[Kalli]

Does anybody who owns the Aonic 50 have any experience with the Beyerdynamic Lagoon by any chance? After having passed on them for 2 years curiosity got me. I dislike its touch interface, yet sound-wise they might actually be really good as far as reviews go.

The touch interface was a no-go for me whenever i stumbled across them. Just in theory, never actually had them in my hands. But touch is a stupid idea on headphones, since it just doesn't work properly.

 

[plakat]

The touch interface was a no-go for me whenever i stumbled across them. Just in theory, never actually had them in my hands. But touch is a stupid idea on headphones, since it just doesn't work properly.

Yes, thats exactly my feeling as well... and even if it works under the best of circumstances, I thik all implementations will fall flat in winter or if the pads get a bit wet. Plus its extremely annoying to me to knock on the cup for start/stop: thats much too loud inside the cup. What a design failure... No, I prefer buttons by a wide margin, which is why I'm not investing that much into going to check out the H95... might be nice, but even a partial touch interface does not appeal to me. On the otehr hand the Lagoon is rather cheap now, and might sound quite good. But I do have enough headphones... we'll see.

Currently I use the Aonic 50 almost exclusively, really like it. so balanced and crisp, entertaining and never fatiguing. Really well done.

 

[Kalli]

Ye,
Shure Aonic 50 for the most neutral option.
Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless for a bit more bass.
And JBL Club One for bass heads.

 

[angelom]

Yes, thats exactly my feeling as well... and even if it works under the best of circumstances, I thik all implementations will fall flat in winter or if the pads get a bit wet. Plus its extremely annoying to me to knock on the cup for start/stop: thats much too loud inside the cup. What a design failure... No, I prefer buttons by a wide margin, which is why I'm not investing that much into going to check out the H95... might be nice, but even a partial touch interface does not appeal to me. On the otehr hand the Lagoon is rather cheap now, and might sound quite good. But I do have enough headphones... we'll see.

Currently I use the Aonic 50 almost exclusively, really like it. so balanced and crisp, entertaining and never fatiguing. Really well done.

Is ok if you preferring buttons and not touch interface in ear cups. But I must saying 2 things about the h95.

1. The pause/play is NOT making noise at all in the ear cups. You have option of 'tapping' and that is making noise in ear cups, or the option of only touching (that I always using) which is NOT making noise at all and responding perfectly. Some / many headphones with buttons making more noise than h95.

2. Is more problematic when the ear cups having 2 features of a) volume (swiping up and down) and b) next/previous track (swiping right and left) because sometimes you wanting volume up or down and you doing next/previous track by accident. With h95 is only next/previous track or touching/tapping for play/pause. No mistakes in this case, never. Is this touch feature in h95 good for winter, in very cold weather? I don't know, maybe people with other b&o headphones can commenting about this. I know for fact that this is a problem with sony xm3.

Edit: One problem I having with many headphones with buttons is that isn't always easy accessing the buttons quickly because the tactile implementation isn't always very good (you must looking for correct button!). This is one frustration I having specially with sennheiser m3 and in less degree with aonic 50 but is also present (and the volume is taking longer responding than all other headphones in my experience). In contrast, the buttons of bose qc35, qc35 II, b&w p7 wireless and m&d mw65 are excellent (the best for me for buttons is the p7 wireless).

 

[plakat]

@angelom
There's a difference between a possibly annoying delay (which is rather short on the Aonic 50) and a touch interface: the former is an implementation problem, while a touch interface is in my opinion a design error: it simply does not work as it should, i.e. without looking (yes, some buttons are not well thought out, but the concept of buttons makes that possible at least), even when wet or with gloves (hard, but possible). The more gestures, the worse this gets of course...

So, my main problem is that I don't think current touch interfaces are just having some problems. I think they have problems by design, the concept itself is flawed.

I know you love your H95 and want others to experience the same joy. And while it may sound good (I've yet to hear it, my IT problems are still blocking my time unfortunately), I don't think its for me. Touch being part of that hunch...

 

[angelom]

@angelom
There's a difference between a possibly annoying delay (which is rather short on the Aonic 50) and a touch interface: the former is an implementation problem, while a touch interface is in my opinion a design error: it simply does not work as it should, i.e. without looking (yes, some buttons are not well thought out, but the concept of buttons makes that possible at least), even when wet or with gloves (hard, but possible). The more gestures, the worse this gets of course...

