AudioDream Aether NExus

Let me introduce myself: My name is Antenor and I own this Brazilian YouTube channel called MusiCafe, in which I've been reviewing audio and coffee gear for 3 year now.

Today I'm going to talk about what is the state of the art of AudioDream, the Aether Nexus.

AD is a Brazilian company based in São Paulo that produces high-quality headphones. They focus on the professional and high-end audio market, working with many well-known artists and music producers in Brazil. They also create custom IEMs, which are made entirely taylored to your specific ear.

Returning to the focus here, the Nexus is a quad hybrid configuration earphone, meaning it has 4 types of speakers inside each of these earphones, being 1 dynamic with pure beryllium diaphragm, 6 balanced armatures, 4 Sonion electrostatic and 1 RAU, which is a special type of balanced armature, manufactured by Knowles. This totals 12 speakers on each side, which obviously makes the shell of this earphone immense, take a look at this, people, I think it's the biggest in-ear I've ever seen.



And AD changed the shape of their universal shells to this one, which I personally found more comfortable and which will probably give a better fit for more people, because the old one was also big, but it didn't have the curves of this one that end up giving a better fit.
The isolation remains excellent, a score of 4 on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 is for Audeze isine and 5 is for Custom IEM or triple flange Etymotics) and it's only this size here that can scare you, but once placed in the ear, it doens't bothers at all.
The cable is simple, but it's light, discreet and robust, and without luxury, it's that basic black one that comes in all the other earphones of the brand and maybe a more premium cable would be cool on an ultra premium earphone like this.

AD does not inform the Sensitivity of the earphone, but it is not easy to drive at all and needs a considerable degree of amplification, but a good dongle does the trick here, it's nothing absurd, but it has a considerably lower sensitivity than most in-ear monitors, every time I plug it in here on my amplifier or DAP I always have to give it more juice compared to other earphones.


This earphone is AD's top of the line and obviously it comes with that nukeproof kit that is already traditional of the brand, with this Enormous case shockproof, floodproof, puncture-proof and toddler proof, which inside has two well-distributed floors for you to store a little audio kit, like a DAP, an amplifier, an interface, or something like that.







There is also a niche to store the smaller case of the earphone, which is also this classic AD, super resistant, waterproof and all that, with the earphones, cable, set of tips, acleaning brush and a P10 adapter.





The cable as I said is that basic black AD. The earphones, man... they are huge, take a look at this. They are made of 3D printed resin, but in reality it didn't even seem to me at first glance, because normally earphones made like this have a texture from the 3D printing, but this one is smooth and the faceplate you can choose between several from their portfolio, I think the clockworks is the best. In the end I liked this new shell format and this one is particularly large because of the amount of internal components, but the simpler brand's earphones are smaller, and regardless of that it has a very comfortable fit.







The sound
Let's talk about the sound of this earphone and if all this complex arrangement and the sky-high price translate into an awesome sound.

The Nexus here has a personality that is very familiar with what I've already heard from some other AD IEMs and
it reminded me of their last Flagship, the first Somnium EST, which is now called Somnium EST ER, but the Nexus here has something more that is indeed capable of impressing even those who have already experienced a lot in this hobby.

So, to start with: it brings right off the aspects that are hallmarks of AD earphones, which is a truly remarkable detail retrieval, very high resolution, very high level instrument separation and great layering capabiliti, in addition to a sound that comes out of your head and expands, although I think the Nexus doesn't have the best soundstage I've ever heard in an Audiodream earphone, but it's really good!

Speaking of tonal balance, it is for me a neutral earphone with a slight warmth along with a slight bass boost (This is not just a Graph interpretation, but my listening perceptions). Graph




And here what impresses the most is the bass. If I'm not mistaken AudioDream used here a beryllium dynamic driver, along with two balanced armatures dedicated to the bass. And this earphone has one of the best bass I've ever heard, if not the best. The texture is absurd, really off the charts, with an amount that at the same time has mass and substance, and brings a sensational timbre richness.

The thing here is: it's not just that textured and very dry thing, like some reference bass IEMs, but here the texture comes along with a mass and quantity that give a good weight to things without bloating or losing the nuances of that timbre.

You put on a song like Blind Hearted by Sara K. for example and the sound of that bass strings is really very textured, it's like the earphone draws a more detailed wave, with all the nuances that are there in the recording.



And following here on the subject of texture, its mids also have an equally sensational texture, precisely with this presentation of a very rich timbre full of nuances and details, it's really a huge amount of information that this earphone can render. And another example here of music that you can perceive several of these qualities I mentioned is Till Tomorrow, by Yello with Till Bronner, which first Till's trumpet is shown with a really amazing texture and along with that, it also brings a great perception of layering and of course, all the bass texture very well produced in every Yello music.



And besides, I think tonally this mids are pretty much correct to my ears, slightly warm, but still deliver excellent clarity, correct body and positioning.

Finally, its treble region has excellent resolution and extension, the transparency of the earphone is very noticeable and of course the excellent quality of these treble frequencies is responsible for the great mids texture. Tonally they are also treble frequencies within a field that I consider neutral, coherent and with a totally harmless amount. And here, just because I'm a fan of more brightness, I would like a little more high treble, but that's just my taste, what I hear from Nexus is complety fine.

Conclusion and Recommendation

So let's go to our conclusion, folks, and for me it's much more complicated to judge when it comes to an expensive earphone, especially the most expensive earphone I've ever reviewed and maybe one of the most expensive on the global in-ear market.

Of course it's not an absolute exception in the world of hi-end earphones, we have several other earphone manufacturers with equally complex configurations, similar prices and even much higher, like the Mason FS line from Unique Melody which can reach 8.500 USD, or a Fatfreq gran maestro which reaches 4.300 USD, even the crazy QDC Dragon line which reaches an incredible 13.700 bucks, just to give some examples of very expensive earphones around the world.

Despite being sellen in BRL currency, in today's dollar, the Nexus here reaches close to 5.000 dollars. Now if you ask me if compared to a 200 USD IEM this one plays 25 times more, obviously the answer is no, because I don't think it's possible to measure that objectively. This is an almost perfect IEM, it has a lot of qualities that I love, it plays everything very well, and I would definetly buy it if I had this amount of money to put in this hobby.

And for those who can sepend this amount of money and love a great hi-end sound, go for it, the thing is really great. For those, like me, cannot spend 5k yet, I really like the Somnium EST ER and it costs around 3k usd, for those who want something awesome from AD and it even looks like Nexus in many ways. For me it ends up being a great choice as well. Even though Nexus is better than the Somnium EST, I have to be honest with you guys and I really don't think it's worth the 2k bucks difference between them just for the sound, because it's slightly better, but again, for those who have infinite money, it really doesn't matter and I would rather go for the very best sound among them.

That's it, thank you all.

I also have a YouTube channel for this kind of review, comparative sound tests e so. It has auto. English subtitle and I'm working on IA tools to offer English audio as well, but it's still unavailable.


Here is a link to check the product: AudioDream
This is a non-affiliated link.

Disclamer: This earphone was loan by AudioDream and they didn't ask me to write or say anythiong specific about this IEM. Here we got my honest thoughts an impressions.