A week or so ago I had the chance to listen to the DCA Aeon 2 Closed. A big thank you to Andrew of Bloom Audio for inviting me into his office and giving me a chance to listen to these!
I've been looking for a good pair of office headphones for neigh on 2 years or so, but haven't been able to find anything with my preferred sound signature that didn't have major flaws (like the big upper mids chasm in the LCD-2 Closed for instance), and was hoping the Aeon 2 would finally be the one! Unfortunately that wasn't the case, but we'll get into that in a sec.
First, a quick word on my sonic preferences. I have a bit of a treble sensitivity so I lean a little towards the mildly dark/warm side (as far as headphones go, I'm a big fan of headphones that follow the harman curve, which some would say lean more neutral but some others would call slightly warm/dark). I have hearing up to about 19.5khz last I checked, so this includes upper treble spikes (those are the WORST).
My current audio collection includes an Audeze LCD-2 Classic, Senn HD800, Fiio FH5, and Meze 99 Classics on the headphone side. On the speaker side I have a pair of Thiel CS1.6, Focal CMS50, and my newest addition, Polk LSiM 707 (which really kick ass BTW). I've also owned and listened to a pretty wide range of other headphones and speakers in my time over the years. None of these give me any trouble treble-wise. The HD800 is definitely more treble heavy than the rest of my collection, but while it leans more treble heavy, I don't get any problematic sharpness from them, so my treble sensitivity isn't that intense I would say. I don't have an aversion to treble in general, I just have an aversion to problematic treble. My current favorite headphone is the LCD-2 Classic with some EQ corrections (mostly through reveal), I absolutely love the Audeze sound and my ideal work headphone would sound like the 2C but without the sound leakage.
I won't go into a ton of detail, because I listened for a relatively short time (1-2 hours). These are just quick impressions.
When I went to Bloom Audio, Andrew provided me a pair of Aeon 2's powered by a Hugo 2 running music off of Qobuz in lossless 16/44.1 and 24/96. Unfortunately Qobuz doesn't really have a lot of the music I listen to (mostly smaller artists), but I was able to listen to enough to get a sense of their sound.
Build is excellent, feels solid and well made. Love the cable connectors!
Comfort is pretty great. I wouldn't say they're as comfortable as something like the Meze Classics, but they're close (more comfortable earpads, less comfortable headband/weight). It would be nice if the headband had a bit more surface area, but that's a really minor complaint for an otherwise very comfortable headphone. So far they're looking to be an ideal work headphone!
Sound is relatively balanced, if not a bit lean in the bass (compared to what I like). Detail was pretty great, texture and dynamics are middle of the road perhaps. They didn't stand out but also didn't disappoint me considering the price class. The overall sound signature I would say has somewhat of a treble-lean compared to harman-neutral. Unfortunately, there were some issues with the treble that made the headphones surprisingly sharp to my ears.
Listening to Son Lux and The Flashbulb (well, the one song of his Qobuz had) things sounded pretty good, but it did get sharp every so often. One major example of this is the song "Black Waters" by Son Lux. This song has very breathy vocals and they were very sharp on the Aeon 2, I haven't run into this problem before on this song to be frank. The one Flashbulb song Qobuz has (Cloud Shadows) sounded pretty great on the Aeon 2. No treble issues, but I didn't expect any. The song is pretty much just Bass Charango. After a bit of listening and ending up with a headache as a result, I tried the felt pads to see if I could tame things a little. In the end, I put both felt pads in the earcups at the same time and was able to calm things down enough that well recorded music like Son Lux didn't give me treble problems, and the headphones overall were sounding a lot better as a result. Sometimes it did feel as though I was on the precipice of sharp treble, but I didn't really get any with well recorded music. I then decided to push my luck and try not well recorded/mastered music, so I turned on some Skeletonwitch, and as soon as the cymbals started I turned it right off and decided that was a bad idea. Even with both felt pads the cymbals were painful. Honestly, I wish I could be more detailed in my impressions, but I had a very hard time analyzing the sound of the headphones because of the treble problems and resulting headache. I apologize for that.
Unfortunately my search for a good work headphone continues. I'm bummed the Aeon 2 wasn't my cup of tea, Dan seems like such a great dude and I really want to own a pair of his headphones one day.