ÆON Musings
Build – Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; I think the ÆON is a great looking headphone, quirky in shape, simplistic and functional in design, and the midnight blue hue with the carbon fibre accents adding difference and an air of prestige and strength. Speaking of strength, they look and feel well-built and seem durable, the cast aluminium baffle plates, combined carbon fibre and plastic ear cups and Nitinol headband arches seem fairly indestructible. The leather headband strap and protein leather ear pads complete the solid build picture and provide for a very comfortable, fatigue free head fit. My only slight concern is the cast aluminium gimbal arms that I wouldn’t want to drop on a hard floor, evidenced by one owners past misfortune. Cast aluminium in the form of a relatively thin tube can be a bit brittle.
The ÆON looks better in the hand than in photos, and the biggest surprise to me was size. They pack small (great compact hard case Mr Speakers) but they are far from small on the head. They are full size, and extend to the jaw line not unlike a K70X or LCD and similar. They are not portable size and obviously don’t fold up. Having said that, they are extremely light and weight distribution through the ingenious leather head band Nitinol arches is exceptional. There is plenty of room to adjust both around the ears and on the head to achieve positioning that should provide comfort for 95% of the headphone wearing population, Elfs and very large hat sizes being the exceptions. As ÆON packs small but wears large, I wouldn’t recommended them as a portable head phone, more a transportable headphone, for work or overnight stays as opposed to wearing on the bus, train etc.
My only other slight issue with build is the cable. I do like the DUM (MER) cable, however it is a bit memory stiff and doesn’t sit well across the body. And I struggle occasionally with finding the right ‘twist’ with the cable connectors, sometimes they simply slip in (very satisfying click) and other times it seems that I am doing it wrong.
Sound – Are they efficient or not? Efficiency isn’t a yes or no question; it is a matter of degrees. The ÆON measures in at SPL 97dB/mW. Comparatively speaking there are many headphones that are more efficient, but the Mr Speakers closed back is efficient enough to be driven by a reasonable DAP. My A&K JR runs a fairly efficient Bose QC 25 in noise cancelling mode at around 45 on the volume scale. The Ultrasone Signature Pro runs to the same sound volume at 50 and ÆON jumps to around 60 on the dial; the A&K JR tops out at 75. So the ÆON can be driven by the humble DAP without need for extra amplification, although the ÆON does scale well with better electricals. So if your DAP can’t drive your ÆON, it is time to invest in a new DAP, or turn the volume down, you’re damaging your hearing.
If you’ve been a member of Headfi for more than 5 minutes you probably already know that the ÆON measures reasonably closely to the Harmon Target Response Curve. Is the HTRC the last word in bench marking for desirable headphone sound? To me, the ÆON sounds fairly neutral. By neutral, it doesn’t emphasise any particular aspect of the frequency response. It isn’t a warm, dark, bassy headphone, nor is it a bright, strident, sibilant headphone. Some people have described the ÆON as bass light, and as a result lifeless, soulless? and boring. I think it would be safe to say that the ÆON is bass light in comparison to Z7, ZR1, XB1000, and other bass emphasised headphones, however it goes deep and provides plenty of low and mid bass when the music calls for it. Again, the ÆON does not intensify or accentuate bass in tracks, but it is not bass light, it is neutral in its sound signature. With this neutrality you do get euphoric vocals, both female and male, as the bass doesn’t bleed into the mids and the clarity enables the full sound spectrum to shine as intended in the recording. The outstanding aspect of the ÆON for me is the natural tonality. Not to be confused with neutrality, by natural tonality I mean that instruments sound as they should, as how I perceive them in a ‘live’ context. Pianos and guitars sound like I am listening in a live venue, symbols and drums sound so right, as do vocals. If I am listening to a track which is basically acoustic, say a guitar and vocalist, then I can take the top off a beer close my eyes and I am
in the venue.
The frequency response curve indicates a slight peak at around the 5K mark, however to my older ears this doesn’t present any problem at all, and I listen to the ÆON without the extra foam inserts and experience no sibilance whatsoever, outside of poorly mastered/produced recordings.
Although the ÆON is a closed back headphone the sound stage isn’t closed in, instrument separation is excellent and overall sound isn’t congested in any way. The ÆON sounds as open and airy as many open headphones (Grado I’m looking at you) not as wide as HD 800 or K70X (some would argue artificially wide), but certainly with enough width and depth as to not warrant complaint in comparison to most headphones.
The ÆON is very smooth, neutral, perfectly balanced and has a sound stage of an open headphone, with high comfort levels and an ability to scale up, what more could you want?
