Shure AONIC 50 BK

8 month usage review

I wanted to test these in the field before giving my opinion and the headphones are well above and beyond my expectations so far.

Regarding my typical usage: I use the headphones at work in noisy labs, in an open-plan office with 4 other colleagues, and at night to sleep.

The battery duration is fantastic: The headphones last with a single charge for listening to music overnight (6-7 hours), then I am able to work 7-8 hours with a single charge.

The device switching is also great: I use it with my phone, 2 laptops and my Nintendo Switch often and there is very little delay when actively switching between devices. Sometimes my phone (iphone) tends to not release the bluetooth but that is more on the host end.

The build quality so far has been also great: As noted, I sleep with the headphones and after going through 4-5 pairs these are extremely comfortable, don't hurt my ears after extended use, and they have sustained a lot of overnight turning -- the only small detail is that the head foam faux leather started pealing off (as well as the sides of the earphones) after some time, so I just glued them with acrylate glue -- a bit nastly looking but my use case is quite rough.

Overall great headphones, very comfortable and the only thing that I really appreciate from headphones -- being able to swap out parts, is that the earpad replacements are a bit on the expensive side (~80 eur), but overall I think the headphones are a great purchase.

They sound really good but...

These headphones have great sound both bluetooth and wired. All the noise cancellation and environment mode work fine, just the strong noise cancellation feels really oppresive.

Just a side note, to connect these headphones via AUX seems to be only possible with the provided cable. If you use an alternative cable you seem to hear nothing at all except random noise. Long story short you HAVE to use THEIR cables to use AUX. I presume they have done a pinswap or similar. This is stupid.

Comfort-wise these headphones fall short for me. I might just have a big head, but these after about an hour these press the frame of my glasses into the side of my head making it really uncomfortable to use for longer periods of time. Without glasses you can wear them for longer but they still become uncomfortable across the headband bit after awhile.

They come with a "carrying" case but it is stupid, clunky and awkwardly sized. You probably will never use it.

The build quality is good, I find it unlikely I will accidentally snap the headband on these even without the carry case. The buttons are intuitive and easy to use.

Overall they sound great but could do with some comfort and convenience improvements

Great

All i wanted from my headphones

Some negatives I haven't seen anyone else write about.

Some negatives I whish I knew about before buying these:

When using these plugged in via either aux or usb while the noise reduction is on there is a lot of hum/noise. I contacted Shure about this and they say there is a shielding issue in the headphones (that they are aware of) and they recommend you to not use noise cancelling while it's plugged in...

They leak a lot of sound, almost like a pair of open back studio heaphones, so they are not so good for using in public.

The carrying case is gigantic.

I've only had them for a few months only indoors and already one of the speakers has stopped working, unless it's plugged in via Aux.

If you adjust them while they are on your head, the metal hinges can easily pinch and pull your hair.

Some positives: Comfortable, has gotten firmware updates that makes them better and better, kinda "flat" sound for being this type of noise cancelling bluetooth headphones, using them via usb and ASIO4ALL with my DAW I was able to get really low latency and the DA converters sounds fine, better than the sound card that's built into my laptop.

Sturdy and clear

Very Clear sound, no degenerate bass boost like with most of these things (except is you turn on noise canceling), ideal for all around listening, a day to day companion.

Very clear sound. Surprised bluetooth can be made to work so well. Comfortable to wear for long periods. Noise cancelling is also pretty good. Works with computer, phone, etc. These exceeded my expectation and are in daily use for my teaching.