Denon AH-D5200 (little brother of the AH-D7200)

[rantzmar]

Raynor..what isn your budget ?

 

[Raynor MGT]

max 500 Euro, but I will not be upset if I can get something for 200 or 300 Euro . I'm thinking more and more to try Topping DX3 pro.

 

[rantzmar]

Have you seen the latest offerings from IFI Audio?They are very good. Also check out Schitt audio...some nice stuff as well.

 

[Raynor MGT]

OK. Thank you !

 

[maninthehighcastle]

Just got my 5200 and i'm blasted. Amazing sounding cans. I did have the 7200 before and i think that the 5200 blow them out of the water. Better vocals and better balance. Got them for 300€. Hard to beat for that price.

 

[Hinomotocho]

Just got my 5200 and i'm blasted. Amazing sounding cans. I did have the 7200 before and i think that the 5200 blow them out of the water. Better vocals and better balance. Got them for 300€. Hard to beat for that price.

Good to hear your opinion. I wanted to stretch a bit more to get the D7200 but bought some new iems so settled for the D5200. In the back of my mind I was feeling that I should've got them as they 'must be better' (my simple mind thinking of model numbers and price).

 

[rantzmar]

I love my 5200's

 

[noobnorwegian]

Anyone tried the D5200, D7200 vs the D5000, D7000? Are they more similar than D5000/D7000 vs Emu Teak and TH-X00?

 

[Maxx134]

Anyone tried the D5200, D7200 vs the D5000, D7000? Are they more similar than D5000/D7000 vs Emu Teak and TH-X00?

I remember a while back posting about this when I was researching the drivers used.

Although the THX00 variants have the latest version of the Fostex driver, it is not Fostex biggest and best that Fostex drivers used on the 5000 & 7000 series.
Those, although older, were still better.
Same with the Fostex th900, being similar to the Denon7000series.

The Emu-Teak looked same as THX00.
As popular as they are, I doubt they are better than even the
Fostex AMS-TH-610 which I believe was their latest good model, with driver similar sized to the TH900.

Yet the latest Denon drivers in the 7200 were noticably higher quality and larger structures than even the 7000 & Fostex own TH900.
I have not inspected the 5200 or 9200 but from website they look great.

 

[Hyde00]

Anyone tried the D5200, D7200 vs the D5000, D7000? Are they more similar than D5000/D7000 vs Emu Teak and TH-X00?

I don't own the D5000 or D7000 but I do own the D2000,TH-X00 and E-Mu Teak.

As far as I know D2000 and D5000 share the exact same driver while D7000 uses the driver with stronger magnet (similar case to TH900).

So this might not apples to apples but this is what I find:

D2000 - Funny enough, I was looking for an upgrade that's why I bought the other 2, but in the end I sold the other 2 and kept the D2000. Tonally D2000 strike a good balance between warm and cold, while remaining that very clean and precise sound. Also has widest soundstage and deepest sub bass out of the 3 that I'm comparing here. But due to its tonal nature, string instruments tend to sound a tiny bit metallic as oppose to warm and lush as the other 2 (I think because plastic cup).

E-Mu Teak - This is the next that I bought due to the overwhelming positive reviews. I find this while doesn't sound bad just doesn't sound "right" to me. Vocal distance is the furthest, but it does offer very rich mid range (piano / violin / guitar....etc) but to me has too much mid bass not enough subbass, and isn't treble shy either. In just the end it just feels like everyone is trying to compete for attention and as a whole nothing stand out. To me the dealbreaker is that as I mentioned vocal sounded far so it always give me this veiled feel to it, it's almost like they're singing very hard behind a wall.

TH-X00 - This surpsingly to my preference, tonally is perfect. Has the right balance of everything. But ultimately lose out to D2000 due to soundstage. TH-X00 has the worst soundstage out of the 3 and an a side effect it makes everything sound like a wall of sound coming at you, instead of pinpoint each instrument st different depth. Also loses out to D2000 for subbass but better than E-Mu Teak.

All things considered, D2000 is still my favorite, hopefully D5000's wood cup will address some of the tonal issues.

So I'm hoping D5200 will be closer tonally to D2000/D5000 then it will be my next purchase the moment my D2000 die lol.


=======================================


Side Note: Soundstage difference is due to earpad shape (TH-X00 and E-Mu Teak has same shape, D2000 is different) and cup dimension (TH-X00 has smaller internal volume, E-Mu Teak is closer to D2000). D2000 earpad is closer to TH610 design, which is different than the TH-X00 and E-Mu Teak design (even if they look similar).

 

[zolkis]

Yet the latest Denon drivers in the 7200 were noticably higher quality and larger structures than even the 7000 & Fostex own TH900.

The TH900 driver has better magnetic circuit and it's a 1.5 Tesla model as opposed to 1 Tesla in the TH600, TH610 and TX00 variant.
Side by side the TH900 driver is similar class as the D9200 driver, only a bit more sensitive and more colored sounding.
It's IMHO better than the D7200 driver in sensitivity, resolution and dynamics.
It's another story that the modded D7200 (its best form) can sound better in some ways than the "best form" TH900, at least more linear.

