[Schueller]

According to its review on this site (https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/cowon-plenue-l.23560/reviews), your Plenue L outputs about 500mW into 32 ohms with its more powerful balanced output. My desktop amp maxes at a little over twice that (1.1W) and can push the volume really high before a half-turn, so I think you should be okay if you use the balanced output and crank the volume.

Using an adapter shouldn't affect the sound quality.

As far as portability goes, I guess it depends on what you're looking for. Here are some pros and cons that I can think of off the top of my head:
Portability Pros: Lightweight, comfortable, closed back with good isolation, good clamping power (shouldn't fall off your head as you actively move around), smaller than most headphones designed for desktop use
Cons: Earcups don't pivot/fold like other headphones designed for portability, can't drive them without lots of portable power (though you might have this covered already), larger than most headphones designed for portable use

Based on those criteria, you can decide if taking them on trips is right for you!

Thanks a lot, you've been really informative and helpful

 

[Caessa]

Thanks a lot, you've been really informative and helpful

You're welcome! Glad I could help.

 

[Gilles De Rais]

I'd like to make a recurrent caveat - IMO these are not portable headphones, rather they are transportable. (check my posts for previous rants....)

These things need current and lots of it. With the exception of things like the DX200/220 heavy duty amps, pretty much all DAPs will struggle to drive these effectively. Even running a Mojo in parallel sounds constrained and bass-light (tried with an AK70 and Shanling M0). The amps used with this headphone tend to be desktop and reasonably decent ones at that with Schitt Jotunheim's, Lyrs being used a bit. The iFi DSD Black Label is a popular transportable option. So yeah carry it to a library or a cafe, but on public transport....

regards,

Giles

 

[441879]

I'd like to make a recurrent caveat - IMO these are not portable headphones, rather they are transportable. (check my posts for previous rants....)

These things need current and lots of it. With the exception of things like the DX200/220 heavy duty amps, pretty much all DAPs will struggle to drive these effectively. Even running a Mojo in parallel sounds constrained and bass-light (tried with an AK70 and Shanling M0). The amps used with this headphone tend to be desktop and reasonably decent ones at that with Schitt Jotunheim's, Lyrs being used a bit. The iFi DSD Black Label is a popular transportable option. So yeah carry it to a library or a cafe, but on public transport....

regards,

Giles

My opinion too. I’ve used mine on airplanes with a FIIO Q5, but it does better with a Lyr 3. IMHO an amplifier that can deliver 1W at 13 ohms is the minimum to ensure they have enough power. That’s a pretty high output headphone amp.

 

[mrspeakers]

I highly recommend the dx220 amp8 config, we have a few of these in house and it’s a stellar pairing. The Mojo too, but it’s a different t yep of device.

 

[ZappaMan]

Any tips on what way the ear cups should fit on your head. As in, towards the front or towards the back?
High or low?
With headband equally spaced from the bottom?

 

[Jearly410]

Any tips on what way the ear cups should fit on your head. As in, towards the front or towards the back?
High or low?
With headband equally spaced from the bottom?

There's an interview between Tyll and Dan where they go over this question around 3:00 on.

 

[Benni-Mac]

I'd like to make a recurrent caveat - IMO these are not portable headphones, rather they are transportable. (check my posts for previous rants....)

These things need current and lots of it. With the exception of things like the DX200/220 heavy duty amps, pretty much all DAPs will struggle to drive these effectively. Even running a Mojo in parallel sounds constrained and bass-light (tried with an AK70 and Shanling M0). The amps used with this headphone tend to be desktop and reasonably decent ones at that with Schitt Jotunheim's, Lyrs being used a bit. The iFi DSD Black Label is a popular transportable option. So yeah carry it to a library or a cafe, but on public transport....

regards,

Giles

If the Aeon Closed sounds bass light and constrained to you via Mojo, then perhaps you are after a different sound from a headphone than what the Aeon excels at? I could certainly see the pairing being described as neutral sounding (which to my ears is a good thing) but having heard them coming out of a Mojo through to £10,000 DAC/Amp combos, I wouldn’t say there is anything missing when paired with Mojo.

Everyone is looking for something different I guess. I just wanted to present a counter view for those considering them.

