Agree with this. These are 13 ohms headphones , not all amps have enough current to drive this properly
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Dan Clark Audio AEON RT Review (closed headphone)
- Thread starter amirm
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I would imagine that almost however they are made the tracks on the planar film are probably bigger cross section and almost certainly shorter than voice coil wire in a dynamic driver, so inevitably much lower resistance.
My Verum 1s are under 10 ohms iirc.
Green: Amir's graph for Aeon Flow RT closed (white pad removed) - VituixCAD trace
Purple: DCA graph for Flow RT open (from Head-Fi; VituixCAD trace) compensated to Harman target. The bass trace seems a bit off on my part, but crucially, a lot more pinna gain in the Flow RT open and less wiggles. Whatever the case, it seems much easier to EQ as well. 1 filter centred at 180Hz, 1 at 6kHz, and perhaps bring 9k up a touch if group delay curve shows its okay.
Purple: DCA graph for Flow RT open (from Head-Fi; VituixCAD trace) compensated to Harman target. The bass trace seems a bit off on my part, but crucially, a lot more pinna gain in the Flow RT open and less wiggles. Whatever the case, it seems much easier to EQ as well. 1 filter centred at 180Hz, 1 at 6kHz, and perhaps bring 9k up a touch if group delay curve shows its okay.
Feelas
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The latter. Just look at the huge (down to an extreme of ~ -8dB), broad, low-Q (more audible than high-Q) scoop in the compensated frequency response around 2-5kHz:
That's just poor, especially at this price. The pinna gain region is one of the most important features of a headphone's frequency response to get right for accurate tonality, and this headphone gets it very wrong. This large deviation from the target is reflected in the mediocre 61/100 preference rating as seen above. There are many better headphones than this at much lower prices.
Well, that is actually not *that* problematic, unless there's some major trouble with EQ-ing the dip. I'm not saying that we shouldn't look at it, just mentioning that a proper driver can be EQ'd away and be done with. Yet, it's been discussed before - there's so big variation, that tracking one specific pinna response is, well, non-universal, even if incorrect.
And I guess, that for such price I'd expect the pinna to be properly bombarded with sound from an angle, not merely emulate the tonality, just my three cents. Here, we're looking at a problem which isn't only about tonality.
I was always wondering and afraid to ask, since (it seems) I'm kind of an electronics moron - what happens if there's not enough current - clipping, or what?
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No of course for safety reasons it wont be adviceable, but a ”Flea-watt” type of speaker amp may be very suitable?
Cheers!
LOL yes, agreed for a flea-watt amp.
And hearing damage if you push the amp to try to go loud. Some compression
Cheers!
Thanks for the review!
This makes me wonder even more about the higher end Dan Clark headphones (Ether Flow and Ether 2 above all else).
I understand price differs a lot and one is closed, the other is open (isolation is of no concern to me right now), but if you had to choose between eqed Aeon RT and eqed HD800s, which one would you go for?
This makes me wonder even more about the higher end Dan Clark headphones (Ether Flow and Ether 2 above all else).
I understand price differs a lot and one is closed, the other is open (isolation is of no concern to me right now), but if you had to choose between eqed Aeon RT and eqed HD800s, which one would you go for?
Thanks for the review, at last one deserved the praise. Does Topping A50s capable of driving these? I presume so 
infinitesymphony
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The ear's response in the sensitivity range of 2-5 KHz is unique to every individual because each person has a slightly different auditory canal, which effects the resulting resonance and peak sensitivity. I don't think it's possible to have a one-size-fits-all FR in this range, and then there's listener preference and experience to take into account.
I can handle Harman bass, but I find the target to be too high in the sensitivity range as well, based on the experiments I've done so far. TBD with a pair of headphones that has a closer match without EQ.
I think they are not comparing the open to the closed in that quote. They are comparing the Aeon Flow (open and closed, I assume.) to the Aeon RT.
solderdude
Grand Contributor
Yes, pure clipping.
randomusername
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I always tought that clipping should be very audible as grunge-like sound, but when I listen my aeons with portable amp they sounds loud, but somewhat anemic, with preceived bass roll-off. Like all sub-bass is gone. Athlough volume still not at max level and i dont hear any of that clipping-like distorsions. And i dont have this issues with my desktop amp, which is 2wpc. Is it still clipping? Or insuffucient current, as someone written above? Can you please explain math behind it or give link to explanations. I know about impedance matching and how to calculate amp power for particular headphones and loudness, but never heard about insufficient current.
weasels
Senior Member
Perfect, thanks! Looks like a decent interior size.
ClosDeLaRoche
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I went down a similar path, but tried the Aeon Closed and Open before settling on the CX. My one complaint about the CX are the thin flat pads and sharp treble with no filter pads. I run them with ZMF Universe Lambskin pads and the two-notch white filters and they are phenomenal even with no EQ.
My other favorite headphones are the Etymotic ER4SR with some mild EQ and the HD6XX also with mild EQ to give you an idea of what I like
Don't they come with a filter preinstalled? What's the "default" filter?
ClosDeLaRoche
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Sort of, they come with the black foam installed which doesn't do much. The other filters, in order of dampening strength, are the black felt, one-notch white felt and finally the two-notch white felt. I've been through them all and believe the two-notch white is best suited for the CX. I also like to take the pad off of the earcup and fit the felt right on top of the driver, then fit the pad back onto the earcup.
solderdude
Grand Contributor
An amplifier is both limited in voltage and current. Clipping behavior might be different from voltage clipping which is usually 'hard clipping'.
How an amplifier's current clipping behavior is depends on the circuit.
There is no such thing as impedance matching with headphones. However, an amplifier may not be suited to drive very low impedances.
Low bass roll-off can be caused by either 2 things: Broken seal (not amp dependent) and subbass roll-off when using low impedance headphones.
The AEON 13 Ohm qualifies. This can happen when the amplifier has an output capacitor in its path. This capacitor raises the output impedance for the lowest frequencies.
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