The first Aonic 50 from Shure couldn't really gain a foothold among the ANC specialists from Bose, Sennheiser, Sony & Co.; Now the successor Gen 2 should fix it. At 341 grams, it is one of the heavier over-ears, but sits comfortably under a sturdy metal frame thanks to the soft headband. The shells hang on unusually stiff hinges, so that on the one hand they hold their position when removed, but on the other hand they are difficult to screw into the transport case provided. The cushions offer enough depth for the ear, and at 44 millimeters wide, the Gen 2 sits more comfortably than the Sennheiser Momentum 4 (test) or the Sony WH-1000XM5 (test), thanks to the textile inner lining of the shell.
At first the Gen 2 sounds half-baked and untidy. It is advisable to switch off the equalizer and the 3D sound processor called Spatializer in the Shure app called PLAY (Download iOS/Download Android) and then listen through the equalizer presets in order to finally tinker with your own adjustment. What's unusual is that instead of changing sliders for fixed frequency ranges, you set four points whose frequency, width and strength you set. More than with other headphones, we wish there was an individual hearing test in the app that would make everything easier.
Once the Gen 2 plays the desired sound, it does so with precise, strong bass, with a differentiated stage and with tons of details. The spatializer aims to add more depth to the sound in the music, cinema and podcast stages, but to us it mostly seemed more muddled than improved.