So, my main problem is that I don't think current touch interfaces are just having some problems. I think they have problems by design, the concept itself is flawed.

I know you love your H95 and want others to experience the same joy. And while it may sound good (I've yet to hear it, my IT problems are still blocking my time unfortunately), I don't think its for me. Touch being part of that hunch...

Yes, I love the h95 but for me isn't important if other people liking the h95 or not. When I commenting on posts like yours or others, I'm trying always giving factual information and I'm including my personal experience for my replies, and sometimes I speaking of my preferences too (with h95, for example, that the touch interface is excellent and making my personal user experience better than with all other many headphones / earphones I trying in the past). BUT saying that the touch interface is "flawed" or "design error" is, I think, unfair generalisation.

Is true this is a problem for sony xm3 (only in very cold weather) and maybe other headphones (I don't hearing this problem in other models, by the way) but not in all headphones (sony, by the way, repeating the touch interface in the new xm4 and maybe they fixing winter problem of previous xm3 model, is early knowing if this is true because xm4 is a recent release). And yes, using gloves and using the buttons is practically impossible in cold weather. BUT if buttons is still your preference, this is perfectly ok.

And I saying this before, the h95 isn't for everybody, but unfortunately is common too that people often exaggerating how good is the headphone they owning and liking, and objectivity is often missing in many posts.

 

[ryanmatic]

@angelomSo, my main problem is that I don't think current touch interfaces are just having some problems. I think they have problems by design, the concept itself is flawed.

Agreed that well-implemented buttons are generally easier to use compared to a touch interface. Two small things I really appreciate about the Aonic 50 include the slight circular extrusion on the play/pause button (making it easy to differentiate from the volume up and volume down buttons it’s next to), and the speed with which holding the power button turns on or turns off the headset (seems to take no more than a second). The second point seems like a minor one but holy moly I find it super annoying with other headphones when it takes seconds of holding the button to “make sure” you really want to turn it off. Also, I find the distance between the power button and the three volume/playback buttons to be very easy to differentiate by touch.

The only mechanical button on the Aonic 50 that I’m mixed on is the ANC/Off/Environment switch. I like that it indicates its setting just by looking at it (and it doesn’t change when you turn the headphones on and off), but I find it quite difficult to change or reference when I’m actually wearing them. Not a huge deal for me as I find myself almost always leaving it on ANC (normal level); if I want the highest quality possible, I’ll listen passively with a cable source. But still, it is such a massive step up from the XM3 experience of turning the headphones on, then pressing the ANC button until the voice prompt cycles to the setting you want.

In contrast, the buttons of bose qc35, qc35 II, b&w p7 wireless and m&d mw65 are excellent (the best for me for buttons is the p7 wireless).

Totally agreed that the PX7 and P7W have great buttons as per B&W usual. I actually think the Aonic 50 is better than the P7W just because the power switch on the P7W always felt a bit finicky and like it required a fair amount of coordination to slide and hold, compared to just briefly pushing the power button the Aonic 50. The only other one from your list that I’ve tried is the MW65, and while I loved the build quality and the heft of each individual button, I quite disliked pressing any of them because the volume and play/pause buttons were not at all easy to differentiate by touch, and the ANC button was somewhat hidden on the earcup. Each of those buttons also produced a very noticeable sound when pressed, probably do to their heft and resistance... suffice to say they felt like beautiful physical design choices that just weren’t functionally enjoyable, for me at least.

 

[AlfaBeO]

I've had my SA50's for almost a month now, and I really love them. This is my third pair of Shure headphones, but my first pair of ANC headset so I have a couple of questions.

First, there's always an audible pop/click/whattocallit whenever the electronics activate from a standby mode, for example when starting to play music or just starting the Shure app.

Second, when in max ANC mode the drivers often 'bottom out' when hit with a sharp sound from the environment. Example of such sounds would be my car driving over cracks in the pavement. When the tyre hit the crack I get an unpleasant sound in the headphones when the driver hits its endpoint (I'm guessing this is the cause of the sound). I have heard this effect a few other times as well, but since I discovered this effect I have rarely used the max ANC mode. When ANC is in normal mode I don't get this effect.

Are both of these 'problems' normal for ANC headphones?

 

[ryanmatic]

Are both of these 'problems' normal for ANC headphones?

