Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 review

The Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 ($349) headphones are a set of premium cans from Shure, which has a long pedigree of crafting professional audio gear and microphones. With a range of features not usually found in studio headphones but now expected in premium everyday audio gear, the Aonic 50 Gen 2s are designed to bring Shure’s studio-quality sound to daily users. There’s improved (over the Gen 1) active noise cancellation (ANC), Bluetooth 5.0 and a smartphone app hosting a customizable EQ.

At $349, though, these headphones are competing with some of the best over-ear headphones around, like the Sony WH-1000XM5 ($279) and Bose QuietComfort Ultra ($379). The Aonic 50s definitely pack a punch in the audio department, with beautifully clean sound. However, as a day-to-day pair of noise canceling headphones, the Aonic 50 Gen 2s have too many flaws to warrant an easy recommendation.

Find out more in my full Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 review.

Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 review: Price & availability

The Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 headphones cost $349 at Amazon or Shure. This sets them against stiff competition in the premium arena, including the Bose QuietComfort Ultra ($379) and the catchily-named Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e ($279). 

Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 review: Design & comfort

The Aonic 50 Gen 2s feature a sleek, all black design that oozes quality. The earcups and headband are thickly padded with leatherette, which looks great and is comfortable for extended sessions. The earcup arms are aluminum and ratchet firmly in and out, while the arms swivel above the earcup with a very firm and confidence-inspiring mechanism.

All of the buttons and controls offer decent resistance and haptic feedback. While on your head, it’s difficult to adjust the earcups vertically with one hand, but that’s a minor grievance.

The Aonic 50 Gen 2s have no waterproof rating, so you’ll need to be careful taking these out in the rain, and you’ll want to avoid using them while working out to prevent sweat getting into the drivers and causing damage. This is not unusual in premium over-ear models — the AirPods Max ($549) and Bose QuietComfort Ultra, for example, are not waterproof, either.

The headphones come with a protective carrying case, a 2.5-3.5mm audio cable and a charging cable. Given Shure markets these headphones for wired use over USB-C, it would’ve been nice for the manufacturer to supply a USB-C to USB-C cable for wired playback on mobile devices, instead of just a USB-C to USB-A cable.

Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 review: Controls & app

The Aonic 50 Gen 2 onboard controls are super easy to use. There’s a power/Bluetooth button, playback controls which double as volume buttons, and an ANC/environmental slider.

 I often find myself fumbling around with more complicated layouts, like those on the Audeze Maxwell ($399) gaming headset, but with the Shure headphones I had no issue. There’s no wear detection, unlike with the Bose QuietComfort Ultra, and while there is an auto-shutoff feature, you must disconnect from the headphones completely for this to activate, requiring you to walk far enough away from them or manually disconnect (I drained the battery this way a couple of times after putting the headphones down and leaving the room).

The Shure Play app is free to download and provides a decent amount of control and extra functionality over the base headphones. It allows you to check battery level, adjust ANC strength or mode, and switch between different spatial modes (more on that later).

The app works over Bluetooth but also wired connections, according to Shure. The app only worked for me via Bluetooth, so when listening to lossless audio, even via USB-C, I had to switch to wireless and interrupt playback in order to access settings. This appears to be a technical issue, however, and we're in touch with Shure to find out why it might be happening.

Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 review: Audio performance

Shure claims the Aonic 50 Gen 2 headphones support up to 32-bit/384kHz wired playback, where you’re getting completely raw sound. This is even better than our favorite audiophile headphones, the Focal Bathys ($699) which support 24-bit/192kHz playback, and could make the Aonic 50 Gen 2s a great shout for studio users and audio purists.

While the Aonic 50 Gen 2s don’t utilize the very latest Bluetooth version 5.4, the version 5.0 used still enables a variety of enhanced codecs including Qualcomm aptX, aptX HD and Sony LDAC for high resolution and premium quality playback over Bluetooth. 

