[REVIEW] Aurisonics ASG-2 & 2.5 (with many comparisons)

[H20Fidelity]

Something wrong if you're prefering GR07 to ASG-2. They pretty much should blow them across the room.

 

[caracara08]

   
Check the bass port setting. Even so, there's truly no way the GR07 is in the same league as the ASG-2.

 
If someone goes into a comparison with a closed mind, they can easily "feel" one the one they prefer is better than another.  A lot of different factors go into what one person may feel makes a better headphone.  

 

[gnarlsagan]

True. From your comparisons, it seems like I may like the Fischer Amps FA-4e. Too bad it's a bit of a pain to get to the United States.

Sigh, I got @UnityIsPower
 pair today as part of the tour, and I must say I agree with him, I prefer the GR07 BEs to the G2s, LOL. That's not to say the G2s don't have some things going for them, it's just... The GR07 Bass Editions work with more of my library overall I would say, and have a more level and detailed treble. I'm liking these GR07 BEs so much now though that I'd rather have a set than anything else currently in my possession. Now why can't they just isolate better? :/

I'll write up some more detailed comparisons when I'm not so dang busy with catching up with schoolwork...

Check the bass port setting. Even so, there's truly no way the GR07 is in the same league as the ASG-2.

I had the same experience as mechgamer. To me it really depends on what music one listens to for comparison. Sparse acoustic sounds insanely good on the G2, but Queen sounds terrible. Also I preferred electronic on the GR07 by a long shot.

Given the unique FR of the G2 I don't think this is surprising. It will compliment some music and detract from other music. This also explains the lack of consensus on the technical ability of the G2.

Mechgamer, what kind of music are you using to compare? Can someone link that Ben Howard song from earlier in the thread? I'm on my phone. Also the song "Fun Times in Babylon" by Father John Misty sounds incredible on the G2 imo. It's on YouTube.

 

[eke2k6]

I had the same experience as mechgamer. To me it really depends on what music one listens to for comparison. Sparse acoustic sounds insanely good on the G2, but Queen sounds terrible. Also I preferred electronic on the GR07 by a long shot.

Given the unique FR of the G2 I don't think this is surprising. It will compliment some music and detract from other music. This also explains the lack of consensus on the technical ability of the G2.

Mechgamer, what kind of music are you using to compare? Can someone link that Ben Howard song from earlier in the thread? I'm on my phone. Also the song "Fun Times in Babylon" by Father John Misty sounds incredible on the G2 imo. It's on YouTube.

 
 
FR is one thing, but others are undeniable. The G2 is simply more resolving, more spacious, and has greater texture than the GR07. And not by a small margin. With the ASG-2, it's so easy to tell when a recording is crappily mastered. The G2 has infinitely better dynamic range than the GR07, which is naturally compressed in that regard, meaning the G2 captures the rise and fall of the recordings with ease, while the GR07 suffers there. Then, talking about the GR07's limited soundstage depth and height, I just don't see the comparison. 
 
And this is after careful A/B as well. Remember that I own a pair of GR07 BEs.
 
 
I guess there's nothing that can be said for preference. I have a friend who I let A/B the Monoprice 8320 and the UERM. He came out preferring the 8320. *shrugs*

 

[gnarlsagan]

FR is one thing, but others are undeniable. The G2 is simply more resolving, more spacious, and has greater texture than the GR07. And not by a small margin. With the ASG-2, it's so easy to tell when a recording is crappily mastered. The G2 has infinitely better dynamic range than the GR07, which is naturally compressed in that regard, meaning the G2 captures the rise and fall of the recordings with ease, while the GR07 suffers there. Then, talking about the GR07's limited soundstage depth and height, I just don't see the comparison. 

And this is after careful A/B as well. Remember that I own a pair of GR07 BEs.


I guess there's nothing that can be said for preference. I have a friend who I let A/B the Monoprice 8320 and the UERM. He came out preferring the 8320. *shrugs*

I agree with you. There are aspects of the ASG-2 that the GR07 could never touch. The GR07 definitely lacks realism to me, which is why I think it works so well with electronic, a genre where realism matters less.

But to my ears the mistakes made by the G2's FR take away that realism on a lot of music I listen to. It's just majorly hit or miss imo. So while I agree with you, I find the G2's strengths to be a bit more narrow. (I think we both already know this lol). I just wanted to lend some credibility to our friend mechgamer, that maybe he isn't crazy.

