notaris
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Aune Jasper-T
Top notch
Introduction
Top notch
Introduction
Aune, or Wuhan Ao Lai Er Technology Co., Ltd., as is the official name of the Company, is a brand dedicated to developedesktop and portable audio products, such as DACs, digital transports, music players, headphone amplifiers, etc.
It is not as young of a Company, as people might think. In fact, this year it celebrates its 20th anniversary since its foundation in 2004. Among the Company’s six co-founders, there are experts in various audio related fields, such as hardware design, electro-acoustics design, programming, speaker design and tuning. This combined with extensive research and development, during the past 20 years, has resulted in products that have been very well received globally.
Since I first met with an Aune product, I was wondering about the Company’s logo, which was inspired by the concept of Yin-Yang - the Chinese philosophy of balance. The rounded design of the letters conveys a message of peace and gentleness, while the openings on four sides indicate inclusiveness.
During the past 20 years, Aune became well-known for high quality desktop devices, primarily DACs and amplifiers, which provided great sound and nice user experience. Recently, Aune diversified in IEMs, headphones and mobile DACs. This review is for their first IEM model, the Jasper-T.
Description
It is not as young of a Company, as people might think. In fact, this year it celebrates its 20th anniversary since its foundation in 2004. Among the Company’s six co-founders, there are experts in various audio related fields, such as hardware design, electro-acoustics design, programming, speaker design and tuning. This combined with extensive research and development, during the past 20 years, has resulted in products that have been very well received globally.
Since I first met with an Aune product, I was wondering about the Company’s logo, which was inspired by the concept of Yin-Yang - the Chinese philosophy of balance. The rounded design of the letters conveys a message of peace and gentleness, while the openings on four sides indicate inclusiveness.
During the past 20 years, Aune became well-known for high quality desktop devices, primarily DACs and amplifiers, which provided great sound and nice user experience. Recently, Aune diversified in IEMs, headphones and mobile DACs. This review is for their first IEM model, the Jasper-T.
Description
The Aune acoustics team spent three years for designing the Jasper-T. The first thing they had to decide was the kind of driver the IEM would have: Dynamic driver, multiple balanced armature drivers or a hybrid system. A lot of tests were conducted, including listening tests by professional listeners, and finally the solution chosen was that of a single dynamic driver. The latter is known for its unsurpassed dynamic performance, while most of its shortcomings of the past have been overcome by recent research.
Emanating from the standard acoustics design principles and combining Finite Elements Analysis (FEA) optimization and listening tests, Aune engineers were able to refine every part of Jasper-T - the diaphragm, the transducer's magnet system, the suspension, and the chamber.
Emanating from the standard acoustics design principles and combining Finite Elements Analysis (FEA) optimization and listening tests, Aune engineers were able to refine every part of Jasper-T - the diaphragm, the transducer's magnet system, the suspension, and the chamber.
First, Aune decided to use a new diaphragm for the driver, which goes by the name of “MGD diaphragm” and all we know is that it is a kind of a composite membrane. This means that MGD is composed of different layers. To bring the MGD membrane from laboratory into production and guarantee that its design is reflected into superior sound quality, the composing of the different layers must be carefully controlled. One important property of a diaphragm material is high stiffness and another one is high damping. A high-damping diaphragm can effectively reduce resonance, which is the main cause of affecting the natural reverberation of sound. The MGD diaphragm has all the desired characteristics: High damping, low mass, high speed, and excellent stiffness-to-mass ratio. To be more specific, according to experimental analysis, the MGD has the same stiffness (Young's modulus) as the mainstream metal materials, yet its mass (density) is the lowest. In the meanwhile, the MGD has excellent damping, which is very close to Polypropylene (PP) and higher than common classic materials (see the following diagrams).
The MGD, due to its low mass, high damping, and high stiffness, became the number one choice for Jasper-T.