Yeah, both sound normal. I think I’ve only noticed the soft click when initially starting playback (pretty sure that’s the amp turning on), but I’ve noticed something similar on most other wireless headphones I’ve tried. Same goes for aggressive ANC when it encounters very loud sounds—I used to have to turn max ANC off on my Sony XM3s when riding the shuttle to work in the morning because of how bad it’d get. Seems to be a limitation of most ANC systems, at least currently.

 

[angelom]

Agreed that well-implemented buttons are generally easier to use compared to a touch interface. Two small things I really appreciate about the Aonic 50 include the slight circular extrusion on the play/pause button (making it easy to differentiate from the volume up and volume down buttons it’s next to), and the speed with which holding the power button turns on or turns off the headset (seems to take no more than a second). The second point seems like a minor one but holy moly I find it super annoying with other headphones when it takes seconds of holding the button to “make sure” you really want to turn it off. Also, I find the distance between the power button and the three volume/playback buttons to be very easy to differentiate by touch.

The only mechanical button on the Aonic 50 that I’m mixed on is the ANC/Off/Environment switch. I like that it indicates its setting just by looking at it (and it doesn’t change when you turn the headphones on and off), but I find it quite difficult to change or reference when I’m actually wearing them. Not a huge deal for me as I find myself almost always leaving it on ANC (normal level); if I want the highest quality possible, I’ll listen passively with a cable source. But still, it is such a massive step up from the XM3 experience of turning the headphones on, then pressing the ANC button until the voice prompt cycles to the setting you want.


Totally agreed that the PX7 and P7W have great buttons as per B&W usual. I actually think the Aonic 50 is better than the P7W just because the power switch on the P7W always felt a bit finicky and like it required a fair amount of coordination to slide and hold, compared to just briefly pushing the power button the Aonic 50. The only other one from your list that I’ve tried is the MW65, and while I loved the build quality and the heft of each individual button, I quite disliked pressing any of them because the volume and play/pause buttons were not at all easy to differentiate by touch, and the ANC button was somewhat hidden on the earcup. Each of those buttons also produced a very noticeable sound when pressed, probably do to their heft and resistance... suffice to say they felt like beautiful physical design choices that just weren’t functionally enjoyable, for me at least.

Is interesting how we perceiving things, and is nice reading genuine feedback that seeming unimportant for many people. Maybe this post in this stage of the discussion is more or less irrelevant, but...

I'm not agree that "well-implemented buttons are generally easier to use compared to a touch interface". I must saying that the bose nc700 touch interface is excellent (people in this forums like criticising bose a lot but bose for years doing great research in several aspects, like anc and aspects of audio too), and from my experience using this features A LOT, the nc700 is better than all headphones with buttons, is very, very quick and easy. But the b&o h9 1st and 2nd gen, in contrast, are terrible with the circular volume touch control in the earpads, but this improving only until the 3rd gen of the h9, but still isn't my favourite. For me the best (after the h95, but h95 isn't have complete touch interface), is the nc700, better than sony & b&o models.

You are correct about the xm3's terrible implementation of when turning on the headphone a) is always defaulting to anc, and b) you must pressing anc button until you having anc off or ambient mode on, AND isn't quick! AND this is the same with xm4! BUT for me the on/off button is excellent of xm3/xm4 because is really avoiding mistakes in turning on or off accidentally. By the way, in difference with your opinion, I think the on/off button of the p7 wireless is great, quick, simple and never failing.

I don't mentioning the b&w px7 (and only the p7 wireless) because I finding real difference in the quality of the buttons of the 2 models. The p7 wireless is perfect, the px7 is cheap variation, with flimsy construction that moving easily with minimal touch and making noise before you pressing the buttons for the feature you looking for. The quality of construction of px and px7 decreased, in my opinion, significantly from the excellent, and now classic p7 wireless (that also having leather earpads that px and px7 don't).

I don't remember perfectly the mw65 because I returning very quickly, but I think you're correct that even if the buttons are very good for immediate recognition, they making noise when pressing.

And yes, is good the sa50 having the "slight circular extrusion on the play/pause button" (the momentum 3 having the same but isn't sufficient good and is taking longer knowing which button you're pressing). The sa50 is better, yes, but still not so good like qc35, qc35 II, p7 wireless and mw65 where you instantly know exactly which button you're pressing. For someone like me that is changing volume and tracks very, VERY constantly, this 'small' aspects are very important, like is having many volume steps for the possibility of having very small changes in volume.

