AONIC 50 Wireless Headphones - Black

As a 7-year user of Shure SRH-840s I thought that taking the plunge into wireless ANCs with Shure would make total sense, given that I found the Sonys and Bose ANCs rather un-natural sounding, and Shure's track record in the professional music industry.I was disappointed. For one main reason: these headphones have harsh unpleasant resonances at the high end. Namely at 3kHz but a couple more above that with practically dead spots in between. This makes the headphones extremely unpleasant to listen to with any track that has anything going on in the frequency range of those resonances. In fact I often found myself feeling like I was being stabbed in the skull with a 3kHz knife.With a precise EQ this could probably be somewhat tamed (and a little more bass extension added to the very tame sub-bass on these cans), but the EQ ONLY works when listening to LOCAL files within the Shure app.I also had some other issues that I will include in my summary:Pros:- Excellent build quality- Stylish design- Seemingly high quality built-in DAC- Reasonably comfortableCons:- Ear-piercing resonances at the high end make listening to some tracks unbearable- No EQ outside of in-app listening to local files- Carry case the size of 4 stacked dinner plates- Sub-par ANC compared to Sony and BoseI have just returned these and will instead buy a new pair of wired studio/audiophile headphones and accept that wireless ANC isn't ready yet. Honestly I think I'd rather have Bose's offering (or Sony's, but they had weird-sounding excessive bass to me).

I see one review that talks about an unpleasant resonance at around 3KHz which makes listening unbearable. I have to say I don’t have that experience at all. It sounds to me either a faulty set of headphones or an external EQ setting. The sound quality as I would expect from Shure is exceptional, I’d say. I used an IPhone XR running Spotify over BT for this review. I made sure all EQ was set flat (as I always do when testing new phones).The Aonic 50’s arrive in neat and nicely deSigned packaging - it shows off the product and the features really well and gives an indication of the quality of the product inside - you won’t be disappointed..As soon as you unbox the headphones you realise that everything about their design is Premium - the headphones have been well designed and look elegant whilst retaining a rugged build standard - the big 50mm drivers are evident but unlike many ANC headphones there is plenty of room, even for oversized ears in the soft pleather ear pieces - the headband is also made of a quality pleather material and the Shure logo has been imprinted on the underside of the metal headband. The outside of the earpieces are embossed with the Shure logo in silver too - discrete but noticeable - these headphones will attract glances.The included hard carry case is massive - it feels like you might have to check it in on a flight - there’s bags of room inside for accessories and for storing the headphones Whilst extended which is a good thing.Operating controls are on the right earcup. Connectivity was a breeze - these have USB 5.0 so connecting to iPhone and PC took seconds..The sound is terrific - it is a neutral footprint but the bass response is exquisitely well defined so it doesn’t feel lacking at all unless you really need to have a continuous high sub-bass signature - in which case these headphones aren’t for you... the midrange is detailed and allows for vocals and stringed instruments to flourish as they’re meant to - they feel close enough to touch at times whilst the treble is adjusted to be a touch on the warm side for ease of listening. I kept my EQ in neutral as the natural response of these headphones has been so beautifully tuned - these are headphones for musicians. Burn in is a mix of two things in my opinion - mechanical( phones) and psychological (user)- you have to burn in as well as the phones actually. After 20 hours Of listening the Aonic 50’s are only improving -these are ANC headphones for musicians if not audiophilesTracks which do well on these headphones - Tusk, Fleetwood Mac -you’ll hear a tuba on the track and in fact it’s fascinating to hear another few layers of detail in the song - it’s like almost having a microscope for sound...Anything from Ry Cooder’s library sounds fantastic - layers of delicate guitar interactions and intricate percussion work really well -the track slow dancing in a burning room By Joanne Shaw Taylor highlights how good vocals sound in these headphones too... most headphones work well for some genres but not in others, these haven’t struggled anywhere yet... they are by far the best sounding ANC headphones I’ve listened too so far.The ANC - well it’s good but it doesn’t stand up to the Bose NC700 - it Does well on low frequency noise mind you - but whereas the Bose fades voices, Tv sound and neighbour’s lawnmowers into the background the Aonic 50’s just reduce a bit.Connectivity is fantastic - so is the microphone so these headphones are fantastic for long webinars and conference calls - you’ll be heard when you speak, and not sound at all muffled.. another tick.Battery life is close to the advertised 20 hours - more than enough for me and with the USB C charging is quick and easy..Shure do provide an app with these phones but functionality is very limited - the included EQ Only functions for music that’s played back through the app ( it doesn’t do Spotify) and doesn’t affect the firmware.. it will handle firmware updates and allows you to select the level of environment noise that is let through in “Environment”mode. The app notes that switching through ANC modes should be done on the headphones..Things that aren’t so good about the Aonic 50’s (why they don’t get 5-stars): The music doesn’t pause automatically or reduce volume in “Environment mode”, so renders it pretty much useless. What were they thinking? A mic mute button would be really useful - allowing you to walk away from the PC to the window whilst being able to control the mic would have been a great addition. No firmware EQ - whilst I love these phones in neutral many people will need the ability to tweak the EQ to their preference - it’s a shame this hasn’t been implemented. Portability - a smaller travel case would have been useful and more practical rather than this huge container - yes, it’s a quality hard case but even when travel resumes I can’t see me hanging this off the back of a seat in the economy cabin, social distancing or not.All in all - the Shure Aonic 50’s are fantastic sounding beautifully built ANC headphones - but they aren’t perfect either given their premium cost. Buy them for their terrific sound quality and connectivity but not for ANC or for portability ( you’d have to buy another case)

