Dan Clark Audio AEON RT Review (closed headphone)

[Maiky76]

Hi,

Good R/L matching.
Score no EQ: 62.6
Score with Amirm EQ: 62.5
Score with EQ: 94.6

Dan Clark Audio Aeon RT APO EQ Score 96000Hz
January152021-142549

Preamp: -7.8 dB

Filter 1: ON PK Fc 25 Hz Gain 3.4 dB Q 0.61
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 145 Hz Gain 4.75 dB Q 3.6
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 2750 Hz Gain 1.71 dB Q 0.4
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 2260 Hz Gain 4.9 dB Q 2.95
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 3780 Hz Gain 5 dB Q 1.64
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 5915 Hz Gain -4.4 dB Q 6
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 7964 Hz Gain 4.9 dB Q 3.23

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Oh man, what a review! After ALL the many headphone reviews, I'd given up hope of actually seeing a pair of headphones that DOESN'T need DSP for bass. Awesome to see a pair finally showing how it should be done. Kudos to Dan Clark (thank god for that name change from Mr Speakers)!

Thanks for filling us in on the company name change. When I saw the name in Amir's review, I thought they were something a "modding shop" did to a Mr Speakers Aeon.

 

[Dana reed]

Oh, forgot to say that these are my everyday headphones.

I have the original Aeon Flow Closed, and I just don't like them as much as the LCD XC. That said, I do of course EQ the LCD, so perhaps I should try EQing the Aeons. I know the original ones are much more light in the bass compared to the RT.
I also don't like the pads on the Aeon as much as the LCD pads. They deform too easily and I'm always fiddling with them to push them back into shape.

 

[ClosDeLaRoche]

I have the original Aeon Flow Closed, and I just don't like them as much as the LCD XC. That said, I do of course EQ the LCD, so perhaps I should try EQing the Aeons. I know the original ones are much more light in the bass compared to the RT.
I also don't like the pads on the Aeon as much as the LCD pads. They deform too easily and I'm always fiddling with them to push them back into shape.

How old are the pads? I used to have an original Aeon Closed and Aeon Open. The closed were older and the pads did this. The opens were newer and had pads with more stuffing that never lost their shape. It may be time to buy a new set of pads.

 

[Dana reed]

How old are the pads? I used to have an original Aeon Closed and Aeon Open. The closed were older and the pads did this. The opens were newer and had pads with more stuffing that never lost their shape. It may be time to buy a new set of pads.

I’ve had them for like a year, but they were doing this from the beginning. Probably will get new pads at some point though and be more careful about squishing them.
Might be nice to sell though and get the 2, as it looks more portable, and also may need less eq

 

[pavuol]

I must admit I've never read innerfidelity extensively (also been kind of late to the "HP party"), but I remembered these cans mentioned in Tyll's goddbye article. I had to dig for it but found it archived.

So when recommended by Mr.headphone guy, there has to be something about it :
"Will I take a pair of high end headphones with me? Not super high-end...I just don't have the room or energy budget (being solar powered) for a high end rig on the road. But I will take my Astell & Kern AK240, my CEntrance M8, and a pair of Aeon Flow open and closed headphones along. "

 

[CopperFox]

"Dan says he doesn't think complying with the target generates what he hears live. I agree with him on that, but disagree on desirability of it in the arsenal of the audiophile. I like that energy there! "

When I'd want to hear what I hear live, I'd usually listen to a live recording. But that mostly does not happen as I feel live sound to have worse sound quality than studio recordings where everything is far more controlled.

Not that it would be strictly a bad thing to have something that generates a "live sound" effect. I would assume there's not much research on that subject.

What would the name of that study be - "A study on the averaged effects of live music performance equipment and environments on deviation from the Harman target"?

 

[MC_RME]

I also own the original Aeon closed. This review makes me look at the - most probably - far superior Aeon 2 again...

Regarding slam: as is typical for planars one can up the bass with nearly no limit by EQ, and the Aeon will deliver. But they are very lightweigth and have super-soft ear pads. For this reason there is not much physical feedback, so subjective 'slam' is not really there.

 

[Rja4000]

@amirm
Is that closed back version ? (EDIT: just seen it's specified in your text. Sorry.)
Will you do some kind of isolation measurement ?

 

[tsanguine]

Sounds like you love them!
Newbie question - would a regular style amp drive it or does this kind of headphone require specialized amps? I have the Emotiva Bas-X A-100 which is a headphone/speaker amp. It is able to output high current at low impedances.
Also can you compare the subjective impressions to the HD800S? Does it feel as clean or as layered or spacious?

That Emotiva is part of my office setup. It will power them fine. I've tried the jumper and it made the amp louder but didn't notice hiss. I only tested briefly but changed the jumper back because whatever difference there was, it wasn't big to my ears.

I even run my ÆON2 Flow Closed on a Quedelix 5K and it works fine. Just has to be balanced, in performance mode, and set to high output.

I kind of prefer open back headphones to closed, it usually gives more linear bass response and the sense of openess is great to not care too much about the soundstage

One of the frequent things about these I've heard is how open their closed cans are. I remember in reviews for the first ÆON Flow series the closed were generally preferred to the open versions and I think I remember comments about how the closed almost sounded more open than the open. I have never demoed any of their open cans though.

