Shure’s Aonic 40 review: These ANC headphones sound good as the best, but cut a lot

For $249, Shure’s Aonic 40 try to strike a balance. I’m just not quite sure they pull it off.

Shure is known for accurate professional-grade audio gear on the wired front, but made the push into wireless headphones last year with the $299 Aonic 50 which were very aggressively priced for the sound quality on offer. The Aonic 40 are $50 less and impress in lots of ways. The main difference between the two headphones is driver size, as denoted in the names. The Aonic 40 has 40mm drivers and the Aonic 50 has 50mm drivers. The Aonic 50 also supports aptX-Low Latency and Sony LDAC for the highest bitrate wireless audio available. The Aonic 40 only supports AAC, aptX, and aptX-HD above standard SBC.