[MattTCG]

Busy with work atm but I will answer those questions later today. If I forget, please remind me.

 

[lentoviolento]

I find these good to go out of the box and need no pads for tuning. But we all have our preferences.

i was talking about AFO not AFC to be honest. i found AFC very neutral sounding. i always thought AFO sounded like AFC should have sounded...
in AFO2 is the soundstage wider? is it in some way harsh? thank you all

 

[bcowen]

Looking forward to a detailed comparison of these two...

I'll be sure to post my impressions once they arrive and they've had a little time to break in. .

 

[MacMan31]

I'm actually a fan of the color of the new Aeon 2; it's a tasteful red tone and also serves a highly useful function of differentiating them easily at a glance visually from the first generation Aeon models, without resorting to folding them up, since that's the only other major difference visually between the generations.

If I could pick any colour I would have picked a dark green (like evergreen tree green) in a matte finish.

 

[AlwaysForward]

I’m very curious to how these compare with the Campfire Cascade since they’re in the same product bracket and price point.

 

[roskodan]

So, after it was brought up that the aeon 1&2 presentation could be substantially affected by paring with portable/mobile dedicated amps/daps, I checked the IF measurements, and it shows the aeon 1 being very peak current hungry.

Even versus the already difficult to drive Alphas and Primes, kind of looks like the lower impedance of around 15 Ohms for the aeons, paired with the low efficiency, makes the overall sound signature and presentation even more susceptible to "underamping" and other factors (e.g. damping).

Keep in mind that the aeon 2 is advertised as being less efficient than the aeon 1.

I had the same experience with the Alphas, which are advertised as even less efficient than the aeons, but at around 50 Ohms.

 

[Wes S]

I’m very curious to how these compare with the Campfire Cascade since they’re in the same product bracket and price point.

I have the exact same question.

 

[flarex3]

A "meant to be portable" headphone shouldn't be that hard to drive...
Aeon 2 Closed's 92 db/mW is too low. The very low impedance of 13 ohms is also problematic because the headphone requires too much current to achieve the sufficent power (Power= (current^2) x (ohm). Many source devices state suitable headphone impedances something like 16-300 ohm, 13 ohms is out of the range.

SPL (db/mW) and impedances of the other popular closed backs:

Audeze XC: 100 and 20
Audeze LCD-2C 101 and 70
Focal Elegia 105 and 35
Focal Stellia 106 and 35
Sennheiser HD820 103 and 300
Campfire Cascade 100 and 38

All of them are significantly easier to drive. They sound decent enough from a smartphone and sound at their near full potential from a DAP.

@mrspeakers
What is the portable source device you can suggest for driving the A2C at its full potential on the go?

 

[roskodan]

Exactly, IF measurements clearly show that for a 50% (3dB/mW) increase in efficiency, alphas 90dB/mW @ 50ohms vs aeon1 93dB/mW @ 15ohms, the current requrement of the aeons makes the gain in efficiency negligible (rms current > 2000% at the same spl). Unlike iems that have low load but really high efficiency, >100dB/mW.

 

[MrCypruz]

I just received my pair of the A2c (w/ a 2m Vivo Cable) this morning and I’ve to say that I’m impressed. I’ve owned the Ether Flow C 1.1 and I would take the A2c everyday and twice on Sunday. The most impressive qualities of the A2c are the soundstage being wide for a closed design and the bass slam, extension and it’s well textured. I did a quick a/b test with the Focal Utopia out of the Dave+M Scaler feeding into the SPL Phonitor X and the results were as expected. Detail retrieval, dynamics and pin-point accuracy is not on par with Utopia but the A2c still holds its own presenting a more relaxed and laid back sound without losing dynamics. For analogy purposes, Utopia sounds like you’re right there in the middle of the stage or front row and the A2c sounds like you’re in the 5-6th row. This is very noticeable with vocals where they tend to sound more distant (specially female ones) and you kind of lose that chesty sound from male’s voices. This could be a deal breaker for some but not for me.

The highs are significantly more refined than the Ether C Flow 1.1 without any of the harshness or “sss” that I heard on the Ethers.

Instrument separation is also good but it could also be one of its weaknesses while playing very complex compositions where it loses a bit of its coherence.

As an owner of the SR1a (my reference headphones), Stax 009S and Utopia, I can recommend this to anybody who likes that kind of sound produced by the cans I mentioned. For what it’s worth, I would pick the A2c over Meze Empyrean (Which I sold after a few months) for overall sound presentation and clarity.

I tried it out of my iPad Air headphone jack and it sounds reasonably good but not as good as from the powerful Phonitor X (PX)- it definitely benefits from a powerful amplification which is going to be interesting to see what portable solutions are out there that will do them justice. To understand how power hungry these are, on the PX I was listening to the Utopia with the volume at 10’ o Clock and to get to similar volume level on the A2c I had to crank it up to a little over 1’ o clock. Note that this was with no additional gain on the PX (dip switches off).

I truly believe that this is going to be a rockstar closed back headphones at this price range and if Dan Clark uses the learnings from our feedback (improve detail retrieval and dynamics, isolation without sacrificing soundstage, a little more refinements on the highs and bring the mids a bit forward - specially for vocals), I also believe that the next Ether C are going to be a great contender to compete against the Vérité Closed.

 

[Andrew DiMarcangelo]

Thanks for sharing those impressions, MrCypruz! Now I'm even more excited.

 

[lemarsghast]

I just received my pair of the A2c this morning and I’ve to say that I’m impressed. I’ve owned the Ether Flow C 1.1 and I would take the A2c everyday and twice on Sunday. The most impressive qualities of the A2c are the soundstage being wide for a closed design and the bass slam, extension and well textured. I did a quick a/b test with the Focal Utopia out of the Dave+M Scaler feeding into the SPL Phonitor X and the results were as expected. Detail retrieval, dynamics and pin-point accuracy is not on par with Utopia but the A2c still holds its own presenting a more relaxed and laid back sound without losing dynamics. For analogy purposes, Utopia sounds like you’re right there in the middle of the stage or front row and the A2c sounds like you’re is in the 5-6th row. This is very noticeable with vocals where they tend to sound more distant (specially female ones) and you kind of lose that chesty sound from male’s voices. This could be a deal breaker for some but not for me.

The highs are significantly more refined than the Ether C Flow 1.1 without any of the harshness or “sss” that I heard on the Ethers.

Instrument separation is also good but it could also be one of its weaknesses while playing very complex compositions where it loses a bit of its coherence.

As an owner of the SR1a (my reference headphones), Stax 009S and Utopia, I can recommend this to anybody likes that kind of sound produced by the cans I mentioned. For what it’s worth, I would pick the A2c over Meze Empyrean (Which I sold after a few months) for overall sound presentation and clarity.

I tried it out of my iPad Air headphone jack and it sounds reasonably good but not as good as from the powerful Phonitor X (PX)- it definitely benefits from a powerful amplification which is going to be interesting to see what’s out there that will do them justice. To understand how power hungry these are, on the PX I was listening to the Utopia with the volume at 10’ o Clock and to get to similar volume level on the A2c I had to crank it up to a little over 1’ o clock. Note that this was with no additional gain on the PX (dip switches off).

I truly believe that this is going to be a rockstar closed back headphones at this price range and if Dan Clark uses the learnings from our feedback (improve detail retrieval and dynamics, isolation without sacrificing soundstage, a little more refinements on the highs and bring the mids a bit forward - specially for vocals), I also believe that the next Ether C are going to be a great contender to compete against the Vérité Closed.

Thank you very much for your impressions, but I thought that Dan wasn't planning to make an upgrade to the Ether C Flows based off of the Ether 2 driver. So either there won't be an upgrade to the Ether Cs, or it will be something completely new!

 

[noplsestar]

I just received my pair of the A2c (w/ a 2m Vivo Cable) this morning and I’ve to say that I’m impressed. I’ve owned the Ether Flow C 1.1 and I would take the A2c everyday and twice on Sunday. The most impressive qualities of the A2c are the soundstage being wide for a closed design and the bass slam, extension and it’s well textured. I did a quick a/b test with the Focal Utopia out of the Dave+M Scaler feeding into the SPL Phonitor X and the results were as expected. Detail retrieval, dynamics and pin-point accuracy is not on par with Utopia but the A2c still holds its own presenting a more relaxed and laid back sound without losing dynamics. For analogy purposes, Utopia sounds like you’re right there in the middle of the stage or front row and the A2c sounds like you’re in the 5-6th row. This is very noticeable with vocals where they tend to sound more distant (specially female ones) and you kind of lose that chesty sound from male’s voices. This could be a deal breaker for some but not for me.

The highs are significantly more refined than the Ether C Flow 1.1 without any of the harshness or “sss” that I heard on the Ethers.

Instrument separation is also good but it could also be one of its weaknesses while playing very complex compositions where it loses a bit of its coherence.

As an owner of the SR1a (my reference headphones), Stax 009S and Utopia, I can recommend this to anybody who likes that kind of sound produced by the cans I mentioned. For what it’s worth, I would pick the A2c over Meze Empyrean (Which I sold after a few months) for overall sound presentation and clarity.

I tried it out of my iPad Air headphone jack and it sounds reasonably good but not as good as from the powerful Phonitor X (PX)- it definitely benefits from a powerful amplification which is going to be interesting to see what portable solutions are out there that will do them justice. To understand how power hungry these are, on the PX I was listening to the Utopia with the volume at 10’ o Clock and to get to similar volume level on the A2c I had to crank it up to a little over 1’ o clock. Note that this was with no additional gain on the PX (dip switches off).

I truly believe that this is going to be a rockstar closed back headphones at this price range and if Dan Clark uses the learnings from our feedback (improve detail retrieval and dynamics, isolation without sacrificing soundstage, a little more refinements on the highs and bring the mids a bit forward - specially for vocals), I also believe that the next Ether C are going to be a great contender to compete against the Vérité Closed.

Thanks for that writeup. Can you also compare them to the Stellia?

 

[flarex3]

I also think that a portable headphone should sound decent enough from a smartphone. While I will definetly do my critical music listening from a DAP or DAC, I may want casual listening such as watching a youtube video or playing a game from my phone. I can easily connect i.e. my Elegia or Cascade to my phone but A2C would probably produce little to none sound from a phone.

I don't know why did Dan build this headphones like that. It should be possible to produce higher sensitivity and impedance drivers while maintaining the same sound. Even a little higher sensitivity such as 95 instead 92 would make things crazily better.

 

[FullBright1]

I The most impressive qualities of the A2c are the soundstage being wide for a closed design and the bass slam, extension and it’s well textured the A2c sounds like you’re in the 5-6th row. This is very noticeable with vocals where they tend to sound more distant (specially female ones) and you kind of lose that chesty sound from male’s voices. This could be a deal breaker for some but not for me.
The highs are significantly more refined than the Ether C Flow 1.1 without any of the harshness or “sss” that I heard on the Ethers.
Instrument separation is also good but it could also be one of its weaknesses while playing very complex compositions where it loses a bit of its coherence.

You've describe them as having decent instrument separation, while being bass slammed and treble refined...... with a nice soundstage and distant vocals. ( I quoted you).

= Laid back midrange "V" shape..... is the analysis,

I wonder what the next reviewer will say.