Is anybody ever going to post a review of the Aeon 2 Open?
I would also like to know this. I'm really curious about the Aeon 2 Open.
I stopped by The Source AV today and listened to the A2C and the A2O and was pretty impressed by what I heard.
To be honest, I've been mostly unhappy with the voicing of Dan's past headphones. The most recent example being the Ether 2. It just sounds overly soft and lacking in detail to my ears (even with the perforated pads).
But both of the Aeon 2's sounded like a big step in the right direction to me, with the A2O being the stand-out performer. FYI, I listened to them both without using any of the tuning inserts.
While the A2C is a very good sounding headphone and sounds very similar to the A2O, it still has a little bit of the 'cupped hands' coloration that most closed-back headphones are known to suffer from. While it is relatively minor in level (and a big improvement over the AFC), it was noticable when directly compared to the A2O, but I think this is an acceptable trade-off if you need the isolation that the A2C gives you. But if you don't, then the A2O would be the better choice because I think it is a significantly better sounding headphone overall.
The A2O just
nails it in just about every parameter of it's voicing. First off, the A2O is capable of delivering real, honest-to-God low bass power without distorting. This was quite surprising (and impressive!) to me because of the relatively small size of it's drivers. It definitely needs some current to do this, though. I know this because when I started listening using a Questyle DAC/amp, the low sub-bass on one of my test tracks (DJ Shadow - Three Ralphs) caused the amp to intermittently go into its protection mode, so I switched to a Chord Qutest-HeadAmp Gilmore Lite Mk2 combo and had no such issues. The bass was clean, solid and deep. The vocal range was just as impressive. It had just the right amount of presence and clarity without going too far and becoming overhyped and fatiguing. The treble region was the only area where I wish there was a little more refinement, but it was just right in level. And as a nice bonus, both of the Aeon 2's are very light and comfortable.
My biggest criticism of them has nothing to do with their sound. It’s with the color of their ear cups! Come on Dan, while I think classic black might be a little boring, they would look
sooooo much better in a silver or a dark grey, or even the dark blue of the original Aeon. Just sayin”.
One interesting thing I noticed was that the pads on the A2O had perforations on the inside area (just like the Ether 2 perforated pads), but the A2C pads were solid. I'd be curious to hear how the A2C would sound with the perforated pads.
I came away genuinely impressed with both headphones, but it was the A2O that really stole the show for me. The A2O gets my
highest recommendation!
