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Drops measurements of the Aeon Closed X/2 And Open X/Flow on a graph with Amir's measurements of the Aeon RT (Flow Closed), adjusted to same ratio

Xii-Nyth

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Dashed Lines are the original and Amir's Harman targets, exactly the same for the most part. (Thin and thicc (respectfully))

Solid Green is the Aeon RT (Flow Closed) $500
Solid Red is the Closed X with the single notch filter $380
Solid Blue is the Open X with the single notch filter $400

Dotted Red is the Closed X with no filter
Dotted Blue is the Open X with no filter (Best Open?)

Dotted Sky Blue is the Aeon Flow Open $500
Dotted Coral is the Aeon 2 Closed (Double the price for closest average) $900

Still missing Aeon 2 Open, and I believe the Noir is the same as the 2 Closed, I might be wrong (Also other filter tests)

Conclusions:

Aeon X Open with no filter has the largest offset in the 100-200 Hz area, but closest to target In highs.

Aeon 2 Closed has the smallest disparity in the 100-200 Hz area, not as good highs as the X's, better than the original Flow/RT

Flattened.png
 
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Xii-Nyth

Xii-Nyth

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I think I'll go for the Aeon Open X myself since that bump is pretty flat so it should EQ out pretty well
The Closed X is looking pretty good as well, but trying to eq up rather than down seems like its less effective

For the most part both are great especially with this sale price, but if you can afford both instead of jsut one the Aeon 2 Exists and the Noir has the nice colour option, still need to see the 2 Open, not sure if thats a thing actually since there is no open Noire, it might just exist in my head.
 

Firefly00

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I think I'll go for the Aeon Open X myself since that bump is pretty flat so it should EQ out pretty well
The Closed X is looking pretty good as well, but trying to eq up rather than down seems like its less effective

For the most part both are great especially with this sale price, but if you can afford both instead of jsut one the Aeon 2 Exists and the Noir has the nice colour option, still need to see the 2 Open, not sure if thats a thing actually since there is no open Noire, it might just exist in my head.
There is an Aeon 2 Open, just not an open noire. I question how much stock should be taken re: the differences in treble, considering seating issues on the rig
 
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Xii-Nyth

Xii-Nyth

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I gotta say Its a little strange the open and the closed have that behavior in the (high bass?). When I put my hands over the sides of the open 598's I'm wearing I get the opposite effect.
 

Firefly00

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I gotta say Its a little strange the open and the closed have that behavior in the (high bass?). When I put my hands over the sides of the open 598's I'm wearing I get the opposite effect.
DCA has said that bump is to improve the sound at lower listening levels
 
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Xii-Nyth

Xii-Nyth

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DCA has said that bump is to improve the sound at lower listening levels
makes a lot of sense since many people didnt like them simply because they werent getting loud enough with how current hungry they are... since I am getting a magni heresy to go with them maybe I should get the closed
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Firefly00

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makes a lot of sense since many people didnt like them simply because they werent getting loud enough with how current hungry they are... since I am getting a magni heresy to go with them maybe I should get the closed
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I’m guessing that the reports of “dynamic range compression” are from anaemic amps. Their reason for that bump was so that people wouldn’t damage their hearing
 
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Xii-Nyth

Xii-Nyth

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I’m guessing that the reports of “dynamic range compression” are from anaemic amps. Their reason for that bump was so that people wouldn’t damage their hearing
Yeah makes sense if people were turning up to try and get bass then the treble would be huge and they might not notice if they only listen to music like [modern] rap etc that just doesn't exist past 2k (usually)

If I was in the US I could probably get both to try out than return the other one, but here in canada stuff always gets stuck at the border for 2 weeks so it would be cutting it close with shipping.. (then UPS says its canada post that is backed up but then as soon as its in canada it arrives in 2 days :p)
 
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Xii-Nyth

Xii-Nyth

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Ok I noticed the dt 990 had a bump in the same spot, and I liked the tygr 300r with no eq. Found out the tygr is closer, (best harman besides the stealth?), so EQing the big bump whould get me at least to the small bump on the tygrs which I liked, so I'm gonna go for the open.

Decided to upgrade in the first place bc I wanted a tygr but more comfortable, and always liked they supa tygr idea, looks like this is it. If only I didnt have a sensitive head I'd be getting a discount and the indestructibility but theres other things Im sure ill gain once they go on my head, even if I might lose some imaging. Not a competitive fps gamer anymore anyways.
 

