SRS iWow-U Universal Audio Quality Enhancer For Digital Devices – ‘Book Mystique Review

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The iWOW-U is a new addition to SRS’s line of adapter dongles that are claimed to when plugged into the headphone/headset jack of virtually any audio device offer an HD-quality listening experience for music, movies, games or other audio tracks. The iWow-U connects easily and quickly between mobile phones, smartphones, media tablets, e-Readers, PCs/Macs, or MP3 players and your headphones, earbuds or car/home audio system, and is engineered to deliver more “immersive” sound quality with substantial bass enhancement

SRS, which has a more than 20-year track record in the digital audio field, says its iWOW devices utilize patented proprietary technologies to restore audio cues that are buried in the original source material, thereby allowing users to experience greater clarity and detail in the music playback, although the technical details of how this is achieved are not elucidated.

At least those are the claims. The question is, does iWow deliver?

Last year I reviewed the older SRS iWOW 3D Audio Enhancing Adapter For iOS Devices. The iWow 3D was pretty impressive, but the new iWow-U is even more so, being smaller, more streamlined and more self-contained thanks to having an internal rechargeable lithium ion battery rather than drawing power from the audio device. The iWow 3D also needed support from a downloadable Software app http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/srs-iwow-app/id357877519?mt=8= in order for you to adjust the audio settings to your liking and select speaker settings: headphones, car or external speakers. With iWow-U those functions are built-in, which is much more convenient, and you’re not limited to using it with just Apple devices — hence, “universal.”

It’s easy to gauge the difference the iWow U makes by simply clicking the activation button on and off while listening to music. The effect is more than subtle, and in some instances fairly dramatic. If limited to one qualifier, I would probably choose “depth,” which I guess is consistent with “immersive.” I tested the iWow U on an iPod nano, and after listening to iWow-enhanced output, switching back to a direct feed made the music sound relatively thin and reedy, albeit more so with some types of music than others.

The effect is most dramatic with low bit-rate MP3s, other lower-quality digital recordings, YouTube videos and movie sound tracks in which you really will be able to hear stuff in the audio that you couldn’t hear (at least clearly) before. Especially if your music library is mostly in lower-fidelity digital formats, once you’ve experienced the enhanced effect, it will be hard to go back. On the other hand, if you have mostly higher-fidelity stuff, you’ll see less potential benefit.

With rock/pop/country fare, bass lines especially are much more assertive, which is great if you like bass, which I do, but I hasten to add that the entire audio spectrum seems clearer and more alive. Which for some reason brings to mind Ambrose Beirce’s century-plus year old observation about the phonograph “restoring life to dead noises.” I digress.

I found the improvement less pronounced with classical/symphonic music like Beethoven’s 5th, but in solo instrument selections with orchestral backup, like Mr.B’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor (AKA “Moonlight”), or cellist Yo Yo Ma’s sublime American Collection Theme, one can definitely hear other instruments in the orchestra more clearly and distinctly. I also checked out a choral recording I like of Sir Cecil Spring-Rice’s British patriotic poem “I Vow to Thee, My Country” rousingly set to “Jupiter” from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets,” and found it benefited from iWow-U processing as well.

The takeaway is that whatever type of music you prefer, iWow-U offers to enhance your listening pleasure in digital playback. And happily a background hiss and sibilance (hissing word endings in vocals and choral music) that I detected on some playbacks with the iWow 3D seemed to be absent with the iWow-U (although that might have just been ideosyncrasies of the respective recordings I sampled).

Using iWow-U is pretty simple. You’ll first have to charge its internal battery via a USB port using the provided cable. SRS says it takes about 90 minutes to fully charge the iWOW-U’s Lithium-polymer battery. I left it for a couple of hours, and that was no doubt more than it needed. You can still use the device while it’s charging. When the device’s battery is fully charged, the white “SRS” light stops blinking. The manufacturer says battery charge life will typically be about 5 hours, depending somewhat on variables such as volume level and headphone type.

Once it’s charged, you just plug the iWow’s male connector into your music device’s (eg: digital music player, Smartphone, media tablet) headphone jack, and plug your headphone or earbuds into iWow’s female connector.

Turn on your device and hold down the silver button on the front of the iWow-U for three seconds to activate it. The SRS logo will illuminate and a blue or green (see below) LED will glow to indicate that the iWow is in operational mode and your audio is being processed using SRS’s enhancement technologies. You can suspend iWow enhancement by clicking the silver button (the blue/green LED will go out). To restore audio enhancement, just click the button again. Simple.

iWOW-U has two preset tunings: Headphone and Car/Home Stereo, for optimal performance based on your playback environment. If you’re using the iWOW-U in your car or with the larger speakers of your home stereo rig, you should set the device to the Car/Home Stereo tuning (Green LED). When using it with headphones, you’ll obviously want to use the Headphone tuning mode (Blue LED). To switch between Headphone and Car/Home Stereo modes, do a quick double press of the Main Button while the SRS technology is enabled, and it’ll toggle between the two preset tuning modes.

Like the iWow 3D I previously reviewed, the iWow-U package I tested came with five assorted color faceplate inserts for the audio adapter module, and again I liked the light metallic blue me best. However, unike the iWow 3D, the iWow-U package doesn’t contain a set of earbuds. The iWow-U is also available in a basic package with just a silver faceplate for $10 less.

System Requirements:
• Almost any device with an audio 3.5mm headphone or line out jack like an iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android devices, MP3 players, PCs and more
• Standard headphones or earbuds or 3.5mm male-to-male cable to attach to car or home stereos.

As tested, the box contains the iWOW-U audio adaptor, five colored faceplate inserts, and a Micro-USB cable for charging the device.

The iWow-U sells for $79.95, or $69.95 without the interchangeable color faceplate selection.

For more information, visit:
http://www.srslabs.com/store/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=52

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