 

[Gilles De Rais]

If the Aeon Closed sounds bass light and constrained to you via Mojo, then perhaps you are after a different sound from a headphone than what the Aeon excels at? I could certainly see the pairing being described as neutral sounding (which to my ears is a good thing) but having heard them coming out of a Mojo through to £10,000 DAC/Amp combos, I wouldn’t say there is anything missing when paired with Mojo.

Everyone is looking for something different I guess. I just wanted to present a counter view for those considering them.

Hi Benni,

Our views differ then.

I run the Aeon through the Naim Dac V1 - a $2.5k Dac/head-amp combo.It has a lovely Class A headphone amplifier. This type of set-up provides more than enough voltage swing to drive the Aeons with some pretty impressive bass. The comparison with the Mojo is night and day when using the same source - to the Mojo's detriment, which is what I'd expect given the price differential. The Naim has significantly better control, note definition, dynamics (macro and micro) and most importantly timbre over the Mojo. Using the Aeon Closed the Mojo compared to the Naim is rolled off both top and bottom - cymbals don't reverberate, though they do capture the initial impulse (check the work on Oscar Peterson's Night Train), Deep bass on something like Trentemoller's Chamelon on the The Last Resort is lacking in authority and extension. Dynamics are constricted - for example on large scale classical works like Karajan's DG recording of Bruckner's Symphony 9 first movement, the last few minutes after the tympani kick in are vast in scale, scope and dynamism - not that you'd note on the Mojo, it just renders it as a homogenous wall of sound - showing the inability to swing enough current. Again this is compared to the Naim.

The Mojo is neutral, but mid-centric focused and if you played stuff like vocal jazz, light pop or the like, I wouldn't have any complaints when used with the Aeon Closed. If you tastes are broader then IMO look elsewhere. In my case if I'm using the Mojo my preference is for an IEM.

To me, the difference between a good desktop and a good portable are significant for the Aeon closed, which I regard highly and use daily.

regards,

Giles

 

[Benni-Mac]

Hi Benni,

Our views differ then.

I run the Aeon through the Naim Dac V1 - a $2.5k Dac/head-amp combo.It has a lovely Class A headphone amplifier. This type of set-up provides more than enough voltage swing to drive the Aeons with some pretty impressive bass. The comparison with the Mojo is night and day when using the same source - to the Mojo's detriment, which is what I'd expect given the price differential. The Naim has significantly better control, note definition, dynamics (macro and micro) and most importantly timbre over the Mojo. Using the Aeon Closed the Mojo compared to the Naim is rolled off both top and bottom - cymbals don't reverberate, though they do capture the initial impulse (check the work on Oscar Peterson's Night Train), Deep bass on something like Trentemoller's Chamelon on the The Last Resort is lacking in authority and extension. Dynamics are constricted - for example on large scale classical works like Karajan's DG recording of Bruckner's Symphony 9 first movement, the last few minutes after the tympani kick in are vast in scale, scope and dynamism - not that you'd note on the Mojo, it just renders it as a homogenous wall of sound - showing the inability to swing enough current. Again this is compared to the Naim.

The Mojo is neutral, but mid-centric focused and if you played stuff like vocal jazz, light pop or the like, I wouldn't have any complaints when used with the Aeon Closed. If you tastes are broader then IMO look elsewhere. In my case if I'm using the Mojo my preference is for an IEM.

To me, the difference between a good desktop and a good portable are significant for the Aeon closed, which I regard highly and use daily.

regards,

Giles

You’re quite right, our views do indeed differ. That’s one of the great things about this hobby.

I use Mojo in the garden but primarily listen to the Aeon Closed via two systems indoors, a PS Audio Direct Stream into an Auralic Taurus mkii and an M Scaler/Hugo 2 combo. As you can probably tell, what I am after from this hobby is the most realistic, lifelike reproduction of music possible, with minimal coloration. That’s why I love the Aeon Closed so much.

The Mojo adds a little more coloration than the other systems, sure, but not a lot. And coloration aside, the Mojo performs very well on all the points you listed, to my 30 something ears. You like the coloration the Naim provides and that’s fine. It’s important that we enjoy this hobby above all else and that means liking what we like, not what we think we should like.