The shure aonic 50 was launched in 2020 competing with a handful of super premium Bluetooth headphones like the B&O H9, Bowers and Wilkins PX7, Masters and Dynamic MW65 and most recently the Apple Airpods Max and Drop Panda have entered the fray. They recently dropped 40% from £380 to £220 so the question is are they now worth considering?Shure is a pro audio company founded in 1925 famously producing professional microphones that can be found all over the world. With the Aonic 50"s stated combo of studio quality sound and premium luxury materials, they straddle the professional and consumer audiophile markets but do they achieve that aim? And are they candidates for the most accurate and truthful sounding Bluetooth headphones in the world?Well we're going to need to go on a bit of a journey to understand the sound of the Shure Aonic 50 by considering them against icons from these 2 quite different sectors - the Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro professional studio monitor and the Sennheiser HD 600 consumer audiophile headphones. Recordings of how they sound against eachother are on my Amazon profile.In terms of sound the Shure is straddling these camps and more or less successfully incorporates sound characteristics from both - even though by their very nature the DT 990 and HD 600  are a bit like matter and anti matter in that certain characteristics can't coexist in the same place at the same time.The £115 DT 990 Pro's most obvious characteristic is its prominent and incredibly detailed treble. It is fast so not harsh or sibilant but it is just too bright ie it is too much in quantity. It puts treble under the magnifying glass and while not the most natural or realistic presentation is very resolving of details. It has a similarly fast bass with good quantity and speed or impact though not the resonant reverberance of a closed back. The other big characteristic is that the mids are recessed so vocalists are just too far back in the mix. Now if you've only listened to consumer grade before you may not notice this and they will just sound amazing. The open back design gives a good  soundstage width. Ironically with  the DT 990 you can feel a bit tethered due to the inertia of the weighty coiled cable.The £230 Sennheiser is almost completely the opposite. The treble is perfectly balanced. It is resolving and fast -- almost electrostatic fast - without being too much in quantity or analytical and picking apart the music. The bass is its main failing being fast but not extending very deep and being even less in quantity than the DT 990 and so on occasion (but not all the time) unsatisfying for genres that rely on deep or heavy bass like edm and rock. Now the mids are where the Senns shine having arguably one of the best representations of any headphone in the world up there with electrostatics and the most expensive dynamics. Clear natural and lifelike. I have turned my head listening to these thinking someone was in the room. Soundstage wise these are considered fairly narrow despite being about as open as you can get though this never really detracts from the music.Now at last we have the language to be able to consider the Shures. These have a punchy extended bass like the DT 990, natural mids like the HD 600, and a very resolving but not sibilant or harsh treble which is more present than the Sennheiser, perhaps unnaturally so, but comfortably below the sometimes ear piercing level of the DT 990. Bass extends to sub bass well in Hans Zimmer's "Why so serious" however while Samsung Adapt Sound shows them to be flat I sometimes felt they didn't quite deliver a satisfying amount of mid bass particularly when used wirelessly. Switching ANC on improves the bass noticeably and combined with a narrow deep bass boost via the Shure Play apps equaliser I could bring the mid bass to a good level however unfortunately the EQ only applies to music files played through the app and not streaming services. I could also get a satisfying bass response by driving them wired while powered on so while the Shure clearly has the potential to be a great sounding headphone the current implementation means it doesn't fully satisfy my tastes for my typical wireless streaming use case.Moving on to comfort, despite the very comfortable leather pads we can't get around their 334g weight and closed back design warming up one's ears. My medium sized head needed the headband extended to 7 of the 10 clicks so big heads beware. Like the old wired Shure SRH840 the headband is quite flat so creates a hot spot on the crown which for me was only made manageable by the support from the clamping force and over more extended listening sessions I found myself repositioning the headband from time to time.Note that these headphones don't fold in on themselves but the cups do fold flat which is fine for slipping into a rucksack or satchel but not a small bag.Considering features ANC boosts bass but also highlights the upper and lessens the lower tones in male voices so Sinatra's voice sounds a little more natural with ANC off. The ANC control is a slider with OFF rather unsatisfyingly at the mid point since while there is a bit of a click there it's very easy to slide past to one of the extreme positions of ambient or anc on. The slider may loosen up over time making this less of an issue however. The anc performance is on a par with the Soundcore Life Q30 but not class leading like the Sony WF-1000 XM3. It adds a little hiss but as we talked about also some much needed heft to the bass so my preference is to keep ANC turned on at least when used wirelessly.Unlike the other 2 of course, with the Shure, no amp or wires are needed and one can't undervalue the effect of that freedom on one's enjoyment of music.So in summary the Shure is like a more convenient but slightly less comfortable HD600 sharing that headphone's very natural mids but with some of the dt990s studio monitoring characteristics with bass extending down further to sub bass and a more analytical treble. Wirelessly at least it has less mid bass quantity and punch than either which while I found unsatisfying on occasions some may appreciate for not assaulting their senses - I personally like my senses assaulted now and again!In all aspects other than wireless mid bass level then the Shure really performs very well however whether its additional clarity, detail and premium materials make it preferable over much cheaper Bluetooth ANC offerings is something only you can decide.A good first attempt from Shure with some room for improvement in their next iteration.