Driver by driver there is a clear difference between the sound of all these (and I heard them all), with the Denons being more linear and the Fostex being more boosted.
The housing of the D9200 is more advanced than that of the D7200, which is about the same as the D5200 - however, the D5200 driver seems to fits that enclosure better.
But with a few mods in the cups and ear pads, the D7200 becomes one of the best measuring and sounding headphones (including open headphones).
The D9200 brings that with only pad changes while it sounds reference-level also in stock form.
I would not buy a stock TH900 nowadays, but the modded one is still the undisputed movie-king for me: it's hard to beat its sheer energy and dynamics.

 

[Vonx]

I find different people will tell you different things. But based from my experience, because it's so easy to drive so low powered source actually sounds more natural for me.

When I powered directly from the phone it sounds "just right", when I try USB dac/amp it usually get boosted bass and treble so while it sounds more dynamic but some of the small details gets lost. For the most part I find it just sounds "different" but not "better".

I've also tried iFi Nano Black Label and O2/SDAC, while those are respectable dac/amp but I found those 2 actually are my least favourite out of all the ones I tried.

My favourite being straight off the phone (Google Pixel 1), and Hidizs Sonata HD (dongle dac/amp). I've heard some people have good results with Grace Design M9XX and some other $500+ dac/amp, so your mileage may vary.

But from my own experience I find more power is not always better (also more money is also not always better).

Sorry to quote an old Post, but I thought it would be worth mentioning, when I had the d2000, I also had the jds labs c5 amp, which I thought synergized absolutely perfectly with the d2000. Tightened the bass while adding heft, got rid of the slight tiziness/thinness, tonally improved the lower mids, took the edge off the highs, and just cleaned up the sound overall. I knew I had an amazing combo at the time, but I didn't realize until now that I actually hit it out of the park by accident with that combo, especially from a value perspective, but even purely just on sound.

Now, I'm basically trying to turn my thx00s into a tonally improved d2000. (Larger chamber lohb cups on the way, partial Lawton stage 1 mod, and I'm going to give the th610 pads a try based on your recommendation!)

Broadening back out to the thread topic, if someone knows of some other amazing amp synergies with Denon/fostex headphones, I'm all ears

 

[Vonx]

But with a few mods in the cups and ear pads, the D7200 becomes one of the best measuring and sounding headphones (including open headphones).

Can you be specific about which mods you're talking about? (which wood type, types of mods in the cups and driver, types of pads and pad mods, etc.). Also, if the 5200 is same driver, why not use the 5200 as a base for these mods?

 

[zolkis]

Can you be specific about which mods you're talking about? (which wood type, types of mods in the cups and driver, types of pads and pad mods, etc.). Also, if the 5200 is same driver, why not use the 5200 as a base for these mods?

All mods info in the D7200 thread (older posts, don't have time to look them up now). Cups damping is the main treatment for its shoutiness, pads modding is the main benefit for overall sound.
D5200 is not the same driver as D7200 which is not the same as D9200 driver.
I haven't tried to mod the D5200 since it doesn't really have problems... but it's IMHO not at the same sonic level as the modded D7200 or D9200.

First layer:


Second layer:


Pad change: trim the internal foam to have about 30% less mass (from inner circumference, especially from the back side, and from thickness, especially from the back side). Resulting shape is the same but more plush and more comfy, with more stage, dynamics, bass impact and voice clarity. Original sounds a bit more muffled or shut in.

IMHO the D7200 definitely needs the mods.

The D5200 pads are quite OK, slightly shallower than the D7200 and D9200 pads.

The D9200 doesn't really need mods (nothing for the cups and eventually change the pads) since it will sound good with nearly anything. I measured about 6-7 ear pads with it, all measure and sound pretty OK, from there it's preference.

For measurements, really need to look them up from the D7200 and D9200 threads.

 

[Vonx]

All mods info in the D7200 thread (older posts, don't have time to look them up now). Cups damping is the main treatment for its shoutiness, pads modding is the main benefit for overall sound.
D5200 is not the same driver as D7200 which is not the same as D9200 driver.
I haven't tried to mod the D5200 since it doesn't really have problems... but it's IMHO not at the same sonic level as the modded D7200 or D9200.

First layer:


Second layer:


Pad change: trim the internal foam to have about 30% less mass (from inner circumference, especially from the back side, and from thickness, especially from the back side). Resulting shape is the same but more plush and more comfy, with more stage, dynamics, bass impact and voice clarity. Original sounds a bit more muffled or shut in.

IMHO the D7200 definitely needs the mods.

The D5200 pads are quite OK, slightly shallower than the D7200 and D9200 pads.

The D9200 doesn't really need mods (nothing for the cups and eventually change the pads) since it will sound good with nearly anything. I measured about 6-7 ear pads with it, all measure and sound pretty OK, from there it's preference.

For measurements, really need to look them up from the D7200 and D9200 threads.

Great post, thank you! After these mods, how close do you think the pure sonic quality of the 7200 is to the 9200s? Would the cup and enclosure differences be the main difference in sound or do the 9200 drivers just sound "better"?