Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 26
 TOTALLY AWESOME July 30, 2010
raybies (Australia)
Yeah... all in capitals.
I'm going to make this short and sweet; I am able to find fault in pretty much everything and over the years I have done my duty as a consumer and consumed a lot.
In all those years there have only been a handful of products that have really impressed me.
#1: Yamaha R1 (2003)
#2: Denon AH-D5000 (2010)
They sound amazingly good. I've had high end Senn's, Koss's, Sony's, Shure's and they're all kind of in the same park... the Denon's are in a league of their own.
The clarity is superb.
The base is in your body deep... they can make your jaw tingle.
And everything in between is fantastic.
They're not really closed (I can hear my cat snore with them on) but they're no really open either.
I've had no issue with the cable, it is thick though.
They're comfortable to wear for over 4hrs straight.
They sound awesome with Games, Movies and Music.
I recently bought some Shure SE530's, I would give the SE530's 2 stars vs 5 stars for the Denon's.
The bad:
1.- They're big. Too big to use with your head supported, eg: pillow, recliner.
2.- The packaging was cheap... maybe a good thing, but I was trying to find something negative to say.
Excellent but don't renders the large orchestra spatiality March 12, 2010
Giorgio PM (Texas, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Excellent for the price.
I am using with all kind of music, from hard rock to the most delicate Beethoven piano sonatas (only rap excluded) and I feel this headphone is a perfect compromise for all, even if doesn't render so much the large orchestra spatiality. However I didn't have the chance to compare to other same level headphones, so that is my personal feeling and I don't know if same level competitors are better or worse (some information about would be welcome).
Everything else is perfect.
Deep but precise basses, superb high frequencies: all the instruments are perfectly rendered (also the most little noises in the auditorium ...), using the headphone output of my A/V receiver (no dedicated headphone amplifier is necessary).
I used it also with an old (Panasonic top level) portable CD player and works fine (not as well with a mini MP3 player powered with only 1 AAA battery) so I feel all devices powered with 1.5 battery are not suitable to drive this headphone (you needed a 16ohm headphone)
Awesome March 10, 2010
J. Hicks (Atlanta, GA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'll let the audiophiles and hi-fi gurus speak the jargon. But as a consumer that spends liberally on entertainment; this was one of the most rewarding purchases I've ever made.
These headphones have more range than anything I've ever heard. Bass is so low you can feel it in your brain. High frequencies are crisp, and mids are not annoying like most audiophile favorites. It is like having a high-end sub, tweeter, and mid-range driver on your ear.
You can crank these louder than your head can handle it and they still won't peak or crackle. There has yet to be an audible frequency they won't play.
Compared to a Beats by Dre or Bose QC headset? I have both, and will say that music sounds muffled on those after listening through Denon's D5000 cans.
Headphone amp? These cans sound great with or without an amp. I did get an iBasso D10 to use as a DAC out of my Macbook, and the difference is quite noticeable with lossless audio. However, don't let anyone tell you that an amp is required.
Great buy. I don't think you can do any better under $500.
The End of an Odyssey? January 26, 2010
G. Davidson (Japan)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
These came at the end of my (relatively short) search for the perfect headphones. Aside from listening and reading reviews, I also own the Sennheiser HD-595, (my former favourite) and the AKG K240s, though I realise they are not really in the same league. Denon wasn't the first name that came to mind, but on hearing the closest competitor and potential upgrade to my 595's, the HD-650, I found that the latter coloured the music too much and is too dark. It's true, it's a sinuating, intoxicating darkness, but as my aim is for 'all round' listening, it lost out to the comparatively neutral, yet still very musical Denon.
With decent amping, these just can't be beaten in my view. For one thing, they are far from bass-shy, which makes them suitable for movie-watching as well as bass-filled music. Now, I fully realise that the world of higher-end headphones is biased towards a leaner, detailed sound, yet without warming said sound up, it seems that a lot of people fail to attain the audio nirvana promised by them, whatever their merits. Here I am thinking of the esteemed AKG K701, another potential upgrade, which apparently leaves those seeking a more musical sound cold.
Now for the non-comparative, some would say subjective part of the review. The first time I put these on, I was very pleased with the soft feel on my ears. This is something I could never get from inner-ear phones and hadn't felt with the other phones I'd tried. There is really no pressure on your head with these, due to the flexible design (note- be careful, as one ear came off it's screw when I listened to it too much lying down on a pillow and it needed repairs, thankfully within the warranty period, so the flexibility does seem to introduce a delicacy to it).
I listened to some jazz with it- full-bodied, with incredible clarity to each small sound, the pluck of strings, the hiss of snare drums. Voices also sounded very natural. I was impressed by the sound-stage and still am- it very accurately reflects the recording and can be absolutely huge. I was very pleased with the bass, going very low, almost subwoofer low, as I wanted headphones for late-night films as much as music. The bass impact is also very effective, which is unique among the phones I have. As I intended to listen to a wide variety of sources with the phones, these were essential considerations. Narrow sound-fielded, bright headphones are probably the worst thing to convey the gravitas of a good film. These continue to satisfy in that regard, though I find they need some amping to really tighten up the generous bass and keep it `fast'.
