp_Fan]

Hi guys, I must have been asleep at the switch to not have commented on this thread yet. At any rate, nothing discussed so far is wildly inaccurate and I appreciate the community's level-headedness when it comes to our company re-launching the Aiwa brand in the US. I don't blame anyone for approaching a re-launched brand with skepticism, I would probably have the same attitude.

I appreciate the kind words about the Prodigy-1 and I hope that the Arc-1 is received as well, so far it seems to be in large part.

I'm happy to answer questions people might have. Overall there is nothing very mysterious about our business or our products. Seems that the posters in this thread have done their homework.

The thing that separates us from a lot of "revived" brands is that we're trying to improve and enhance the reputation of the brand, because we own it rather than license (read: rent) it. Licensees are incentivized to extract as much profit from the brand as possible, but not put resources into building it. Since we own the brand, we want it to be worth more in the end, than when we started. Because of this, we tend to be more careful about the products we launch and adhere to a "good sound comes first" mentality.

We don't go for the most neutral signatures because 1) we sell to a mainstream audience and 2) competing 1:1 with (e.g.) Sennheiser would be... challenging..., but overall our goal is to have excellent performance for the money, especially when considered against other 'mainstream' brands.

 

[MKAJ]

I never post anything, always in the background. I couldn't resist posting this guy's aiwa review of the treble harshness by filtering with toilet paper heh.

 

[Feilong4]

I've got a pair of the Prodigy-1 earphones in.

Here are my early impressions:

- The bass is fairly boomy and bloated. This response masks parts of the midrange which in turns makes vocals sound muffled and unclear. Bass extension into the sub-bass seems to be good - a fair bit of rumble can be felt.
- The midrange sounds recessed and unclear. It doesn't seem to be too resolving and detailed here - little nuances from guitars and vocals are not easily heard.
- The treble is kind of an oddball to me. It seems fairly good and smooth from about 5-10 kHz, but it has a very sharp rise around 12 kHz or so. This makes cymbals and other harmonics that fall around this range unnaturally sharp and harsh.

Overall, the sound seems to be very V-shaped. If that was the goal and the market for these is the average consumer, then I think it's effective though can use some refinements.

If I may add suggestions, I'd like to suggest:

- Re-tuning the balanced armature driver for a smoother and more level treble response
- Dampening the bass some for a less boomy bass response
- Tune a bit more energy 800Hz-1.5kHz
- Adding strain relief on the plug end to better durability
- Adding a 45 or 90 degree angle plug instead of a straight plug (though that's really just my preference)

 

[Dobrescu George]

I actually had AIWA ARC-1 for a long time now, and it is a lovely headphone, if anyone was wondering

Going to finsh my review on them really soon!

 

[arbiter76]

My Prodigy 1s should be here today. I will try to post impressions soon. Btw, is there a nice thread for IEMs. I've usually been a headphone person but recently bought Radsone's ES100 and played around with all my IEMs. Let's just say I am in the market to find at least a couple of gems for <$100.

 

[trellus]

My Prodigy 1s should be here today. I will try to post impressions soon. Btw, is there a nice thread for IEMs. I've usually been a headphone person but recently bought Radsone's ES100 and played around with all my IEMs. Let's just say I am in the market to find at least a couple of gems for <$100.

Granted, this one is Chinese IEM’s specific <$100, but I suspect you may still find this very useful:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bes...nd-impressions-sharing-reference-list.805930/

 

[Nirmalr7]

Hi all I just found out the Chicago based Aiwa is not affiliated or has anything to do with Aiwa japan or Sony corporation.. just look at the court papers it just makes me sick to see a clone company acting as if they were genuine. So buyers beware

https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ilnd.353871/gov.uscourts.ilnd.353871.1.0.pdf

 

[nofarewell]

Hi all I just found out the Chicago based Aiwa is not affiliated or has anything to do with Aiwa japan or Sony corporation.. just look at the court papers it just makes me sick to see a clone company acting as if they were genuine. So buyers beware

https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ilnd.353871/gov.uscourts.ilnd.353871.1.0.pdf

Not to be the defense, but as I understand they never claimed anything such. But they have succesful products. I wouldn't be too hasty to condemn them on these grounds without further knowledge on the subject.

 

[Nirmalr7]

Not to be the defense, but as I understand they never claimed anything such. But they have succesful products. I wouldn't be too hasty to condemn them on these grounds without further knowledge on the subject.

I agree with you but at least they could have created their own brand instead of appropriating the goodwill Aiwa and Sony had with their "customers"

 

[trellus]

That they are not affiliated with the original Aiwa or Sony hasn’t been a secret. In fact, I believe I read somewhere that they have spoken openly about wanting to do right by the original name. So, no deception involved.

 

[Nirmalr7]

That they are not affiliated with the original Aiwa or Sony hasn’t been a secret. In fact, I believe I read somewhere that they have spoken openly about wanting to do right by the original name. So, no deception involved.

My problem with them is not in the product they make but in the way they used to "acquire" the name "read the court document". They just profited from the reputation of Aiwa to sell their product and now they are blocking Aiwa japan from re-entering the US market. Even if they are not making junk product they should have created their own original brand and work to build a reputation for it in the US but instead they decided to misappropriate the company brand even if the company was dormant and used the existing reputation of Sony's Aiwa for their own gain.

"Quote: as per court document: In 2014, Defendants Thomann and Hale filed several fraudulent trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) falsely stating they were entitled to exclusive rights in the AIWA Mark"

"Quote: Defendants thereafter began a public relations campaign in which they falsely claimed to have purchased the rights in the AIWA Mark from Sony. For example, the Chicago Tribune reported as follows: “Mark Thomann, CEO of Chicago-based River West Brands, said he spotted Aiwa in 2013, bought the rights to it and secured the trademark.” See Exhibit A, Chicago Tribune, How Aiwa, a former global stereo brand, is getting resurrected in Chicago,
March 11, 2015. Such fraudulent and deceptive conduct has even prompted the following information to be published on the AIWA entry in Wikipedia: “In 2015, Dormitus Brands, a Chicago-based brand acquisition company run by Mark Thomann, acquired the rights for the Aiwa brand and trademark from Sony.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiwa#cite_note-16)."