Aune AR5000 Headphone Review

[martin900]

Horsesh*t.

I've worked in racing for 35 years. Imagine a race team that gets its car and makes no changes to the base setup to find more speed during an event. Sure, it may be competitive, but it probably won't win, even in the hands of a skilled driver. It's a rare weekend when a race team "rolls the car out of the truck" and wins.

EQ for me has always been like setup changes to a race car. Sometimes you get that base setup just right, roll the car out of the truck, and it flies. But most weekends, you need to change various setup parameters on the car for it to reach its peak performance and for the driver to be comfortable.

No different with most headphones. Some are excellent out of the box. But most can be made even better with a few EQ tweaks.

This is a flipping AUDIO forum about AUDIO gear. Mate! So we're going the nauseating car comparison route again I see.
I know YMMV but every. single. device. I heard that used DSP sounded plain wrong, even the KII or whatever it was, sounded like forced sh*t.

I always hear that the physics fighting the DSP correction, trying something it's not meant to do by design. Be it bass DSP, or any other (P)EQ. Especially those bass room corrections are clearly audible and make the sound simply wrong, unnatural to the ears.
You know, the damn thing has to be designed the right way and not in a way "yeah it's broken, we'll fix it by using EQ" idiocy that's been going on in the past 20+ years because there is more and more garbage being produced. Same with those magically measuring wonder-boxes from China: slap a sh*tton of NFB and it will measure well, who cares.

Trying to fix something by DSP is packing a turd in golden wrap. It will look like pure gold from the outside, but on the inside it's still the same turd.

 

[pk500]

why this when you have HE400se?

This is dynamic. The HE-400se is planar.

Different sound characteristics. This can also is a hell of a lot easier to drive.

 

[pk500]

This is a flipping AUDIO forum about AUDIO gear. Mate! So we're going the nauseating car comparison route again I see.
I know YMMV but every. single. device. I heard that used DSP sounded plain wrong, even the KII or whatever it was, sounded like forced sh*t.

I always hear that the physics is fighting the DSP correction, trying something it's not meant to do by design. Be it bass DSP, or any other (P)EQ. The damn thing has to be designed the right way and not in a way "yeah it's broken, we'll fix it by using EQ" idiocy that's been going on in the past 20+ years.
DSP is packing a turd in golden wrap. It will look like pure gold from the outside, but on the inside it's still the same turd.

You understand that nearly every piece of recorded music uses DSP during recording, mixing and mastering? I guess those albums are all turds packed in golden wrap, too. How do you listen to music that didn't have DSP as part of the recording process, so you can get the absolutely "pure" sound you covet?

The car analogies are prevalent because ... they're accurate.

 

[IAtaman]

You understand that nearly every piece of recorded music uses DSP during recording, mixing and mastering? I guess those albums are all turds packed in golden wrap, too. How do you listen to music that didn't have DSP as part of the recording process, so you can get the absolutely "pure" sound you covet?

The car analogies are prevalent because ... they're accurate.

He used the car analogy to make an irrelevant point, why are you defending it now He's clearly trolling, best to ignore in my experience.

 

[pk500]

He used the car analogy to make an irrelevant point, why are you defending it now He's clearly trolling, best to ignore in my experience.

Yeah, I inhaled the bait. Silly me!

 

[Robbo99999]

This is a flipping AUDIO forum about AUDIO gear. Mate! So we're going the nauseating car comparison route again I see.
I know YMMV but every. single. device. I heard that used DSP sounded plain wrong, even the KII or whatever it was, sounded like forced sh*t.

I always hear that the physics fighting the DSP correction, trying something it's not meant to do by design. Be it bass DSP, or any other (P)EQ. Especially those bass room corrections are clearly audible and make the sound simply wrong, unnatural to the ears.
You know, the damn thing has to be designed the right way and not in a way "yeah it's broken, we'll fix it by using EQ" idiocy that's been going on in the past 20+ years because there is more and more garbage being produced. Same with those magically measuring wonder-boxes from China: slap a sh*tton of NFB and it will measure well, who cares.

Trying to fix something by DSP is packing a turd in golden wrap. It will look like pure gold from the outside, but on the inside it's still the same turd.

Not in my experience, EQ really works with headphones, they're so receptive to it. It's crazy not to use EQ with headphones unless the out of box sound / frequency response is spot on. There's not that many headphones that are optimised straight out of the box at stock.

 

[Chagall]

Not in my experience, EQ really works with headphones, they're so receptive to it. It's crazy not to use EQ with headphones unless the out of box sound / frequency response is spot on. There's not that many headphones that are optimised straight out of the box at stock.

Similar to how every commercial monitor or TV needs calibration to show accurate colors. But I'm sure he's going to claim he can see liquid crystals fighting corrections...

 

[IAtaman]

Similar to how every commercial monitor or TV needs calibration to show accurate colors. But I'm sure he's going to claim he can see liquid crystals fighting corrections...