The next thing that had to be taken care of was the magnet system. The latter is the power core of a transducer, and it is indispensable that it matches well the diaphragm's quality. Instead of pursuing the magnetic field intensity, Aune engineers optimized the performance of the whole magnet system. First, the Jasper-T 's magnet system adopts a symmetric design, which reduces dynamic compression. Furthermore, the soft magnet quality was improved, which restrained the modulation distortion and brought the listening clarity to another level. The unique diaphragm and the improved magnet system makes it possible to vividly reproduce all kinds of music, ranging from a whisper to orchestras.
If the transducer is the first important thing of an IEM, the chamber is the other, and it must be designed very carefully in accordance to the principles of acoustics. The chamber can influence the earphone's frequency response, balance, soundstage and of course distortion. For example, if the chamber is too narrow and carelessly designed, then unwanted resonance could be created, which would harm the sound quality; not to mention that such a chamber could have an influence on distortion.
Another weak point of IEMs is the soundstage, which usually is not as good as that of open headphones. There are mainly two reasons for this: First, as the sound coming out of the IEM and travelling, via the eartips, through the ear canal cannot extract the appropriate information from parts of the ear, like the concha and the pinna; second, most IEMs fully seal the ear canal, which, although contributing to sound isolation, causes the sound pressure to change, thus influencing the soundstage.
For solving both of the above problems, Aune engineers did a lot of simulations involving ear molds which correspond to different kind of populations around the globe. The result of meticulous optimization was a housing with a chamber that not only did not lose information coming out of the concha and the pinna, but also kept a balance in the sound pressure. This effectively protected hearing and reduced fatigue, thus making the Jasper-T great for long listening sessions; in addition, it improved soundstage, which is known to contribute to the naturalness of sound.
All the above show a truly meticulous design, but how all this translates into sound performance in practice? Let’s find out!
The sound
With IEMs, I always do the usual burn-in of about 50 hours; it’s not that without this the IEMs do not sound right, but rather that the burn-in helps them to reach their full potential. Now, much more important than the technical burn-in, I consider the so-called phycological burn-in, which helps the listener to get acquainted with the IEM; in that sense, the phycological burn-in does not actually have a limit, and the more you listen to an IEM the better you get to know it. With Jasper-T, I exceeded 100 hours of burn-in and probably I almost reached 150; why? Simply because I liked it so much.
I shall start by saying right and clear that Jasper-T is probably the best IEM that I have tried so far among all Chinese manufacturers (and they are quite a few), and one of the best among all manufacturers around the world. It seems to do almost everything “by the book”, at least “my book”.
Jasper-T is very well balanced, and it has a very relaxed tonality. Its presentation is quite linear; however, it is not clinical or sterile, but rather engaging and very enjoyable. Initially, one might think that the presentation is a bit mid-forward, but the more I listened to it, the more I realized that this is not the case; at the end, I thought that this is rather the problem of just a few songs rather than the IEM itself. The fact that the presentation is balanced is also depicted in Crinacle’s frequency response curve.
The bass is in the right quantity, precisely what I consider sufficient; nothing rumbling, but rather mid-bass, very taut and well-controlled, and, most of all, very clean and never muddy.
The mids is very engaging, and both male and particularly female vocals are conveyed in a very precise and alive way. As I mentioned, when I first listened to Jasper-T, I had myself the impression that in some songs there is some forward mids. However, this impression did not stay long with me; I am not sure whether it was eliminated after the extended burn-in period, but whatever the reason was it does not exist anymore, except maybe very rarely.
The tremble is very extended, yet polite, so never harsh or piercing, so, enough crispiness and never anything annoying.
Overall, the sound is very detailed, and Jasper-T is as much analytical as one would like to; in fact, high resolution is one of Jasper-T’s merit. The presentation is very transparent, with a great soundstage width wise, and if I was nitpicking I would say that the soundstage is not as tall or deep, but nonetheless more than adequate. However, the image is very precise. The dynamics is top notch, and so is the separation.
