Posted by Pros: One of cleanest design languages in the current IEM space
Comfortable shells for long sessions
Great unboxing and accessories – cable, tuning nozzles, vents, and eartips
Customization of sound is easy with the nozzles and vents
Overall sound signature is warm, musical and more for the joy and experience of listening to music than technicality chasing
Cons: Treble may be spicy on gold and silver nozzles
Details are not the priority with the black nozzles
Greedy wish but a dac and/or a better case would have been nice
The nozzles and vents are easily misplaced
Aune is a brand best known for its incredible planar headphones and an assortment of amps to drive them. Needless to say, they know their audio engineering. Thusly, when they decided to come out with a single DD IEM – IR300, the curiosity was piqued. When Audio Geek India listed this IEM as available for review, I jumped at the opportunity. I am grateful to AG India and Aune for sending this little gem over for review. Though as always, I shall speak my mind but your milage may vary.
The IEM turns up in a squarish no-nonsense box and within it we find the really pretty shells crafted out of shiny-shiny metal that promises to catch fingerprints. But it’s good-looking enough to want to clean as often. Under the foam is a box with the goodies. A nice, non-tangly, copper/rose gold coloured cable that matches the accented vent hole on the faceplate. The cable is modular with 3.5mm and 4.4mm terminations. There is a generous selection of tips, 3 narrow bore and 3 standard. They are the size of the Divinus/Eloit standard and narrow bore-ish. Aune has thoughtfully added some extra o-rings, for those of us who will at some point lose something. One of them is super delicate so beware. There’s also leather pouch to keep the shiny things safe. Overall, a nice set of accessories and happy unboxing experience. I would have liked a carry case, mostly because I’m greedy and other manufacturers have spoilt me thoroughly.
The IR300 has a single dynamic driver, and I have to say I’m enjoying these more and more. A well-tuned dynamic driver is a pleasure to listen and this one is no different. The IR300 has an impedance of 32 ohm and a sensitivity of 121 dB, and scales well with power and prefers it. It has a 10mm dynamic driver made of crystal-infused silicon-based material that does a good job of doing what it should as we shall see.
Now there are tuning nozzles. 3 of them. Black for relaxed, warm, bass forward; Rose gold for a neutral, balanced; and Silver for a treble forward presentation. To make things more fun in general and slightly more challenging for reviewers, there are 2 venting options – open and closed. And the more astute reader will remember 2 types of eartips. Which means 6 options for sure and 12 if you choose to stock tip roll.
In the interest of science, I spent a little time, first picking these tracks Lingus (Snarky Puppy), Fast Car (Tracy Chapman), Playing God (Polyphia), Human Nature (Michael Jackson), Angel (Massive Attack) and, Holler (Spice Girls), and then listening to them 6 times with each of the combinations of vent and nozzle and on my favored Velvet Standard. Here are the findings of this study.
Closed Vent
Black Nozzles : The Bass is tight and punchy. It feels controlled and lacks the lingering effect that sometimes makes the bass enjoyable, especially in sub-bass. Mids have a natural timbre and male vocals sound full. I felt the focus was not on detail but on a more relaxed presentation. The treble is completely rolled off with not a hint of harshness or sibilance. I also think that leads to female vocals seem recessed on some tracks. Cymbals similarly lack the shimmer and decay. The Stage seems really intimate with reasonably decent imaging.
Silver : The bass response is more or less similar to the black nozzles maybe a hair more controlled. The notes are still heard clearly with no muddle. The mids have more detail and vocals, both male and female, are pushed up to the centre of the sound. The treble shines on the silver nozzles. The music is more airy and has shimmer and better separation and while on most tracks there is an acceptable amount of sibilance, even for me, the entire rhythm programming of Holler was stressful after about 30 seconds. The treble can be challenging on some tracks, for sure.
Rose Gold : (matches with the vents and the cable so there’s a little bias towards these, maybe). This seems to be the best of both worlds. There is a moderate bass response, almost identical to the black nozzles. In the midrange, these nozzles behave like the silver ones with great separation, a natural timbre and very pleasing vocals, both male and female. The treble is certainly not as rolled off as the black, nor as bright as the silver. I survived almost half of Holler before I had to skip tracks.
The Open vents (the open ones but I can’t help myself) change the sound in 2 ways across all nozzles. The sub-bass and mid-bass have little more say in what is being heard with a more physical rumble and punch and decay as opposed to the closed vents. The stage, especially with the black nozzles widens and doesn’t feel as close (intimate can also be claustrophobic, just saying).
Personally, I like the Rose Gold with venting as my combination of choice. It seemed the best combination of mids and treble enhancement without sibilance and a nicer stage, separation and details than the black ones, which I thought would be my choice.
Also, I forgot to mention, these are incredibly comfortable and given what Aune has done with the tuning to be more focused on the music than on absolute technicalities, this is a potential long listen candidate. I would recommend this as a great set to enjoy music for hours.