Denon AH-D5200

Build & comfort
The build seems great for the price, although I can tell the plushy headband will eventually wear off and I will use a custom headband. The earcups are very smooth and nice to the touch. The metal construction and the cable are very sturdy. They feel expensive in the hands.

The earpads are soft to medium soft and there is just the right amount of space for my ears. Big ears might feel as if there is no extra space but there shouldn't be discomfort.
They are medium comfortable to me. The can be a bit hard on the skin in terms of pressure but overall it's decent and I have no issues in longer listening sessions.

The sound

Bass:
The sub-bass is present and not over-emphasized.
There is the mid-bass boom which greatly affects the overall presentation. It reveals the
It is medium-paced, it's not fast, but not slow either. It's balancing clarity with a bit of boominess.

There is a decent amount of bass, but not a lot. These aren't bass-heavy, just slightly boosted and give a bit of weight to everything.

The mids:
The mids seem moderately present.
Vocals are not very forward, they blend just right with the music, they are not behind either.

Both male and female voices sound natural and detailed.

The treble:
I'm not too technical and can't tell which frequency ranges are affected, but there are things in the upper mids or low treble that add a spark, but a very smooth one. There is no sibilance to my ear, and I am sensitive to it. There is just a very smooth and pleasant spark with a glare.

Treble sounds are present and consistent. The upper treble sounds similar to the K702, silky smooth sizzle.

Soundstage
These have a very decent soundstage, it's medium-sized in all directions, and the imaging is above average. The presentation is that of a small club.

Resolution
The resolution is pretty high up there and I haven't had issues individually picking out any instruments, their tonality, clarity, and timbre. There are a glare and a small bloat I will mention below but overall they are very resolving, like 8.5/10.

Studio use
Although some people said you could mix on them, I don't think so. They are too decorated, although in good places, but still, I wouldn't even trust using them for sound design.

Random observations
Shiny instruments and effects can get a certain shine/glare. Everything leaves a slight aftertaste.
Combined with a bit of bass bloat, they have the effect of making small things sound big. Reverb and decay are more felt. It makes music sound more lively and natural.
These are great for gaming and movies because they seem to try to emphasize individual sounds and bring attention to them.

Comparisons and analogies
They sound like a middle ground between the more analytical and somewhat bassy but slightly distorted Shure SRH1540, and HD600, the natural relaxing headphone. But they sound a lot cleaner than the Shures that have a grain to them.

The K712 wins in resolution and clarity. It's like the D5200 does portray everything, but that decoration I mentioned reduces cohesion and analytic nature.

Sometimes they remind me of HD595 and HD598 in having that tasteful heat in the mids. Like a whiskey aftertaste. I guess they can be viewed as a more exciting, direct upgrade to the HD500 series.

HD380 has more sub-bass and a more neutral sound but is not as resolving.

The good
These sound natural and full. Music with a moderate amount of instruments at moderate volume sounds amazing.

With DnB the bass has its place and doesn't overshadow the rest of the spectrum.
Ambiences, pads, strings, and cinematic sounds sound very surrounding because of usually decent separation and imaging in this genre. Hi hats and cymbals and special effects don't offend.

With pop music vocals come to life, the instruments sound engaging and organic. I feel as if I'm there. Acoustic genres sound wonderful as well.

Best artists from my library: Janet Jackson, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Leann Rhymes, Dido, Bee Gees, Radiohead, Kate Bush, Air, The Smashing Pumpkins, Robin Williams, From First To Last, The Get Up Kids

Best albums/tracks:
Tosca Tango Orchestra - Waking Life OST (tango)
Kate Bush - 50 words for snow (pop, atmospheric)
Don Ross & Andy Mckee - The Ting That Came From Somewhere (acoustic guitars)
White Moth Black Butterfly - One Thousand Wings (progressive pop)
Dhafer Youssef - Dhafer Youssef - Full Live Concert at ASSM (Izmir-Turkey 2013) (jazz)
Donny Benet - Negroni Summer (Funk, retro pop)
Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing
Louis Cole - Phone (pop, jazz)
Turnover - Good Nature (indie dream-pop)
The Get Up Kids - On A Wire (emo/rock)
Bjork - Triumph Of A Heart

The bad
I didn't like them for hip-hop, metal, and hard EDM. The "make small things big" effect is bad here.