 

[MoonYeol]

+1 on the previous comments. Don't own the GR07 anymore but the G2 is definitely a step up technically. Just that the FR doesn't fit every genre. So I think if you mostly care about instruments being FR-balanced, a GR07 will be better for a lot of genres. But once you start venturing into the realm where the G2 is comfortable, there's no comparing the two. (From memory.)

 

[mechgamer123]

 

  True. From your comparisons, it seems like I may like the Fischer Amps FA-4e. Too bad it's a bit of a pain to get to the United States.
 
Sigh, I got @UnityIsPower pair today as part of the tour, and I must say I agree with him, I prefer the GR07 BEs to the G2s, LOL. That's not to say the G2s don't have some things going for them, it's just... The GR07 Bass Editions work with more of my library overall I would say, and have a more level and detailed treble. I'm liking these GR07 BEs so much now though that I'd rather have a set than anything else currently in my possession. Now why can't they just isolate better? :/
 
I'll write up some more detailed comparisons when I'm not so dang busy with catching up with schoolwork...

Is UnityIsPower's pair the supposedly faulty pair or a proper unit? Cos those impressions are disheartening to hear...
GR07 BE's are some of my favourite IEM's too

Unity sent his set back in to Aurisonics and they replaced it with a "good" set. At least the measurements now indicate that it isn't the same IEM as the one sent to Rin.
 

 

  True. From your comparisons, it seems like I may like the Fischer Amps FA-4e. Too bad it's a bit of a pain to get to the United States.
 
Sigh, I got @UnityIsPower pair today as part of the tour, and I must say I agree with him, I prefer the GR07 BEs to the G2s, LOL. That's not to say the G2s don't have some things going for them, it's just... The GR07 Bass Editions work with more of my library overall I would say, and have a more level and detailed treble. I'm liking these GR07 BEs so much now though that I'd rather have a set than anything else currently in my possession. Now why can't they just isolate better? :/
 
I'll write up some more detailed comparisons when I'm not so dang busy with catching up with schoolwork...

 
Check the bass port setting. Even so, there's truly no way the GR07 is in the same league as the ASG-2.

The bass port is all the way down, that's the first thing I messed with when I got the G2s, lol.
 

Something wrong if you're prefering GR07 to ASG-2. They pretty much should blow them across the room.

I didn't directly A/B the GR07 to the ASG-2, these are just my preliminary impressions. The upper midrange and most of the treble just sounds like it's missing, except for the 10k spike, and then rolloff from there. 
 
I will do some more comparisons when I get home tonight.
 

 
I had the same experience as mechgamer. To me it really depends on what music one listens to for comparison. Sparse acoustic sounds insanely good on the G2, but Queen sounds terrible. Also I preferred electronic on the GR07 by a long shot.

Given the unique FR of the G2 I don't think this is surprising. It will compliment some music and detract from other music. This also explains the lack of consensus on the technical ability of the G2.

Mechgamer, what kind of music are you using to compare? Can someone link that Ben Howard song from earlier in the thread? I'm on my phone. Also the song "Fun Times in Babylon" by Father John Misty sounds incredible on the G2 imo. It's on YouTube.

Yeah, it just really depends on what you're listening to. First I went through some of the classic rock in my library, which sounded pretty good, but that's not usually what I listen to on the go. Usually I listen to a lot of Japanese music with female vocals while I'm on the go, and the G2 seemed to have a sucked-out upper midrange/lower treble that just made female vocalists sound distant and uninteresting. And usually there's a lot of detail in the treble in this music, which the G2 seems to kind of gloss over. 
 
Like I said though, I didn't actually do any direct comparisons yet, but I will do so when I get back after classes tonight.

 

[eke2k6]

   
 
Like I said though, I didn't actually do any direct comparisons yet, but I will do so when I get back after classes tonight.

 
Looking forward to it.

 

[H20Fidelity]

Quote:

   
I didn't directly A/B the GR07 to the ASG-2, these are just my preliminary impressions. The upper midrange and most of the treble just sounds like it's missing, except for the 10k spike, and then rolloff from there. 
 
 

All good mate, I can understand preference plays a big part in which earphone one decides and no-ones going to mind if you prefer one over the other.

