Denon AH-MM400
Apr 18, 2015 at 11:57 AM Post #376 of 1,435
I spent almost 2 hours head-to-head compression in the store MM400 vs P7
Iphone 6, via Denon A-10 DAC. ALAC/320.
I uploaded 120 minutes worth of music, thought it was enough. Not even close. 
 
I was inclined towards P7... I wanted them for a while and they are the one that really dragged me into music.
Denon - I heard a lot of good about them and wanted to give them a fair try.

At first I did not hear to much difference. Well, I did, but it took me a while to adjust to sound signature, to really hear the difference.
 
I can say, that P7 have more bass/sub-bass, more treble and more punch. It sounds more fun, most of the time.
MM400 is more balanced and more details.

I started off with BB King, The thrill is gone, chains and things, the blues over me.
It was not too much of a difference in the sound. It was equally enjoyable and I could not prefer one over another. I did listen to same songs at the end, once I adjusted to sound signature, and my opinion have not changed.

Brad Paisley, Somebody Knows You Now, Whiskey Lullaby - First time I listed, P7 got my vote. By a little. At the end, however, I did prefer Denon. Again, very small difference. While P7 gave more "round" feeling, Denon managed to get vocals better (in Whiskey Lullaby), especially in Alison Krauss.
 
Eric Clapton, Tears in Heaven - I do prefer P7 here. Even though Denon was more "clean", P7 just did sound better to me.
 
Guns & Roses Knockin on Heavens Door - Impossible to pick. I love this song (G&R version of it). It sounded different, but I loved both of them.
 
Lana Del Rey, Video Games, Blue Jeans - I liked P7 a lot better. More bass, more punch. It did sound so much better to me.
 
Lorde - Royals. P7 hands down. Denon was not even close. Nada. Denon really lack bass and punch for this type of music. P7 was just perfect!
 
Pink Floyd, Green is the colour - again, I liked P7 better. It was more fun to listen.
 
Rammstein, Sonne, Mutter - By this stage, I expected P7 to kill Denon. BUT, to my big surprise, Denon was so much better here! That extra bass masked over a lot of details. Drums, vocals. I did listen to those songs few time. Listen to something else and came back - Denon is so much better.
 
Iron Maiden - Fear of the dark, holy smoke, rainmaker, dance of death, blood brothers, afraid to shoot stranger. Denon won here as well. Not by much. But it was more clean and detailed. If P7 had just a little less bass, it would be equal. But that bass masks too much of details. Except for Holy Smoke. P7 was better there.
 
Metallica, One - Try to guess? Nopp, not Denon. P7 was better. Bass did not affect song to much, but that extra punch made everything better.

Classic - few of Mozart and Vivaldi - Close call again. For Mozart, I do prefer P7 (25 in G minor). Denon don´t get same punch in this composition and can´t get all the feelings out of it.
Vivaldi - I liked Denon better.

Eminem - Detroit City, Forget about Dre - P7 hands down. Denon don´t give any bass, no punch, no fun. It´s plain boring to listen to this kind of music in balanced headphone. 
 
 
Comfort - possibly P7. Denon was lighter. P7 was a bit more snug-fit. But my ears touched Denons on the inside (depth), therefore my vote goes to P7.
 
 
 
The store was closing. I had to make a decision. I could get both of them, then return one back during next 30 days. And I was about to do so. But I decided to go for MH400.
After writing this review, I kind of wonder why... P7 is better most of the time. Well, simply because I listen mostly to metal/rock. And Denon gave me more details and more clean sound.
Because I still have 30 days to go back to the store and listen to P7 and change my mind :)
 
P7 is much more fun, more versatile  headphones then Denon, in my opinion. They work better for most types of music. They are far better then Denon on the areas the win (rap, pop, hip-hop), Denon is just slightly better on metal. It just happens, I do listen mostly to metal. 


I will go back to store in 2 weeks or so and compare Denon to P7 again and I might to opt for P7. I´ll see if I will miss that fun factor with Denon or not.
 
