What is most wonderfully rewarding about this audiophile hobby is arriving upon an unlikely and unexpected match of electronics through sheer sense of adventure and curiosity. This just happened when choosing a power cord upgrade for my Aune S17 pro and the SR7000 headphones. To be fair the original sound was good albeit a tad tinny and perhaps overly lean in some areas. It needed something to flesh things out, the overall outline was there and now just required some meat on the bones to really make it shine. The addition of an AQ Monsoon PC was a major step in the right direction. Still, not complete enough to satisfy my craving for that little bit of extra improvement , especially in the low end notes.
Along came the AQ Thunder , the big beefy braided version , surprisingly easier to manage and maneuver than the AQ Monsoon. Off to a good start. So , what would the music sound like though ?. As good as will be conceivably needed and reasonably considered either now or for a long time to come. Anymore and the joy might just be robbed from the whole musical experience. Somehow, the weighty bottom heavy nature of the AQ Thunder works perfectly with the often reserved and intrusively delicate side to the Aune combo. In effect, the AQ Thunder adds more presence and brio to the sound image , the soundstage is full and expansive, dynamics explode against a pitch dark background , even more layers are heard in any given track and the low end notes are all defined and presented like never before.
Safe to say , the AQ Thunder transformed the Aune headphone/amp combo and catapulted it onto another level of sonic performance.
