MrSpeakers Aeon Flow Open Planar Magnetic Headphones

rojo

rojo

Audioholic Samurai
I've been curious to try a pair of open back over-ear headphones, as well as a pair of planar magnetics. To kill two birds with one stone, I just ordered a pair of the MrSpeakers Aeon Flow Open. Tyll Hertsens put them on the InnerFidelity Wall of Fame, and I've read audio snob forum threads elsewhere giving the impression that these are much more frequently liked than disliked. Given that Mr. Hertsens couldn't immediately say whether he preferred these or the 2x-the-price Focal Clears, I think that's a pretty compelling testament.

I plan to drive mine with a Fiio A5 attached to my mobile phone, listening to FLACs, MP3s, and SoundCloud. We'll see what happens in a few days.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
with Bose on that list, I am automatically very suspicious of such list.
 
rojo

rojo

Audioholic Samurai
with Bose on that list, I am automatically very suspicious of such list.
The Bose device on the list is a niche item which, as far as I'm aware, wouldn't have any direct competitors.

Anyway, although I disagree with his philosophies on boutique DACs and headphone amps, I still consider Tyll Hertsens wise in the ways of headphones. His opinion carries weight with me. His writings are where I first learned about head-related transfer function and Dr. Sean Olive's work with Harman International in researching their target response curve for headphones.
 
Last edited:
rojo

rojo

Audioholic Samurai




As follow are my initial impressions for the first night.

The Aeon Flow headphones ship with what MrSpeakrs calls a Distinctly Un-Magical (DUMMER) cable. I enjoy this. I endorse any effort to criticize snake oil cables, and these cables are otherwise pretty nice. They feature a spring-locking quick disconnect on a 4-pin BNC-ish connector on each can. They're fabric-wrapped, and they're highly pliable.

The headphones also include three different interchangeable acoustic filters with increasing amounts of sibilant-range treble damping: foam, thin felt with one notch, and thicker felt with two notches. The headphones are shipped with the medium damping one-notch felt filters pre-installed.

I listened to them straight out of the box with no break-in. They sounded pretty bad. Recessed top end, bloated midbass, and no sub bass to speak of. My first thought was, "I paid $800 for this?" The filters came out after about 15 seconds.

I kept listening with no filters installed. Even with no filter, there's a hump in the midbass that makes them sound boxy, like someone speaking with a sinus infection. Although there was a slight punch to percussive bass, I didn't hear any sub bass. Still, song after song, the top end opened up little by little. Around the 6th song I could hear why these headphones have earned praise for their natural sounding vocals. The midrange seems well tuned, and these headphones are articulate and unflinching with heavy, complex polyphony. However, the positive attributes weren't enough to distract me from the sinusitis.

I'd read several reports claiming that these headphones need dozens of hours of break-in before they really start to shine. I think it's more likely the ears that needed break-in, not the headphones. Still, I put aside my skepticism and played pink noise through them for about 4 hours while I went out with my family.

When I returned, I put them back on. They sounded pretty much the same as I remembered.

The people who rave about the virtues of these headphones tend to spend three and four figures on various tube amps of differing sonic character in the hopes of finding a mate whose crazy matches their headphones' crazy. All I have is my $100 Fiio A5. I tend to believe that an amp which changes the timbre of the thing it's driving is no longer just an amp, but also a signal processor.

Fine. I can process signals, too, but I'm not spending hundreds of dollars to do so. I enabled the obscene bass boost on my headphone amp, then used software EQ on my mobile phone source to squash the midbass. This gave me profound sub bass (maybe a tad too much?), punchy bass, and controlled midbass, all without detracting from the midrange or highs. I'm starting to get these headphones dialed in.

For what it's worth, I've started using an app called My Cloud Player. It's the only Android app I've found that will let me apply EQ to SoundCloud without my phone being rooted. For that feature alone I went ahead and paid to upgrade to the ad-free version. It also plays local media, and can scrobble last.fm. Cool.

Anyway, again I'm suspending disbelief and playing pink noise through them overnight. We'll see whether they sound any different tomorrow.

I really want to like these. They're outstandingly comfortable and I paid a small fortune for them.

More later.
 
tyhjaarpa

tyhjaarpa

Audioholic Field Marshall
I don't know why, but for me those headphones looks like something I would never buy. Hopefully you can find something to really like about them.
 
rojo

rojo

Audioholic Samurai
I don't know why, but for me those headphones looks like something I would never buy. Hopefully you can find something to really like about them.
Oh, I've already found plenty that I really like about them. They're pillow soft, deceptively lightweight, and easy to wear for extended times. With the right eq they sound fantastic. The thing I'm still waiting to happen, though, is excitement. You know, the sort of excitement you feel when you "Peace out, family. I'mma go play with my new toys. Don't bother me." I don't feel that about these headphones yet. And I still prefer the sound of my Parrot Zik 2.0 headphones, which can now be found for around $120. I don't yet feel like my purchase was an upgrade. I'll let you know when I get there, though.

