Denon AH-D5000 Reference Headphones Review

My perspective is a bit different:

Let me preface this review with a few points that should add to the review's credibility:

1. I am a classical sound engineer primarily, but work exclusively in acoustic genres where audio fidelity and sonic accuracy are paramount.

2. I work in both balance engineering and mastering, where I am often required to perfect the spectral balance (in both dynamic and frequency) of the final mixdown.

3. For over 10 years I have used Bowers and Wilkins loudspeakers in various environments (anechoic and otherwise) in addition to custom EQ'd headphones for my work. B&W is widely believed to manufacture the finest loudspeakers in the world.

4. I regularly attend live classical music concerts, often in ideal seating locations, resulting in a great familiarity of how live music sounds.

I researched a number of headphone options before settling on the Denon AH-D5000. I was curious about the Ultrasone models from Germany, but was wary of a technology that supposedly "corrected" cross feed and phase issues often experienced with headphones. The Denon frequency response curve was generally smooth, and any corrections could be made with a high quality EQ within the DAW.

There are immediately two things that are apparent when you first hear the AH-D5000. They require extensive burn-in. I have been listening to these headphones for approximately 5 days now, attempting to leave as much signal in them overnight as possible. There has been a very apparent change in their sonic character as related to frequency response throughout this period. I can tell you that burn-in is a very real requirement for those of us in the music recording business. Loudspeakers often are very rigid when new, resulting in a limited frequency response and higher than normal distortion-giving you that characteristic "hard", new sound. Headphones present the same challenge, and these Denons require significant burn-in. What appears to be happening over time is a reduction of deviation from a flat frequency response, resulting in a smoother curve as time goes on. I would not be surprised if these phones need at least 300 to 400 hours before they are finally settled.

They are bass heavy, but the curve is very smooth and easily correctable, and again appears to be smoothing out with time.

I knew they were something extraordinary however when I listened to the dynamics. I have never heard dynamic range so clearly represented. More specifically, I have never heard so many poor compression jobs, recordings where the engineers applied too much compression, inconsistently, at both low and high levels. You will actually hear varying degrees of compression used in individual tracks within the mixdown-astounding. You will also be presented with a soundstage that reflects EXACTLY what was happening during the mixdown process. When every recording you audition has easily differentiated characters of depth, compression, spectral balance, and soundstage, you know you have something that exhibits an uncanny level of resolution. I have never heard music so ruthlessly resolved in my life. NO speaker has ever done this for me.

I have to comment on driving these headphones. While for average listening to pop music with little change in dynamic range, you might possibly get by with a mediocre soundcard upgrade, these headphones require real amplification if you want to experience aural nirvana. I have auditioned them with various lower end amplification, and the result is always the same-a hardening of sound during high level transients. This disappears completely with better amping. Additionally, and I have never experienced this before in a headphone, I plainly hear changes in the character of the sound, particularly in soundstage and dynamics, when switching some audio plugins in and out of the mixer that are designed to NOT change the character of the sound. Specifically I'm referring to final stage limiting plugins that are intended to be transparent. Again, to have this so plainly demonstrated is just astonishing, and Denon deserves tremendous credit for this design. I can only guess this is due to the unusually thin transducers used (micro-fiber construction).

These headphones are sending back to mixes I have already done. Suffice it to say that my golden ears have just received a tremendous boost.

Finally, the construction. The mahogany is beautiful, the magnesium finish is of the highest quality, yet the phones are unbelievably light and comfortable.

I HIGHLY recommend the Denon AH-D5000. The listener must be patient with these though, as with regular use it may take up to weeks to get them to settle into their true character.
Some further observations (Sun, 4 Jan 2009 20:55:54):

I have already mentioned the tremendous resolving power of these headphones. I would like to supplement on two points, amplification and general resolving ability.

It has become very apparent that these headphones demand the highest quality amplification. Wide spectrum music with tremendous dynamic range suffers terribly with anything but high quality power. You will immediately notice a "collapsing" soundstage and a reduction in the frequency response at the outer ends of the spectrum, with an earbleed quality pushing heavily around 3000hz. When auditioning, make sure you have clean, sufficient amplification.

I have researched a number a specifications for these headphones that clearly demonstrate their superiority. Particularly interesting are the impulse response graphs (available on the Headroom sight). These are some of the cleanest I have seen, and in comparison to other top end cans, are clearly superior. Headroom is overwhelmingly positive about these headphones, even alluding to the outstanding specs. No doubt these specs support my belief that these may be the most highly resolving headphones I have ever heard.

I'd like to add yet another observation. Tracking using a single mic vs. stereo mic during the mixing process is extremely obvious, particularly in multiple mic environments like those in symphonic recording. The monophonic tracks have a flat, airless, and overly focused quality to them in comparison to tracks that had the benefit of stereo microphones. Clearly this is something that Balance engineers will have to deal with as the mediums improve. Pop music engineers often use all their tracks in stereo, then adjust field and panning as necessary, resulting a very open, natural sound, granted sometimes to exaggeration. Classical engineers should really look into spot micing with pairs or stereo mics to really achieve a natural, open stereo sound. That said, all these characteristics are plainly obvious with these headphones.

For those of you interested, I have been researching and testing multiple EQ curves to get this headphone as spectrally accurate as possible. Please let me know if you would like these specs.

By the way, Denon has just released the ah-d7000, and by just about all accounts, it is substandard to the ah-d5000, yet almost twice the price. The preliminary specs show a more jagged frequency response with less extension on both ends, plus less accurate impulses. Get the ah-d5000 while you can.