 

[ryanmatic]

Interesting... never tried any of Bose's over-ear models with touch controls, but that's good to know that they seem to have nailed touch controls. Ultimately preferring physical to touch controls is a minor preference for me (sound and comfort are definitely more important), but it's a quality of life aspect that adds up over time. At least there are a good assortment of quality options out there of each type.

 

[plakat]

Its somewhat annoying that headphones even got to the point of having an interface (or interface elements), but that's the price for loosing cables I guess...

I've called touch interfaces for headphones a design failure because at best they work just as good as buttons, but in most cases they don't. And since they don't add anything useful (compare to computers where a touch interface adds something personal and direct that mouse/keyboard interactions just don't offer), I avoid them wherever possible. Yes, ultimately comfort and sound quality are more important, but an annoyance that hits me each and every time I interact with a product will eat up any positive aspect over time...

Where does that lead for me? The Lagoon would have to sound quite fantastic, given its almost pure touch interface, offset a bit by its low price. The H95 would have to sound stellar given its partial touch interface, high price and a design that doesn't really appeal to me. In both cases comfort (another very personal aspect) might sway overall judgment in one or the other direction.
The Aonic 50 does fit my taste very well, it sounds really good (especially for a Bluetooth headphone), is very comfortable, has usable buttons and a reasonable price. I prefer it over the ATH-M50X (the Bluetooth version), although that one is really nice... quite good comfort, good sound, very reasonable price and proven robust construction. But somehow I really like Shure products... there's something to their sound that appeals to me. And their microphones have never let me down...

 

[angelom]

Interesting... never tried any of Bose's over-ear models with touch controls, but that's good to know that they seem to have nailed touch controls. Ultimately preferring physical to touch controls is a minor preference for me (sound and comfort are definitely more important), but it's a quality of life aspect that adds up over time. At least there are a good assortment of quality options out there of each type.

Yes, for me too the sound and comfort are more important than the rest.This is the reason I keeping the sa50 for more than one month, but the heat and sweat from the artificial leather, when the weather getting more hot, forcing me buying the momentum 3 again (also because recently the m3 is having 3-band parametric EQ with recent firmware update and I can EQ the bass down now). But the big jumps in volume of the m3 making me really crazy! So, I thinking I buying again the h9 3rd gen for the good sound (not the best but sufficient good and I can use the EQ), leather earpads, and better volume control than h9 v1 &v2...and this is when I discovering the new (not yet releasing) h95. So I waiting for this new VERY expensive model. But if I saying the truth, my hope isn't so great for the h95 because I trying very expensive headphones / earphones, amps, portable music players and DACs in the past and often I'm disappointed. What BIG surprise when the h95 is exceeding my expectations.

Yes, is good we having options. The Surface 2 by Microsoft, for example, is costing 275,00 euros (250,00 USD) and I think is excellent headphone and is my new recommendation for a headphone with many good features for headphones that costing max 400 euros/USD.

 

[angelom]

...And since they don't add anything useful (compare to computers where a touch interface adds something personal and direct that mouse/keyboard interactions just don't offer), I avoid them wherever possible.

If your hands are wet or you're using gloves, touch interface isn't very good!

 

[jsmiller58]

Yes, for me too the sound and comfort are more important than the rest.This is the reason I keeping the sa50 for more than one month, but the heat and sweat from the artificial leather, when the weather getting more hot, forcing me buying the momentum 3 again (also because recently the m3 is having 3-band parametric EQ with recent firmware update and I can EQ the bass down now). But the big jumps in volume of the m3 making me really crazy! So, I thinking I buying again the h9 3rd gen for the good sound (not the best but sufficient good and I can use the EQ), leather earpads, and better volume control than h9 v1 &v2...and this is when I discovering the new (not yet releasing) h95. So I waiting for this new VERY expensive model. But if I saying the truth, my hope isn't so great for the h95 because I trying very expensive headphones / earphones, amps, portable music players and DACs in the past and often I'm disappointed. What BIG surprise when the h95 is exceeding my expectations.

Yes, is good we having options. The Surface 2 by Microsoft, for example, is costing 275,00 euros (250,00 USD) and I think is excellent headphone and is my new recommendation for a headphone with many good features for headphones that costing max 400 euros/USD.

Have you been able to compare the Surface 2 to the Aonic?