Drop Dan Clark Audio Aeon Closed X

[Robbo99999]

An update on the measurement journey... Oratory confirmed his process. I agreed and I'm now waiting for the shipping address. If I get it by Monday, I will ship it out then. He said he measures HPs every other weekend, so it should take around three weeks. I will ask him in our next conversation for channel balance/imbalance and distortion measurements to help us get some consensus on everything. The idea of having a set of headphones that have been individually measured and EQ'd is pretty bloody sweet. Can't wait.

Robbo, you said you were in the UK, if memory serves me. Do you want me to have Oratory ship the cans to you after he's done so you can play around with them for a couple of weeks?

Hi, that's a really generous offer you make for me to have your headphones for a while, but I don't really want to be responsible for their well-being sending them off to Canada, and it won't really have an important impact on any channel matching or other EQ I'd do for you, at least any changes away from the Harman Curve I'd make wouldn't necessarily be transferable over to you because we all hear headphones in a somewhat different way due to our different HRTF's, most of my changes I make are in the bass on headphones like rolling away the bass from the Harman Curve at around 35Hz which I think helps in bass & overall clarity in dynamic driver headphones but with planars (my HE4XX) they can stand boosting to the Harman Curve all the way down to 20Hz with no ill effects, so there wouldn't really be any personalisation I'd be adding to your planar Closed X anyway.

Spoiler: An aside re personalisation

As an added aside re personalisation, I think I may have found a new preferred headphone target for myself (for the time being at least!), my favourite has mostly been for the 2018 Harman Curve, which is the target Amir / Oratory use as their main target for their published results, but recently I decided to experiment with the baseline flat in-room headphone measurement from Harman which they used as the basis for the Harman Curve upon which they gave people in their study the bass & treble controls to manipulate the baseline measurement to their own preference - which ultimately is how the Harman Curves were created - so I was pretending I was one of their test subjects if you like, I describe it at this post:

HBK Headphone Measurement Talks from Head-Fi and Sean Olive

How is that different from the paper I presented at the HBK Seminar? I essentially took measurements of headphones that had been evaluated subjectively and measured on the GRAS45CA MOD (which you call JBL Modified) and measured the same headphones on a B&K 5128 to derive a target curve for...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Mentioning this because I get the impression you're interested in this kind of stuff and you have tweaked your headphone slightly away from the Harman Target in the past, so you could try a similar experiment for yourself. I have tweaked the target slightly since that post I linked by just adding an additional 105Hz 1dB Low Shelf to it, following is the room curve I applied to the flat baseline measurement and the resultant target I ended up at, which is actually very close to the 2013 Harman Curve (note there are also 2015 & 2018 Harman Curves with the 2018 Harman Curve being one most often used now by Amir/Oratory/etc). Also find a pic comparing the different Harman Curves over the years so you can see how they compare.

@Resolve and @amirm I'm thinking about getting the Closed X. But I could drop ship them to you, so you could measure them. Would you be interested?

I hope Amir takes you up on this, would be great to have him review & measure this headphone.

 

[aandres_gm]

@oratory1990 (being in EU) may be a more logical choice to ship to.

Not quite. My plan is to purchase them via Drop and ship them to my family, who will keep them safe for me until I visit them in December. However, when I'm back in Germany, I may very well ship them to oratory, if he's interested.

 

[Robbo99999]

Not quite. My plan is to purchase them via Drop and ship them to my family, who will keep them safe for me until I visit them in December. However, when I'm back in Germany, I may very well ship them to oratory, if he's interested.

Hell yeah, you're only just over the border!

 

[TheHighContemplator]

Hi, that's a really generous offer you make for me to have your headphones for a while, but I don't really want to be responsible for their well-being sending them off to Canada, and it won't really have an important impact on any channel matching or other EQ I'd do for you, at least any changes away from the Harman Curve I'd make wouldn't necessarily be transferable over to you because we all hear headphones in a somewhat different way due to our different HRTF's, most of my changes I make are in the bass on headphones like rolling away the bass from the Harman Curve at around 35Hz which I think helps in bass & overall clarity in dynamic driver headphones but with planars (my HE4XX) they can stand boosting to the Harman Curve all the way down to 20Hz with no ill effects, so there wouldn't really be any personalisation I'd be adding to your planar Closed X anyway.