Artists I didn't like listening to: He Is Legend, Darko US, Bring Me the horizon, Armin van Buuren, Devin Townsend, Celldweller, late Grimes albums, Grendel

The main reason is that the bass gets boomy, even when EQd a bit. This makes complex music with a lot of harsh elements, like metal and hard techno sound messy and all over the place, so the slam is lost and sounds a bit muffled. Not very much, but enough to think these aren't meant for slam. The Smashing Pumpkins is already on the fence of sounding bloated. These are more polite headphones that enrich clean sounds.

Summary and what I will use them for
Pop, modern jazz, quartets, soul, soft rock, and in general genres that are moderate in complexity and volume. The soft and the hard. Drumkits, pianos, rock and acoustic guitars sound full and alive. What I said about the slight "bloat" or that they make small things sound big, is actually a very good thing here.

They sound hifi and not analytical, and a very mature laid-back headphone, thriving in moderate volumes, cohesive and present enough to not want to turn them up. With certain songs, they sound "just right". They are on the romantic side with a cream on top.

Overall a great headphone, but genre-specific.
I am satisfied with what they do with listed genres, but unfortunately metal and EDM are my favorite genres. I still think D5200 will have its perfect spot for softer music.

With the AH-D5200 Denon delivers a great headphone to sit/lay back and simply enjoy music. It is tuned to portray a vast and deep image on all but the most forward & analytical sources.

The overall balance gives the bass, mids and treble its own space to breath, this headphone plays effortless and uncongested. Vocalists sound natural and life like, the bassline is big and meaty, however it is not the most tight or textured bass. It is tuned towards thumpy fun rather than technical monitor like accuracy. Treble remains detailed and well seperated. Resolution is good. There might be a small edge to the sound somewhere midtreble at higher volumes, unsure, but overall it is an organic sounding headphone.

It works great for all genres of music, movies and television shows. It is neither dark nor bright. However one should appreciate it for exactly that. One thing it does not deliver is pro level of transparency, it is happy to sound great on all sources, but it brings with it its own big soundstage signature on every track. So this is a headphone you want when you are ready to listen to the final mix, but not to edit the mix itself.

The synthetic leather of the earpads feels very soft and smooth, the comfort is great. The wood gives the headphone a classy look, most components are made of metal. Uses standard 3.5mm mono plugs, so replacements should be fairly easy to find, if for example you would need a mic/remote combo for it, since it only comes with a long cable for home use.

I think it is a great headphone for anyone who already has a forward "in your face" sounding headphone and is looking for something a little more wide, open & soft.

Introduction:

I was looking for a new over-ear headphone i can use with my AK70 MKII portable player. In the meantime i sold my AKG K712Pro because i dint get along with their sound signature and prefered to listen to my Fidelio X2. I use the Fidelio X2 as a gaming headset with my Pc.

As i like a good amount of bass and searched the dedicated forum threads i often red about Denon and Fostex models. I put the Denon AH-D7200 on my wishlist but as i saw the younger brother AH-D5200 i had to order it and give it a try. And it turned out to be a good decission.


Unboxing & Content:

The headphone comes in a sturdy carton wrapped with plastic film. The headphone is embedded into a molded insert.

If you open the box you will immediately be threatened erm pleased with an awesome fragrance of new cartonage and Eau De Phone.

I grapped the phones out of the carton. Very light, nice looking and the upholstery of the headband is very soft.

But the new smell... i felt like being on drugs. (it vanishes a bit every day if the headphone is exposed to fresh air)

inside the box
- 3m soft braided headphone cable with slight microfonics but ways better than cheap chinese cables braided with stiff nylon. Nice quality cable, but too long for me as the primary use will be with a portable player where i prefer 1m length.

- 3.5mm to 6.3. audio jack adapter which is plugged (not screwed) and fits nice and tight

- brown basic pouch with a velvet inner that exactly got room for the 5200er. As im not using a headphone stand for the 5200 i just use the pouch as an underlay for it.

- 2 pcs. of small booklets


Optics:

- zebra-wood earcups

- the brown color of the earcups is very dark, the stripes are very hard to see on my model, looks like one color from the distance

- metal & wood looking good

- appealing headphone design


Buildquality:

- good and sturdy build, metal hangers

- soft pleather earpads & hadband (no additional plastic insert used in the 7200 model)

- theres a single headphone band which is not assisted and surrounded by any additional complex construction. Good design and easy adjustment.