The cable has MMCX connectors, and it is of high quality, although no further information is given on it. However, it is sturdy, well insulated and does not tangle, which, with the IEM cables that I have encountered, it is not to be taken for granted.
During the past several months, Jasper-T accompanies me pretty much every day at home, work and outdoors, and I listened to it through my iMac, MacBook Air and iPhone. I tried it in a variety of songs, from jazz music by Diana Krall, to country music by Allison Krauss, to rock ballads by Mark Knopfler, to the particular music by Hiromi (Uehara), or to Symphonic music by Mark O’Connor. I am talking about musical pieces that I heard so many times, by so many other IEMs, so I am quite familiar with them. In all of them Jasper-T was simply outstanding. For example, in “Fanfare for the Volunteer” by Mark O’Connor, from the album with the same name, Sony Classical, where other IEMs presented, at some parts of this beautiful and very demanding symphonic piece, a clear distortion of the sound, the Jasper-T was always perfectly smooth; impressive! I can say with confidence that Jasper-T is a truly all-rounder.
Selected Comparison
I compared Jasper-T to Final Audio A5000. Final does not need an introduction; it is one of the best IEMs and headphones makers, and my personal favorite, paying meticulous care to each and every detail of a new product independently of its retail price. The result is IEMs and headphones of unsurpassed audio quality.
A5000 is Final’s new addition in its A line of IEMs; it has a single dynamic driver, with ABS resin housing and an all new 8-core silver-coated OFC transparent cable specifically designed for this model. A5000 has a sensitivity of 100 dB/mW and an impedance of 18 Ω. It is a really great IEM and one of my reference sets.
Soundwise Jasper-T has slightly less bass than A5000, very extended tremble, so a very crispy presentation, and in some musical pieces a pleasant emphasis on mids. Overall, A5000 gives you a few more low octaves and Jasper-T a bit more resolution.
A5000 has great dynamics, big soundstage, among the biggest I have heard, both in width and depth, beautiful image and separation. Jasper-T is close to A5000, except that its presentation is more linear, so the soundstage is not as holographic lacking some depth.
Overall, both sets are top notch and great all-rounders.
Accessories and fit
The exterior box of Jasper-T is very nicely minimal and in it the user will find, besides the IEM and cable:
Jasper-T is lightweight and, with the shape described above, it has the minimal required contact with the ear; that way it achieves a sense of fit without any feeling of oppression. So, assuming that you found the right size of eartips, Jasper-Tfits in your eardrum very nicely, while its beautiful sound makes you forget that you have it in your ears.
Furthermore, the eartips provide a high level of sound isolation, so ambient noise was never a problem.
Finally, the cable, is not susceptible to microphonics, and it does not have the usual “tangling problem”.
In conclusion
Jasper-T is one of the very best IEMs that I have tried the past several years. It is beautifully balanced and very pleasant sounding; the bass is in the right amount and very well controlled, the mids are mellow and only rarely appear to be a bit forward, and the tremble is very extended without ever been harsh. Jasper-T is extremely transparent, with very high resolution, very good soundstage, great image and very broad dynamics.
If you are looking for a new IEM set, you must put it in your very short list and definitely try it out; I think you would be very thankful.
Most well done and highly recommended.
Specifications
Jasper-T
Housing: Metal
Driver: Aune MGD Dynamic driver
Frequency response: 5-40 kHz
Sensitivity: 102 dB/mW
Impedance: 32 Ω
Connector: MMCX
Cord length: 1.2m
Price: $299.00
http://www.auneaudio.com
Reviewer’s note: The reviewer is grateful to Shelly Chen of Aune Audio for sending him a sample of Jasper-T.
The MGD, due to its low mass, high damping, and high stiffness, became the number one choice for Jasper-T.
