Dan Clark Audio AEON 2 Noire Review

[VintageFlanker]

Review by RTINGS :

Dan Clark Audio AEON 2 Noire Review

The Dan Clark Audio AEON 2 Noire are a variant of the popular AEON 2 Closed series of headphones from the American headphone manufacturer. Sporting the brand's t...

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[doug2761]

If anyone has experience using Aeon 2 Open and Aeon 2 Noire, please share your impressions. Which headphones are best to buy and why? I plan to connect them to topping dx5 ii, noise isolation is not that important to me.

I have Aeon 2 Noire closed, Aeon X closed, and HD 6XX. I'm kinda done with headset experimenting. I use PEQ with Oratory's Harman settings for each of those. Without EQ I prefer the Noire but I never listen long without EQ. With EQ they are all really close. More a matter fit and preference for open or closed back. I'd say that with EQ I like the Noire and 6XX the best but I'm quite happy with any of them when using EQ. If I were starting over I'd probably pick something that Oratory has measured that performs close to the Harman curve and has low distortion so I could tweak EQ to my preference. For my tastes, PEQ substantially narrows the difference to the point where I have great listening experiences with any of these. The 6XX with EQ is really cost effective and sounds great to me.

 

[Bl00dWolf]

Good evening.
What do you think about the measurements at https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/dan-clark-audio/aeon-2-noire?
More specifically, about Frequency Response Consistency, which shows that depending on glasses, hair, head shape, etc., the fit may be poor and the sound completely different?

And from 20 to 200 Hz, we lose up to 10-12 dB, which is a lot?

And this applies not only to AEON 2, but to all Dan Clark headphones.

 

[Oldson]

Good evening.
What do you think about the measurements at https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/dan-clark-audio/aeon-2-noire?
More specifically, about Frequency Response Consistency, which shows that depending on glasses, hair, head shape, etc., the fit may be poor and the sound completely different?

And from 20 to 200 Hz, we lose up to 10-12 dB, which is a lot?

And this applies not only to AEON 2, but to all Dan Clark headphones.

and an awful lot of others, not just DCA, doesnt make them bad.

 

[Curupira]

More specifically, about Frequency Response Consistency, which shows that depending on glasses, hair, head shape, etc., the fit may be poor and the sound completely different?

This only matters for the bass frequencies and is highly dependent on whether you have thick glasses or a thick hair/beard. This phenomenon will happen with most closed ear headphones, though, as they need sealing against your head to be able to produce bass.

 

[MayaTlab]

This only matters for the bass frequencies and is highly dependent on whether you have thick glasses or a thick hair/beard. This phenomenon will happen with most closed ear headphones, though, as they need sealing against your head to be able to produce bass.

Not quite ! Undesirable frequency response variation between individuals can occur at all frequencies depending on the headphones design (some ANC headphones like the Bose QC35/45 have particularly high inter-individual variation in the 1-5kHz band for example), and morphology alone can cause it, such as geometry around the pinna.

ANC headphones with a feedback system can more or less reduce that problem at low frequencies (sub 500-800Hz or so) as the feedback system is an error control loop, the better designs have made the issue of leakage variation a solved problem for a while. But indeed most passive closed back HPs will exhibit that issue.

In the case of DCA headphones since the targeted response is very decent to begin with and some people are likely to experience that response on their own head, it's worth giving them a try, but a lot of people - and in all likelihood the majority - won't, and it's fine if you don't like them as a result.

 

[Dan Clark]

Good evening.
What do you think about the measurements at https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/dan-clark-audio/aeon-2-noire?
More specifically, about Frequency Response Consistency, which shows that depending on glasses, hair, head shape, etc., the fit may be poor and the sound completely different?

And from 20 to 200 Hz, we lose up to 10-12 dB, which is a lot?

And this applies not only to AEON 2, but to all Dan Clark headphones.

Almost any closed headphone without ANC will have bass rolloff with leakage, this is a function of acoustic impedance. ANC uses feedback to maintain response, but with leakage peak SPL can be seriously compromised as the amps can limit.

Our specific recommendations are to use very thin-frame glasses that lay flat to the face, thick frames or ones that pull away from the face create avoidable air leaks. Alternately, for some people using low-magnification glasses, you can simply rest the arms on the top of the pad. People with thick hair should pull the hair back before seating the headphones so the pad lays on skin not the thick hair.

If you follow these guidelines the experience is pretty consistent.

 

[Bl00dWolf]

and an awful lot of others, not just DCA, doesnt make them bad.