How old are the pads? I used to have an original Aeon Closed and Aeon Open. The closed were older and the pads did this. The opens were newer and had pads with more stuffing that never lost their shape. It may be time to buy a new set of pads.

I've had three pairs of their pads. I just got the perforated pads for my ÆON2 Flow Closed two days ago and they are all very squishy from the start. They can move around a bit inside of their leather and it can annoy my anal side but... they are also some of the most comfortable headphones I've ever had. Dan Clark even has a youtube video if I recall showing you how to massage them back into shape.

One of the main criticism I see on reddit and other forums about Dan Clark headphone is that while they are tonally great they are somewhat lacking in dynamics/impact/slam. Did you get any feeling of that on this headphone?

This complaint is mainly targeted at the older ether/aeon though so might not be applicable anymore.

I don't think they are lacking but I do prefer the dynamic punch that my Focal Elear has by just a little bit.

 

[solderdude]

I really liked the original ÆON Flow Closed. I found it too expensive ($ 800.-) to buy one.
Shall be looking for 2nd hand ÆON flow RT Closed in the coming years.
Are the pads still glued on this version ?
A downside could be the rather small available space (but enough for most ear sizes) inside the pads and the efficiency is rather low namely 97dB/V = 78dB/mW, which makes them as voltage efficient as the LCD3. They do require amping when you want to get the most out of these.

As mentioned by Amir the 13 Ohm impedance resistance is very low.
Coupled to the low voltage efficiency and considering those that want to reach impressive levels (110dB peak) will need 4.5V = 1.3W .
Directly from a phone you may reach 97dB SPL peaks which is O.K. for 'normal' (all day) listening levels.
Excellent sounding headphone.

 

[tsanguine]

I really liked the original ÆON Flow Closed. I found it too expensive ($ 800.-) to buy one.
Shall be looking for 2nd hand ÆON flow RT Closed in the coming years.
Are the pads still glued on this version ?
A downside could be the rather small available space (but enough for most ear sizes) inside the pads and the efficiency is rather low namely 97dB/V = 78dB/mW, which makes them as voltage efficient as the LCD3. They do require amping when you want to get the most out of these.

As mentioned by Amir the 13 Ohm impedance resistance is very low.
Coupled to the low voltage efficiency and considering those that want to reach impressive levels (110dB peak) will need 4.5V = 1.3W .
Directly from a phone you may reach 97dB SPL peaks which is O.K. for 'normal' (all day) listening levels.
Excellent sounding headphone.

Pads are still glued down. I'm not the biggest fan of this. When I disassembled mine to mod the terminal to 3.5mm I removed the pads. Put them back on without doing anything but relying on the adhesive still there and I have had no problems for the last six months or so. Just removed them a couple days for the perforate pads. Both of my ÆON Flow Closed and ÆON2 Flow Closed were used and very reasonably priced.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Etymotic ER2/3/4 have lower distortion when measured at 100db spl.

 

[ShiZo]

https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/blob/master/results/RANKING.md

I have the cx on the way. Im curious as well. Im not into eq so cx might be the way for me to go regardless.

 

[Music1969]

Impedance is very flat which is good (typical of planar magnetic drivers) but also very low:

Can you now start measuring headamp output performance for 12 ohm loads? Now that your favourite headphones are 13 ohms

And can you measure your RME ADI-2 into 12 ohms?

 

[Guerilla]

2 questions:
1. Could these headphones be driven by many integrated and power amplifiers, since impedance i close to normal speakers?
2. Since you own such low-distortion headphones - would you tell us if you can hear any difference between a good 24bit recording and the same recording downsampled to 16bit 44k?
Not many people have had the opportunity to hear for themselves if they can distingvis any difference. I know these aeons cannot reproduce 24bit resolution, but they must come closer than what most of us use. -Especially connected to the quality of amplification as you happen to own

Cheers!

 

[Guerilla]

Can you now start measuring headamp output performance for 12 ohm loads? Now that your favourite headphones are 13 ohms

And can you measure your RME ADI-2 into 12 ohms?

If amirn answers yes to my question, you dont even neeed a headphone amp
Cheers!

 

[Koeitje]

I think it's still a good idea to push headphones manufacturers to make well tuned headphones out of the box. And I don't think this one is one of them. The price is okay. I personally will take Ananda and hd650 over this. But with EQ this one is certainly very capable especially in the bass.
Would love to see how you see oppo pm3 and shure srh840.

These cannot be compared to the Anada and HD650, because those are open back headphones. Totally different use cases.

That said I do want to see how the PM3 and SRH840 do, because I own PM3's and I really like them in terms of sound (even though they could use some equalisation). But when it comes to build quality the PM3 is terrible. It uses fake leather that wears down very easily, so the pleather on my headband is falling apart with no way to replace it. I suspect that the PM3 also has pretty low distortion. When I was looking for headphones I also considered the FLOW Closed, but deemed it too expensive compared to the Oppo. Or better said, it was more than I wanted to spend.

 

[FreaK]

Two questions:

1: does someone know a source to buy it in the EU?

2: @amirm: can the THX 789 driver it well?

 

[Nango]

Just imagine @amirm you had add the extra cable for 250$ !!!! So this mfr did not sent in for test purposes its extra capable cable? .... Oooops!!!!!