Hello Head-fiers!
In this review, I will share my long-term impressions of Aune’s first attempt on In-Ear-Monitors :
The Jasper.
I would like to thank Aune for providing me a free sample, and giving me so much time for this review.
Let's start right away.
Aune (Wuhan AO LAI ER Technology Co. Ltd) is a company that has been making a name for itself in the industry for years after its establishment in 2004. They are especially known for their designs that are consistently above a certain quality, relatively few and elaborate.
However, Aune is widely known for its desktop DACs and amps rather than headphones. They have also produced portable players in the past (such as the M1 and M2 series), but they preferred to focus on the desktop by not continuing the line. Jasper, the product I will be reviewing in this article, is the company's first attempt at IEMs.
Readers who have been following IEM market for a while, probably know that we left behind a period in the past when IEM manufacturers tried to put as many balanced armature drivers as possible in their products, which in turn almost became a marketing tool and created a perception like "
the more drivers, the better the sound". At the peak of this period, which we may call as "
armature wars", the number of the balanced armature drivers placed in tiny IEM capsules by different manufacturers reached almost fifteen.
While this “race” was going on, meanwhile, companies like
Sennheiser, Hifiman, JVC etc. continued designing flagship models with proprietary single dynamic drivers.
In line with the fashion of the last few years, as IEMs with single dynamic drivers (produced with different technologies and materials) have been on the rise again, it is quite understandable that Aune joins with this new trend.
Jasper is the company’s first shot at the highly crowded In-Ear-Monitors market with
it’s proprietary 10 mm dynamic drivers.
Build Quality & Accessories
Jasper has a very good build quality with it’s price tag of $300, leaving a premium-like impression in hands.
Coming in two colour options,
black and shiny metallic grey, Jasper feels like a luxury headset when you pick it up. The housings are heavier than that of average IEMs.
The cable that comes with Jasper is thick, feels sturdy and has no obvious microphonic noise due to friction. It connects to the metal housings with
MMCX connectors. These connectors are neither too tight, too loose, nor too sensitive ; in this sense, I did not encounter any problems in plugging and unplugging.
However, the sad thing is that the phones only come with a simple / standard 3.5 mm cable and
no balanced cable (or adapter) is included in the box. At this price level, it is a minus point for Aune.
A rough guess would be that the Jasper was designed
compatible for on-the-go use. And right now as of the second half of 2022, regardless of their price, most of the digital audio players we have in the market come with balanced outputs for stronger amplification, and better sound.
Accordingly, the lack of balanced cable for a $300 IEM is a thing to be noted. I would have very much liked to see a 4.4 mm cable coming out of Jasper’s box.
In addition to the phones, the box contents consist of a very stylish and sturdy leather box with the Aune logo, 6 different sized ear tips, a soft microfibre cloth and a small brush for cleaning.
The accessories - especially the leather box - are of high quality, but the richness is less impressive than the overall quality of the phones and the $300 price etiquette. Many other brands in this price range offer richer accessory packs with their products.
Otherwise, Jasper fits well in the ear and provides good passive isolation when the appropriate tips are selected. It may be useful to try different tips other than the one provided in the package; as it is possible to further improve passive isolation by trying different brands of tips that can better adapt to your ear canal structure.
Sources Used For Review
For reviewing Jasper, I used sources of varying quality and sound character to reach an average concerning Jasper's overall performance, including two smartphones (Xiaomi and Samsung), the Aune M1S as an entry-level player, the Sony WM1A as a mid/mid-high-end player, and the JDS Labs OL DAC + Objective2 combo as a desktop source.
Besides, as recordings, I used a variety of different musics from different genres with different formates, ranging from old vinyl recordings to recent digital ones, from high quality DSD to highly compressed 128 kbps mp3 files.
Sound Signature
The Jasper has a sound character that is not exactly reference or neutral, yet it is quite
balanced. The bass is slightly above what can be called as neutral, adding a slight warmth to the sound, but the
Jasper is by no means a bass-head IEM.
During casual listening, no frequencies in the music recording jumps at you like "HEY I’M HERE", and the bass-mid-treble balance in Jasper’s presentation is very neatly balanced with no apparent sharp edges.
Accordingly with that, it is possible to listen to Jasper for some long periods of time without getting a headache, thanks to it’s relative smoothness in sound.
Jasper has a clear, slightly warm, and a forward sound in a balanced way.
On the other hand, although Jasper can resolve a good level of detail in recordings for its price range, it does not have a sterile and detail-oriented presentation that we can call analytical, and as far as I can see, Aune engineers primarily aimed to design a "balanced" headphone that presents instruments with realistic texture and timbre as well as satisfactory resolution rather than a headphone that focuses on very high technical prowess.
And for a first attempt of the company at IEMs, I should say that the tonality of Jasper is an apparent success.
Kudos to Aune on that.
Bass
As I mentioned, the bass intensity of the Jasper is slightly above neutral and this intensity is more pronounced as mid-bass. However, this slight bass emphasis does not cause any leaking into the mids, and is free from muddying them.
The
10 mm Multi-Gradation Diaphragm dynamic driver used in Jasper has a good bass extension, you can hear the sub-bass in the recordings; but Jasper does not have a sub-bass emphasis that you can see in some recent IEMs (such as Fiio FH5 or Sony IER-Z1R) that have become increasingly popular recently.
