Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2 Wireless Headphones Review

These headphones look nearly identical to their predecessor, the Shure AONIC 50 Wireless, but have an all-black color scheme. Their hinges curve to the back of the ear cups, which makes them look a bit unique, and the manufacturer's logo is placed in the center of the ear cup. They only come in one color variant: 'Black'.

The Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2 have a comfortable fit. They have plush padding on the ear cups and along the headband, so you can wear them for long periods of time without experiencing much fatigue. That said, the hinges are a bit stiff and can be annoying if you wear glasses since it can disrupt the seal. The ear cups aren't the deepest either, and this can be bothersome, particularly if you have large ears.

The Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2 have a good physical control scheme. They're found on the right ear cup, and the buttons have indents or embossments so you can differentiate them. They also have good tactility but can feel a bit mushy. Unfortunately, sliding the noise cancellation switch can be difficult, and you may need to hold down the ear cup just to toggle the switch. There are sounds to let you know when you play and pause audio, reach minimum and maximum volume, and when the headphones are turned on and off.

Power button:

• Double press: Checks the battery level.
• Press and hold: Powers the headphones on and off.
• Press and hold (when off): Activates Bluetooth pairing mode.

Center button:

• Single press: Plays and pauses audio.
• Double press: Skips the track forward.
• Triple press: Skips the track backward.
• Press and hold: Activates voice assistance.

Volume buttons:

• Single press the '+' button: Raises the volume.
• Single press the '-' button: Lowers the volume.

Three-level switch:

• Switch in the top position: Activates 'Environment' mode, which allows you to hear your surroundings without pausing your audio.
• Switch in the center position: Bypass noise control. This setting turns the ANC off.
• Switch in the bottom position: Turns the ANC on.

These headphones aren't the most portable. While the ear cups can swivel to lay flat, they don't fold inwards into a more compact form.

The carrying case is great. It's a lot smaller than the original generation's circular case. It's lightweight, sturdy, and made of faux leather. There's a zipper to help keep the case closed, and inside is a little pouch to store the cables.

The Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2 feel pretty well-built. They're mostly made of plastic and aluminum with faux leather padding. The included USB and analog cables feel of decent quality as well. Overall, the headphones feel sturdy, but the faux leather padding can deteriorate with long-term use.

They're decently stable. They won't fall off your head if you use them while listening to music or walking to work. However, they can easily fall off of your head if you try to wear them during tough workouts.

• Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2 headphones
• USB-C charging cable
• 1/8" TRRS to 1/4" TRS cable
• Carrying case
• Manuals

Using Bluetooth and with ANC on, these headphones have a somewhat excited sound. They have a lot of extra bass, so they deliver extra thump, punch, and a lot of boom to mixes. Vocals and instruments, in comparison, are bright but harsh, while sibilants like cymbals are piercing. Luckily, if you prefer a different sound, their companion software offers a parametric EQ and presets to help you fine-tune them to suit your tastes. That said, their sound changes slightly, depending on whether the ANC is on or off. With ANC off, there's a bit more bass to mixes, while vocals and instruments are slightly less bright.

These headphones also have a USB DAC mode and can be used via analog. Their sound doesn't really change when using either cable (and ANC is on), though.

The Shure AUONIC 50 Gen 2 have great frequency response consistency. If you have thick hair or wear glasses, you'll experience a slight drop in bass, as these features can disrupt the headphones' seal on your head. Once you get a good fit, positioning, and seal, you'll experience consistent audio delivery each time you use them.

These headphones have good bass accuracy. The response is mostly overemphasized, resulting in extra thump, rumble, punch, and warmth. They have a lot of extra high-bass, so mixes sound boomy and muddy.

Their mid accuracy is decent. The low-mid is fairly flat and even, resulting in present vocals and instruments. That said, there's a bump in the response from the mid to high-mid, causing vocals and instruments to be nudged forward in the mix and sound harsh.

The treble accuracy is passable. Like in the bass range, the response here is also overemphasized. This results in harsh vocals and instruments. In songs like Roxanne by The Police, sibilants like hi-hats throughout the track are also sharp and piercing.

The Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2's peaks and dips performance is satisfactory. A few prominent peaks and dips indicate that the headphones struggle to control their sound profile. A dip in the low-bass lessens thump and rumble, but a peak in the high-bass adds a lot more boom to the mix. While the frequency response is a lot more flat in the low-mid, there's a dip in this response, which means that the headphones have a hard time controlling this range, resulting in thinned-out vocals and instruments. A peak in the high-bass makes vocals and instruments sound more harsh, too, though a dip in the low-treble veils them slightly. A peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants even more harsh and piercing.

The imaging performance of these over-ears is outstanding. Across all the headphones from this manufacturer that we've tested, they've had solid imaging performance, which indicates the brand's quality control and ergonomics. Keep in mind that imaging varies across units, though. Our unit's L/R drivers are well-matched in group delay, resulting in tight bass and transparent imaging. These headphones are also well-matched in amplitude, frequency, and phase response, which is important for the accurate placement of objects like voices in the stereo image. While there's a large spike around 10Hz, which causes some fuzziness and static in audio, the headphones likely struggle to reproduce frequencies this low. It could also be the ANC raising the noise floor, but it won't be an issue with real-life usage since the affected frequency is so low.

The Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2's passive soundstage is disappointing, but that's pretty common for closed-back headphones. Their soundstage doesn't feel very open or spacious. That said, it still seems natural and large.

These headphones have three speaker modeling presets via their companion app, which are based on different kinds of audio genres. 'Music' makes the soundstage feel a bit wider and spaces out instruments like guitars and drums. 'Cinema' sounds more concentrated in the center and emphasizes mids more. That said, it seems wider than 'Music', and higher-pitched details have a wider presence. Finally, 'Podcast' pushes the center outward, so the mid-range takes up more space while the bass and treble are more recessed. It also seems like it adds reverb to the edges of the soundstage to create depth. We don't consider this a virtual soundstage feature since it applies DPS filters over all content, not transforming true surround signals into a virtual soundstage. Additionally, the performance of these features depends highly on the content you're listening to, as each track is mixed differently.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is great. All frequencies fall within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test the Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2. Our results are only valid when used with these settings.

When using the 'Max' ANC setting, the full range noise isolation performance of these over-ears is okay. While they can't compete with options like the Bose QuietComfort Headphones Wireless, especially when it comes to bass and mid-range noises, they're still a suitable choice if you're looking to cut down ambient chatter or high-pitched noise like the hum of AC units. Their companion app also offers a couple of different ANC levels to help you block out your preferred amount of sound.

These headphones have decent noise isolation performance in common scenarios. Thanks to their ANC and passively isolating fit, they're better at blocking out the roar of airplane engines and the sounds of a busy street than they are at attenuating against the sounds of a packed office.

If you're walking outdoors, there's a solid chance you'll encounter wind noise. It's unwanted sound produced by the ANC system; wind interacts with its microphones, so the ANC tries to cancel this sound out by playing anti-noise. However, this wind sound doesn't really reach your ear, so you're left with the piercing sound of anti-noise. Sadly, these headphones lack a wind reduction feature to help cut out this sound, so windy conditions will likely significantly impact ANC performance.

The Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2's leakage performance is decent. Leakage is spread out across the range, but it's a bit more prominent in the mid to treble range, causing escaping audio to sound a bit thin. However, it still falls below the noise floor of an average office, so if you want to listen to audio at high volumes, others around you won't hear it.

The integrated mic's recording quality is decent. Your voice sounds natural and easy to follow but lacks depth and body.

The mic's noise handling performance is mediocre. Unfortunately, even in moderately noisy environments, vocal quality takes a hit, so speech sounds muffled. Louder noise, like a train arriving at the station, results in the sound drowning out your voice.

The Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2's battery performance is outstanding. The manufacturer advertises that their battery lasts up to 45 hours continuously. While we measured under that at roughly 34 hours, battery life varies depending on use, including volume level and whether the ANC is on or not. You can use these over-ears while charging or even use them passively if you forget to turn them off.

The ShurePlus Play app is good, and you can see a video of it in action here. There's a parametric EQ and presets to help you customize your sound and a spatializer with four different settings ('None', 'Music', 'Cinema', and 'Podcast') to help you get a more immersive audio experience. For noise cancelling control, you can toggle this feature on, off, or activate their transparency mode, in addition to setting one of the following strengths: 'MaxAware', 'Max', 'Moderate', and 'Light'. You can even activate sidetone so that you can hear yourself during calls.

In addition to these controls, you can also adjust your USB mode between 'Communication' (16-bit/48kHz) and 'Hi-Res Listening' (32-bit/384kHz, but turns off the mic and other listening features). You can adjust multi-device pairing, change your prompts and tones, and access user guides.

You can use these headphones wired, whether by using their 1/8" TRS to 1/16" TRRS cable or via their USB-A to USB-C cable.

These headphones have very good Bluetooth connectivity. They support multi-device pairing, so you can stay connected with up to two devices simultaneously. They also support a wide range of codecs, including aptX Adaptive and LDAC. While their latency is very high across most aptX codecs and using LDAC, aptX Adaptive can dynamically adjust to your content, providing either higher-quality audio or lower latency. If you're aiming for a better sound, you'll experience high latency. It won't be very noticeable if you're only listening to audio. However, if you're streaming video, the codec will reduce audio lag. While latency is still a little high, lip sync issues are less prominent than when using other codecs. It's worth noting that some apps and devices compensate for latency.

The Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2 have full audio and mic compatibility with Bluetooth-enabled PCs and when using their USB cable. If you're using USB Audio, you can switch between two modes with different bit depths and sample rates: 'Communication' (16-bit/48kHz) and 'Hi-Res Listening' (32-bit/384kHz). While 'Hi-Res Listening' increases your bit depth and sample rate, this mode also turns off your mic, ANC, and spatializer. If you want to connect these headphones via analog, you'll only be able to receive audio.

These headphones can connect to your PlayStation console via wired USB with full audio and mic compatibility. That said, their analog connection will only passthrough audio, so you won't be able to use their mic.

You can only use these headphones on Xbox consoles via analog. You'll only be able to receive audio, though, as they can't passthrough mic audio.