GaryH

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How have you aligned the curves on the vertical scale? They don't seem to all be aligned at any one frequency. The standard in the scientific literature is to align at 500 Hz. Here are Oratory's measurements of some of these headphones aligned properly:

Harman 2018-Dan Clark Audio Aeon Closed RT-Dan Clark Audio Aeon 2 Closed-Dan Clark Audio Aeon ...png


The Noire and Aeon 2 Closed with perforated pads look to be the best.
 
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Xii-Nyth

Xii-Nyth

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How have you aligned the curves on the vertical scale? They don't seem to all be aligned at any one frequency. The standard in the scientific literature is to align at 500 Hz. Here are Oratory's measurements of some of these headphones aligned properly:

View attachment 166918

The Noire and Aeon 2 Closed with perforated pads look to be the best.
oh I didnt realize there was a standard, what I did was take the harman curves from both and made sure they fit on top of each other, so since the lines were on the same image as the curve they will be adjusted to the same amount.

Its just the comparisons of the open without a filter and the other flow open that are off at 500 hz so I guess drop did that so it shows the difference from that headphone, since if something was different at 500hz it would be wrong to say they are both 0 at 500hz (at the same input level)
 
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Xii-Nyth

Xii-Nyth

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oh I didnt realize there was a standard, what I did was take the harman curves from both and made sure they fit on top of each other, so since the lines were on the same image as the curve they will be adjusted to the same amount.

Its just the comparisons of the open without a filter and the other flow open that are off at 500 hz so I guess drop did that so it shows the difference from that headphone, since if something was different at 500hz it would be wrong to say they are both 0 at 500hz
however its probably best to use the graph you provided, I simply just couldnt find it! The x variants are slightly different though so it wasnt a complete waste of my time since those were the ones I was planning on buying.
 
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Xii-Nyth

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Ok I found the project files and aligned them to 500 Hz, had to re draw part of one so thats just a smooth estimate

500 Hz.png
 

jae

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Are there measurements floating out there for the Aeon RT Open? Heard they were meant to be similar to the Open X but still curious. I would be interested in seeing a visual comparison between:

Aeon RT Open
Aeon Open X
Aeon 2 Open

Also, from other's measurements it seems the perforated earpads greatly helps the response of the Aeon 2 Closed, so I'm wondering how those would help the response of the other DCA open headphones?
 
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Xii-Nyth

Xii-Nyth

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Are there measurements floating out there for the Aeon RT Open? Heard they were meant to be similar to the Open X but still curious. I would be interested in seeing a visual comparison between:

Aeon RT Open
Aeon Open X
Aeon 2 Open

Also, from other's measurements it seems the perforated earpads greatly helps the response of the Aeon 2 Closed, so I'm wondering how those would help the response of the other DCA open headphones?
Yeah couldn't find a lot of details on those at the time, dunno if its changed since
 
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Xii-Nyth

Xii-Nyth

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Oh right I should mention, now that I actually have these headphones, firefly is totally correct about the high frequncys, especially since with this headphone these is more variance depending on where my ear is inside the cup vs anything else Ive used, so id ignore everything past 3KHz.

Taking that into account, the aeon noire is clearly superior, being the closest to baseline in the 100-200 hz range, and avoiding the dip between 1-2 khz which looks small on the graph, but is very noticeable, and I think is what a low of people might fing hollow about these headphone, since most people wouldnt think of increasing the mids with eq to make something sound more dynamic

The open x went out of stock right before I could order, but then I managed to get the closed x on backorder during the black friday sale, sinc ehtey went out of stock earlier and the staff had time to relist. That being said definately the best closed back ive used, so I wouldnt take the aeon noire being a closed back as a negetive if you are looking for the best headphone in that price range. At least for what I want out of a headphone. gettting a hd800 and modidng it to the 800s is stll a good option, but in that case id just use speakers where are more open and more sound stage than even the best headphoens for that.
 

JanesJr1

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Oh right I should mention, now that I actually have these headphones, firefly is totally correct about the high frequncys, especially since with this headphone these is more variance depending on where my ear is inside the cup vs anything else Ive used, so id ignore everything past 3KHz.

