Denon AH-D5000 for sensitive ears?

Those Denons have a heavy base punch with nicely textured mids and highs. I'd be very surprised if you were to find them harsh. While I'd understand the Grado 325is being considered harsh for some, I'm yet to see that sort of testimony being made about the Denons.

I rarely hear Denon's described as harsh, they are very smooth sounding.

See below...

I strongly disagree. My hearing is very sensitive to lower and mid treble (read: my ears physically hurt when there's too much acoustic pressure in this region). For this reason, Grado's don't work for me, K-701 practically gave me a headache withing 30 seconds, and the 2003 DT-880 I used to own ended up not working for me, either.

I would add, however, that the D5000 (yes, even when modded) makes my ears/head hurt for this very same reason: they're just too hot in the lower treble. I believe this is what makes them sound "lively", in a similar way to Grado.

I ended up settling on Sennheiser HD-600, which never makes my ears hurt.

The Denon's can be a lot of fun. For instance, I find them great for Rock, especially classic rock like, for example, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Also great with Paradise Lost. It reproduces vocals very well also. Very good sound stage. It's difficult to say which of the two I prefer but I agree with your choices for want of a pair of cans that will not have harshness as one of their issues.

If there is any possible way that you can hear them, I would recommend listening to the D5000 for yourself. My issue is that I have a mild-medium case of tinnitus (I was dumb in high school! ), so if that frequency range is accentuated, even by a little bit, my ears physically hurt. This is the case for me with the D5000.

The way that I was able to still have a reasonably "exciting" sound with a bit of punch, but without causing my ears - and, eventually, my head - to hurt was to get a pair of HD600, and pair them with silver cables and a decent solid state amp (see sig/profile). For me, my needs, and my tastes, the synergy is just wonderful!

Thanks, this post is incredibly helpful, although HD600s are a bit out of my price range I was hoping on auditioning some of the cheaper Sennheisers. Tinnitus, hyperacusis, and hearing loss be a bitch.

It always seems to be either Denon or Sennheiser mentioned when looking for "easy" to listen headphones, so I find your dislike of the Denons surprising although I hope I can listen to them for myself in the future to see if I have a different tolerance.

you want the best of both worlds without the discomfort, it wont happen, the cans for you are the senns, all the others you mentioned are very active slightly bright cans, you need the laid back presentation of senns, for me they are snoozers, fantastic sound, but i am an analytical listener, and need my soundstage to be in my face. hence the grados.

D5000 is very sibilant, more than DT 880.

D5000 sibilant? Wow... that's a genuine surprise to hear. There's a likely amp pairing issue involved there.

Whilst I would not call the D5000 sibilant per se, I found them irritating to my sensitive-to-HF ears when I tried a friend's pair out for a while. I had used them with two amps (WA6 and GS1) and both resulted in the fatigue after 15-20 minutes or so. I think much has to do with the slightly flabby/loose bass, and a somewhat recessed midrange that seemed to create a spotlight on the higher frequencies. It was not a piercing type of sibilance, but what I perceived as an overcooked, hyped HF.

I'm one of the few that find D5000 is sibilant, more than DT880 (600 ohms version), actually I don't hear sibilance on the 600 ohm version, and slightly recess mids, I can't listen to them, but quite funnily, I like RS-1 very much, which people say it's bright.

Have you listen to the 600 ohm version of DT880, since you like this kind of sound, it sound smoother than the 250 ohm one, nice treble and maybe more 'exciting' for you than the 650, although 650 is my fav phone to date.

What kind of sound are you looking at? in terms of:
- treble (Like me, I guess maybe you prefer mid to HF treble rather than lower treble, this is the one that causes sibilance)
- mid,
- vocal,
- bass (quantity vs quality),
- soundstage or depth?
- music preference? (vocal, accounstics, pop?)
- open or closed sound, they're are vastly different
- isolation needed?

with these, it's easier for people to advice.

For sensitive ears, I have to admit the best is easily the HD580/600/650s. They aren't harsh at all in the upper register.