Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2
The second-gen Aonic 50 headphones deliver more battery and a confident sound – at an equally confident asking price
There’s no shortage whatsoever for high-end, top-quality over-ear cans – a space in which Shure is vying for the crown with its secondgeneration Aonic 50. But given that these new over-ears are priced at a similar level to the Sony WH-1000XM5 or Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2, does Shure successfully stand apart?
A subtle new design feature of the Gen 2 Aonic 50 is the all-black finish. Personally we’d prefer a lick of silver or metallic flourish to give an additional point of interest; the all-black approach is more subdued than the headphones they replace. The left earcup houses the 3.5mm jack; however the USB-C port on the right earcup can also be designated for hi-res listening (up to 32-bit/384kHz), which goes to show just how studio high-res capable these cans are.
The battery has been beefed up, which is said to deliver 50% longer life per charge – up to a massive 45 hours per charge – so these are much longer-lasting than their predecessor.
In terms of comfort, we wore the Aonic 50 Gen 2 on and off for a week and we found them decent, given the soft earcups and headband, although the position of the earcups when worn has tended to push the headband further forward. They don’t feel like they’ll slip off, though.
The more we’ve used the Aonic 50 Gen 2, the more we’ve felt as though these over-ears are going to be best for those typically using headphones at home. They are premium studio headphones after all, with lots of format compatibility – aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, AAC, SBC, LDAC – and up to 32-bit/384kHz compatibility via USB-C, should you be listening from a laptop or similar.
With good quality source material, they deliver a confident sound that’s rich and engaging, without pushing too firmly on any one element of bass, mid or treble. And if you think the sound is a little lacking in life, then the ShurePlay app (for Android and iOS) comes with lots of EQ presets and even a highly adjustable manual control. That manual control allows for +/-10dB adjustments from 20Hz at the low-end, through to 20kHz at the high-end.
The Spatializer feature, also present in the app, uses an algorithm to assist with giving enhanced three-dimensionality to Music, Cinema and Podcast. It works nicely, spacing sounds apart to give the impression of a wider soundstage.
The reason we don’t think they’re ideal for outdoors use is because the active noisecancelling (ANC) technology isn’t as adept as the best-of-best on the market, while ANC – which uses external microphones in order to function – suffers pretty poorly from wind tear, even in not crazily windy situations.
All in all, the second-gen Aonic 50 are confident for a reason: Shure sure knows good sound and these over-ear headphones deliver that eloquently for at-home listening. They do cost a packet, though, so if you’re likely to be out and about and want to spend a tad less there are other obvious go-to alternatives.