Our favorite pairs of noise-cancelling headphones tend to be pricey. Shure’s over-ear Aonic 40 headphones aren’t inexpensive, but at $249, they cost around $100 less than many of our top picks. They deliver an accurate-leaning sound signature, and work with an excellent companion app that makes it possible to tune audio and active noise cancellation (ANC) to your liking. That said, the ANC adds a bit of hiss to the equation and slightly changes the sound signature, which isn’t ideal at this price. If noise cancellation is your top priority, we think it’s worth it to spring for the $329 Bose QuietComfort 45 headphones, which deliver the best ANC we’ve tested.
Intuitive Controls and Multiple Ways to Connect
The circumaural (over-ear) Aonic 40 headphones are available in two variations: black or white and tan. The generously cushioned earpads have faux-leather lining and the underside of the headband benefits from a similar amount of padding. An elegant twisting metallic piece connects the headband to the earcups, which feature the Shure logo on their outer panels. The headphones fit snugly and comfortably, but the headband can start to exert a bit too much pressure after long listening sessions.
Internally, dynamic drivers deliver a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz. The headphones are compatible with Bluetooth 5.0 and support the AAC, AptX, AptX HD, and SBC Bluetooth codecs. Support for the high-fidelity LDAC codec is missing, however.
A power and Bluetooth button sits on the left earcup, while the right earcup features the bulk of the controls, including plus and minus buttons for volume; a multifunction button for playback, call management, voice assistants, and track navigation; and a button for switching between ANC and environmental modes. The buttons are easy to memorize, locate, and operate. The right earcup also houses a USB-C port and a headphone jack.
The headphones ship with a handsome faux-leather zip-up case, a 3.5mm audio cable for passive listening, and a USB-C-to-USB-A charging cable. You can also use the USB cable for audio, which is a welcome addition.
Shure estimates the headphones can last roughly 25 hours on battery (with ANC on), but your results will vary based on your volume levels.
A Comprehensive Companion App
Aside from enabling you to update firmware, the ShurePlus Play app (available for Android and iOS) lets you customize the on-ear controls and toggle several settings. For example, you can switch into Conferencing mode (which emphasizes vocal clarity) or enable the Busy light function, both of which are useful when working from home. Beyond this, the app also includes Apple Music integration and user guides.
The best aspect of the app, however, is its customizable EQ with multiple presets, letting you make gain, bandwidth, and frequency adjustments. You may not know what all these parameters do just from reading their names, but it’s simple enough to experiment and figure out how they affect sound. You can even turn the EQ off for neutral listening.
You also get a fader for the Environment mode—you can dial it up so that you hear your surroundings over (most) music, or dial it back so that you only hear surrounding sounds when your music is at a low volume or paused. Additionally, the app lets you switch between Light, Normal, and Max ANC modes. Like the EQ, you can turn off both the ANC and Environmental modes.
Some ANC Drawbacks
The headphones dial back powerful, low-frequency rumble (like you hear on an airplane) dramatically. They cut back the lows and mids significantly when we played a recording of a busy restaurant with dishes clanging and boisterous conversation, but most of the highs made it past the circuitry and we noticed a faint, but audible, hiss in the mix.
Another problem is that, like the Apple AirPods Max, the ANC seemingly shifts in intensity depending on the environment and how you position your head. In testing, when I turned my head to the right while blasting deep, low-frequency noise from near-field monitors, I detected a change in the ANC. Other times, one ear seemed to get more ANC than the other. This effect can create a strange imbalance of pressure on the ear.
The mids and lows sound slightly altered when the ANC is engaged, too. The difference isn’t so blatant that it will bug everyone, but this shouldn’t happen with any ANC headphones, let alone a pair that costs more than $200.
Compared with the $330 Bose QuietComfort 45, Shure’s headphones simply aren’t as effective against mids and highs, nor are they as consistent. All ears are different, but I also felt significantly less in-ear pressure with the Bose headphones.
Accuracy First, But Very Tunable Sound
We turned off ANC for testing audio performance. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the headphones deliver strong low-frequency response that leans more toward accuracy. At top, unwise listening levels, the lows don’t distort, and at moderate levels, they sound full and rich. The lows match the higher frequencies well, too.
Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the sound signature. The drums on this track sound natural—they have some thump, but it’s subtle, and nowhere near the thunderous low-end we often hear from heavily bass-boosted offerings. Callahan’s baritone vocals benefit from additional low-mid richness, but the high-mids are slightly less present than we prefer. The headphones emphasize accuracy and clarity by default, but these drivers are capable of serious thunder or extra crispness via the EQ. For fun, we dialed the lower bands up to maximum levels, and the drivers didn’t distort while pushing some serious bass depth.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop receives enough high-mid presence for its attack to retain its punchiness in the mix, but as mentioned, we’re accustomed to hearing a bit more presence in the high-mids. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat come across with solid depth. Again, you can use the EQ to bulk up the lows or make the high-mids a bit crisper. The vocals on this track sound clean and clear, without much additional sibilance.
Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, sound natural. The headphones don’t overly boost the lower-register instrumentation, while the higher-register brass, strings, and vocals remain bright. The details on this track sound more crisp than on some of the pop and rock songs we listened to.
The mic array works well. We tested it with the Voice Memos app on an iPhone and had no trouble understanding every word we recorded. We didn’t noticed many Bluetooth audio artifacts either. Audio and video calls, whether over Wi-Fi or a strong mobile signal, shouldn’t be a problem.
Balanced Audio With a Few Noise-Cancellation Quirks
Shure’s Aonic 40 headphones offer strong, accuracy-focused audio, with a companion app that gives you plenty of flexibility to tune things to your liking. That said, their active noise cancellation, although effective, suffers from a few problems including hiss and a shift in effectiveness based on the position of your head. If you’re serious about ANC, the Editors’ Choice-winning Bose QuietComfort 45 ($329) and Sony WH-1000XM4 ($349.99) are worth the extra money. For less, Sennheiser’s $199.99 HD 450BT headphones can’t compete with our top picks from Bose and Sony, but offer greater ANC consistency than Shure for $50 less.
