[Hyde00]

From my experience D5200 sounded great from about anything and everything, also scale up with nicer dac/amp.

My Lawton TH900 sounded poo poo on lower end gear.

 

[16tons]

Hi, I can buy the 7200 second hand only 20€ more than a 5200 that I m listening right now and I like it so much. I have bought it on Amazon so I can return it but the 7200 would be a blindfold purchase. What do you recommend?

 

[Kerry56]

Just picked up a used D5200 and am currently testing them with a few songs I'm familiar with. First impression is that they are tuned a little more neutrally than I expected. Since I've been listening to my heavily modded HE-R9 for weeks, I've gotten used to their warmer tone. No point in having all your headphones sounding alike, so this different flavor is a good change of pace so far.

Soundstage is pretty average for a closed back. Nothing surprising there. A touch of sibilance from the D5200 now and again, but not bad. It is similar to my Fidelio X2 in this. By comparison, my HE-R9 has absolutely no sibilance. Other parts of the D5200 treble are unobtrusive so far, which is good for me, since I am sensitive to treble spikes.

Bass doesn't have as much visceral impact as I expected. These aren't anything like the old Fostex TH-X00 Mahogany set I used to have years ago.

Will take a while to come up with a complete evaluation, so I'll be back with more later this week.

 

[Hyde00]

Just picked up a used D5200 and am currently testing them with a few songs I'm familiar with. First impression is that they are tuned a little more neutrally than I expected. Since I've been listening to my heavily modded HE-R9 for weeks, I've gotten used to their warmer tone. No point in having all your headphones sounding alike, so this different flavor is a good change of pace so far.

Soundstage is pretty average for a closed back. Nothing surprising there. A touch of sibilance from the D5200 now and again, but not bad. It is similar to my Fidelio X2 in this. By comparison, my HE-R9 has absolutely no sibilance. Other parts of the D5200 treble are unobtrusive so far, which is good for me, since I am sensitive to treble spikes.

Bass doesn't have as much visceral impact as I expected. These aren't anything like the old Fostex TH-X00 Mahogany set I used to have years ago.

Will take a while to come up with a complete evaluation, so I'll be back with more later this week.

What source are you using to drive it? I do find it does sound good on everything, even dongles.

But with beefier source it does push the bass extension a bit more and also soundstage a bit wider.

Otherwise I think the tonal balance is spot on for my taste.

 

[Kerry56]

I have the original Grace SDAC and a Cavalli Spark amp. The D5200 is slightly harder to drive than my other headphones, but not by much. For most of my headphones, I can't take the dial past the 10 o'clock position on the Spark. With the D5200 I can take it to 11 o'clock with some songs.

Edit: Using low gain on the Spark.

 

[Hyde00]

I have the original Grace SDAC and a Cavalli Spark amp. The D5200 is slightly harder to drive than my other headphones, but not by much. For most of my headphones, I can't take the dial past the 10 o'clock position on the Spark. With the D5200 I can take it to 11 o'clock with some songs.

Edit: Using low gain on the Spark.

I love SDAC! Tonal balance is spot on!

Though been a long time since I used Liquid Spark, forgot how it sounds like. Might need to try it again lol......

 

[Kerry56]

A few things have struck me about the construction of the D5200. First off, I love the look of them, and all the metal parts seem well designed and executed. The headband seems a little too constricted, as in the curve isn't broad enough and I can see that causing some issues with people who are sensitive to hot spots on the top of their head. Not a problem for me, but I can see that as a possible issue.

But my main thought concerns the wooden cups. I've been a woodworker most of my life, so I know a little bit about exotic woods, and have used them from time to time in my projects, mostly as inlays, but occasionally as the primary wood. Denon chose zebrawood for the cups of these headphones. Zebrawood is a notoriously finicky wood, prone to twisting and cracking. It takes a lot of care in drying the wood to get good results, and even then, there are a lot of pieces that turn out unsuitable for most uses. So, they were starting with a self-inflicted penalty. Teak is far more stable, for example.

Then, once they have an exotic wood for their cups, they put a finish on them that is almost opaque? Why would you obscure the grain of the wood so much? These are some odd design decisions.

And as a final note on physical characteristics, the pads are not designed for people with large ears like myself. My ears don't quite fit inside the openings, and this limits how long I can wear them. Not painful, since the pads are so soft, but they become a little bothersome on long listening sessions.

Not ready for more detailed reactions to their sound. Still getting used to them, but I will say I'm enjoying them for the vast majority of my music.

 

[Kerry56]

It's been an interesting examination of one's hearing, testing these headphones. They have a more neutral presentation than the other sets I normally use. But if I listen to them for an hour or so, they start sounding "right". The same thing happens when I switch to a warmer toned headphone. Mental adjustments occur almost without noticing them at first.