Final thought (and I really don’t want this to turn into a tribal battle), I don’t buy into the voltage swing argument. The Mojo is not voltage limited at any point until you max out the volume and it has more than enough power to drive the Aeons perfectly.

All the best.

 

[Gilles De Rais]

You’re quite right, our views do indeed differ. That’s one of the great things about this hobby.

I use Mojo in the garden but primarily listen to the Aeon Closed via two systems indoors, a PS Audio Direct Stream into an Auralic Taurus mkii and an M Scaler/Hugo 2 combo. As you can probably tell, what I am after from this hobby is the most realistic, lifelike reproduction of music possible, with minimal coloration. That’s why I love the Aeon Closed so much.

The Mojo adds a little more coloration than the other systems, sure, but not a lot. And coloration aside, the Mojo performs very well on all the points you listed, to my 30 something ears. You like the coloration the Naim provides and that’s fine. It’s important that we enjoy this hobby above all else and that means liking what we like, not what we think we should like.

Final thought (and I really don’t want this to turn into a tribal battle), I don’t buy into the voltage swing argument. The Mojo is not voltage limited at any point until you max out the volume and it has more than enough power to drive the Aeons perfectly.

All the best.

Hi Benni,

Battles are never a problem when points are articulated calmly and with reference to usage and equipment (and music), sure its subjective (unless we are talking tech specs) but having a framework makes it easier to understand other views. In terms of the Mojo's driving capability in the conditions you describe, it is clearly more than adequate for your needs. I guess my first statement on the Mojo was a little too absolute without the context I provided in my subsequent post. I still, however, stand by my positions on the Aeon and Daps, That 93dB SPL/mW requires some grunt.

Nice set-up you have there. What does the M-Scaler bring to the Hugo? - most insights I've found have been a bit hazy...

regards,

Giles

 

[Benni-Mac]

Hi Benni,

Battles are never a problem when points are articulated calmly and with reference to usage and equipment (and music), sure its subjective (unless we are talking tech specs) but having a framework makes it easier to understand other views. In terms of the Mojo's driving capability in the conditions you describe, it is clearly more than adequate for your needs. I guess my first statement on the Mojo was a little too absolute without the context I provided in my subsequent post. I still, however, stand by my positions on the Aeon and Daps, That 93dB SPL/mW requires some grunt.

Nice set-up you have there. What does the M-Scaler bring to the Hugo? - most insights I've found have been a bit hazy...

regards,

Giles

Personally, now I’ve had the M Scaler, I would not want to be without it. It’s a hard one to describe but it does something very positive and different to your Chord DAC. If you like the Hugo2/TT2/DAVE transparent sound signature, I would highly recommend a lengthy demo of the M Scaler at home. Be warned though, you probably will want to keep it! The Aeons scale beautifully with it too. They really are a superb headphone, at any price point.

 

[Codered]

Hello

I have recently bought a pair of Aeon Closed from an european retailer. Like any starter-up in this hobby i also went ahead and bought a new Dac/amp: the chord mojo. I auditioned the headphones and mojo on a desktop tidal app and found the pair quite good. So once i got home i went ahead and subscribed to Tidal premium for a good quality source....i plugged the mojo and aoc and started playing different styles of music..hip-hop hardrock classic disco...and realised what most of the people here were complaining about...bass was thin. I started putting the filters ...one notch ..black foam. The one notch seemed good with bass but muffeled highs and detail...with black foam i was missing bass....so i was a bit taken back. Then i noticed something on my dac: mojo shows in color code the frequency of the redered tune. For example 192khz is blue 768 khz is purple and dsd si white. Now with tidal rendered from android no matter the quality of the tune (normal, hi-fi, masters) mojo was always showing blue. Then i tried playing the same song without filters from apple music (which is a lower grade mp3 format) and noticed that the aeons closed were booming with bass...same melody on apple music was bassy and on tidal was lacking bass. So how is this possible? Could it be that the android app is rendering the tidal source at the wrong frequency and the dac's are lost in translation? And since aeons are just rendering truely the source...if the source is crap...then it renders crap?
It's like the tv...you can have 4k tv if you render a blueray at 720p resolution...then the details will be lacking.
I am no expert but can anybody check this also?
Try : android (note) + mojo + apple music ( forget flac) + aoc no filters = perfect detail and perfect bass
Try this with robin schulz > prayer in C, metallica > turn the page , jason derulo > wiggle and red hot chilly peppers > otherside

