Aune AR5000 Openback Headphones
May 9th, 2024I was going to post this to an audio forum but thought that some budget audiophiles out in Cryptogon land might be interested.
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I’ve had my Aune AR5000 openbacks for about a month and they are fantastic. Very detailed and impactful midrange. Ample bass. Treble is detailed and never unpleasant. I’m coming from DT770 80 ohm, so I’m still marveling at the larger soundstage on the AR5000. (These are my first openbacks.) Instruments are separated and floating in space around me now.
At only 28 ohms, you can drive these with anything.
I used to EQ the DT770 lows and highs down while boosting midrange, basically trying to turn them into a closed HD600. Don’t laugh, man, it worked for me.
I’m running the AR5000 with no EQ at all and they sound absolutely beautiful.
The build looks and feels premium. Very solid. No squeaks or rattles. The cable feels premium and is a commonly available dual 3.5mm setup if you want to change it, or run 4.4mm balanced.
With regard to the fit and comfort: I have a huge head. I wore DT770 with the forks all the way out. AR5000 fits my head easily with room to spare.
Clamp force feels perfect.
I do wish the pads/ear cups were a bit bigger, but if they are barely adequate for me, chances are they will be good for you. I haven’t seen any other reviewer complain about this, so it might just be me. I only notice it after long sessions.
I did start to want more room for my ears inside the pad. Any DT770 pads fit the AR5000. The most comfortable pads I’ve found are a generic memory foam protein leather replacement for DT770. The specs are: Material: protein leather & Memory foam, Outer diameter: 100mm, Inner size:50mm, Thickness:35mm. These are available on Amazon and Ebay. Cost is between $12 and $15. On the stock AR5000 pads, there is nothing between the pads and the drivers, so I cut away the thin mesh on the replacement pads.
I get a vague sense that the stock pads sound slightly better, maybe more detail. When I went to try and apply EQ with these replacement pads, I wound up just leaving it flat. If you try this and are scratching your head about what’s different, I’d consider slightly EQing down the 5K to 8K range between 1 and 3dB with the generic replacement pads I mentioned.
That’s it. I’m good for a long, long time. My guess is that the law of diminishing returns would kick in very hard from this point. I’m not going to say this is the end of my headphone journey, but it might be and that would be fine. I’m very happy to be able to say that at the $300 level and not some much more insane level.
I still use my DT770s when I require sound isolation. I live is a small house with my wife, her sewing machine and our four children, so the closed back DT770s definitely still have their place.
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