So, overall thoughts on their sound. I like them. They aren't offensive in the treble, which is important for me. They still have a touch of sibilance now and again. I suspect they have a slight peak in the 6 khz range. Midrange is fluid, and both male and female vocals come across with good detail without being overly sharp. As you might have guessed, I'm not fond of analytical headphones, and the D5200 isn't in that category.

So, what are they missing? As I've mentioned earlier, they lack some thump in the bass and they aren't particularly wide in presentation. That's ok. I have other headphones with those attributes, and if I want to listen to bass heavy music, or need a panoramic sound while watching movies, I can switch up. My Fidelio X2 is particularly good for movies. The D5200 makes a good addition to my collection, and I suspect I'll be keeping them for a very long time, like I've kept my CAL! and X2.

 

[Hyde00]

Yeah I really do think D5200 is very well tuned for my taste at least.

But it is also more of a closed headphone than Fostex's semi open. As a result sound stage suffers, but my wife is also happy to not hear my music LOL. Different trade off.

I think D5200 is meant to be a portable headphone, hence the smaller cup sizes.

Oh the head band do sit awkwardly flat across the head, in D9200 they address this a bit by having it more pointy at the top middle, which allow for more point of contact to the top left and top right. I tried to bend the D5200 headband but I think it just bounce back to original shape LOL.

I think it's a good attempt, they can address a lot of issues in their next iteration.

 

[Ginryuu]

I got mine a few days ago because I could get them for a very cheap price (black friday coupon code + it was a returned headphone - the person who returned it didn't liked the sound of these headphones. This is what the shop where I was getting them from told me).

I really like them. My biggest fear was a recessed midrange because I am coming from an Audio Technica ATH-M30 and their midrange is pretty forward but this is absolutely not the case for the Denon AH-D5200. It is almost identically forward. Also female vocals sound equally good as male voices atleast through a PC headphone jack.
Bass could be a bit stronger but the bass that is there isn't muddy or bloomy at all and doesn't bleed into the midrange which is very positive.

To me personally the Denon's are a bit too warm. The first time I was listening through them it felt like doing pressure equalization for your ears if you're under water but I think after using them a few more days I'm okay with that. Soundstage is alright for a closed back. I personally prefer an intimate soundstage so I don't have to complain at this point. I agree on what was written about the treble. Even after 2 hours of listening sessions it's not becoming fatigueing or harsh in any way. I compared it to my old headphones which were sibilant in some YouTube videos and I couldn't hear this sibilance anymore with the Denon's which is great.

The earpads could've been a bit bigger. But it looks like I'm just having really big ears. They fit without causing pressure to my ears but a piece of my ears reaches the foam on the inside. If you're having a large head then you could be disappointed. I have a relative small head and still have to use 4/6 in the headband settings so I can definitely see how some people will have problems wearing them.

In general I am very happy with these headphones. Especially for the price I have paid for them which was 247,50€ instead of 599€.
I don't think I would've bought them for 599€ but if you can get them on a sale or something then they are really worth the price in my opinion.

 

[Kerry56]

Sibilance was still annoying me, so I set out to tone it down. One layer of felt inside the cups wasn't cutting it, so I put a layer of paper towel in there, and a layer of felt over that. That seems to have eliminated it.

 

[Hyde00]

Sibilance was still annoying me, so I set out to tone it down. One layer of felt inside the cups wasn't cutting it, so I put a layer of paper towel in there, and a layer of felt over that. That seems to have eliminated it.

I'm surprised you have sibilance on D5200, what source are you using?

 

[andred]

I'm searching for a headphone that I can listen to without having to buy extra stuff and I'm not willing to pay so much money for "just" listening to music.

given this statement - why not look around the $2-300 mark at some universally praised headphones like sennheiser650/drop6xx, meze 99, hifiman sundara. another alternative are the $60-ish SuperLux etc "clone-phones"

 

[Kerry56]

I'm surprised you have sibilance on D5200, what source are you using?

Spotify usually, though I also had it on files from my hard drives. It was very consistent, regardless of source, including Youtube. Running it all through my SDAC and Liquid Spark of course.

Sibilance, and the degree of it, seems to vary quite a lot, person to person.

 

[Hyde00]

Spotify usually, though I also had it on files from my hard drives. It was very consistent, regardless of source, including Youtube. Running it all through my SDAC and Liquid Spark of course.

Sibilance, and the degree of it, seems to vary quite a lot, person to person.

Lol oh I feel like it might be SDAC, since SDAC is somewhat vocal forward. Which I personally like but I can see it might cause some issue for some.

I personally have owned SDAC, Liquid Spark, and D5200 all at different time so I can't say for sure.

EDIT: SDAC is my all time favorite DAC but I also like singer spitting in my ear type of closeness. That's just me LOL.