Spoiler: An aside re personalisation

As an added aside re personalisation, I think I may have found a new preferred headphone target for myself (for the time being at least!), my favourite has mostly been for the 2018 Harman Curve, which is the target Amir / Oratory use as their main target for their published results, but recently I decided to experiment with the baseline flat in-room headphone measurement from Harman which they used as the basis for the Harman Curve upon which they gave people in their study the bass & treble controls to manipulate the baseline measurement to their own preference - which ultimately is how the Harman Curves were created - so I was pretending I was one of their test subjects if you like, I describe it at this post:

HBK Headphone Measurement Talks from Head-Fi and Sean Olive

How is that different from the paper I presented at the HBK Seminar? I essentially took measurements of headphones that had been evaluated subjectively and measured on the GRAS45CA MOD (which you call JBL Modified) and measured the same headphones on a B&K 5128 to derive a target curve for...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Mentioning this because I get the impression you're interested in this kind of stuff and you have tweaked your headphone slightly away from the Harman Target in the past, so you could try a similar experiment for yourself. I have tweaked the target slightly since that post I linked by just adding an additional 105Hz 1dB Low Shelf to it, following is the room curve I applied to the flat baseline measurement and the resultant target I ended up at, which is actually very close to the 2013 Harman Curve (note there are also 2015 & 2018 Harman Curves with the 2018 Harman Curve being one most often used now by Amir/Oratory/etc). Also find a pic comparing the different Harman Curves over the years so you can see how they compare.
View attachment 159570View attachment 159571View attachment 159572

I hope Amir takes you up on this, would be great to have him review & measure this headphone.

No worries. I was thinking you could do some subjective direct comparisons between the HPs you own, as well. Let me know if you change your mind. I'm not hung up on products and such, so there would be nothing to worry about. I figured the more data we have, even subjective data derived from knowledgeable fellows like yourself, the better we can help those looking to purchase these, or those who already own them.

I like where your head is. I am constantly tweaking, which generally means finding the balance of getting the right amount of impact in the bass, while maintaining the detail and presence across the rest of the spectrum. The idea of applying the in-room tilt to the Harman curve is one I've thought about as well. I also thought about an experiment where you give each person a 1khz tone to listen to. Then you have them match the level of that tone to others across the spectrum creating a target curve for the individual. Then see how they like music with or without their own personal curve and compared to other curves.

I'm open to trying any tweaks you make to see if my ears/brain react the same way yours does. I'm guessing the right curve is somewhere between the 9db tilt and the 2018 curve.

 

[aandres_gm]

I sent Amir a pm regarding the Closed X, let's see if he's interested.

 

[TheHighContemplator]

I sent Amir a pm regarding the Closed X, let's see if he's interested.

You have to love community driven science. Cheers to you, @aandres_gm !

 

[aandres_gm]

Update from me: unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to ship amir the headphones. His state charges around 10% tax which, considering the rest of the shipping I would still have to pay in order to get the headphones to my possession (Amir > PO Box > my family) and the taxes involved in the process, ups the price significantly.

However, once the headphones are with me in Germany, I will get them to oratory.

 

[batfunk]

Well,my Xmas gift is ordered... No aeon rt or aeon x in France (only upper ones).
473 dollars(all taxes included),not bad...
It Will probable replace my second hand Grado rs2, which i like but seriously lacks bass(Eq useless). I Will use SMSL Sp200 with it, so no lack of power. .
Open to closed, well, we'll see !

 

[Upped]

Just got mine today only been listening for a few hours pretty nice-looking headphones and comfortable. not as blown away by the sound as I was hoping maybe I just need to give them more time and go through my music. using them with a topping E30/L30 stack. Also tested the EQS for my pair sample 2 eq definitely sounds better than the 1st. For anyone wondering what I'm coming from audio wise DT 770 250 ohm, Moondrop aria and Elac dbr-62. They beat the DT 770 in clarity and cleanness of the vocals and bass(both without eq). Compared 2 songs and gave the closed x a bit of a handicap and powered it through my Loxjie a30 headphone jack while the DT 770 through the L30 both connected to the e30 so I could take one pair off and put the other one on really quick no pause.

 

[sushi2020]

I want one because I returned my secondhand Aeon Flow Closed which had bad channel balance...

I'll wait for the Black Friday sale, just in case

 

[Atratusnex]

I find all of this quite concerning...seems like drop might lie?

 

[Robbo99999]

Just got mine today only been listening for a few hours pretty nice-looking headphones and comfortable. not as blown away by the sound as I was hoping maybe I just need to give them more time and go through my music. using them with a topping E30/L30 stack. Also tested the EQS for my pair sample 2 eq definitely sounds better than the 1st. For anyone wondering what I'm coming from audio wise DT 770 250 ohm, Moondrop aria and Elac dbr-62. They beat the DT 770 in clarity and cleanness of the vocals and bass(both without eq). Compared 2 songs and gave the closed x a bit of a handicap and powered it through my Loxjie a30 headphone jack while the DT 770 through the L30 both connected to the e30 so I could take one pair off and put the other one on really quick no pause.

It's beginning to seem that Sample#2 is the most representative of headphones out there in the wild, considering that you're the second person that preferred Sample#2 EQ, which aligned with my thoughts that Sample#1 looked a little faulty with some poor channel matching.

