I adore the denon 9200 and its nothing compared to hd800 sound signature wise. To me the hd800 is not a great one, mids are thin, bass is lacking, not engaging and cold sounding, its a complete opposite of what denon 9200 is. And i played long enough with hd800 on very expensive equipments that you can see in my profile. If the denon 9200 was close to hd 800 i would never have bought denon 9200.
From all the headphones I own or owned here is my top 6 fav list
1- Hifiman HE1000SE
2- Hifiman HE 1000 V1
3- Denon 9200
4- Stax 007mk2
5- Audeze mx4
6- Meze Empyrean
For a closed back denon 9200 is a big big achievement, for it to be comparable to high end open backs is speaks volumes. To compare the denon 9200 to fostex ebony is not remotely close as well, as I had my time with that as well. Denon 9200 scales well with gears. For anyone who adores HD800 I would never recommend denon 9200 as those 2 are not alike even remotely. Again liking one signature opposite another is where we all differ. I for example can never understand why anyone would buy hd800, as to me it just sounds off, but who am I to judge, so I learned each one of us has a preferred signature, what sounds right to me might be off sounding to another. That being said I only can get surprised when denon 9200 gets compared to HD800 as those 2 are not related in anything. The HD800 has a huge sound stage which I did not hear on another headphone yet but that will not make it a good sounding headphone for me. As for denon of course it does not have the same big sound stage as HD800 and it has its own signature which is liked by many. I even can not say the denon 9200 like any headphone I heard before, it has its own character, its an audeze sound nor a hifiman sound, or a Meze empyrean sound. It is a denon sound signature which is unique in its own way. but to compare it to HD 800 is not applicable here at all. Bass, mids, highs, sound stage and tonality are completely different than hd800
Now to the most crazy mod that happened all by accident: Call it crazy as much as you like
Mod wearing 101
: rotate the leather pads in a way so you can let the headband sit above your eyebrows by an inch, yes it can be worn like that and you will look as silly as can be, and listen now to denon 9200 and tell me what you think
what a crazy wearing mod. the leather pads can be rotated easily without taking the pads apart, as the pads rotate freely on the plastic ring without taking it off. Make sure when you wear it like that, the thick side of the pads are on the of your ears
