Dan Clark Audio AEON RT Review (closed headphone)

[King3567]

-Well, these are closed headphones. They have impressive imaging and wideness for closed-backs, but HD600 are still open so tough competition. So no they won't be worlds aaprt
-Poorly. Planar and OTL likely sounds distorted/bad but you could try it out..

Thanks for reply - I suppose I could always just try it out, or buy some monitors and do something differently entirely.

 

[ToxicRisk]

Hello,
Any recommendation for a portable DAC/amp around 200€/250$ that fit with the Aeon RT ?
Thanks

 

[Firefly00]

Hello,
Any recommendation for a portable DAC/amp around 200€/250$ that fit with the Aeon RT ?
Thanks

BTR5 running balanced is recommended by DCA. Qudelix 5k has EQ if that’s your thing

 

[ToxicRisk]

I'll go with the ifi Go Blu. Small, 4.4mm bal, Bluetooth, mic.

 

[thunderchicken]

I pulled the trigger on these and hearing them back to back with my DT880 Black was crazy. The Beyers were like listening to crappy blown car speakers with the level of fuzz. Didn't notice that at all before the Aeon RT Closed. I also put them up against my current favorites, the Monoprice M1060. With EQ, I still prefer the M1060, but without EQ, the Aeon takes it. The main difference is that the M1060 is basically a loudspeaker for everyone else in the room, which is why I had to buy a closed rig. Getting similar quality out of a closed rig is impressive even if I need to keep playing with EQ for more pleasing tonality. Overall, I'm happy with the purchase, but I can say that I was more impressed with the K371 straight out of the box as far as closed headphones go. The Aeon's clarity is really amazing.

 

[radix]

I recently got a pair of the DCA Aeon closed RT and am working on the EQ.

I tried the oratory harman curve, but it sounded kind of hallow and missing bass.

Preamp: -6.5 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 70 Hz Gain -4.4 dB Q 0.25
Filter 2: ON LS Fc 105 Hz Gain 5.5 dB Q 0.71
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 152 Hz Gain 5.0 dB Q 2.0
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 510 Hz Gain 1.5 dB Q 1.4
Filter 5: ON HS Fc 2000 Hz Gain 7.0 dB Q 0.71
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 2250 Hz Gain 2.5 dB Q 3.0
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 3200 Hz Gain -1.8 dB Q 5.0
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 4620 Hz Gain -2.2 dB Q 5.0
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 5800 Hz Gain -7.5 dB Q 3.0
Filter 10: ON HS Fc 11000 Hz Gain -10.0 dB Q 0.71

I then tried Amir's EQ, which I found much better, but still was not there compared to my Sundara w/ Oratory harmon EQ (2020 pads).

Right now, I'm on @Maiky76 eq from post #41. This is the best so far. I still think the RTs are a little shy of the Sundara; they do not sound as full and smooth.

Any suggestions or pointers to other EQ filters?

Thanks!

P.S. I'm looking for a closed for when I need noise isolation.

 

[Phoney]

Just got these today.. Try searching "8D Tunes Trumpet Jazz". Really cool effects. Any of his other tracks will do too.

 

[Phoney]

I've found these settings to be perfect for me. Harman sounds a bit too sharp and fatigueing on these for me personally. I usually feel like Harman can be a bit sharper on closed backs, and I don't mind it too much with open backs. Not sure if anyone else feels the same. I gotta say, I'm not really hearing much bass with these headphones for some reason. Hopefully that will improve after a bit of use. But other than the lack of bass, they have everything that I wanted. They sound great! Maybe a bit boring without EQ, but they sound really good with it.

 

[Phoney]

After owning the RT for a month, I must say they are not bad. But there's one thing that doesn't make sense to me at all. By measurments, these headphones are supposed to be 3-4db louder than the Hifiman Arya in the bass, and 1-2db lower than the Denon AH-D7200. Yet, the bass can barely be heard, and I had to put a +7db low shelf filter just to have the bass levels sound like the Arya without eq! The Arya measures 5db below harman bass, on top of being an open back while the RT is closed.. I probably have to boost it by 10db or more (didn't try) to reach the bass levels of AH-D7200, which measures 1-2db louder in the bass. I'm not even boosting mids and highs by much, so they shouldn't be "drowning" the bass. A huge bass boost is okay as for home use with my powerful amplifier, but with Qudelix it's not going to work as well.. Also I'm not using glasses or have much beard/long hair anything like that. They were supposed to be my "on the go" headphones with Qudelix.

While these still sound good, the bass was one of the reasons that I invested the money in these and I never expected this to be the result. May the unit be defect? Dan Clark talks about burn in, and while I'm not sure I believe that, I still spent alot of time on these for a while now to test, and also to see if the pads adjusting to my head made a difference.. Not much difference I believe, and it's too late to return them now, because of time spent on seeing if they would improve over time. I live in Norway so sending them back for review would cost a lot of money. After these arrived and I noticed the low bass levels, a friend who has been studying audio engineering told me that Dan Clark closed backs have "very high acoustic impedance" and that this means "unless you get perfect sealing, you will not hear much bass". He told me this as a response to hearing about me buying them, and I never mentioned the low bass levels before he said that. Dan Clark has talked alot about the impact of how to using glasses with these, so maybe there's something to it? I also see people talk about different results in terms of how much bass they can actually hear.

Now I'm trying to make accusations or anything like that, I just want to hear some opinions on why this is happening. If the bass would be as I expected, then these would be really good headphones. I have no idea if this is about sealing or if they are defect.

