When In Manila, I happen to have got my hands on the Accutone Aquarius earphones aside from the Accutone Taurus. I wasn’t really eager to have a listen to them since they look very consumer-like with the plastic body and fashion styled housing that comes often with the normal Sony, Philips, Audio-Technica earphones that just caters to people who want sound out of their portable media devices. Nothing too catering to people who would want “better” or good sound quality. Hence, my review for the Accutone Taurus came out ahead of the Accutone Aquarius. So upon opening the package, I had no expectations as well like the Accutone Taurus, since the brand is fairly new to me and I have not heard anyone in the hi-fi community mentioning the brand and the products. But if you did read my review of the Accutone Taurus, you would know how surprised I was with the sound and incredible bass that it delivers. Well, my reaction to the Accutone Aquarius is pretty similar to that, and I am even more surprised with how the Accutone Aquarius‘ sound creeps into hi-fi territory!
Build/Packaging: The packaging is quite similar to the Accutone Aquarius where you get the earphones in a square non-ordinary plastic case, and with the accessories at the bottom. The only differences are, the Accutone Aquarius does not have a leather carrying case and the foam tips that were included with the Accutone Taurus. Upon seeing the label on the Accutone Aquarius, I happened to noticed that it says “High-Fidelity headset for smart phones”. I pretty much agree on how they dub the Accutone Taurus as “High-Fidelity”.
With the build quality, the Accutone Aquarius is simply just built with plastic, with a microphone and controls for smart phones, and comes in different colors. Fairly similar to average consumer earphones. This is the reason why I didn’t have much excitement upon seeing them for the first time. I somehow thought that they would sound similar to an average tin can sounding product. But I was dead wrong!
Sound Quality: “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. Yep, that phrase ultimately fits the bill with the Accutone Aquarius. They look like average fashion trending consumer earphones, but the sound creeps into hi-fi territory! The highs are well extended. The bass is evident and not too overpowering, and the mids/vocals are the evident strength of this earphone! Having a sound signature which is neutral to bright and having the mids as the strength are features that most hi-fi earphones have, so surprising for the Accutone Aquarius to have this quality and show it off very well! The left and right stereo separation of the Accutone Aquarius is above average, having the bass on Elisa Fiorillo’s “Don’t be afraid” play image to the left and having the saxophone play on the right without having the sound overlaps at the middle where Elisa Fiorillo‘s Jazzy vocals are placed is just superb for a product in this price range and as a new comer. The Accutone Taurus also has good sprakle along with an above average instrument separation, imaging and sound stage. You can easily focus on a single instrument with its good imaging and instrument separation. Everything sounds natural on the Accutone Aquarius. The saxophone playing on the Accutone Aquarius sounds so thick and powerful! The bass does sometimes tend to be boomy but it’s nothing bad. And I also found the Accutone Aquarius a bit hard to drive. Funny thing because it shows so much qualities of an audiophile/hi-fi earphone specially because of its slight hard to drive quality. On my iPhone, I had to push the volume up to 80% just to have a normal listening level. On my hisoundaudio RoCoo P where the Accutone Aquarius really sounded so glorified, I had to bump the volume up to around 25 or 26, the max volume is 31. So a portable amplifier would be a benefit to maximize the potential of the Accutone Aquarius and also to have no problems with pushing the volume higher.
Overall, the Accutone Aquarius is amazing! My shock value over the Accutone Taurus is doubled with the Accutone Aquarius! Accutone is really putting something on the table. Consumer products and other competitors at this price range should be weary. Accutone is coming strong with the Accutone Taurus and Accutone Aquarius. I honestly love the Accutone Aquarius! The sound quality for the price and for how it looks is incredible! It’s like a a superhero hiding its identity deep inside.
The Accutone Aquarius can be purchased for P1,800 at the following stores: Astrovision, Power Mac Center, Rustan’s Department Store.
And we are giving away 1 Accutone Taurus!!!
all you have to do to join:
“RT this and follow @WhenInManila and @AccutoneAudio for a chance to win an Accutone Aquarius earphone-https://bit.ly/QEvutK #WhenInManila”
Winner of the Accutone Aquarius is @edooong!
Congratulations! Our writer will be in touch with you shortly
Accuatone Aquarius: consumer value earphone with a hi-fi sound?