I bet due to his refusal of computational photography, he prefers the images from Nokia 7650.

 

[Robbo99999]

Similar to how every commercial monitor or TV needs calibration to show accurate colors. But I'm sure he's going to claim he can see liquid crystals fighting corrections...

Ha, yes, and I'm with you on the calibration front - got my TV calibrated with a SpyderPro, and likewise my PC monitor. Really is a great benefit, and it's a good comparison you make!

 

[bahamot]

Got mine. Without EQ, I prefer these over R70x.

 

[CedarX]

Got one too… Not that I need it , but the very good sensitivity made me wonder how it would work with a Moondrop FreeDSP cable (+ adapters).

 

[poxymoron]

Got one too… Not that I need it , but the very good sensitivity made me wonder how it would work with a Moondrop FreeDSP cable (+ adapters).

View attachment 345225

Okay, don't leave us hanging.

 

[Caléo]

This is a flipping AUDIO forum about AUDIO gear. Mate! So we're going the nauseating car comparison route again I see.
I know YMMV but every. single. device. I heard that used DSP sounded plain wrong, even the KII or whatever it was, sounded like forced sh*t.

I always hear that the physics fighting the DSP correction, trying something it's not meant to do by design. Be it bass DSP, or any other (P)EQ. Especially those bass room corrections are clearly audible and make the sound simply wrong, unnatural to the ears.
You know, the damn thing has to be designed the right way and not in a way "yeah it's broken, we'll fix it by using EQ" idiocy that's been going on in the past 20+ years because there is more and more garbage being produced. Same with those magically measuring wonder-boxes from China: slap a sh*tton of NFB and it will measure well, who cares.

Trying to fix something by DSP is packing a turd in golden wrap. It will look like pure gold from the outside, but on the inside it's still the same turd.

It appears that you ignore that most sound engineers work with EQ on their headphones, even flagship ones.

That s not because you ve never find a correct EQ that EQ is sounding wrong. Creating a driver has some limits, and sometimes an EQ can reveal incredibly good a headphone. Some respond very good to EQ, others are just unable. That's why it's interesting to precise. Especially on 300 dollars headphones.

 

[Human Bass]

The HD600 defly needs massive EQ to have sub bass. Ofc one can be perfectly fine without harman sub.

I think because of the grill design and flat impedance curve, I thought these cans are planar magnetic. Somewhat surprised to see they are dynamic.

I personally think these are not really alternative to HD600 series, as the magic of 6 series is that they don't really need EQ. Maybe a HD560S alternative with angled drivers, apparently good spatial qualities and a metal build?

 

[Human Bass]

EQ and DSP are very different. EQ allows for extremely fine tuning of especific frequencies, while the typical "Viena Hall" DSP imposes a very artificial effect in the whole spectrum.

This is a flipping AUDIO forum about AUDIO gear. Mate! So we're going the nauseating car comparison route again I see.
I know YMMV but every. single. device. I heard that used DSP sounded plain wrong, even the KII or whatever it was, sounded like forced sh*t.

I always hear that the physics fighting the DSP correction, trying something it's not meant to do by design. Be it bass DSP, or any other (P)EQ. Especially those bass room corrections are clearly audible and make the sound simply wrong, unnatural to the ears.
You know, the damn thing has to be designed the right way and not in a way "yeah it's broken, we'll fix it by using EQ" idiocy that's been going on in the past 20+ years because there is more and more garbage being produced. Same with those magically measuring wonder-boxes from China: slap a sh*tton of NFB and it will measure well, who cares.

Trying to fix something by DSP is packing a turd in golden wrap. It will look like pure gold from the outside, but on the inside it's still the same turd.

 

[CedarX]

EQ and DSP are very different. EQ allows for extremely fine tuning of especific frequencies, while the typical "Viena Hall" DSP imposes a very artificial effect in the whole spectrum.

Emmmhh… Not sure it’s a widely accepted difference. For me, DSP is just that, “Digital Signal Processing”. EQ’ing is just one application of a Digital Signal Processor, whether hardware or software, but also called a DSP.

 

[Human Bass]

Emmmhh… Not sure it’s a widely accepted difference. For me, DSP is just that, “Digital Signal Processing”. EQ’ing is just one application of a Digital Signal Processor, whether hardware or software, but also called a DSP.

Ofc Im talking about the typical consumer grade dsp. It is extreme silly to see EQ as that when it allows extremely fine and tailored adjustments. It doesnt even need to add something to the audio, just subtracting some specific peak can be extremely useful

 

[CedarX]

Ofc Im talking about the typical consumer grade dsp. It is extreme silly to see EQ as that when it allows extremely fine and tailored adjustments. It doesnt even need to add something to the audio, just subtracting some specific peak can be extremely useful

OK, I was confused by what you called "typical consumer grade dsp". Not that there is anything fundamentally wrong with these: they are also EQ (and sometime more when they play with phases & delays), but preset to target wide groups of audio preference. I agree that it's unlikely a typical consumer EQ preset would "fix" the AR5000 FR, and I think that was @IAtaman point about the HD600: the HD6xx series sound very good "as-is", very good starting bases to then develop a personal EQ preference. (Side note about the HD600 sub-bass: in my experience, the HD600 & HD650 don't take well "massive sub-bass EQ"... I get mostly distortions polluting higher frequencies...).

