[Benno1988]

My thoughts too. Though the Focal house sound never seems to feel right. Despite the awesome detail and dynamics, just...off...sounding...

Z1R, they tame that peak somehow, be gold. On song that don't have much in that peak area, do sound great.

 

[bcowen]

Ok... wow listened to a song I remember as a kid tonight (easily 2010/2011)

Luv Sic Part 3 Nujabes (r.i.p) with Shing02... there's lyrics I never understood before... I heard the sounds but never really clearly understood what he was saying...there you have it folks

hear and understand it all with Aeon 2 Closed

You were a kid in 2010 / 2011?? You're making me feel really, really old. Which I guess I kind of am.

 

[bcowen]

Is it worth upgrading from the AFC 1?

Was worth it to me.

 

[DoctaCosmos]

Anyone have experience with this headphone vs nightowl? I Borrowed a nightowl for the night from a friend. Gets overwhelmed quickly but man is it organic and the highs are so effortless and textured in a black background. High hats and cymbals are just the right size to not be overbearing and seemingly dont have a dynamic attack which is nice in that range. the beyers would be to visceral and fast in that range. This is a Good headphone with compressed music. I usually want more detail and space but for lesser music it's doing about all it needs to as far enjoyment factor goes. Some definite peaks in "S" range that are harsh and some mudiness in the lower midrange. Though.

 

[Makiah S]

Anyone have experience with this headphone vs nightowl? I Borrowed a nightowl for the night from a friend. Gets overwhelmed quickly but man is it organic and the highs are so effortless and textured in a black background. High hats and cymbals are just the right size to not be overbearing and seemingly dont have a dynamic attack which is nice in that range. the beyers would be to visceral and fast in that range. This is a Good headphone with compressed music. I usually want more detail and space but for lesser music it's doing about all it needs to as far enjoyment factor goes. Some definite peaks in "S" range that are harsh and some mudiness in the lower midrange. Though.

I do not feel A2C will do good with compressed music, but I to appreciate it's effortless top end, black background and rather organic highs. Now I'm running it out of an Ember II, Psvane Treasure CV181 [Gen 1 I guess] with an @atomicbob Noise nuke and a full silver cable,

That said, another emotional listen tonight... Norah Jones this time. There are still some mixs where A2C is a touch too bassy, but the Analogue Productions Remaster of Come Away With Me sounds simply perfect to my ears on A2C!



The whole reason I own a closed back is to enjoy high quality music late at night without disturbing others, and I do a lot of deep thinking at night so it's a god send to have a truly amazing headphone to listen with when I'm thinking a little more deeper and sometimes a little more emotional. Thank you again @mrspeakers

 

[DoctaCosmos]

I was a little drunk that nigh . I could never keep a nightowl there's just too much wrong with it although the things it does do right I I rather enjoy. I ended up buying a beyerdynamic xelento remote iem and while it's really good, and its imperfections I could mainly deal with except I'm just not an iem guy. Just too small of a sound for me that its unnatural and my brain doesn't cope with it. I mention that because o was afraid of getting an aeon and the sound being too small. After living with the xelento, I believe there's no way an aeon wouldn't be enough sound for me. Xelento going back and in a month or two I'll be an aeon 2 c owner. ProbAbly going to be looking for something other than a mojo to power it.
I remember going to a nyc show in Connecticut a long time ago and dan was there with his new alpha prime paired with a Cavalli liquid glass and an aurelic vega dac. It was my favorite setup simply because There were so many micro dynamics fleshed out with such finesse. The t1 wa22 was probably better if I'd known what I do now back then. I Would love to be able to afford that dac and amp combo buy i'll probably skip on the liquid glass and maybe look for a used aurelic sometime. Anyone know of any dacs similar to the aurelic sound that is cheaper?

 

[jarnopp]

I was a little drunk that nigh . I could never keep a nightowl there's just too much wrong with it although the things it does do right I I rather enjoy. I ended up buying a beyerdynamic xelento remote iem and while it's really good, and its imperfections I could mainly deal with except I'm just not an iem guy. Just too small of a sound for me that its unnatural and my brain doesn't cope with it. I mention that because o was afraid of getting an aeon and the sound being too small. After living with the xelento, I believe there's no way an aeon wouldn't be enough sound for me. Xelento going back and in a month or two I'll be an aeon 2 c owner. ProbAbly going to be looking for something other than a mojo to power it.
I remember going to a nyc show in Connecticut a long time ago and dan was there with his new alpha prime paired with a Cavalli liquid glass and an aurelic vega dac. It was my favorite setup simply because There were so many micro dynamics fleshed out with such finesse. The t1 wa22 was probably better if I'd known what I do now back then. I Would love to be able to afford that dac and amp combo buy i'll probably skip on the liquid glass and maybe look for a used aurelic sometime. Anyone know of any dacs similar to the aurelic sound that is cheaper?

FWIW, I think Mojo is a great pairing, and I keep hearing new details in music. Dynamics and volume are no problem, usually listening from double red to double green (even double light blue) on the most uncompressed classical piano works.

 

[Taowolf51]

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.

 

[sm5656]

I completely agree with you on this. The A2C's are fairly bright but anything paired with the Hugo is unbearable to me. I went through the Mr speakers headphones line on the Hugo and couldn't stand it.

I ended up buying the A2Cs because I had listened to them on the mojo when I was trying them out and really liked them. I got home and found they were too bright on my thx 789.

I'm going to try the tuning pads before I pair then with a tube amp and see how that works out for me.

 

[gardibolt]

How are these with classical? Symphonic, chamber, piano, vocal, opera?

 

[tcellguy]

I think they are very good all rounders.

They pretty much sound great with every genre I’ve tried.

The high treble detail and good sound stage works really well with classical.

They won’t have as much air around instruments as an open headphone, but still very good.

 

[flarex3]

How are these with classical? Symphonic, chamber, piano, vocal, opera?

Very bad. Especially for those genres. Female vocals are sucked out due to the upper midrange dip I guess.

 

[flarex3]

The high treble detail and good sound stage works really well with classical.

I couldn't disagree more...

 

[bcowen]

Very bad. Especially for those genres. Female vocals are sucked out due to the upper midrange dip I guess.

You've returned yours, right? Please consider finding a different thread to troll now.

 

[flarex3]

You've returned yours, right? Please consider finding a different thread to troll.

He asked "How are these with Symphonic, vocal, opera ?" and I stated my opinion. And ?
If you think otherwise you are free to state your own musical opinion.