DekoniAudio
Sponsor: Dekoni Audio
Dekoni Audio is pleased to share a “deep dive” look into our Dan Clark Audio ÆON line of Elite Earpads, specifically tuned to elevate your listening experience.
We start with comfort, using our soft, high density, slow rebound memory foam for an extra plush experience that conforms to the shape of your face (and accommodates glasses stems). Dekoni serves the closed DCA ÆON headphones with a choice between real Sheepskin Leather, Fenestrated Sheepskin, and Hybrid (Sheepskin outer, Fenestrated Sheepskin inner, and Velour touching your face) finishes, maintaining the isolation of the headphone and offering a smooth, premium feeling. We also tested and ensured the pads mount just as securely as the stock pads, utilizing single-use 3M VHB tape that holds the pads firmly but removes without residue or damage to the ÆON’s beautiful carbon fiber. Finally, we shaped and measured the pads on the ÆON 2 to tune the sound and share a preview of how they sound compared to stock pads.
In our measurements, we use the measurement data from the headphone coupled with the realistic ears of our microphone dummy head. We have been fortunate to have acquired a certain well-known Audio Precision-based measurement rig, and will continue to keep the measurements coming! The data is presented raw and uncompensated, except to cancel out the ear response of our microphone dummy head, and it’s the average data from 5 slightly different seatings of the headphone (centered, forward, back, up, down, and centered over the ear again). Some graphs have an excessively wide scale on the wide axis to make their graphs look very “flat” – We also use a Y-axis scale that is fairly “zoomed in” to reveal more differences between the pads. Some measurements by others are made without headphones actually sitting on model ears, or with subjective compensation adjustments – we don’t do that, because as every experienced audio enthusiast knows, we all have different ears! So, as part of a series of Dekoni Describes posts, we will walk our readers through understanding our graphs.
The first thing to understand about an uncompensated graph is that it will sound different to the listener than the graph will show. For one, we haven’t smoothed our graphs, so there are many peaks and valleys that would have been lost information, but also there are other factors, such as the effect from the earcups and pads resting against a head and around ears, the human ear’s extra sensitivity to vocals, and that the shape of our ears and depth of our ear canals can actually amplify certain frequencies. For the purposes of swapping earpads, it is enough to say that a flat line along the 0 dB line wouldn’t sound “good” on these uncompensated graphs, a dip in the midrange is to be expected since human ears are more sensitive to that region, and mainly we want to focus on how a Dekoni pad compares to the Stock pad. We also decided to begin aligning the frequency curves at the point they all reach 1,000 Hz, as many people base their volume settings on vocals in this midrange. With our measurements, we used the closed ÆON 2, which comes Stock with DCA’s synthetic leather pad.
Our Elite Sheepskin pads offer a fully sealed, non-scratchy option that largely measures similar to the stock synthetic leather. Most people can barely hear a 2 dB difference in sound pressure (volume), and that’s the case here. Our brains can easily adjust to a small difference like this, and after a few listens the feel of the smooth Elite Leather will be what continues to stand out! Don’t worry too much about the “comb” shape of the peaks and valleys measured from 3 kHz and up… this is similar to the “high pass filtering” technique used in music mastering, and when done well it can actually help separate one instrument and note from another.
Our Fenestrated Sheepskin pads measure with a noticeable drop in the bass region compared to the stock pads.While not ideal for EDM or Drum and Bass music, it might be nice for someone seeking an “airy” mids and treble focused sound, or for a competitive gamer who needs to focus on the tactical details without “jumping” at booming explosions. The Fenestrations also allow more heat to escape, which would be another benefit for long sessions.
For people that don’t like the feeling of leather on their skin, or that prefer a midrange-focused sound, the Elite Hybrid pads are a great option! With these pads, the ÆON will have a more intimate sound with easier to hear lyrics and speech.
The subjective factor of experiencing headphones and earpads matters the most, of course. If it sounds good, it is good! We listen with our pads for several revisions before release, and we want to thank the reviewers and our patrons on Head-Fi and other platforms who have shared their experiences. Real user experience is the best judge, and we thank everyone who has tried to describe their experience!
Our Dan Clark Audio ÆON pads are available now! Ask about them to your favorite retailer, and check us out at dekoniaudio.com.
We start with comfort, using our soft, high density, slow rebound memory foam for an extra plush experience that conforms to the shape of your face (and accommodates glasses stems). Dekoni serves the closed DCA ÆON headphones with a choice between real Sheepskin Leather, Fenestrated Sheepskin, and Hybrid (Sheepskin outer, Fenestrated Sheepskin inner, and Velour touching your face) finishes, maintaining the isolation of the headphone and offering a smooth, premium feeling. We also tested and ensured the pads mount just as securely as the stock pads, utilizing single-use 3M VHB tape that holds the pads firmly but removes without residue or damage to the ÆON’s beautiful carbon fiber. Finally, we shaped and measured the pads on the ÆON 2 to tune the sound and share a preview of how they sound compared to stock pads.
In our measurements, we use the measurement data from the headphone coupled with the realistic ears of our microphone dummy head. We have been fortunate to have acquired a certain well-known Audio Precision-based measurement rig, and will continue to keep the measurements coming! The data is presented raw and uncompensated, except to cancel out the ear response of our microphone dummy head, and it’s the average data from 5 slightly different seatings of the headphone (centered, forward, back, up, down, and centered over the ear again). Some graphs have an excessively wide scale on the wide axis to make their graphs look very “flat” – We also use a Y-axis scale that is fairly “zoomed in” to reveal more differences between the pads. Some measurements by others are made without headphones actually sitting on model ears, or with subjective compensation adjustments – we don’t do that, because as every experienced audio enthusiast knows, we all have different ears! So, as part of a series of Dekoni Describes posts, we will walk our readers through understanding our graphs.
The first thing to understand about an uncompensated graph is that it will sound different to the listener than the graph will show. For one, we haven’t smoothed our graphs, so there are many peaks and valleys that would have been lost information, but also there are other factors, such as the effect from the earcups and pads resting against a head and around ears, the human ear’s extra sensitivity to vocals, and that the shape of our ears and depth of our ear canals can actually amplify certain frequencies. For the purposes of swapping earpads, it is enough to say that a flat line along the 0 dB line wouldn’t sound “good” on these uncompensated graphs, a dip in the midrange is to be expected since human ears are more sensitive to that region, and mainly we want to focus on how a Dekoni pad compares to the Stock pad. We also decided to begin aligning the frequency curves at the point they all reach 1,000 Hz, as many people base their volume settings on vocals in this midrange. With our measurements, we used the closed ÆON 2, which comes Stock with DCA’s synthetic leather pad.
Our Elite Sheepskin pads offer a fully sealed, non-scratchy option that largely measures similar to the stock synthetic leather. Most people can barely hear a 2 dB difference in sound pressure (volume), and that’s the case here. Our brains can easily adjust to a small difference like this, and after a few listens the feel of the smooth Elite Leather will be what continues to stand out! Don’t worry too much about the “comb” shape of the peaks and valleys measured from 3 kHz and up… this is similar to the “high pass filtering” technique used in music mastering, and when done well it can actually help separate one instrument and note from another.
Our Fenestrated Sheepskin pads measure with a noticeable drop in the bass region compared to the stock pads.While not ideal for EDM or Drum and Bass music, it might be nice for someone seeking an “airy” mids and treble focused sound, or for a competitive gamer who needs to focus on the tactical details without “jumping” at booming explosions. The Fenestrations also allow more heat to escape, which would be another benefit for long sessions.
For people that don’t like the feeling of leather on their skin, or that prefer a midrange-focused sound, the Elite Hybrid pads are a great option! With these pads, the ÆON will have a more intimate sound with easier to hear lyrics and speech.
The subjective factor of experiencing headphones and earpads matters the most, of course. If it sounds good, it is good! We listen with our pads for several revisions before release, and we want to thank the reviewers and our patrons on Head-Fi and other platforms who have shared their experiences. Real user experience is the best judge, and we thank everyone who has tried to describe their experience!
Our Dan Clark Audio ÆON pads are available now! Ask about them to your favorite retailer, and check us out at dekoniaudio.com.
sales@dekoniaudio.com | dekoniaudio.com | facebook.com/dekoniaudio | instagram: @dekoniaudio.com
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