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Denon AHD1001K On-Ear Headphones (Black) Review

I'm a little dismayed that some of the reviewers for this product said they think the Bose headphones are better. I've heard many of the Bose models (Triport, QC2/3) the Bose and I feel these are a far superior headphone.

First of all, these headphones actually do quite well when you connect them up to professional test equipment that measures how well the headphone is reproducing the frequency spectrum. They have an pretty ideal frequency response, strong in the bass, nice even midrange, and their only flaw is a slightly exaggerated upper mids and treble rendition. So the headphone on a whole is balanced very well tonally, you are hearing the pretty close to the right amount of bass, midrange and treble that the musician probably intended you to hear. They aren't really lacking in bass despite some reviewers' claim otherwise, and compared to some other headphones that are more expensive, they actually are pretty full bodied sounding. In comparison, the competition from Bose headphones have a pretty much exaggerated amount of bass that may initially actually sound more impressive, but are less faithful to the original intent of the recording. And Bose headphones have nothing on these puppies when it comes to the treble reproduction, these headphones convey the tizz of the high hats and the crash of the cymbals with more presence and realism. Of course, if you are the type of person who turns up the bass control on every device you use, then these headphones may fall short for your taste. I'm not going to say that these Denons are flawless by any means, but they seem to get it more right tonally, and aren't really lacking for any genre of music. Just like their more expensive siblings, the Denon AH-D1001 are "do it all" headphones for almost every type of music.

I bought these headphones to complement my collection of decent mid to higher end headphones (costing upwards of $400). You can say I'm a bit of a headphone fanatic. I own the Denon AH-D2000 which costs about 2-3 times as much, which I love a lot as my general use headphone, but I wanted something I could use at my workplace with less fear somebody may run off with my $300 headphones when I go on washroom break. I normally use high end In-Ear-Monitors but after a while I found them uncomfortable for really long term use. So based on my superb experience with the D2000, I wanted to get a set of these. They have excellent comfort, they don't clamp my head excessively. The padded headband puts even pressure across the top of my head. And they feel light. The cord is the right length for plugging into a device on my desk and it comes with an extension cord for home theater use on the couch. I like the little cloth carry pouch just to keep the headphone from getting tangled among my other gear in my laptop bag. They feel reasonably sturdy and are really straightforward to use. If you have big ears you may find that your ears may touch the inner surface of the earcup, so your mileage may vary in terms of fit. I have a HUGE head (7.75 hat size), and these fit me with room to spare.

How does it sound? I think the sound is excellent overall:
- clarity and detail is very good, comparable to anything I've heard under $150. You would directly compare these to the Bose Triports which are in the same price range (these are way less costly if you compare street prices)
- midrange is solid and not too forward, it works well for both female and male vocals. Again like the D2000, if all you listen to are vocals, there are better headphones, but these didn't disappoint me listening to my collection of female singers, Loreena McKennitt, Diana Krall, Dido, Carpenters, Amanda McBroom, Sarah McLachlan, etc. These headphones let me hear what I like best about their voices.
- everything from the mid-bass on up is well represented. Kick drums sound realistic with good punch and authority. Trance/Techno/Electronic music sounds punchy. These headphones can rock out when you want it to. I even had some "wow" moments listening to some of remixes of dance songs, the bass was ever present. I'd suggest that if you think these are bass light, if you actually live with for a while, they will sound more and more "right".
- Re: the imaging or "headstage": the placement of performers in the recording is precise and fairly spacious. You get a better sense of space compared to listening to earbuds, but not as good as some of the more expensive open headphones like the AKG K601. I'd rate these headphones as "adequate" if you don't like the "all the music in your head" feeling.
- The slightly elevated highs means this headphone can sound a bit forward if the music is recorded on the "bright" side. Madonna's Confessions on a Dance floor has to be one of thebrighter sounding recordings, and with these headphones, the highs were piercing. The headphones don't sound as edgy as a Grado SR80 for example, but you are aware of the highs when you listen to that recording.

The bad thing: although these are sealed headphones that should block out some noise, they barely block out any noise at all. They only block out 10dB of noise which means you hear the noise at half the intensity, which is not enough for reducing the noise of my noisy cubicle mates. There were a bunch of people talking near my cubicle yesterday, and I had wished I brought my IEMs with me, because they were still annoying until I really had the music on loud.

All in all, just get these, but be aware that these tend to be more "accurate" headphones rather than "wow, that's some impressive bass" headphones that Bose tend to produce. If you want clarity, detail and a balanced sound but with still a good solid bass foundation for any type of music, these are it for under $150 headphones. Of course, if you can afford it, move on up to higher end models from Denon, Sennheiser, AKG, Beyerdynamic or others if you are trying to put together a first class system. But I don't think you'll find a better rounded headphone for the price. For my standard disclaimer ---- Like all headphones, make sure you buy from a vendor that allows returns because everybody hears differently, and some headphones work better for some than others. But another great product from Denon.

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Product Description:
Denon is the company that invented digital recording over thirty years ago. They have led the audio world with leading edge technologies in audio and video sound reproduction. Now you they have taken that same attention to detail and put it into the design of an incredible series of headphones. The Denon AHD1001K On-Ear Headphones are designed to reproduce all of the nuances of the digital music you listen to. The microfiber diaphragm with acoustic optimizer provides superior sound quality from 8 to 37,000 Hz. High-quality, oxygen-free copper cabling ensures only the cleanest sound. This headphone also features an attached 5-foot cable and 11.5-foot extension cable.

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