I preferred T-Peos H-200's signature over ASG-2 overall,  though I couldn't deny ASG-2 was the stronger IEM technically, The ASG-2 I heard was far superior to GR07 in almost everyway, I mean.. when you listen it was a smack to the in face difference. The detailing levels for one were immediately noticeable and areas like the soundstage, headstage, this was a little more than just a genre dependent difference. The only thing that let me down with ASG-2 was the mid-bass bloat as it was just a little to intrusive with certain genres. Apart from that I would of bought of a pair. Even over some Vision Ears demo's I heard worth over 1k I was still leaning towards ASG-2.

So, unity must get really shi**y pairs of ASG-2. lol  
 

 

[kyuuketsuki]

 
All good mate, I can understand preference plays a big part in which earphone one decides and no-ones going to mind if you prefer one over the other.

I preferred T-Peos H-200's signature over ASG-2 overall,  though I couldn't deny ASG-2 was the stronger IEM technically, The ASG-2 I heard was far superior to GR07 in almost everyway, I mean.. when you listen it was a smack to the in face difference. The detailing levels for one were immediately noticeable and areas like the soundstage, headstage, this was a little more than just a genre dependent difference. The only thing that let me down with ASG-2 was the mid-bass bloat as it was just a little to intrusive with certain genres. Apart from that I would of bought of a pair. Even over some Vision Ears demo's I heard worth over 1k I was still leaning towards ASG-2.

So, unity must get really shi**y pairs of ASG-2. lol  
 

 
Clearly it is a conspiracy. 

 

[nehcrow]

Nice impressions mate, hyped as
Mid bass bloat is something I can tolerate seeing how much im loving the W3's
Seems like these earphones can handle the technicality of faster paced EDM, wonder if they'll blow me away like the W3 did
Do these have the energy of the Westones or are they more chill earphones?

 

[mikaveli06]

I got a question for u guys. Asg2 is by far my favorite, and im looking for a pair of over ear portables with similar sound (good bass quality and quantity, details, stage, "emotional" mids or maybe "thick" is better word, and instrument seperation) im considering onkyo hf300, sennheiser momentums, or denon 600, and certainly open to others. Any suggestions (preferably less than $500)

 

[mechgamer123]

 
All good mate, I can understand preference plays a big part in which earphone one decides and no-ones going to mind if you prefer one over the other.

I preferred T-Peos H-200's signature over ASG-2 overall,  though I couldn't deny ASG-2 was the stronger IEM technically, The ASG-2 I heard was far superior to GR07 in almost everyway, I mean.. when you listen it was a smack to the in face difference. The detailing levels for one were immediately noticeable and areas like the soundstage, headstage, this was a little more than just a genre dependent difference. The only thing that let me down with ASG-2 was the mid-bass bloat as it was just a little to intrusive with certain genres. Apart from that I would of bought of a pair. Even over some Vision Ears demo's I heard worth over 1k I was still leaning towards ASG-2.

So, unity must get really shi**y pairs of ASG-2. lol  
 

That's what I'm thinking.

 
I don't really hear all this detail or resolution on the ASG-2s, just a big scoop starting in the upper midrange and lasting up until about the area of cymbals at ~10khz, where it rolls off not too far after.
 
Edit: Okay, after listening to some of Abbey Road by The Beatles, I can see that the ASG-2s sound really good with the guitars in the first few songs I've listened to so far.

 

[H20Fidelity]

Nice impressions mate, hyped as

Mid bass bloat is something I can tolerate seeing how much im loving the W3's
Seems like these earphones can handle the technicality of faster paced EDM, wonder if they'll blow me away like the W3 did
Do these have the energy of the Westones or are they more chill earphones?

Certianty more towards energy like W3, as Gintaras calls them 'the hooligan of IEM's'. One that'll make you simply rock out wild and not give a damn.

They're rather in your face and don't mind showing it as it's in their character. Not really for analytical listeners. 

 

[a-widodo]

You will need a bit of patience with ASG-2. I have my pair since September and use it around 2 hours daily, and the sound is still changing (in a good way). So I think the ASG-2 requires a pretty long burn-in time to fully settle.
I will only want to pay $50 for it if I only judge the sound when I first use my pair. It is that terrible out of the box. But now it is awesome and up there technically with the totl iems that I have tried.