I began testing over Bluetooth, listening to some music on Spotify — one of the best music streaming services around. To kick off, I played “Graves” by Like Roses, and was impressed by the balance and fidelity of the sound. The song’s nostalgic riff and nasal pop punk vocals were super clean and distinct, while treble notes like the drummer’s high hats were crisp. Bass was resonant and distortion-free, without overwhelming the other elements of the track.

To put the 50mm dynamic drivers through their paces, I switched to the Bass Boost EQ preset for “Can’t Knock The Hustle” by Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige. The intro’s pounding heartbeat sound, followed by a thumping hip-hop bassline have ended car speakers for me in the past (twice), but the Aonic 50 Gen 2’s relayed the low frequencies perfectly with no distortion.

The Shure app also features a variety of other EQ presets. I used Treble Cut on “Next To You” by The Police, where Stewart Copeland’s high hats often punish my ears. The EQ made the song much more bearable without massively detracting from its balance. There’s also a custom EQ for you to fine tune sound to your liking.

I then tested lossless playback by listening to “Dreams (2004 Remaster)” by Fleetwood Mac from Napster, where every tiny detail was relayed faithfully through the drivers, down to the subtle echoes on Stevie Nicks’ voice that are so easily lost during compressed playback.

The Aonic 50 Gen 2s utilize Shure’s proprietary spatial audio algorithm, which can be switched to in the Shure Play app. I played Dolby Atmos content on Apple Music and Disney+, and while this felt a little more immersive with the Gen 2s in spatial mode, it wasn’t an impressive DA surround sound experience.

Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 review: Microphone

The Aonic 50 Gen 2’s microphone is, well, crappy. On calls, people would struggle to hear me, forcing me to use my phone’s microphone. I recorded voice clips of myself using my iPhone 15 Pro’s microphone, then the Aonic 50 Gen 2’s back-to-back. The iPhone’s recording was clear and deep, while the Shure’s was muffled, distorted and quiet. 

Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 review: ANC

In moderately noisy environments like the street or a busy office, the Aonic 50 Gen 2’s noise cancellation (at maximum) does a passable job, but I still found my listening experience interrupted regularly by external noises.

Put the headphones into a noisy environment like a train, where ANC is needed the most, and the Aonic 50 Gen 2s are out of their depth: they did very little to dampen the sound of the train engine on my commute, nor did they curtail the voices of people around me. The ANC was also particularly susceptible to the train’s bumpy ride and changes in pressure (like internal doors opening), causing a painful buffeting sound which forced me to turn ANC off or switch back to my AirPods Pro 2 ($249).

Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 review: Battery life

Shure rates the Aonic 50 Gen 2’s for up to 45 hours of battery life, which is similar to the 50-hour rating of the much cheaper Sennheiser Accentum headphones ($179). In testing, I used the headphones constantly for commuting, work and at home, using ANC where I could, for around 8-10 hours a day. I was able to get between 2 to 3 days from a single charge, which was good enough for my purposes.

The Aonic 50 Gen 2s feature rapid charging, meaning 15 minutes can net you 5 hours of battery life. I charged my headphones from a 45W USB-C adapter and boosted the battery from 80% to full in well under 20 minutes.

Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 review: Verdict

While the Shure Aonic 50 Gen 2 headphones have some fantastic qualities, they’re tricky to recommend for daily use, which unfortunately is what they’re designed for. Audio quality is excellent, with high fidelity sound that lives up to Shure’s studio heritage. If you’re an audiophile seeking a solid pair of over ear headphones for home, studio or office use, these could be a great bet.

However, you can get all the above from some of Shure’s cheaper studio headphones, and the Aonic 50 Gen 2s are intended to be a general purpose set of cans that’ll suit your commute and day-to-day life. If that’s what you need, look elsewhere. The creature comforts you should expect from a pair of everyday headphones costing $349 are seriously lacking in the Aonic 50 Gen 2s. There’s no wear detection, the ANC is poor and the mic is downright awful. As a pair of daily drivers, the Aonic 50 Gen 2s just don’t make much sense.