Yes, that's true.
But my point is that headphones costing $1,000 or more shouldn't have such problems. The price makes it a problem, IMHO.

If you follow these guidelines the experience is pretty consistent.

Yes, I have short hair, don't wear glasses, and I like how my NOIRE X sounds.
It's more like a wish for the future, if possible, maybe this point could be improved a little =)

 

[Dan Clark]

Yes, that's true.
But my point is that headphones costing $1,000 or more shouldn't have such problems. The price makes it a problem, IMHO.


Yes, I have short hair, don't wear glasses, and I like how my NOIRE X sounds.
It's more like a wish for the future, if possible, maybe this point could be improved a little =)

This is an issue any closed headphone faces, it's acoustic impedance, which is inherent to using a cup. It's like saying loudspeakers shouldn't interact with rooms because they're more expensive. I expect most people would agree rooms affect speakers, regardless of price, in the same way IMHO it's not realistic to hold headphones to an ideal divorced from the reality of physics...

That said, we did work which showed open headphones can have as high a swing in high frequencies when you change couplers, in some cases more than the closed headphones showed, which was actually a bit of a surprise. In fact one open headphone we tested also showed effects of acuostic impedance at low frequencies, as well as high. See the thread on the KB5000 and 5128 Harman analysis to see what I mean...

Having done some initial research on these factors DCA will be investing more R&D and maybe pursuing more published results as we strive to better profile these effects, as I think it will help the community better understand the strengths and weeknesses of different technologies and different measurement systems. It's complex, to be sure.

Enjoy your headphones!

 

[MayaTlab]

Yes, that's true.
But my point is that headphones costing $1,000 or more shouldn't have such problems. The price makes it a problem, IMHO.


Yes, I have short hair, don't wear glasses, and I like how my NOIRE X sounds.
It's more like a wish for the future, if possible, maybe this point could be improved a little =)

That's my great hope too, especially since Dan Clark Audio tries to target a sensible response curve to begin with.
But it's unclear to me that it can be achieved in the format of a passive closed back, and it feels like it might turn out to be a developmental dead end.

 

[MayaTlab]

This is an issue any closed headphone faces, it's acoustic impedance, which is inherent to using a cup. It's like saying loudspeakers shouldn't interact with rooms because they're more expensive. I expect most people would agree rooms affect speakers, regardless of price, in the same way IMHO it's not realistic to hold headphones to an ideal divorced from the reality of physics...

Is the addition of active systems something that could be envisaged by DCA ?

That said, we did work which showed open headphones can have as high a swing in high frequencies when you change couplers, in some cases more than the closed headphones showed, which was actually a bit of a surprise.

I'm skeptical what you see here is a question of coupler per se (ie what's behind the ear canal entrance), as similar effects are found with blocked ear canal entrance mics. At 4k+ frequencies you're probably rather looking at external ear / head geometry factors. Generally speaking for these larger over ears with a fairly large front volume I'm not certain the ear canal / middle ear is of particularly great importance to the results you obtain compared to pinna / head geometry / leakage effects / etc.

In fact one open headphone we tested also showed effects of acuostic impedance at low frequencies, as well as high. See the thread on the KB5000 and 5128 Harman analysis to see what I mean...

Having done some initial research on these factors DCA will be investing more R&D and maybe pursuing more published results as we strive to better profile these effects, as I think it will help the community better understand the strengths and weeknesses of different technologies and different measurement systems. It's complex, to be sure.

At lower frequencies the factors involved are already rather well known, but I think it's very poorly known still what sort of headphones design enables best the expression of desirable inter-individual variation at 4-5kHz + frequencies, while minimising the undesirable variation, and it would be quite ace if DCA found this out.

 

[Dan Clark]

Is the addition of active systems something that could be envisaged by DCA ?

Sure but planers have, in generally, higher power requirements which presents some real challenges.

 

[Oldson]

i have a set of Kennerton Magni which are marketed as a "closed" headphone.
with these , if they dont seal well, it does not affect the bass to my ears.
having said that, their isolation is none existent sealed or not.
imo, these should be marketed as "semi-open".

 

[juliangst]

To anyone who also dislikes the original pads, I can strongly recommend the Dekoni Sheepskin pads.

They probably won't disintegrate like the fake leather pads, and most importantly they don't suffer from the memory foam changing shape.
Having to reshape the original pads ironically puts even more wear on the PU leather.

Seal and comfort with the Dekoni is also very good (with and without glasses).