Introduction

Aune is the global brand of a Chinese audio company founded in 2004 and is predominantly known for its desktop and portable class DACs and amplifiers. Indeed, the very first—and only, until today—Aune product we examined here before was a portable DAC/amp. But something interesting has been happening in China over the last 1–2 years, with a lot of brands seeing the rapid pace of development of headphones and IEMs, and deciding to get into the action. There are innumerous IEM brands on the market today, and we are seeing a similar trend happen with headphones too. We have seen debut headphones from the likes of FiiO and MOONDROP, with others adding to their portfolio using dynamic drivers, planar magnetic drivers, electrostatic drivers, and even ribbon drivers! Today we examine Aune’s entry to headphones with the AR5000, and pair it up with the recently released S17 Pro headphones amplifier too.

The Aune AR5000 is an open-back, over-ear dynamic driver set of headphones that tries to look and feel more premium than its price tag may suggest. It uses CNC-machined aluminium given a champagne gold plating to help achieve this goal and there is apparently enough novelty in the construction to warrant a utility and design patent application too. Inside is a new dynamic driver assembly, or so claimed by Aune anyway, which is quite easy to drive off even portable sources. Aune also highlights comfort of the AR5000 in addition to a rich, relaxed sound. While the AR5000 is the primary topic of this review, we will also go over the Aune S17 Pro Class A headphones amplifier that is arguably a star in its own right. Let’s thank Aune for providing review samples to TechPowerUp and begin with a look at the AR5000’s specifications in the table below.

Specifications

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