This is a hard review to write mainly as Shure should be applauded for going against the grain on producing a pair of fairly neutral headphones. They are built very well have decent battery life and are fairly comfortable. They do have issues though and ultimately this is where they fail. First off you will notice they are in the largest round case ever this measures a full 25cm in diameter. Shure state this was chosen to enable users to store a DAP but this is seriously large. Secondly whilst these are large headphones and they are comfortable they do still tend to sit more on ear rather than over ear. The buttons are quite small and don't fall easily to hand. The volume jumps are quite big and its hard to get the sweet spot. They Noise Cancelling is pretty weak they don't blot out high frequencies at all other than passively and whilst they do an OK job of drowning out the Tube they are no match for the Jubilee line as it screeches along the noisy parts of the network. Thirdly, unless you have the Noise Cancelling on Max the other settings mean the sound is 25% quieter. The sound is good though there is bass which is well defined, the mids sound somewhat forward so vocals are crystal clear. The biggest issue is with the treble they are bright excessively so on occasions causing some tracks to be somewhat fatiguing.In conclusion its hard to see who would buy these. They are to big for travel and only have mediocre Noise Cancelling. They are better suited for home use but then again they can sound very bright and this is not tamed even when connected to an external DAC using the wired connection. If you do like a more forward and sometimes bright sound these will be for you although I suspect that will be a limited market. There are better cans out there. The Dali's if you want a more accurate bluetooth headphone or the PX7's if you want the best on the go sound with good Noise Cancelling. Meze Classic 99 for at home listening.

I bought them because I was looking for a new headset.I owned a Sennheiser PCX 550, which is good value, decent noise cancellation (NC).I tried the Sony WH-1000XM3, the NC is very good (the best so far for me), but unfortunately they get quite warm over the ears after a while; I had to return them.So I tried the Aonic 50; I had high expectation: I own a BT2 wireless headset; which I am very happy with.But the Aonic 50 - it just not great for me: heavier and clunky; but most of all: the NC is really subpar. I tried them when walking, and everytime I made a step, I could hear a thump in the headphones. Apparently the NC captured the shock of my feet. I returned them.I ended up getting the new PCX550 II, which is good value in the end, though the NC is not as good as the Sony's but at least I can wear them for many hours with discomfort.