Aiwa ESBT-460 Neckless Earphone: It’s time to make music, again

About 20 years ago, in the world of music systems in particular, Sony was aspirational but not really affordable for the Indian middle class. Aiwa, on the other hand, was both aspirational and affordable. But in the years that followed, Aiwa, its then-parent Sony, and other Japanese brands such as Panasonic lost out to Apple, Samsung and others. One of the reasons was the Japanese brands failed to understand changing customer expectations and didn’t have a product the customers wanted. After a hiatus of more than 15 years, Aiwa is now back, and it has possibly started with the right product range, i.e. personal audio devices, one of which is the ESBT-460 Neckless Earphone.

While the design of the ESBT-460 is like any other neckless earphone, you can see and feel the premiumness and attention to detail if you observe it closely. And not just the earphone, in the box you get a storage pouch, and even that feels like a designer pouch. Coming to the sound it reproduces, the bass is deep, the treble is soft on the eardrums, and there is absolutely no noise, just music.