Thanks

 

[Codered]

Ok so i have tested my theory about tidal + mojo = faint bass output by outputing the dac to my Vifa Oslo speaker ( i know not the same as headphone). Vifa are boomy speakers with tight and very good bass extension and what i was getting out of my mojo was just a mess with almost no bass.
I think most of the guys purchasing headphones like Aeons and report bass extension problems are guys like myself stepping up their budget for a nice not quite cheap pair of headphones hoping to drive them out of their low end equipment. They all follow the trend with tidal hi-fi streaming so in the end they end up with something like :
Tidal + crappy dac/amp ( like mojo, oppo ha2, fiio...ifi ..other max 500 usd gear) + good headphones ( hard to drive and tune) and expect to have excellent results. What i ( as a noob audiophile) think is that these top headphones ( not only Aeons) need a very good gear to run at their full potential and play looseless format music. Otherwise forget about the Tidal streeming and crappy dac/amp combo. This will make low end headphones with over emphasized wooly bass sound less boomy and more airy and give low end gear users the impression they hear more detail. But for good headphones this combo will only damage the end result.
What i would suggest is that when complaining or reviewing a product, users should describe the context : ...the song.... the source and file type...the amp, the dac and lastly the headphone
Otherwise it's a flawed judgement process. You are complaining for something you don't know how to drive.

 

[Benni-Mac]

Ok so i have tested my theory about tidal + mojo = faint bass output by outputing the dac to my Vifa Oslo speaker ( i know not the same as headphone). Vifa are boomy speakers with tight and very good bass extension and what i was getting out of my mojo was just a mess with almost no bass.
I think most of the guys purchasing headphones like Aeons and report bass extension problems are guys like myself stepping up their budget for a nice not quite cheap pair of headphones hoping to drive them out of their low end equipment. They all follow the trend with tidal hi-fi streaming so in the end they end up with something like :
Tidal + crappy dac/amp ( like mojo, oppo ha2, fiio...ifi ..other max 500 usd gear) + good headphones ( hard to drive and tune) and expect to have excellent results. What i ( as a noob audiophile) think is that these top headphones ( not only Aeons) need a very good gear to run at their full potential and play looseless format music. Otherwise forget about the Tidal streeming and crappy dac/amp combo. This will make low end headphones with over emphasized wooly bass sound less boomy and more airy and give low end gear users the impression they hear more detail. But for good headphones this combo will only damage the end result.
What i would suggest is that when complaining or reviewing a product, users should describe the context : ...the song.... the source and file type...the amp, the dac and lastly the headphone
Otherwise it's a flawed judgement process. You are complaining for something you don't know how to drive.

I think you are wrongly assuming that there is a linear relationship between how much something costs and how well it performs. We all do this to a point as generally that’s how the world works, and it is a very hard thing to see past sometimes. But in HiFi, it isn’t always the case. Without wanting to sound like a Chord fanboy, the Mojo should not be described as low end, crappy equipment just because it is cheap (for this hobby at least). The Mojo measures and technically performs much better than many many DACs that cost thousands of pounds. The same can be said for the Aeon Closed. I have headphones that cost 4 times as much as the Aeons (and are well regarded) but in my opinion the Aeons are much better, faster, more accurate, more neutral and realistic. That’s obviously subjective, but it’s not an uncommon view, just look in this thread. The Aeons and Mojo are bargains at their price point, indeed, but that does not automatically equate to low end or poor performance.

The other point to note is that if you are relatively new to this hobby, then the sound you are accustomed to may be very different and it does take a while to adjust. I remember the first time I heard a real quality system. I thought it sounded flat, dull and boring. Over time I realised it was actually much more interesting and realistic to listen to, I was just used to everything that sound comes out of having a smilie EQ applied. It’s everywhere so it becomes our benchmark.

There’s also the possibility that you personally like the bass to be a little exaggerated when you listen and there may be better headphones for that. The Aeon gives you exactly what was recorded, no more, no less. All in my opinion of course.