Apr 18, 2015 at 6:55 PM Post #377 of 1,435
I spent almost 2 hours head-to-head compression in the store MM400 vs P7

Iphone 6, via Denon A-10 DAC. ALAC/320.

I uploaded 120 minutes worth of music, thought it was enough. Not even close. 

I was inclined towards P7... I wanted them for a while and they are the one that really dragged me into music.
Denon - I heard a lot of good about them and wanted to give them a fair try.


At first I did not hear to much difference. Well, I did, but it took me a while to adjust to sound signature, to really hear the difference.

I can say, that P7 have more bass/sub-bass, more treble and more punch. It sounds more fun, most of the time.

MM400 is more balanced and more details.


I started off with BB King, The thrill is gone, chains and things, the blues over me.

It was not too much of a difference in the sound. It was equally enjoyable and I could not prefer one over another. I did listen to same songs at the end, once I adjusted to sound signature, and my opinion have not changed.


Brad Paisley, Somebody Knows You Now, Whiskey Lullaby - First time I listed, P7 got my vote. By a little. At the end, however, I did prefer Denon. Again, very small difference. While P7 gave more "round" feeling, Denon managed to get vocals better (in Whiskey Lullaby), especially in Alison Krauss.

Eric Clapton, Tears in Heaven - I do prefer P7 here. Even though Denon was more "clean", P7 just did sound better to me.

Guns & Roses Knockin on Heavens Door - Impossible to pick. I love this song (G&R version of it). It sounded different, but I loved both of them.

Lana Del Rey, Video Games, Blue Jeans - I liked P7 a lot better. More bass, more punch. It did sound so much better to me.

Lorde - Royals. P7 hands down. Denon was not even close. Nada. Denon really lack bass and punch for this type of music. P7 was just perfect!

Pink Floyd, Green is the colour - again, I liked P7 better. It was more fun to listen.

Rammstein, Sonne, Mutter - By this stage, I expected P7 to kill Denon. BUT, to my big surprise, Denon was so much better here! That extra bass masked over a lot of details. Drums, vocals. I did listen to those songs few time. Listen to something else and came back - Denon is so much better.

Iron Maiden - Fear of the dark, holy smoke, rainmaker, dance of death, blood brothers, afraid to shoot stranger. Denon won here as well. Not by much. But it was more clean and detailed. If P7 had just a little less bass, it would be equal. But that bass masks too much of details. Except for Holy Smoke. P7 was better there.

Metallica, One - Try to guess? Nopp, not Denon. P7 was better. Bass did not affect song to much, but that extra punch made everything better.


Classic - few of Mozart and Vivaldi - Close call again. For Mozart, I do prefer P7 (25 in G minor). Denon don´t get same punch in this composition and can´t get all the feelings out of it.

Vivaldi - I liked Denon better.


Eminem - Detroit City, Forget about Dre - P7 hands down. Denon don´t give any bass, no punch, no fun. It´s plain boring to listen to this kind of music in balanced headphone. 


Comfort - possibly P7. Denon was lighter. P7 was a bit more snug-fit. But my ears touched Denons on the inside (depth), therefore my vote goes to P7.



The store was closing. I had to make a decision. I could get both of them, then return one back during next 30 days. And I was about to do so. But I decided to go for MH400.

After writing this review, I kind of wonder why... P7 is better most of the time. Well, simply because I listen mostly to metal/rock. And Denon gave me more details and more clean sound.
Because I still have 30 days to go back to the store and listen to P7 and change my mind :)

P7 is much more fun, more versatile  headphones then Denon, in my opinion. They work better for most types of music. They are far better then Denon on the areas the win (rap, pop, hip-hop), Denon is just slightly better on metal. It just happens, I do listen mostly to metal. 



I will go back to store in 2 weeks or so and compare Denon to P7 again and I might to opt for P7. I´ll see if I will miss that fun factor with Denon or not.
Lol. P7 wins so many categories over the Denons for you but you got the Denons :) If it's any consolation, I owned the P7 and have no regrets selling them off to replace them with the Denons. The P7 lacked comfort, was too sibilant and had bloated bass. The Denons are way cleaner to me. Still love them to death since I got them.
 
