Shure is a brand that is well known for sound recording and audio equipment. With one of their strongest product lines being microphones. Here I review the Aonic 50, Shure’s over the ears, wireless, noise cancelling headphones.
Let’s jump into the review and see what the Aonic 50 is really made of.
Design
When you think of Shure, design isn’t really a consideration. Their devices are good to look at, but in my mind their focus is on being recording (or similar) equipment which is meant to fade away and put focus on the person using/holding the mic rather than the mic itself. Because of this, I am pleasantly surprised by the quality and design of the Aonic 50.
The headphones look beautiful, with a leather band, with lovely stitching, soft cushions that sit on your ears and lovely materials that give you the confidence that the Aonic 50 will last forever. Not saying they will, just that it feels like they will.
The headband flexes perfectly and has a good balance between stiffness and elasticity. The cousins are big enough to cover your ears, but soft enough to not flatten them.
Yes, the materials are plastic, but they feel good and the headphones are light thanks to it, I would say that was a smart choice.
The biggest problem with the design is that the headphones do not fold at all. Sure the ear cups swivel so that they fit a bit better and you can rest them on your kneck easily. But portability does take a hit. The case is huge! Almost the size of the nuraphone case, and that can be a problem for someone thinking of travelling small. My daily backpack can’t fit this case, which is a shame.
Features
The Aonic 50 has all the features you would need and expect from a modern pair of headphones.
You get 4 total buttons and one slider to interact with the Aonic 50.
The slider is at the top, which allows you to chose the level of “awareness” or “isolation” you want. Top means full awareness where the mics actually pump in a bit of external sound. Middle means no noise cancelation nor any any external sound being transmitted, the setting is essentially “off”. The bottom means isolation or noise canclleing.
For the awareness and isolation level, you can actually control all these from within the app (more on that below).
The buttons on the Aonic 50 are: volume up, volume down, and the middle button which allows you to do a bunch of tasks. Play/Pause, Skip, Rewind, Voice Assistant activation. Which are all located on the right headphone cup.
On the left headphone cup is the 2.5mm headphone jack attachment. No that was not a typo. It is infact a 2.5mm connector.
There are only really two elements you can adjust on the Aonic 50, the height of the headband and the tilt of the headphone cups. That is all you get and all you really need. The movement of both elements is great. The headband adjusts on the right and left sides with clicks, while the cups swivel smoothly and with the right amount of force, further driving the feel of quality.
The Shure Aionic 50 charges via USB-C, which in 2020 is expected, especially from premium products. Some manufacturers still don’t have this, so it is worth mentioning at least.
To customise and manage the Aonic 50 you can download the ShurePlus PLAY app which is an absolute must to get the most out of your headphones. The app allows you to manage all aspects of the headphones. This includes, as mentioned above, the isolation and awareness levels/sensitivity. You can also update the firmware of your headphones, this is Shure’s universal app for all their headphones.
The app also doubles as a music player, which Shure says will play most high quality audio formats on your phone.
The ShurePlus PLAY app is 70mb in size and gets updates once every month and a half. Both of which are acceptable.
You can also adjust the sound profile of your headphones via the equaliser settings. While this might be a great thing most of the time, it is a bit underwhelming, which nicely ties us into the next section… sound.
Sound
How does the Shure Aonic 50 sound?
The sound is actually pretty great. Shure really does know audio and they are showing that understanding with the Aonic 50.
It has good lows, mids and highs, which means a well balanced sound.
The sound stage is probably where the Aonic 50 misses the mark a bit, because while it does have a decently wide soundstage, it isn’t the best. When you have a drum hammering away, with a nice low bass guitar being plucked with a beautiful vocal duet being belted away, you are bound to miss some of the more subtle elements and some of these instruments might get overrun by the lead guitar. I am nitpicking here, but at this price point you should be too.
Building from this, if you use the app to customise the sound profile by using the equaliser, no matter how much you modify the changes don’t seem to make much of an effect. It’s almost like Shure is saying, we know how it should sound, but here is a toy that you can plan in this 15cmx15cm small square in the 1000 sqft audio playground. Ok maybe that analogy ran away from me a bit.
It is good that you can modify the headphones the way you can, just wish it was a bit extra.
Having said all this, If you are using these headphones for movies or games, you will be happy with the outcome and you will not be disappointed. For non audiophiles, the sound of these headphones will be perfect as well.
Couple of other points to keep in mind, when using the awareness mode, there is a strange hissing noise which can be a bit annoying for a while, but hopefully you aren’t using this mode for prolonged periods.
I also noticed a mild hissing noise while the Aonic 50 tries to connect to a device. But again this is a minor issue, but worth pointing out.
When it comes to the mic, I tested these headphones on a video call via Zoom and Google Meets on both a computer and phone. The mic picked up audio well with no lag, the people on the other end of the call were happy and said the audio quality was great. I take their word for it.
Fit and Comfort
Fit and Comfort, the true star of the Shure Aonic 50. Honestly, I don’t how to say it other than it was perfect.
I was easily able to wear the headphones for 5 hours straight, and sure at the end when I took them off, it felt lighter. But honestly, with no ear pain, no head pain, no feeling of compression, this is a huge win. Your head/neck is going to fatigue with any headphones, but with the Aonic 50 it was not a problem at all. At times I did find the headphones to be a bit hot, but maybe that’s just me 😉.
Btw, I was wearing glasses the entire time.
Battery and Connectivity
Shure says the Aonic 50 should last you 20 hours, reading that I scoffed and said “yeah right”.
Boy was I wrong, these headphones actually did hit the 20 hours mark for me, with the volume around 70-80% used with a computer, TV and phone at different points. The Aonic 50 was a battery champ.
Connecting, disconnecting, pairing, movie watching, gaming, video calls, etc, doing all of that and reaching 19 hours and it starting to show strain on the battery, for me that is 20 hours, dying just shy of 20 hours.
You can do through 2-3 days of office using this non-stop. After that plug it in and forget about it for a while, because the headphones do take a bit of time to charge up, for me that’s ok.
The connectivity aspects of the headphones is a bit of a mixed bag. The headphones once connected work amazing! They work from my tv all the way to the end of my house. Nobody should be using headphones like that. Which means, the connection is solid and steady.
What is a bit annoying is the device switching. The Aonic 50 comes with Bluetooth 5.0, and somehow can’t switch between my phone and laptop easily. More often I just turned off my phone’s bluetooth, connected the headphones to my laptop. That is annoying, I should simply be able to connect them to my laptop by hitting connect. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I haven’t had this much difficulty with other headphones.
Price
The Shure Aonic 50 is priced at a whopping AED 1,499. Might seem like a bit, but give it a listen and then you decide if that’s too much or not.
Verdict
If you haven’t ever considered Shure as a brand for your headphones, well maybe it’s time you give them a try.
The brilliant comfort, amazing battery life and very good sound makes it quite easy to recommend.
P.S. Don’t forget the size, make sure to factor that in before you buy.