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The new Shure Aonic 50’s are Shure’s first pair of ANC headphones… And even though the Shure Aonic 50’s definitely try to tick off all the right boxes from what you would expect from a pair of Premium ANC headphones in 2020… these headphones have a lot of room for improvement. And for me I gotta say these headphones are a hard pass.
Now first off there’s the matter of price… these headphones retail for $400 which is definitely going to open them up to more scrutiny from me. But still I wouldn’t recommend that you pick these headphones up even if they were on sale. Even though these headphones have a solid foundation to them, performance wise these headphones just aren’t cutting it.
Now if you’re looking for a pair of headphones to commute or travel with… then I would definitely pass on these headphones cause of their carrying case alone. Simply put, this carrying case is huge and I don’t think I've ever seen a case this big. This case dwarfs your average sized cases and it even dwarfs the Surface Headphones 2’s case. And I don’t know if Shure is in on the joke or not, but they actually included a carrying handle here. But its comically large size aside… this carrying case is actually fairly premium. This entire case has a soft touch feel to it which feels nice and inside there’s a net so that you can store your own cables. But again, if you’re looking for a pair of headphones to travel with for me these headphones are disqualified cause of this huge case.
But when it comes to the headphones themselves… build quality wise these headphones are decent. These headphones are very sturdy in the hand, when you extend this headband theres a subtle click for every step… there’s adequate padding underneath this head band… and the ear pads on these headphones are removable. Now they aren’t magnetically attached like some other headphones out there but instead you gotta twist them off. But like I said, over all the build quality on these headphones is decent, my only complaint that I do want to point out is that the leatherette on these headphones does feel a little rubbery. Its passable… but usually the leatherette on headphones in this price range is much softer with a delicate grain to it.
Now when it comes to fit… I gotta say these headphones are not big head approved. First off with these headphones I gotta extend their headband all the way out and these headphones also have a very firm fit to them. Now they don’t feel like they’re squeezing your head like the Beats Solo Pro do… but these headphones do have a firmer fit to them than the Surface headphones 2. And cause of the Aonic 50’s firmer fit I do gotta take them off every hour or so to take a break. So for those reasons I gotta say these headphones are not big head approved. Now the ear pads on these headphones are fairly spacious and they fit my ears okay… but my ears are a little cramped. So if you’re someone that has larger ears or ears that stick out a lot then you’ll definitely want to consider some other headphones out there with larger ear pads, like either the Sennheiser Momentum 3’s, B&W PX7’s or the Bose NC 700’s. But another thing that I do want to point out about these headphones is that since their ear cups have so much padding coming in contact with your skin… these earpads do like to heat up fairly quickly.
But now lets talk about tech specs… these headphones charge via a USB C port as they should. But more importantly you can use this USB C port as a wired connection which is a big deal cause most main stream ANC headphones don’t allow you to do this like the Sony 1000XM3’s or Bose NC 700’s. The only thing is that these headphones don’t come included with a USB C to USB C cable you’re going to have to use your own.
But these headphones do come included with a passable audio cable… but just keep in mind that these headphones are using a 2.5 millimeter audio jack instead of a 3.5 millimeter audio jack.
Now when it comes to the battery life on these headphones… these headphones have an advertised battery life of 20 hours. Which should get the job done, but a 20 hour battery life on headphones is a little below average cause we usually like to say a battery life of around 25 hours.
Now regarding bluetooth connectivity these headphones are using bluetooth 5.0 but more importantly these headphones can be connected to two devices at the same time so you can easily hot swap from one device to another which can be a big deal for some power users out there.
And when it comes to watching movies or videos on your phone these headphones have zero latency across the board whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device which is good. And when it comes to the audio Codecs on these headphones they’ve got AAC, APTX, APTX HD, APTX Low Latency, and even Sony’s LDAC.