The next thing that had to be taken care of was the magnet system. The latter is the power core of a transducer, and it is indispensable that it matches well the diaphragm's quality. Instead of pursuing the magnetic field intensity, Aune engineers optimized the performance of the whole magnet system. First, the Jasper-T 's magnet system adopts a symmetric design, which reduces dynamic compression. Furthermore, the soft magnet quality was improved, which restrained the modulation distortion and brought the listening clarity to another level. The unique diaphragm and the improved magnet system makes it possible to vividly reproduce all kinds of music, ranging from a whisper to orchestras.
If the transducer is the first important thing of an IEM, the chamber is the other, and it must be designed very carefully in accordance to the principles of acoustics. The chamber can influence the earphone's frequency response, balance, soundstage and of course distortion. For example, if the chamber is too narrow and carelessly designed, then unwanted resonance could be created, which would harm the sound quality; not to mention that such a chamber could have an influence on distortion.
Another weak point of IEMs is the soundstage, which usually is not as good as that of open headphones. There are mainly two reasons for this: First, as the sound coming out of the IEM and travelling, via the eartips, through the ear canal cannot extract the appropriate information from parts of the ear, like the concha and the pinna; second, most IEMs fully seal the ear canal, which, although contributing to sound isolation, causes the sound pressure to change, thus influencing the soundstage.
For solving both of the above problems, Aune engineers did a lot of simulations involving ear molds which correspond to different kind of populations around the globe. The result of meticulous optimization was a housing with a chamber that not only did not lose information coming out of the concha and the pinna, but also kept a balance in the sound pressure. This effectively protected hearing and reduced fatigue, thus making the Jasper-T great for long listening sessions; in addition, it improved soundstage, which is known to contribute to the naturalness of sound.
All the above show a truly meticulous design, but how all this translates into sound performance in practice? Let’s find out!
The sound
With IEMs, I always do the usual burn-in of about 50 hours; it’s not that without this the IEMs do not sound right, but rather that the burn-in helps them to reach their full potential. Now, much more important than the technical burn-in, I consider the so-called phycological burn-in, which helps the listener to get acquainted with the IEM; in that sense, the phycological burn-in does not actually have a limit, and the more you listen to an IEM the better you get to know it. With Jasper-T, I exceeded 100 hours of burn-in and probably I almost reached 150; why? Simply because I liked it so much.
I shall start by saying right and clear that Jasper-T is probably the best IEM that I have tried so far among all Chinese manufacturers (and they are quite a few), and one of the best among all manufacturers around the world. It seems to do almost everything “by the book”, at least “my book”.
Jasper-T is very well balanced, and it has a very relaxed tonality. Its presentation is quite linear; however, it is not clinical or sterile, but rather engaging and very enjoyable. Initially, one might think that the presentation is a bit mid-forward, but the more I listened to it, the more I realized that this is not the case; at the end, I thought that this is rather the problem of just a few songs rather than the IEM itself. The fact that the presentation is balanced is also depicted in Crinacle’s frequency response curve.
The bass is in the right quantity, precisely what I consider sufficient; nothing rumbling, but rather mid-bass, very taut and well-controlled, and, most of all, very clean and never muddy.
The mids is very engaging, and both male and particularly female vocals are conveyed in a very precise and alive way. As I mentioned, when I first listened to Jasper-T, I had myself the impression that in some songs there is some forward mids. However, this impression did not stay long with me; I am not sure whether it was eliminated after the extended burn-in period, but whatever the reason was it does not exist anymore, except maybe very rarely.
The tremble is very extended, yet polite, so never harsh or piercing, so, enough crispiness and never anything annoying.
Overall, the sound is very detailed, and Jasper-T is as much analytical as one would like to; in fact, high resolution is one of Jasper-T’s merit. The presentation is very transparent, with a great soundstage width wise, and if I was nitpicking I would say that the soundstage is not as tall or deep, but nonetheless more than adequate. However, the image is very precise. The dynamics is top notch, and so is the separation.
