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Old Friends
I've been listening to this fine lineup of Denon headphones for a long, long time. They've always struck me as really good, and a bit weird sounding...loose-ish or something. But yummy and lush, too! I've got a personal pair of D5000 and I like them a lot.

I discovered some new stuff in the current Dx000 models as I wrote this review and I'm excited to tell you it's all good news. But to tell the story properly we must cover some basic information first.

Mechanical Description
The overall design of…

Making Good Better
This review took me far too long to write. I've had a personal pair of D5000s for years now, and am very familiar with all the cans in the line. When I decided to do this review, rather than bugging HeadRoom to borrow their sales demo units for an extended period of time, I called Denon to acquire some current samples. Boy, am I glad I did, but it was disorienting for a while.

First, I unboxed the three headphones and stuck them on my burn-in station for a week or so. Once I figured they'd cooked long enough, I sat down for a preliminary listen. They…

Historically, the Dx000 have been lush and slightly loose sounding headphones. This latest batch tightens things up a bit and sound a bit more neutral, though they do retain quite a bit of their characteristic warm, organic sound.

The AH-D2000 is somewhat thin and analytical compared with its more expensive siblings. Voices are a bit dryer sounding, not having quite the body and intimacy, and they sound a bit more distant than the other two. I also hear a bit of grain in the sound. Compared with the AKG K550 (a headphone of similar price and type) I find the D2000 to be more…

What Makes a Good Headphone?
In a recent article Steve Guttenberg said:

I'm afraid this is more true than most audiophiles would like to admit. I don't want to stick out like a gaudy red thumb on the subway with a giant plastic lump on my head; I'd much rather wear a suitably adult headphone with an…

Sound Quality
I'm not going to mince words here: these are not audiophile grade cans. They simply don't have the transparency and refinement of a truly great headphone. BUT! They deliver a very good mid-fi listening experience. The vast majority of headphones miss the boat by failing in some way or another. Not so with the Philips Fidelio L1, which perform well across the board. It's just not reference quality (not that any are at this price).

The L1 is a warm sounding can with substantial bass response, but the overall balance remains quite good. Bass is well extended, but…

In August of 2011, I published this news piece on the birth of SOL Republic. Son of Monster's CEO Noel Lee, Kevin Lee previously held senior positions in Monster's headphone division--like many of Monster's efforts, a spectacularly successful venture. Monster has an uncanny ability to bring products to the popular market. They've been so successful, in fact, that Noel Lee has just received the prestigious "Plus X Lifetime Achievement Award" joining Amar Bose and James Dyson as its only recipients. Kevin has marketing chops in his…

Sound Quality
No doubt, this is a bass heavy headphone made for the kids that like the thumping bass, and they're gonna get it. These cans put out plenty of lows. While I found the impact of the bass good, and the extension into the lowest octaves good as well, they did have a somewhat murky bloated sound in the upper-bass. That said, the power handling of these cans is quite good and those looking for slamming lows might find them attractive.

While the treble was significantly lower in level than the bass, it's clean and quite natural. I'm quite averse to artificial sounding…

What's All the Noise About?
A typical question from someone wanting a headphone to shut out environmental noise goes something like this: "I want to get rid of the noise around me, so I need noise canceling headphones, right?" No, not necessarily. Most in-ear headphones that seal in your ear canal will provide better isolation from outside noise than most active noise canceling headphones. And while they often won't provide quite as much isolation from outside noise, regular sealed headphones will often cost less and sound…

Testing the Noise Cancelers
In addition to my ever growing bald spot, in the photograph above you can see my set up for testing noise canceling headphones. To the extreme left are all the headphones for testing; then my laptop for taking notes; followed by my main system headphone amp under the left speaker, which is playing music over USB from the computer and driving the headphones I'm testing; under the right speaker are the power amps which are being driven by the line output of the laptop to the far right, which is playing the sound on the speakers to create a controlled but…

Audio-Technica ATH-ANC9 (MSRP $349)
Audio-Technica's recent release of a new top-of-the-line noise canceler had me quite excited. This new model sports an advanced DSP that allows you to select from 3 different noise canceling modes: airplane noise; crowd noise; and a mode to make quiet spaces like libraries even quieter. I found that changing modes helped quiet different types of noise, and that the overall noise canceling ability was fairly good.

The problem I had with the ANC9 was the missing mid-range response, yielding somewhat lumbering lows and strident highs with…