(On a personal note, I find a slight bass emphasis positive, sometimes even necessary, for many portable and easy-to-drive headphones for a reason :
Among the frequencies transmitted to our ears by the phones we use outside, the biggest loss in sensitivity due to external noise takes place at low frequencies. This is why, for example, when we use headphones (without active noise cancelling circuits) in public transport, we generally end up hearing a sound that is often shy on bass, consisting only of mids and treble. With a slight bass emphasis on the other hand, it is possible to get a slightly more balanced sound, even with the existence of some external noise).
Jasper's bass has the body you'd expect from a 10 mm diameter dynamic driver. For example, bass drums sound quite powerful and deep. But unfortunately, the bass detail and texture are on average levels. This is also due to Jasper’s bass signature being closer to a full / blooming bass rather than a fast one in general terms.
Midrange
Jasper's mids have a pleasing tonality, are clear and slightly warm, blending in well with it’s overall sound character. However, this clarity is not in your face like some IEMs with balanced armature drivers and analytical presentation.
Resolution and detail level are again good for its price range.
Since the stage is positioned at the front and has limited depth, instruments play close to you like a Grado-like presentation ; and although Jasper has a balanced frequency response, more often than not,
this intimate positioning of instruments put the midrange at the center of the show.
In my personal opinion, Jasper's most prominent prowess also lies in these frequencies, as the instrument timbre sounds natural and organic with Jasper, punching above it’s class.
Pianos are clear and natural; guitars have good texture and dynamics. Vocals are generally good for both male and female vocals.
Only on some tracks (and partly at high volume), depending on the recording, there can occur a slight shoutiness in the vocals. Apart from this partial problem, Jasper's midrange performance is very good.
Treble
Jasper's performance at these frequencies is also good for its class.
Treble is revealing, dynamic and at the same time smooth, not splashy, dull or too aggressive, clean and with good detail for it’s price point. Since Jasper doesn’t have a detail-oriented analytical presentation, the flaws on mediocre quality recordings or lossy compression formats (e.g. mp3) are not directly presented in your face.
Jasper offers a certain sonic dynamism in the upper frequencies, but they are not fatiguing. Aune has again done a good job here in tuning.
In addition, unlike many single-dynamic driver IEMs, there is no
apparent treble roll-off here. However, Jasper's treble does not have the general extension potential of hybrid IEMs or ones with balanced armature drivers.
As a shortcoming, the slight drop in the upper treble is reflected in the reduced airiness of the highs, so Jasper is not the best IEM in the world at projecting the space between instruments in a studio recording, for example; its ability to resolve
ambient detail is limited.
Apart from that, I didn't notice any obvious deficiency in the high frequencies that I can say "actually, this could’ve been better", the company had obviously put a lot of effort to produce a balanced, consistent sound with Jasper that can appeal to many listeners.
A Friendly reminder : Burn-In Needed
I must say that I was a bit disappointed with Jasper on the first listen, especially in the high frequencies, as it sounded dull / overly smoothened, therefore lacking in detail and dynamism. The cymbals and distorted electric guitars in rock songs sounded off.
Afterwards, I left it to burn-in at intervals over a long period of time without listening (in order not to get used to its sound), and I started observing the sound being opened up, gaining dynamism and “bite” in high frequencies finally finding it’s tone.
In this sense, I’d like to make a reminder to those wishing to buy Jasper to lay them in burn-in, as it seems to need it to show it’s potential.
Soundstaging and Instrument Placement
This is one area where the Jasper is without a strong claim.
In fact, Jasper has an
average IEM soundstage. It is quite wide, but due to the close placement of the stage, the depth is not spectacular, and does not extend much further back.
The placement of the instruments is good, Jasper clearly communicates the positional cues to the listener, which allows us to easily perceive the location of the instruments.
On the other hand, the relatively limited treble extension capability of Jasper creates an average airiness in the stage. In short, creating sense of space is not Jasper's forte.
Therefore, Jasper has a presentation that neither offers a gigantic stage nor compresses the instruments into a narrow space making you feel claustrophobic. In this respect, while it is ideal for pop / rock or jazz music (and to some extent concert recordings), it is not the best choice for orchestral classical music recordings that already challenge many IEMs in terms of staging.
It is not by any means a flaw, but rather a point for further improvement in Aune’s possible future high-end IEM models.
Driveability / Source Matching
Jasper has a conventional impedance of 32 ohms and a sensitivity of 102 decibels. These two numbers tell us that the current generated by any source, including smartphones, will be sufficient to drive these phones.
However, I should point out that although Jasper is not an IEM with analytical sound character, it responds well to the quality of the source you use with the level of resolution it offers.
In order to observe this, I connected Jasper to different sources (as I mentioned above) and saw that Jasper easily reflects the difference in sound performance between these devices. In this sense, although Jasper is an IEM that can produce satisfactory sound in many respects even from a mobile phone, it might be better to pair it with a good source to get more of it’s potential.
In terms of synergy, Jasper is an IEM that can match well with both analytical and warm sounding players / systems, especially thanks to its balanced frequency response that avoids extremes.
However, considering the fact that Jasper has forward mids, it might be better to match it with a source that has a little laid-back mids to gain a bit more depth in staging.
So who is the Aune Jasper For?
Firstly, Jasper is not an IEM for those looking for an analytical presentation or a soundstage larger than average IEM stage.
On the other hand, Jasper will also not satisfy those looking for a bass-head IEM.
In addition, Jasper only comes with a 3.5 mm cable, which will leave those who want to use the balanced output of their player / amp in search of a balanced cable.
For the majority of listeners other than these situations, Jasper can be a good choice with its high build quality with it’s detail level that can be considered successful for its class, balanced frequency performance and very pleasing tonality.
It can be said that Jasper is a great first shot at the IEM market, and hope Aune will continue to improve it even further in the future with new designs.
