Aune IR300 Review

Introduction

Having been an enthusiastic headphone user for many years now, I’m always interested in getting the chance to try new products.  Over the years I have owned a number of really impressive In Ear Monitors including the following:-

Ultimate Ears Triple Fi 10 - Balanced Armature

Shure E500 - Balanced Armature

Etymotic ER4P - Balanced Armature

1More Triple Driver - Hybrid Dynamic/Balanced Armature

KZ-PR2 HBB Planar Magnetic

In addition to these wired IEM’s I have also owned several Bluetooth IEM’s and currently use the Apple Airpods Pro 2 and Sony WF1000XM4’s on a regular basis

Physical Description 

The IR300’s are surprisingly small.  They’re completely made of metal and have a smooth, very high quality feel to them.  They certainly give the impression that they are built to last. They have a fairly wide bore (certainly when compared to the Etymotics for example) but still fit quite nicely both in the ear canal and the outer ear. Even though they are metal they’re still fairly light and stay in place without any problems.  The IR300’s come supplied with an excellent gold braided cable which comes with two adaptors - one for a standard 3.5mm stereo plug and the other for the larger 4.4mm balanced plug.  They use a standard 2-pin connector which means that you can use an assortment of different cables to suit your needs although the standard gold cable both feels and looks superb and should definitely meet your needs.

Although I would have liked to see a more portable friendly L-shaped plug on the cable I have to admit that the plug is very well made and connects well to the 4.4mm socket on my Xduoo tube amp (which doesn’t always connect nicely with some of the headphones in my collection). The IR300 comes supplied with a plethora of useful extras - three pairs of screw-in filters and two pairs of Chamber Tuning Modules.

Tuning

These two additions allow you to subtly change the sound character of the headphones. I personally much prefer this approach rather than resorting to changing EQ. Whilst in this digital age we live in, there’s nothing inherently wrong in using EQ, it can sometimes be a real pain in the neck having to remember to change this each time I use a different pair of headphones. There’s potentially 12-different sound permutations you can employ (excluding the possibility of removing both the filters and chamber tuning modules (which I haven’t tried but imagine would sound terrible).

The descriptions on the Aune website are accurate when it comes to sound changes these make. Having tried out a number of the supplied tips in order to get the best fit, I then experimented with all the possible combinations until I found the right sound character.  I settled on the black filters and the non-vented chambers. I've found that this combination produces a beautiful, rich sound without any hint of sibilance or harshness. The non-vented chamber offers a tighter bass which is more in line with my personal preference.

I love the idea of this ‘analogue’ approach to sound tuning - it kind of reminds me of the days when I used to tinker with my turntable - assisting spring tension on the shutdowns subchassis, making micro adjustments to the height and weight of the tonearm - all by ear alone - happy days. For me, one of the main advantages in ‘hardware-based EQ’ is that you don’t have to remember to change your settings on the playback device when you swap headphones.  Keep your EQ settings flat and make adjustments using the filters, tips and chamber tuning - utterly brilliant idea.

Sound Quality 

My sound source is my Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra - it’s kinda irrelevant these days with no headphone socket smartphones requiring a USB DAC/amp or Bluetooth connection. I usually use the excellent Neutron player for music stored on my SD card and YouTube Music for streaming.  For amplification I use the Fiio BTR7 Bluetooth DAC/Amp and the Xduoo Tube DAC/Amp - both of which are excellent and compliment the Aune IR300’s really well. These both feature 4.4mm balanced connectors although only the Fiio actually offers balanced output - the Xduoo only offers the connector for convenience. Both these amps can easily drive the IR300’s to very high levels without any problems.  It should be noted that the IR300’s sound good when played at lower volume levels and keep it together when played loud.

My musical tastes are reasonably varied - vintage rock artists like Rush, Pink Floyd, Queen and Yes but I also enjoy some of the more quieter classical string quartet, original soundtracks such as Gladiator, Apocalypto and Interstellar and female artists like Tori Amos, Sade, Tracey Chapman and Kate Bush.  The IR300’s played them all with no particular preference to a specific genre.  There’s a really nice ‘relaxed’ quality to everything - plenty of detail and a pretty flat response right across the board.  There’s certainly no sibilance present which is always something that can spoil my enjoyment of music. My preference regarding sound character has always veered towards a smoother sound resulting in something I can listen to for many hours. I still like to hear a lot of detail in the recordings but I also want to be able to relax whilst listening.  The IR300 is an IEM that I could literally wear for hours at a time without experiencing any discomfort. This is thanks to the excellent choice of tips supplied with this headphone - it’s very unlikely you’re not going to be able to find the right fit. The tips feature hypoallergenic coating which greatly helps reduce irritation - that’s something that I certainly find welcome as there’s not many tips out there that I really find comfortable.  Once you’ve got them in your ears they tend to stay put thanks to their small size and lightweight construction. I could happily wear these for many hours without discomfort.

Conclusion 

In case you haven’t guessed it yet - I really like the Aune IR300’s. As you can see from my introduction, I have owned an embarrassing amount of IEM’s over the years and these definitely deserve their place amongst the very best ones I’ve ever owned.  They have that magic combination of excellent sound quality, build-quality and comfort.  The added extras - tips, adapters, filters and sound chambers - combined with the excellent cable make the IR300’s excellent value for money.

The Aune IR300’s can be purchased from here:-

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G1S7B4Q6