Apr 18, 2015 at 6:58 PM Post #379 of 1,435
I auditioned these for a good amount of time a few days ago and was highly impressed. I walked into my local headphone retailer with the intention to audition the Audeze EL-8 amongst a few other offerings but surprisingly enough, spent the most time with the MM400. I've never thought too highly of closed or portable headphones before and casually picked up the MM400 - not expecting much out of them, but lo and behold they were actually quite impressive. More refined and balanced than the Master & Dynamic MH40 (which I was hoping to like more than I actually did), ATH-M70x and B&O H6. Seriously contemplating whether or not to go back and pick them up now...

Only qualm is that I wish the cable was more robust and less flimsy.
Honestly, I don't think you will regret getting them. I am crazy about these and I am way past the honeymoon period. They just sound so darn good. As per my previous post, there is a cable on the way that I will test out and report back on.
 
Apr 18, 2015 at 11:36 PM Post #380 of 1,435
Lol. P7 wins so many categories over the Denons for you but you got the Denons
smily_headphones1.gif
If it's any consolation, I owned the P7 and have no regrets selling them off to replace them with the Denons. The P7 lacked comfort, was too sibilant and had bloated bass. The Denons are way cleaner to me. Still love them to death since I got them.

Yeah, I know. 
That´s the reason why I will go back to the store and try P7 once more, perhaps with a different DAC and see if it changes anything.

Decisive moment for me was Rammstein and Iron Maiden. Overall, I think P7 is more fun headphones, while MM400 is more clean, as you say. And if I did not listen mostly to the metal, I would go with P7 for sure. 
 
Apr 19, 2015 at 7:02 AM Post #381 of 1,435
  Yeah, I know. 
That´s the reason why I will go back to the store and try P7 once more, perhaps with a different DAC and see if it changes anything.

Decisive moment for me was Rammstein and Iron Maiden. Overall, I think P7 is more fun headphones, while MM400 is more clean, as you say. And if I did not listen mostly to the metal, I would go with P7 for sure. 

Fair call. Gotta love this hobby :)
 
Apr 19, 2015 at 8:59 AM Post #382 of 1,435
As per my previous post, there is a cable on the way that I will test out and report back on.

Yeah I'm very interested in hearing how that works out and if it creates less noise. I've been trying out plenty of other headphones lately and none has as bad microphonics as the MM400. But then neither do they sound as good as the MM400 so for now I am trying to live with it. Too bad the replacement cable doesn't have a remote (right?), I use that quite a bit (not the mic, just the music controls).
 
Apr 19, 2015 at 9:34 AM Post #383 of 1,435
Yeah I'm very interested in hearing how that works out and if it creates less noise. I've been trying out plenty of other headphones lately and none has as bad microphonics as the MM400. But then neither do they sound as good as the MM400 so for now I am trying to live with it. Too bad the replacement cable doesn't have a remote (right?), I use that quite a bit (not the mic, just the music controls).
The same guy sells the identical cable but with the mic and controls.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=201200718444&alt=web
 
Apr 21, 2015 at 6:42 AM Post #386 of 1,435
So I took the plunge. Couldn't wait any longer. Will let you know how i go. Expected delivery from ebay is 24 April.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00OQVYTWY/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1428842680&sr=8-1&keywords=Denon+3.5+cable&pi=AC_SX200_QL40&dpPl=1&dpID=515vkkqsXfL&ref=plSrch
So I finally received this today, except I got the 1.2m version off ebay off a seller called low20101020. I will start off with all the good news. It fits perfectly without any alterations. It looks stunning. It does not change the sound relative to the original cable. It is much higher quality and better built than the pictures suggest. My beloved headphones now look like they're worth a grand with the modified cable. Now to the bad news, there is still cable noise when it rubs against your body. In my case, I only ever notice it with the music completely off, so this is not a deal breaker for me personally. This was the exact item I bought on ebay:

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=311061670498&alt=web
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top