To me, the AR5000 is an interesting alternative to my HD600/650: I get super easy drivability, but EQ is a must--opposite to the HD600/650 tradeoffs.

 

[CedarX]

Got one too… Not that I need it , but the very good sensitivity made me wonder how it would work with a Moondrop FreeDSP cable (+ adapters).

So, the combo AR5000 + FreeDSP works well... Very well actually !!! Plenty of power, no obvious audible issue, though with the 2-pin to 3.5mm adapters needed to pair the FreeDSP to the AR5000, I ended up with a reversed phase on one side. I swear I checked everything with a multimeter, and I was absolutely certain it was right... But, and this was quite surprising to me, it was audible (I have been burned so many times before, that my brain has developed a very poor opinion of my ears ).

Taking into account the Moondrop app constraints: 9 PK filters, 40-10,000Hz frequency range, gain between -12 and +3dB, only integer gain values (Note that I don't know for sure if these limitations are app-related or are imposed by the embedded DSP), this is what I came up using AutoEQ (as recommended by @staticV3 in the Tanchjim One thread):

Amir's (Left) measurement loaded in AutoEQ https://www.autoeq.app/:

(Target = Harman over-ear 2018)

AutoEQ optimization (missing the FreeDSP constraint of integer gains--don't think it is supported by AutoEQ):

Filter 1: ON PK Fc 47.3 Hz Gain 3.0 dB Q 0.49
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 179.4 Hz Gain -1.3 dB Q 1.39
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 287.7 Hz Gain -3.3 dB Q 0.51
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 1962.6 Hz Gain 1.3 dB Q 1.73
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 1987.7 Hz Gain 2.7 dB Q 2.51
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 3628.8 Hz Gain 3.0 dB Q 5.47
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 4649.1 Hz Gain -2.7 dB Q 3.52
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 5363.0 Hz Gain -2.1 dB Q 5.99
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 8513.0 Hz Gain 3.0 dB Q 0.66

Which would give the following EQ'd FR:

I wish I could add a little more low-end, but there is this 40Hz min. constraint. Rounding to integer gain values, this is what I actually loaded in FreeDSP (only marginally different):

Filter 1: ON PK Fc 40 Hz Gain 3 dB Q 0.49
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 179 Hz Gain -1 dB Q 1.39
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 288 Hz Gain -3 dB Q 0.51
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 1963 Hz Gain 1 dB Q 1.73
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 1988 Hz Gain 3 dB Q 2.51
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 3629 Hz Gain 3 dB Q 5.47
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 4649 Hz Gain -3 dB Q 3.52
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 5363 Hz Gain -2 dB Q 5.99
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 8513 Hz Gain 3 dB Q 0.66

How does it subjectivley sound? Great !!! . Could I tweak the EQ further? Sure... But I humbly admit that I easily "adapt & get used" to any reasonably good sound. So, I am not sure I'm gonna change anything... unless I detect some weird resonance, distortion or else with some track. What I may do is dusting off my soldering iron and make the FreeDSP into a real USB-C to dual 3.5mm cable.

The best part of the story for me: the AR5000+FreeDSP sounds exactly the same whether I plug it into my Laptop, iPhone, cheapo Android, DAP . I just need to reach an "all USB-C" point and eliminate these pesky USB-A & Lightning adapters, and also find some FreeTIME (pun intented) to test my extra FreeDSPs with other good sensitivity headphones (and a bunch of IEMs) .

EDIT: Testing David Chesky binaural "The Ultimate headphone Demonstration Disc" for spatial qualities... All the "walk around" tests are crystal clear, and I even have some sense of height in the "height center" tests (I usually struggle with these). Oh and these David Chesky binaural tracks... I tell you: I am right in the middle of the band playing "When the Saints..."

 

[CedarX]

Taking into account the Moondrop app constraints

Just a comment on EQ’ing the AR5000 with Moondrop FreeDSP cable: I started from Amir’s suggested filters, trying to keep the same filters response but within the FreeDSP constraints. It did not work well for me and that’s why I ended up using AutoEQ instead.

EQ as that when it allows extremely fine and tailored adjustments.

In my experience, PEQ does allow very fine and tailored adjustment… but it’s far from being easy !!! Especially by ear, with no good FR measurement and no particular target: I limit myself to a 5-band graphic EQ or something like Hiby’s (excellent!) MSEB when I want to adjust something by ear.