My personal take on the Shure Aonic 50
These beauties arrived last Tuesday (two weeks ago, now) so, although I have lost a few sleep hours over them, I haven’t listened to them for too long yet in order to have thorough impressions.
But yes, while listening to music on these, they really “take you away” and the last thing you’re thinking is going to bed because of work the next day.
The first thing I did was to try my dedicated headphone playlist () and, as soon as every one of those very familiar songs started playing, I grinned and shrugged in awe... I was sure I had made the right choice.
I then proceeded to treat them cans to a full day of a slew of pink, brown, white noises and frequency tone sounds at 60% volume. Did they change? I guess they “loosened up” a bit. The “attack” in the notes is smoother, the frequency spectrum is more even, again smoother, I believe. It’s slight but noticeable. Burn-in hoax or not, it doesn’t hurt and I felt a difference, for the better.
But these are already, thankfully, flat. And flat is not bad. If, like me, you prefer to really listen to what the artist and producer mixed and mastered in the studio. What they intended for you to listen... these are it. Sure there are pieces of music which were poorly recorded and could use a little tuning. There’s an option for that. Just download that music to your device and EQ it through the app. Not my thing.
B&W, Dali, Bose, B&O, Sennheiser, Audeze, Sony... these guys have been in the forefront of audio products and music production for x years. And then Shure, after making some of the best products in the industry, including microphones and headphones, they spend two and a half years developing a product so they can get into this niche we’re all raving about. What did you expect? Are all of the aspects of these 5 stars, maybe not, but they are darn good. If I wanted better, sound at least, I wouldn’t look in the Bluetooth realm.
The ANC is there. The fairly loud TV and the less modern A/C in the living room all disappeared. When listening to music, of course, not while silent, these aren’t mufflers. It may not be XM3 or NC700 grade but all is well rewarded elsewhere. To me they are super comfortable and the build quality is really seen and felt. No creaks or cracks. You can feel their weight but it’s evenly distributed in the pleasantly low clamping force and the pads are soft and cushiony, with a fair amount of passive isolation, so I forget about it. I have bigger ears and they fit the cups only slightly touching the edge sometimes, again forgettable. They may warm up a bit but I have a shaved head and I usually run very warm anyway so everything I throw on my noggin will get warmer, leather or pleather. Seriously, I’ve only felt discomfort in 34ºC, because it was basically hot out in Lisbon. Battery life hasn’t been an issue. I haven’t travelled with them, I wish I could say I had because that would mean we were living in better times, but 20 hrs seems more than enough for any trip, maybe even a round trip.
I absolutely relate to @angelom’s appreciation of the volume increases in smaller steps. I love it too. They don’t have touch pads but physical buttons. They don’t have play/pause sensors, so no gimmicks that sometimes might fail. The multi-point connection works fine. I’ve tested calls and summoning Siri, all fine. No lag while watching video, whatsoever. They are robust and very well built. The case is a bit big, also because of the way the fold, but I have good backpacks and I would never throw them in there without the case anyway, so I just have to live with it. And I like all that.
But the the sound... ah, the sound. That you will not forget.
Fast forward to today. A week later after I wrote the first part of this, I’ve definitely had more listening time. It now been two weeks and I’m listening to Lupe Fiasco and Led Zeppelin and Massive Attack and Brad Mehldau and Bad Religion and The Jam and Tom Jobim and Interpol and Kendrick Lamar and Miles Davis and Tenderlonious and The Slackers and DJ Cam and The Raconteurs and Me’Shell Ndegéocello... (). And many hours listening to many others also in this amazing, ever growing playlist. And they all sound amazing. The bass is definitely there when it’s there, not emphasized but firm and full. The mids are very, very detailed and present. The highs are defined and crisp, but never harsh. These headphones are accurate! The snare, the cymbals, the hi-hats, the toms, the kick, the double bass, the bass, the guitars, the violins, the trumpets, the sax, the trombones, all kinds of computer beats and all kinds of vocals... are ALL there. The soundstage is very wide and the stereo imaging is on point, all angles. Instrument separation is extremely clear. Like the artists intended, at least to my ears.
I’m not gonna write about EQ or file formats or codecs or passive/active cabling. I’ve only used these with my iPhone and iPad, wirelessly, listening to Spotify (on “very high” quality). I might try Tidal for the extra resolution but the now even more sectarian distribution of music and tv content in more than 10 subscriptions available on the market (on top of your cable/internet bill) is pissing me off. So I limit these to a fair minimum.
One thing that few people talk about, understandably because of some subjectiveness, is dynamics, tonality, musicality. These have 50mm drivers tuned by Shure, the brand who sold half of the microphones and ear monitors to the bands we all listen to, what did you expect?
There are others in this niche with highs and lows in their presentations. Too many lows not beating their highs, for my liking. There are also a few others: Sony makes them, although famous, rattling and bass bloated. Dali and B&O makes them nice, although not overall nice, and with round cups, for those humans with round ears... Audeze makes them good, in the wired models or if you’re a gamer. Bose also makes them good, very good actually, when you use them mostly for work/calls and plane travel and still want some decent music. B&W comes closer but these are not speakers, these are headphones, they shouldn’t be tuned similarly. Sennheiser comes closest, they do, musicality and all, but I guess then it’s a matter of taste, in every detail and in the overall package. And then the Aonic 50 win. For me.
Are there better ones out there? Wired, for sure, Sennheisers or Grados or Audio Technicas or Beyerdynamics, maybe. In Bluetooth fashion, definitely not to my ears. For 320€ (MSRP 399€) could I ask for more? Probably, but they are awesome as is. Like I’ve said, I haven’t owned them all but I’ve tried and tested most. The Shure Aonic 50 are currently the best in this category, for me.
Cheers and I hope you all enjoy.
(Still have to read through the last three pages here, but I guess my opinion will probably not change)