Then came the revelation that made me go for these. It was on music that, despite wanting to like usually hadn't gripped me- in this case, Handel's Water Music. There, in the cosy chair but in a large electronic store's headphone section (Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara, Tokyo, if you must know...), I was suddenly treated to a string quartet playing especially for me. They were there, the music existing all around me. Not just sounding nice or pretty, but physically present, and if I closed my eyes, I could practically see it.
The music was moving like water, flowing, ebbing, alive in the room with me. It had an organic quality, despite coming from a digital recording. I suppose such smoothness and warmth is why many prefer to go to back to analogue sources- yet here it was restored for me. I knew then that these are headphones with which I could not just hear the details in music, but actually feel it's presence. They can 'bring music to life'. Since I had previously only experienced this by listening to extremely expensive speaker set-ups, in sound treated rooms, I was sold. I had found not just a good headphone, but a revelation.
In terms of amping, I am currently using an Onkyo Wavio SE-U55SX USB dac/amp combo (I don't think it's exported outside of Japan, but it's based around their based around their esteemed SE-200 series of sound-cards) and with this they sound fantastic. I have to admit, better amping has made a huge difference and I am having an experience closer to that in the original store, which had some very specialised equipment, in fact costing a lot more than the phones plugged into them. So you could say that they 'scale well' to what is fed into them, always bringing a musical smoothness to the experience. Due to their low impedance, as I've heard from others, they are very sensitive, their sound differing greatly from one type of amping to another. One downside to this that the sound pressure quickly rises to a point at which it can be hard on the ears- I often find myself tuning down the volume even when it sounds really good, as the pressure is just too much.
They can be used unamped, in fact very usefully the default plug is for 3.5mm outputs, with a screw-on cap for 1/4" inch use and thanks to their low impedance, they can be plugged straight into an iPod if need be. It has to be said, they are not nearly as good like this and the bass can be relatively flabby, but they are still relatively full-bodied and detailed and have their trademark sound-stage. It may be a waste to use them this way, but it does give them a lot more 'ear-time' around the place. (This possibility is actually a must in all my headphone choices, as it ensures that not only can you just pick up and use them with any source, but less powerful amping is required for a fuller sound).
The cable itself is apparently one of the main advantages over the AHD-2000. It is certainly thick and seems to convey every nuance of the music. Seeing how many people get custom cables, I thought it wise to start out with a substantial one. It's also strong, flexible, long and conveys absolutely no micro-phonics. I'm not usually a 'cable guy', but having heard the difference between very cheap and half-decent ones, I realise that it does make a difference. Of course, with headphones created to a dac/amp, this can be the only cable in the entire chain, so it might as well be an exceptional one.
So are there other headphones for the price which are as good or even better? I'm sure there are, but to my mind none of the competition matches them in their price-range, perhaps this being an advantage of Denon's late entry to the 'boutique' headphone market. I also realise that since the time I got these (mid 2008), they have had their own upgrade, the AH-D7000, which is apparently even better, though costing around $300 more (as has Sennheiser released their incredibly high-end HD 800). For anyone choosing now, I suppose the lure of the AH-D7000 is there.
All in all a marvelous purchase, which has just given me more joy as the years go by with it. If you want audiophile satisfaction on a limited budget I'd say you can't go wrong. I am not the first person to prefer these to more famous competition. It's almost as if Denon consciously corrected the biases in other company's offerings, and in the process created a beauty that is more than the sum of it's parts.
Headphones to behold January 4, 2010
gpk (Forest Grove, OR, United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is difficult to add any new aspects to the long list of reviews already posted, but I'll try. Let it be stated beforehand that I only listen to classical music, mostly orchestral and choral, and that my aging ears still are able to receive a lot of the higher frequencies. I have the Sennheiser 595 and the AKG K 701, but find the former somewhat muddy, the latter analytical to the point of being cold and sterile. My favorite `phones for all genres are the Beyer DT 880. When I ordered the Denon AH-D5000, I had done some research and hoped for a noticeable improvement in definition and transients, where I find the Beyers lacking on occasion. The Denons came in their flimsy packaging, I was also not impressed by the cord that reminds me of olden-days appliance cords. Out of the box, they sounded fairly decent, but I did the usual breaking-in (connected them to a Sony CD player's headphones outlet and ran them for about 120 hours). When I gave them their first serious listen with some favorite Dvorak, Beethoven and Mahler, I was more than pleasantly impressed: the soundstage is deep, realistic, instrumental timbres are natural, dynamics and transients excellent. As opposed to some of my fellow reviewers, I did not find the bass overly pronounced: it is tight (listen to timpani and the double bass section when it comes to the fore), well defined and crisp, but not overwhelming. All in all, I consider the balance of the full orchestral spectrum near ideal. There are some minor quibbles with vocals, particularly the soprano register sounds a bit brittle and glassy, but I hope that after a more lengthy breaking in these will even out. Yes, the `phones are unforgiving as they pick up every edit in the recording, every stomping on the podium and assorted noises in the orchestra and audience. Yet they let you hear all this (it is in the recording, after all!) without unpleasantly spotlighting anything as the AKGs do in their quasi-microscopic acoustic ambience. These are headphones to behold, well worth their price.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 26
|