Taking that into account, the aeon noire is clearly superior, being the closest to baseline in the 100-200 hz range, and avoiding the dip between 1-2 khz which looks small on the graph, but is very noticeable, and I think is what a low of people might fing hollow about these headphone, since most people wouldnt think of increasing the mids with eq to make something sound more dynamic

The open x went out of stock right before I could order, but then I managed to get the closed x on backorder during the black friday sale, sinc ehtey went out of stock earlier and the staff had time to relist. That being said definately the best closed back ive used, so I wouldnt take the aeon noire being a closed back as a negetive if you are looking for the best headphone in that price range. At least for what I want out of a headphone. gettting a hd800 and modidng it to the 800s is stll a good option, but in that case id just use speakers where are more open and more sound stage than even the best headphoens for that.
I have the Noire, and although I often EQ using Oratory/Harman as a starting point, in this case I kept the Dan Clark "bump" in the 60-160 Hz band since it seems modestly beneficial in giving a little punch at moderate volumes. More to the point, I did a bunch of level-matched, bi-directional A/B comparisons of the Noire with the Closed X and my HD6XX 'phones, and I noticed I wanted 2 EQ's for different kinds of music on the Noire.

I really liked the Noire on music where you want to be in the audience, with balance among the different instruments and a decent soundstage...like classical in particular, but also some country, folk and jazz ensembles. Dan Clark says he tuned the Noire toward that goal, with a more V-shaped FR and the newer perforated earpads, to give it such a soundstage ... but I noticed that with other music, the Noire seemed less engaging when you had a strong center vocal or instrumental line, like female vocals or guitar or some small ensembles. The mid's are recessed some. So I have one EQ that more or less keeps that balanced, but more mid-range-recessed tuning. But I set up a second version that has a wide (low-Q) PEQ bump-up for the mid-range. This 2d EQ works very well to create engagement and intimacy with vocals, lead guitar, etc. But it avoids enhancing instrumental presence by bumping up treble, in headphones where the treble in fact often needs to be tamed a bit.

The dual EQ's work pretty well and with EAPO/PEACE it's a cinch to toggle between them. When I listen to Bruckner symphonies, where you have to keep his horn crescendo's from taking over too much, the shallow-V tuning helps to balance things out. With the Indigo Girls or Patty Griffin or Nils Lofgren or Crooked Still, the alternative EQ with a mid-range shelf gets my foot tapping. With something like, say, a piano concerto, it depends on how it was recorded, but a seat-of-the-pants correction to the mid-range EQ can sometimes toggle the balance between piano and orchestra somewhat without much fuss. With classic1990's PJ Harvey cuts, it's a crap-shoot: she has some wonderfully-recorded ensemble cuts that deliver a balanced and deep sound stage, and she has other cuts where I like her shouting in my ear.

PS It's not that the soundstage is always that deep with the Noire ... it can be with well-recorded material, but more often it's out-of-my-head but otherwise not a deep soundstage. But it's enough to get a balanced FR among the instruments and a plausible 9-to-3 distribution of instruments in space.
 
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Boxermotor

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Xii-Nyth, thanks for this comparison! I just received the Drop Aeon Open X's after reading some reviews that mentioned they had an improved sound over the Aeon Flow Open. By the looks of your results they're pretty similar in performance, so I'm glad you affirmed my $100 savings on the Drop version - do I owe you a percentage ;)? I have to say I'm extremely pleased at their sound, clarity, and "closed-ness" in how they mute my surroundings over other open-backs. Looking at Amir's recent review of DC's Expanse, it looks like the major differences between the Open X and the Expanse is how the latter hugs the Harman curve slightly better between 300Hz and 400Hz in addition to the 1kHz to 5kHz ranges. Worth the extra $3,600? I still would love to take a listen for the potential "wow" experience...

Dashed Lines are the original and Amir's Harman targets, exactly the same for the most part. (Thin and thicc (respectfully))

Solid Green is the Aeon RT (Flow Closed) $500
Solid Red is the Closed X with the single notch filter $380
Solid Blue is the Open X with the single notch filter $400

Dotted Red is the Closed X with no filter
Dotted Blue is the Open X with no filter (Best Open?)

Dotted Sky Blue is the Aeon Flow Open $500
Dotted Coral is the Aeon 2 Closed (Double the price for closest average) $900

Still missing Aeon 2 Open, and I believe the Noir is the same as the 2 Closed, I might be wrong (Also other filter tests)

Conclusions:

Aeon X Open with no filter has the largest offset in the 100-200 Hz area, but closest to target In highs.

Aeon 2 Closed has the smallest disparity in the 100-200 Hz area, not as good highs as the X's, better than the original Flow/RT

View attachment 166761
 
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Xii-Nyth

Xii-Nyth

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Glad I could help! Also got lucky that despite not matching them all at 500hz in that first chart, the information still ended up fairly useful since its was just a volume offset.

No need to pay me lol, but if you happen to like the same games that I do, I have a patreon for all the random mods and textures I make
 
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