They're still breaking in with pink noise. Maybe they'll have waken up by the time I give them another listen this evening? We'll see.
 
rojo

rojo

Audioholic Samurai
K, I'm starting to love them.

No, leaving pink noise playing on them overnight didn't help. With EQ off they still sound boxy. I ain't drinking that Kool-Aid.

I found Musicolet, a free Android app with minimal permissions that provides an EQ with customizable user presets, to play my local music files. I've got bass boost turned off on my Fiio A5, 20% bass boost in Musicolet for a firmer sub range, the mid bass hump dialed down, and 100% "surround sound" for Lord-knows-what. Started listening to John Williams - Greatest Hits 1969 - 1999 just to get a feel for how the Aeon Flow Opens handle orchestral. I really want to flip over to an Incognito album, or to check out The Doobie Brothers, or Daft Punk to dial in the sub range further, but I just can't bring myself to hit Stop on John Williams.

Oh, and now that I've got that midbass bloat dialed down, I've started playing with the filter inserts. I started noticing a ~10kHz buzz that the filters tame nicely. Right now I've got the foam filters installed.

There's some nice realism going on with the sound right now. I feel like I'm sitting about 3rd row of the concert hall.

And they're starting to feel like an upgrade to my Parrot cans. The Zik 2.0s still easily win for sub bass extension, but the Aeon Flow Opens offer a sense of space that I haven't experienced with my Ziks. The Flows are also more comfortable for extended listening. Now I need someone with a pair of Sennheiser HD6XX or AKG K7XX to bring them over to my house and we drink some beer and do some A-B comparisons.
 
Last edited:
rojo

rojo

Audioholic Samurai
Yep, I'm loving these headphones more and more.

So, my Pixel's headphone out is quirky. Like most other Android phones, the hardware sound interface does, er, something when the Virtualization feature is enabled by an app. On this particular phone, Virtualization doesn't really expand the stereo separation as one might expect, though. Instead, it changes the tonality. It's sort of like enabling "loudness" on the tone controls, but not exactly. Turning on Virtualization adds an extra octave or two to the bottom and top -- octaves that are inaudible regardless of the degree of smiley face even the widest 10-band EQ can offer. My old LG G2 never behaved this way that I can recall, nor did my even older Samsung Stratosphere, nor did my HTC Fuze nearly a decade ago. But on this Pixel, it's pretty much exactly the same tonal difference as switching from AM radio to FM.

I say all that to say, I might not have treated the Aeon Flows fairly when I first unboxed them. I formed my initial opinions based on my phone's AM radio tonality of not having Virtualization enabled. Now I'm eating crow, and it's not very palatable.

But at least I'm eating it while listening to some fantastic headphones. It used to be difficult for me to imagine any headphones sounding better than my Parrot Ziks. Now when I return to the Ziks they sound dull -- correct in tuning, impressive bass, and reasonably detailed, but claustrophobic and artificial. The openness and overall reproduction quality of the Aeon Flow headphones is more convincing. Plus, I find circumaural headphones more comfortable for extended listening than supra-aural.
 
tyhjaarpa

tyhjaarpa

Audioholic Field Marshall
Nice to hear you have been enjoying them. Would be really nice to try those headphones out some day but I think they are not available here.
 
rojo

rojo

Audioholic Samurai
Nice to hear you have been enjoying them. Would be really nice to try those headphones out some day but I think they are not available here.
Well, if you've got around €640 + shipping to burn (at today's exchange rate) Crutchfield has them and ships internationally. I bet if they failed the audition you could sell them on head-fi.org or similar pretty easily. There's one pair for sale on head-fi in Europe, but the seller is asking €800 for them. He must've bought them back in November when the Euro had less value against the Dollar. You might get them even cheaper when the US government goes through another shutdown at the end of next week. :)
 
tyhjaarpa

tyhjaarpa

Audioholic Field Marshall
Well, if you've got around €640 + shipping to burn (at today's exchange rate) Crutchfield has them and ships internationally. I bet if they failed the audition you could sell them on head-fi.org or similar pretty easily. There's one pair for sale on head-fi in Europe, but the seller is asking €800 for them. He must've bought them back in November when the Euro had less value against the Dollar. You might get them even cheaper when the US government goes through another shutdown at the end of next week. :)
I think 800€ is quite fair price in europe right now as you have to pay ~20% import charges depending on country you live in. But as I already own ~1000€ worth of headphones it is really hard to justify buying more right now.
 

Latest posts

newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top