I spent almost 2 hours head-to-head compression in the store between P7 and Denon AH-MM400
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.