 

[Jimbob54]

After owning the RT for a month, I must say they are not bad. But there's one thing that doesn't make sense to me at all. By measurments, these headphones are supposed to be 3-4db louder than the Hifiman Arya in the bass, and 1-2db lower than the Denon AH-D7200. Yet, the bass can barely be heard, and I had to put a +7db low shelf filter just to have the bass levels sound like the Arya without eq! The Arya measures 5db below harman bass, on top of being an open back while the RT is closed.. I probably have to boost it by 10db or more (didn't try) to reach the bass levels of AH-D7200, which measures 1-2db louder in the bass. I'm not even boosting mids and highs by much, so they shouldn't be "drowning" the bass. A huge bass boost is okay as for home use with my powerful amplifier, but with Qudelix it's not going to work as well.. Also I'm not using glasses or anything like that. They were supposed to be my "on the go" headphones with Qudelix.

While these still sound good, the bass was one of the reasons that I invested the money in these and I never expected this to be the result. May the unit be defect? Dan Clark talks about burn in, and while I'm not sure I believe that, I still used these alot for a while now to test, and also to see if the pads adjusting to my head made a difference.. And it's too late to return them now, after trying to see if they would improve over time. I live in Norway so sending them back for review would cost a lot of money. After these arrived and I noticed the low bass levels, a friend who has been studying audio engineering told me that Dan Clark closed backs have "very high acoustic impedance" and that this means "unless you get perfect sealing, you will not hear much bass". He told me this as a response to hearing about me buying them, and I never mentioned the low bass levels before he said that. Dan Clark has talked alot about the impact of how to using glasses with these, so maybe there's something to it? I also see people talk about different results in terms of how much bass they can actually hear.

Now I'm trying to make accusations or anything like that, I just want to hear some opinions on why this is happening. If the bass would be as I expected, then these would be really good headphones. I have no idea if this is about sealing or if they are defect.

How do you know you are playing the 3 different headphones at the same level when comparing?

(so if you are using Amir's measurements , they are with 425 hz playing at 94dB)

 

[Phoney]

How do you know you are playing the 3 different headphones at the same level when comparing?

(so if you are using Amir's measurements , they are with 425 hz playing at 94dB)

If the differences were smaller, then this could matter. If I didn't use an EQ, I would have to go way beyong reasonable listening levels to just hear a bit of bass.. While with the other ones, I can easily hear the bass at low listening level. A closed back that measures like this should not need a +8-10db bass boost to sound balanced, in any case. That kind of boost should make it sound completely unnatural. I have tried many headphones (including several closed backs and planars), and never before experienced something that sounds anything close to this far away from the measured frequency response in terms of bass. In all other cases the measured frequency response seems about right to me compared to how it sounds.

Now I do have a decibel metre that I could use to volume match if that's really necessary.

 

[Jimbob54]

If the differences were smaller, then this could matter. If I didn't use an EQ, I would have to go way beyong reasonable listening levels to just hear a bit of bass.. While with the other ones, I can easily hear the bass at low listening level. A closed back that measures like this should not need a +8-10db bass boost to sound balanced, in any case. I have tried many headphones (including several closed backs and planars), and never before experienced something that sounds anything close to this far away from the measured frequency response in terms of bass. In all other cases the measured frequency response seems about right to me compared to how it sounds.

Now I do have a decibel metre that I could use to volume match if that's really necessary.

Something ain't right then. What amp are you using?

 

[Phoney]

Something ain't right then. What amp are you using?

Topping A30 Pro with D30 Pro. I had Jotunheim 2 earlier aswell, same result.

 

[Jimbob54]

Topping A30 Pro with D30 Pro. I had Jotunheim 2 earlier aswell, same result.

Not lacking power either then. Amir hasnt measured the Denon but I agree with your take- The Aeons should have at least as good or better lower bass than the Arya (2021) based just on his results and Im sure if we dug through other measurement databases we would see a similar story.

 

[Jimbob54]

Topping A30 Pro with D30 Pro. I had Jotunheim 2 earlier aswell, same result.

Something of a puzzle. Stupid question time. Youve not had them shipped with multiple felt pad inserts in the cups have you? Tried with all felt inserts removed (short of having multiple in, shouldnt account for that little bass)

 

[Rayman30]

Topping A30 Pro with D30 Pro. I had Jotunheim 2 earlier aswell, same result.

I agree...

 

[Jimbob54]

I agree...

View attachment 190223

Turn the knob past 9 o clock ;-)

 

[Phoney]

Not lacking power either then. Amir hasnt measured the Denon but I agree with your take- The Aeons should have at least as good or better lower bass than the Arya (2021) based just on his results and Im sure if we dug through other measurement databases we would see a similar story.

Ortatory measured 7200 to be pretty much exactly at harman levels, which is 1-2 db above these. The denons feels like bass cannons in comparison, but they are freeedge drivers though if that matters. I actually have the Arya v2, which has not been measured, but I believe it's very close to the v1 which has even less bass than the Stealth version. Now I will say that I tried to lower the mids a bit and put a low shelf filter at 105hz with +5,5db, and another low shelf at 30hz with +2db which seems okay ish. Bass is now fine, but all frequencies at above 2000 are at this point around 3db below harman levels just to be able to crank up the volume enough for the highly boosted bass to "match" the rest of the mix and sound close to balanced.

 

[Rayman30]

Turn the knob past 9 o clock ;-)

Whaaat?!?!

 

[Robbo99999]

Turn the knob past 9 o clock ;-)

Channel matching?