The cable has MMCX connectors, and it is of high quality, although no further information is given on it. However, it is sturdy, well insulated and does not tangle, which, with the IEM cables that I have encountered, it is not to be taken for granted.
During the past several months, Jasper-T accompanies me pretty much every day at home, work and outdoors, and I listened to it through my iMac, MacBook Air and iPhone. I tried it in a variety of songs, from jazz music by Diana Krall, to country music by Allison Krauss, to rock ballads by Mark Knopfler, to the particular music by Hiromi (Uehara), or to Symphonic music by Mark O’Connor. I am talking about musical pieces that I heard so many times, by so many other IEMs, so I am quite familiar with them. In all of them Jasper-T was simply outstanding. For example, in “Fanfare for the Volunteer” by Mark O’Connor, from the album with the same name, Sony Classical, where other IEMs presented, at some parts of this beautiful and very demanding symphonic piece, a clear distortion of the sound, the Jasper-T was always perfectly smooth; impressive! I can say with confidence that Jasper-T is a truly all-rounder.
Selected Comparison
I compared Jasper-T to Final Audio A5000. Final does not need an introduction; it is one of the best IEMs and headphones makers, and my personal favorite, paying meticulous care to each and every detail of a new product independently of its retail price. The result is IEMs and headphones of unsurpassed audio quality.
A5000 is Final’s new addition in its A line of IEMs; it has a single dynamic driver, with ABS resin housing and an all new 8-core silver-coated OFC transparent cable specifically designed for this model. A5000 has a sensitivity of 100 dB/mW and an impedance of 18 Ω. It is a really great IEM and one of my reference sets.
Soundwise Jasper-T has slightly less bass than A5000, very extended tremble, so a very crispy presentation, and in some musical pieces a pleasant emphasis on mids. Overall, A5000 gives you a few more low octaves and Jasper-T a bit more resolution.
A5000 has great dynamics, big soundstage, among the biggest I have heard, both in width and depth, beautiful image and separation. Jasper-T is close to A5000, except that its presentation is more linear, so the soundstage is not as holographic lacking some depth.
Overall, both sets are top notch and great all-rounders.
Accessories and fit
The exterior box of Jasper-T is very nicely minimal and in it the user will find, besides the IEM and cable:
- Several sets of eartips. Aune has given particular attention to the eartips in the new Jasper-T compared to the old Jasper model, so it is not difficult for the user to find the proper set providing sufficient insulation.
- A cleaning tool.
- A cleaning cloth.
- A luxurious leather case appropriate for storing Jasper-T.
Jasper-T is lightweight and, with the shape described above, it has the minimal required contact with the ear; that way it achieves a sense of fit without any feeling of oppression. So, assuming that you found the right size of eartips, Jasper-Tfits in your eardrum very nicely, while its beautiful sound makes you forget that you have it in your ears.
Furthermore, the eartips provide a high level of sound isolation, so ambient noise was never a problem.
Finally, the cable, is not susceptible to microphonics, and it does not have the usual “tangling problem”.
In conclusion
Jasper-T is one of the very best IEMs that I have tried the past several years. It is beautifully balanced and very pleasant sounding; the bass is in the right amount and very well controlled, the mids are mellow and only rarely appear to be a bit forward, and the tremble is very extended without ever been harsh. Jasper-T is extremely transparent, with very high resolution, very good soundstage, great image and very broad dynamics.
If you are looking for a new IEM set, you must put it in your very short list and definitely try it out; I think you would be very thankful.
Most well done and highly recommended.
Specifications
Jasper-T
Housing: Metal
Driver: Aune MGD Dynamic driver
Frequency response: 5-40 kHz
Sensitivity: 102 dB/mW
Impedance: 32 Ω
Connector: MMCX
Cord length: 1.2m
Price: $299.00
http://www.auneaudio.com
Reviewer’s note: The reviewer is grateful to Shelly Chen of Aune Audio for sending him a sample of Jasper-T.