- the connection of the handband to the earcups is very sturdy and well build (older comparable denon/fostex models earcups were connected with a single pin each side). Now you got two contact points on each side on the 5200.

- there is no squeaking or creaking when you are wearing the headphone. You can move your head or heavily grin and play with your cheekmuscles without getting unwelcomed noises from the hardware.

- the 5200 got a noticable "new headphone fragrance" and i dont think its the Hugo Boss kind. Its very raw and masculine got a bit technical-agressive note and stays in your nose for a while after you put the headphones to rest after the first use. If you are very sensitive to scents you might get some headache from it. Guess its coming from the pleather earpads. In combination with a large glass of redwine you might feel dizzy and muzzy. My recommendation for psychedelic trance music.

- got a small dent on one earcup on my model (as i sorted out the fotos of the headphone i recognized that there are in fact many small scratches on the wooden earcups aswell. I cant see the scratches at normal light conditions at home) Please note the following:

*** If the new toy is performing well and the only issue is a small dent i only see because i searched for it, i ask for a price-reduction, keep it and don't join the replacement lotterie to get a perfect piece i may never get.
I did this for a long time in the past being outrageous about every small thing not being absolutely perfect build. If you are in this circle of hell once it may take high level Zen-activities to calm down and accept small cosmetical differences in your further purchases.
Before purchasing the 5200 i wondered about why theres so much amazon warehouse deals on the bigger brother 7200. I assume these are returns because of the wooden earcups having cosmetical issues and the people send back the headphones to get their perfect one. If seller wouldnt have given a discount due to dent/scratches i would have sent it back. For me that was an ok compromise. But i can see many people returning the headphones because of dents and scratches. ***


*** Note To Denon: If you use wood for your prdoducts ensure to handle it with greatest care possible to avoid numerous returns ***


Headsize Adjustment / Wearing Comfort:

- manual adjustment, you can easily extend both sides of the headband in 9 steps, very satisfying mechanical clicky asjustment with the assistance of bearings

- very light and compact headphone

- the pleather earpads and headband are stuffed with memory foam and feel good while wearing

- clamping is not too high and not too low. The headphone would not fall off your head easily

- i can wear the 5200 for hours, very comfy


Testing Setup & notable experience:

Amp /Dac

- LakePeople G100 FE (technically close to Violectric HPA V100) / JDS Labs Objective Dac / Pc (3.5mm balanced output) -no EQ

Portable Device

- Astell & Kern AK70 MKII (2.5mm balanced output) -no EQ (of course not, its still not working)

(budget tip: Hidizs AP60 II, great sounding player with hardware buttons and enough power to drive the 5200 at high volumes. Shanling M0, awesome sounding very small player touchscreen focused, got enough driving power too)


Notable Experience

Its really necessary to relax and give yourself and the headphone time to get along with eachother. At the beginning i stressed myself too much on finding out everything about the phones within a short time.

At the point where i focused my listening to the singers voice obeserving if it comes perfectly centered i first noticed that i had to reconsider the way im testing the phones because i ended up thinking the phones always tend to place the voices a bit to the left, which turned out to be imagination because the „left-side-syndrom“ was saved in my brains storage maybe caused by some song and my overall tireness. (everythings fine, if the voice have been recordered in the center you will here it in the center)

I had to stop. So i gave my ears and the rest of my body some rest and continued listening the next day. It set my focus to just close my eyes, make myself comfortable, put on the phones and just listen to the music without pulling out a scalpel and analyze. Its very important that the ears get enough time to adjust to the headphone.

Im still astonished how easy it is to pick up all the fine details of a song without any effort.

The 5200 sounded great with every before mentioned source.


Sound(quality):

Bass

Not boomy, does not bleed into the mids. It can go deep, without distortion or oversteering at tracks with very deep bass tones.

Coming from the open Fidelio X2 headphone and having in mind that the older versions of the Denon Headphones were often called bassheavy my first impression was like: „ Where is that legendary bass quantity?“

The bassquality is very good. Its very tight, you can hear the details of the basslines. I find that the bass presentation lacks the last portion of slam and oompf in some songs. My ears were conditioned to the Fidelio X2s which add more softness and warmth to the bass which causes the bass sounding bigger.

After a few days i have to say that i really enjoy the nice bass presentation of the 5200. Its detailed, punchy and does not overshadow mids and highs. It merges into a very good symbiosis with the other frequencies.