But now talks about listening to music with these headphones. Now everything that im going to say about these headphones here on out is with their ANC turned off. Now first off, I gotta say these headphones get very loud. And I feel that anything past 90 percent volume is going to cause hearing damage. Now these headphones also have a companion app. And in that app you can select from a few pre made EQ’s or you can make your own. But these EQ adjustments are not loaded onto the Headphones themselves like with most other ANC headphones out there that have an adjustable EQ. These EQ adjustments are only going to take affect if you’re playing music through this app. And this app only plays music files that are loaded directly onto your device. So if you’re going to stream music through some other app like tidal, Spotify, Amazon Music HD or google play youre stuck with the stock EQ on these headphones. Now with their Stock EQ, these headphones are on the bright side. Mids are turned up so vocals are very pronounced and the highs are also fairly turned up. So sometimes the highs on these headphones can get a little ear piercing. And then there’s the bass on these headphones. The bass on these headphones has very little physicality to it. These headphones are not going to rattle your head and the bass on these headphones doesn’t resonate all that much. Now even though the bass on these headphones doesn’t have all that much physicality to… in some instances the bass on these headphones does bottom out even with their stock EQ. Now when these headphones bottom out its not as prevalent or as bad as the Surface Headphones 2… but you do hear a rattling that makes you go “what is that”, which I feel is unacceptable for a pair of $400 headphones. And if you were to go into these headphones app and select the Low Boost EQ then you’re going to hear that rattling even more. But bass aside, the instrument separation and soundstage on these headphones isn’t all that impressive either. These headphones sound a little narrow. So over all, these headphones sound average at best with fairly flat bass… and that bass is still fairly flat if you were to up the bass on these headphones using their app. And if you were to use these headphones with their ANC turned on then these headphones start to sound a little shallow as well.
Now when it comes to the active noise cancelation on these headphones… again im not impressed.Like I just said the ANC on these headphones does change how your music sounds… but also the ANC on these headphones doesn’t block out all that much noise. But so that you can see for yourself we’re going to jump into an ANC test. Now these headphones do have two ANC settings to chose from and im going to show you both.
So like you may have just seen… in their NORMAL ANC setting these headphones block out barely any noice at all. And even if you were to use these headphones in their MAX ANC setting… the Maximum ANC setting on these headphones is still bested by the $200 Sony WH-CH710N which can be routinely be found on sale for around $150. But also these headphones do have a considerable amount of cabin pressure to them if you’re not playing music through them or if you’re watching movies with them. Its not as bad as the Bose QC 35’s which do give me headaches, but it is up there and I do find it a little funny cause these headphones don’t block out all that much noise to merit this amount of cabin pressure. Cause for comparison sake you don’t feel any cabin pressure with the Sony WH-CH710N or Sennheiser HD 450BT’s which both block out a little more noise than these headphones… And then there are the Surface 2’s which block out way more noise with less cabin pressure.
But now lets switch over to the ambient mode on these headphones. Its a bit of a mix bagged. The good thing about this ambient mode is that it sounds very natural and there’s zero hissing in the back ground. But anything past 50 percent on these headphones is going to amplify everything around you. And these headphones let in everything. So thats why I don’t use the ambient mode on these headphones past 50%. But the problem with this ambient mode is that it picks up a lot of wind noise. Which is not great for commuters cause you’re going to get a lot of interference. But now I want to address the slider on these headphones that switches between ANC and Ambient mode. I absolutely hate this slider. When ever I just want to use these headphones normally with out their ANC or Ambient Mode turned on you gotta put this switch into the middle position. But I always constantly miss it always takes a few tries. But then there’s also the fact that this slider just feels very cheap, and that also goes for the media controls on these headphones.
But like I said at the beginning of this video… the Shure Aonic 50’s try to tick off all the right boxes for ANC headphones in 2020. But these headphones have a lot of room for improvement. Build quality wise, these headphones are decent but they aren’t Big Head Approved. But thats neither here nor there. What Shure really needs to do is that they have to shrink this case so these headphones can be a viable option for commuters or flyers. But performance wise these headphones need to get an adjustable EQ that actually gets loaded onto the headphones themselves so that your EQ settings follow you from app to app or even if you’re going to use them with a wired connection. But they also need to address the rattling on these headphones when the bass gets going. And I also can’t help that the instrument separation and soundstage on these headphones is just average. Then there’s the ANC on these headphones… the ANC on these headphones is lagging behind $200 ANC headphones that have been released in 2020. Namely the WH-CH710N and Sennheiser HD 450 BT’s. And finally there’s the ambient mode on these headphones. Although yeah it sounds good if you leave it at 50%… Shure needs to reposition the microphone array on these headphones so that they don’t pick up so much noise. So with all that being said, for me the Shure Aonic 50 are a hard pass.