INTRODUCTION

   Consumers and professionals alike looking for the best ANC (active noise cancelling) headphones currently primarily look at two brands, SONY and BOSE which design, develop and produce (and have produced) some of the best models money can buy to date. However, SONY and BOSE are not the only two manufacturers that have good ANC solutions in their product lines, others like for example Sennheiser and Jabra also have very good choices aimed towards demanding users and even audiophiles. Cost however matters to many people and so far, none of the well-known and established manufacturers has produced anything close to being affordable/budget-friendly, at least not with a good level of ANC. The new Aiwa brand aims to change that with the recent release of their ARC-1 ANC model which I’ve been using for roughly 2 weeks.

   We’ve proudly resurrected the iconic Aiwa brand in the passionate pursuit of bringing people together around music. How do we do that? We create products that deliver legendary sound quality; we bring you the music you love, the way it was meant to be heard. Aiwa has a simple formula for delivering serious audio equipment without compromise – we have the best acoustic talent, we put our money into the highest quality components and we offer world-class service. For those that want music to be more than background noise, for those who want their music to have the power to entertain.

   The ARC-1 ANC model by Aiwa is built around an IPX5 (water and sweat resistant) certified body which houses two 40mm dynamic stereo drivers (20Hz-20KHz frequency response/40mW max input power/advanced biocellulose composite), 3 microphones (2 for ANC & 1 for Calls) and a 750mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack which can power the device for up to 40 hours (with ANC off - up to 25 hours with ANC on). As expected, the ARC-1 ANC uses 2 of the 3 built-in microphones to filter out ambient noise by using the Qualcomm CSR 8670 chipset (cVc 8th Generation voice processing technology with wideband speech - aptX, aptX Low Latency, MP3, AAC and SBC audio codecs are supported). The ARC-1 ANC also feature Bluetooth v5.0 connectivity (10 meter range with support for the following profiles: HSP v1.2 , HFP v1.7, A2DP v1.3, AVRCP v1.6, PBAP v1.1 and SPP v1.2), 24-bit DSP, Qconnect technology (allows other headsets to connect with it and listen what you're listening), exterior earcup controls, foldable & rotatable earcups and support for voice commands/assistant (compatible with Apple's Siri and Google Assistant). Last but not least Aiwa covers the ARC-1 ANC with a 3-year limited warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Aiwa packs the ARC-1 ANC inside a black box that has their logo, partial product picture and the main product features at the front.

On the left side we again find the main product features whereas the product specifications and a few words about its ANC are printed on the right side.

Two product pictures and the main features printed in 6 languages is what's at the rear of the box.

Once you take the cover off you will see the main box with the company logo on it.

The ARC-1 ANC are safely placed inside a thick carrying/storage case.

Along with the ARC-1 ANC and their thick carrying/storage case Aiwa has also placed a 3.5mm airplane adapter, 3.5mm cable, USB-C cable, congratulations note from their CEO and the user manual.

THE ARC-1 ANC

The Aiwa ARC-1 ANC wireless headphones weigh roughly 241g and are made out of plastic, faux leather and aluminum.

As you can all see, we're talking about a mid-sized model which looks quite nice.

To get a better understanding about their size i placed the ARC-1 ANC right next to the slightly more compact EPOS Sennheiser Adapt 660.

Aiwa has placed their logo on the exterior of both earcups and their name right over them.

The controls are all located on exterior of the right earcup and so from here you can turn on/off the headset, put it in bluetooth pairing and play/pause tracks (top button), increase the volume and skip to the next track (front button), decrease volume and go to the previous track (rear button), answer/end/make calls and enable the voice assistant (bottom button) and finally you can enable/disable ANC by pressing the Aiwa logo at the center.

At the base of the right earcup we find the USB-C charging port, 3.5mm port, activity LED and the microphone.

The earpads are not only big and soft but inside Aiwa has placed large left/right markings.

The headpad may not be very large and as plush as the earpads but it too is very comfortable.

As already mentioned, the earcups can fold and rotate for easier storage.

The headphones extend by up to 31mm in each side (62mm total) via 8 increments (not visible ones).

Also, worth mentioning is that the thick storage/carrying case has enough room inside for the entire bundle and then some.

As usually for today’s review I’ll be using both the M15 Hi-Res Music Player by FiiO (wired/wireless) and the AE-9 Sound Card by Creative (wired).

CONCLUSION

   Aiwa used to be a very popular brand name where i live in the mid 90's so whenever i get something from them I’m very curious to see how it will perform. Yes, today's Aiwa has nothing to do with the Aiwa of the 90's (that was purchased by SONY if recall correctly) but still my mind can't avoid looking back at the old days. With that out of the way i did use the ARC-1 ANC wireless headphones for just over 2 weeks with mostly positive results. Audio quality is very good, with crisp and very detailed mids and highs and a good (still not great) amount of bass. Yes, its audio performance is not quite on par with that of for example the Elite 85h by Jabra or even the Adapt 660 by EPOS Sennheiser but it does come very close (especially to the latter). Same with ANC so even though the two cVc microphones do a relatively good job in keeping excessive surrounding/ambient noise from reaching your ears (just like with most ANC headphones out there, bass levels drop considerably when using this feature) the ARC-1 ANC doesn't produce nearly the same results i got from both the Elite 85h and/or the Adapt 660. Still, for people who don't plan on using this model in very noisy places that shouldn't really be a problem (do keep in mind that volume also matters so i do recommend using the ARC-1 ANC at over 70% volume). As for battery life numbers seem to be slightly off here since without ANC i recorded around 34 hours whereas with ANC on i wasn't able to even hit 20 hours (these numbers were recorded after 6 recharge cycles). Of course, like all other headphones and headsets to date i was using the ARC-1 ANC at well over 80% volume so I’d be very surprised/impressed if i was to hit the advertised numbers (manufacturers usually measure this at 40-50% volume).

   As I’ve said time and again over the years price is what makes or breaks a product and i really have no complaints from Aiwa when it comes to the ARC-1 ANC Wireless Headphones, not when you can currently find them for just USD79.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 79.95Euros inside the EU (Aiwa Online Store). Now if you’re looking for the best possible ANC headphones well the ARC-1 ANC by Aiwa are clearly not that. However, if your goal is to find a very affordable model with good ANC capability there aren’t that many choices out there with the ARC-1 ANC clearly leading the way at that price range and for that it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Good Build Quality
- Audio Reproduction (Crisp, Detailed Mids & Highs)
- Bluetooth v5.0
- Active Noise Cancellation
- 3 Available Microphones
- External Earcup Controls
- Foldable/ Rotatable Earcups
- Battery Life (Up To 40 Hours / 25 Hours With ANC)
- Bluetooth & Wired Connectivity
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- ANC (Not Very Strong / For Some)
- No Android / iOS App
- Lack Of Support For HD Audio Codecs