Mids

- tight, not recessed mids with a good body, very detailed like all other fequencies, big plus of the 5200


Highs

Very detailed and not harsh


Soundstage

- Soundstage is accurate.

- No problem here to seperate and locate the instruments


three-dimensionality / spaciousness

- more 2D than 3D, sounds good to me


overall presentation

Guitars, drums and voices are enjoyable. I did not find anything that sounded artificial to me. No boring sound. Everything sounds good. For my ears its a very well balanced sound.

Everything is presented just right. I found myself foot-tapping to the beats. You can hear every detail of the high, mid and lower frequencies without having to deeply concentrate and search for them. You can just hear them.

Sit down in your favourite relax-chair, close your eyes, turn on the music, enjoy. The awesome presentation will let you hear every detail of the recording. Crisp, detailed, punchy. I found that no frequency is bleeding/overshadowing into another frequency. I said that i miss some impact of the bass. This feeling has been reduced to only a couple of songs/parts of some songs after my ears adjusted to the new sound signature.

The overall presentation plays its magic on me. I now can say that i really love the bass. Its punchy, clear, detailed.

Its not the widest and spacious presentation but every part of the presentation fits together. That makes it a pleasure for me to listen to the 5200.

The good tonality plays well with all kinds of music genres.


Isolation:

Without playing music wearing the 5200 i can hear my voice and writing on my Pc-keyboard, the children in the park and the wind, but its damped.


Comparison (to Fidelio X2):

Why do i take an open headphone to compare with the closed 5200? Because the Fidelio is currently my only other headphone i possess that i really enjoy besides an old AKG K26P portable headphone that cant compete soundquality wise. I owned Beyderdanymic DT770 Pro 80 Ohm closed cans many years ago. Too much time to remember how they sounded. Of course i could go to a local shop to listen to them on a presentationwall. The MusicStore in Cologne got a lot of popular closed headphones on their headphone-wall. I spoke to a salesman and he showed me the technic behind the wall. Expensive RME Fireface audio interface. At the end of my listening session i found that the complete range of Beyerdynamic sounded thin and boring and i took home an AKG712Pro which i have to say compared to the X2 and 5200 now sounds boring to me. I also listened to Sennheiser 600, Fostex TR-models and audiotechnica ATHs.

No headphone really excited me. I dont trust headphone-walls again. Theres no getting around trying out new stuff with your very own audio compenents in a stressless, quiet area (preferable at home) for a reasonable time.

The Fidelio X2 is an open headphone which is a choice of many people who want an fun-sounding headphone with nice bass capability. Add a V-Moda BoomPro Mic and you also got an awesome Gaming Headset for your Pc.

Comfort-Wise both headphones are very comfy. Thanks to the big velours pads the X2 feels like wearing a cosy teddybear.


Sound(quality)

- Bass of the X2 is softer, boomier (the bass tone runs out (lasts) a bit longer than the very tight and quick bass of the 5200), not in a bad way. Still highly enjoyable. Its like a slightly stretched „Booom...“ (X2) vs a quicker and tight „Bam!!!“ (5200)

- Mids are ways more popping out of the 5200er. Thats awesome sounding.

For example:

„L'Impératrice ♗ VANILLE FRAISE (edit)“ (can be watched at youtube)

Theres a nice part starting at 2:26. (however please start watching from 2:20... this is the face you make seing new audio gear, also outstanding dancing part) I found the presentation of the 5200 better than on the Fidelio X2. The clear popping sounds got more body and strength with the 5200er.

- Highs on the X2 are also recessed. You get more presence with the 5200 here.


The softer, boomier bass, recessed mids and highs make the X2 warmer sounding with less attack than the 5200er. The 5200 is tight sounding, without recessed frequencies. That does not mean its harsh or unnatural sounding. It got drive, power, crispness and good clarity. Very enjoyable symbiosis.

The X2 is an open headphone and i find it a bit more spacious sounding.

I like both headphones. Both make me happy when i place them on my head and listen to music. Everyday i think: Wow. Music can sound so good and detailed. I also have a good home theater/stereo system and good quality desktop monitor speakers but for pure music listening purposes these are forgotten as soon as i put on one of my headphones.


Conclusion:

Im really happy that i found another headphone i can totally enjoy after the good experience with the Fidelio X2. For now im satisfied every day with my listening experience the Denon 5200 provides. This is my new reference that i will use comparing to other headphones in the future.


Fotos: