MrSpeakers AEON Flow Open - Impressions Thread

[Mr B1]

Hello there. My Aeon Opens finally starting to sound good (took a good couple of days!!). There's such a nice cohesion from top to bottom .. very addictive this headphone!

Since I have both now - AFC vs AFO in one liners:
- Aeon Closed: What you want as a sound engineer at a gig. Everything and every transient hits you but it's still like you're in a sea of quiet.
- Aeon Open: You're in cozy jazz cafe or club and there's a couple people in front you. Hey - there's even room to dance!

Photos: These pair very nicely (1) and a bit of EQ on the RME ADI to suit my taste (2)

 

[IkSak]

- Aeon Open: You're in cozy jazz cafe or club and there's a couple people in front you. Hey - there's even room to dance!

You totally nailed it with this! AFO is the most addictive and engaging headphone

 

[cleg]

Better late than never My video about both versions of Æon

 

[iFlip92]

Hello there. My Aeon Opens finally starting to sound good (took a good couple of days!!). There's such a nice cohesion from top to bottom .. very addictive this headphone!

Since I have both now - AFC vs AFO in one liners:
- Aeon Closed: What you want as a sound engineer at a gig. Everything and every transient hits you but it's still like you're in a sea of quiet.
- Aeon Open: You're in cozy jazz cafe or club and there's a couple people in front you. Hey - there's even room to dance!

Photos: These pair very nicely (1) and a bit of EQ on the RME ADI to suit my taste (2)

Does that mean that the Aeon Closed appears to have a bigger soundstage because of the "sea of quiet"?

 

[Mr B1]

Does that mean that the Aeon Closed appears to have a bigger soundstage because of the "sea of quiet"?

There's a couple of things going on between these two so here's some impressions to paint the picture:
- On the closed, instruments and voices are just a bit further away
- Because the effortless separation on the closed, there's more space, body and quiet around instruments, which gives the illusion of a bigger soundstage. This is the sea of quiet I mentioned.
- On the open all sounds fuse and cohere more, this seems to close me in, making the stage feel smaller
- The open however, has more depth to the sound stage, whereas the closed seems to be more immediate, more forward for everything (just painted a bit further away) with less (variation in) depth
- The open clearly can breath a bit more, which removes a bit of 'small club' effect that the closed has (standing waves?). Less compression I think is the word.

It's very hard to describe these nuances that all play into the sound stage. I hope though that I've been able to give you some further insight. Don't expect a orchestra wide soundstage in one, and a cozy club in the other.. they're much closer than different, but the experience is distinctly different.

Also should you listen or compare them ever... burn-in is important and proper amping before making immediate conclusions. I've tried/gone DF black > V30 > Mojo > Irdac2 > RME > Gilmore > Aune x7s > Violectric 220 for amping and the Aeons only improved every step on the way - separation and sound stage among the improvements.

 

[iFlip92]

Omg I'm so silly. I forgot to take the white 1 notch pads out when testing this stuff... I'm back to near enough square 0 I guess. I'll listen without them for the rest of the week and come back if I sense major changes. (I suspect that's the reason why I felt I needed to pump up the Adjust for Age setting to nearly Max).

 

[evolutiontheory]

Waiting on my AFC and super pumped.. Is there a tube amp that goes well with it? I have Q5, Burson fun and LD MK2.. Will be adding a WA6 soon. My plan is to use the Burson fun with AFC, but I would prefer if I can get a tube amp to work well with AFC.

Thanks!

 

[Charente]

Omg I'm so silly. I forgot to take the white 1 notch pads out when testing this stuff... I'm back to near enough square 0 I guess. I'll listen without them for the rest of the week and come back if I sense major changes. (I suspect that's the reason why I felt I needed to pump up the Adjust for Age setting to nearly Max).

I guess you're using SonarWorks True-Fi ... I find the black foams suit me fine ... SW 15% above flat adjustment for treble (with my age correction) and default +5dB bass. Just about right now, although I do adjust treble a bit according to the recording.

 

[441879]

Waiting on my AFC and super pumped.. Is there a tube amp that goes well with it? I have Q5, Burson fun and LD MK2.. Will be adding a WA6 soon. My plan is to use the Burson fun with AFC, but I would prefer if I can get a tube amp to work well with AFC.

Thanks!

Schiit Lyr 3. Works exceptionally well with Aeons. Note: the Aeons are low impedance power pigs. Pure tube amps may prove sub-optimal because they generally like high impedance low current headphones- the opposite of the Aeons.

 

[evolutiontheory]

Hmm that makes sense. What about output transformer coupled ones like the WA6 and others? I also saw another thread where some one suggested LF 339; so got all the more confused.

 

[Charente]

Better late than never My video about both versions of Æon

Nice review ... I have AFO, but may very well get the Closed as well, to match better with the Metrum FLINT NOS DAC I recently purchased. I feel this DAC would sound better through more neutral sounding headphones. Great music suggestions in your review as well, BTW.

 

[mrspeakers]

Hmm that makes sense. What about output transformer coupled ones like the WA6 and others? I also saw another thread where some one suggested LF 339; so got all the more confused.

Most tube gear has high and low output impedance settings, the question is what does the specific amp call high or low? If the low is anywhere from 8-45 ohms it's probably OK if there's reasonable power output. Higher than that is hit or miss.

 

[Rick T.]

Hmm that makes sense. What about output transformer coupled ones like the WA6 and others? I also saw another thread where some one suggested LF 339; so got all the more confused.

If with output transformers, it would be ideally good to have secondary taps between 8-16 Ohms for the Aeons.. If the amp is designed well, I see no problems.. IMO.

 

[ctaxxxx]

I've been watching shows and playing games with the AFO I got over a week ago through my R2R-11. Been enjoying them greatly, especially for hearing vocals clearly, but smoothly.

However, I got my 4.4mm cable from Venus Audio, so I'm finally giving these a proper listen now with the DX200 + AMP8. They sound even better than before! Perfect amount of warmth for music without sounding muffled. My Z1R were horrible with poor recordings, but the AFO are very forgiving.

So impressed with these, especially after my experience with the AFC (which I did not like at all...). The closed were just too shouty and bass light (or the peak made it sound that way).

I think the only downside with these is that they're very sensitive to seal. I'm buying new glasses anyway with much thinner ends, so hopefully this will help. My existing ones are pretty thick.

Does MrSpeakers higher end headphones offer the same amount warmth as the AFO?

 

[franz12]

I've been watching shows and playing games with the AFO I got over a week ago through my R2R-11. Been enjoying them greatly, especially for hearing vocals clearly, but smoothly.

However, I got my 4.4mm cable from Venus Audio, so I'm finally giving these a proper listen now with the DX200 + AMP8. They sound even better than before! Perfect amount of warmth for music without sounding muffled. My Z1R were horrible with poor recordings, but the AFO are very forgiving.

So impressed with these, especially after my experience with the AFC (which I did not like at all...). The closed were just too shouty and bass light (or the peak made it sound that way).

I think the only downside with these is that they're very sensitive to seal. I'm buying new glasses anyway with much thinner ends, so hopefully this will help. My existing ones are pretty thick.

Does MrSpeakers higher end headphones offer the same amount warmth as the AFO?

I owned AFO and Ether 2 at the same time. Ether 2 is a solid step up from AFO. Ether 2 has warmer treble, but its mids are more neutral. But their sonic signature is quite different each other.