 

[Robbo99999]

I find all of this quite concerning...seems like drop might lie? View attachment 160060

We'll know more over time as more units of the Drop Aeon Closed X gets measured - I'll plot them against eachother & vs the Aeon RT measurements. (I thought it had been confirmed that the pads were different, certainly Sample#1 was nothing like the Aeon RT, whereas Sample#2 was edging a little towards the RT direction.)

 

[Atratusnex]

We'll know more over time as more units of the Drop Aeon Closed X gets measured - I'll plot them against eachother & vs the Aeon RT measurements. (I thought it had been confirmed that the pads were different, certainly Sample#1 was nothing like the Aeon RT, whereas Sample#2 was edging a little towards the RT direction.)

Something doesn't add up, if the pads are different, with drops statement. Maybe it's the next 5xx fuck up.

 

[Robbo99999]

Something doesn't add up, if the pads are different, with drops statement. Maybe it's the next 5xx fuck up.

Ha, I don't know! I do know though that I'll overlay all the measurements once we get some more in, so we can see the trend of difference between Aeon RT & Closed X. Ha, what was the 5XX fuck up, I've not heard about that?

 

[Atratusnex]

Ha, I don't know! I do know though that I'll overlay all the measurements once we get some more in, so we can see the trend of difference between Aeon RT & Closed X. Ha, what was the 5XX fuck up, I've not heard about that?

The 5xx is (most likely) a deva with a different headband/ cable. Drop claimed that it wasn't, that the deva uses single-sided magnets / the 5xx double-sided magnets. This is wrong (as the deva uses double-sided magnets too) and got debunked by resolve. https://www.headphones.com/communit...-he5xx-vs-hifiman-deva-do-they-sound-the-same seems like the people at drop could have at least a problem with knowledge about their own products.

"Now, it seems like the folks over at Drop simply weren't aware of the Deva's driver design, since they've claimed the main thing that makes the HE5XX unique is the fact that it uses a dual-sided magnet array. And as it happens, the claim that this driver has been inspired by the legendary HE500 (and HE6) is accurate. The problem is that the HiFiMAN Deva also uses the same dual-sided magnet array. There have been some reports out there - including ones from Drop - that the Deva uses a single-sided magnet array (this was their initial point of difference between the Deva and the HE5XX), but as we'll see with the following driver teardown, the Deva does in fact have magnets on both sides." (article above by resolve / different highlight parts by me)

 

[Jimbob54]

It's beginning to seem that Sample#2 is the most representative of headphones out there in the wild, considering that you're the second person that preferred Sample#2 EQ, which aligned with my thoughts that Sample#1 looked a little faulty with some poor channel matching.

Im not sure you can use EQ preference on a third unit (Z) to determine it measures closer to unit X or unit Y measured by someone else on which the two EQs are based. I get what your thinking is , but that is making a leap or two too many to give any real weight to in my book. One EQ might just be preferable to that listener full stop regardless of how it was derived.

What if unit Z measures slap bang between X and Y if it was measured by Resolve ?

 

[aandres_gm]

I mean. We had Dan Clark himself in this very forum say both headphones were similar, not identical. Now, he may have done that to boost the sales for the RT, I can't be sure, but that statement is a lot more credible than that of a Drop employee.

 

[Jimbob54]

I mean. We had Dan Clark himself in this very forum say both headphones were similar, not identical. Now, he may have done that to boost the sales for the RT, I can't be sure, but that statement is a lot more credible than that of a Drop employee.

They most definitely are not identical. One has "drop" embossed on the headband ;-)

 

[Robbo99999]

The 5xx is (most likely) a deva with a different headband/ cable. Drop claimed that it wasn't, that the deva uses single-sided magnets / the 5xx double-sided magnets. This is wrong (as the deva uses double-sided magnets too) and got debunked by resolve. https://www.headphones.com/communit...-he5xx-vs-hifiman-deva-do-they-sound-the-same seems like the people at drop could have at least a problem with knowledge about their own products.

"Now, it seems like the folks over at Drop simply weren't aware of the Deva's driver design, since they've claimed the main thing that makes the HE5XX unique is the fact that it uses a dual-sided magnet array. And as it happens, the claim that this driver has been inspired by the legendary HE500 (and HE6) is accurate. The problem is that the HiFiMAN Deva also uses the same dual-sided magnet array. There have been some reports out there - including ones from Drop - that the Deva uses a single-sided magnet array (this was their initial point of difference between the Deva and the HE5XX), but as we'll see with the following driver teardown, the Deva does in fact have magnets on both sides." (article above by resolve / different highlight parts by me)

Ha, too right, us enthusiasts that really get right into the detail & science of these headphones routinely know more than some company reps that are just there to field questions from the general public - there's not that many people out there that know as much as ASR regulars (and of course testers like Resolve!). Same is true in all tech support - PC Tech Support I've found similar......enthusiasts really can learn a lot if you enjoy it & spend enough time learning & researching (in anything).