Denon AH-D9200 - 2018 Flagship - Impressions Thread
Jun 13, 2022 at 6:08 AM Post #3,227 of 4,360
I have the AH-D9200 arriving today already own the AH-D5200, was a little disheartened to reach the end of this discussion as a lot of the positives over these head phones seem to have taken a slight turn in the other direction, I guess I will find out for myself today.
 
Jun 13, 2022 at 10:26 AM Post #3,229 of 4,360
I have the AH-D9200 arriving today already own the AH-D5200, was a little disheartened to reach the end of this discussion as a lot of the positives over these head phones seem to have taken a slight turn in the other direction, I guess I will find out for myself today.
No, I don’t think so… they are still at reference level, rather affordable, easy to drive, comfortable and just beautiful. Enjoy your new toy!
 
Jun 13, 2022 at 6:20 PM Post #3,230 of 4,360
Yeah, lol, never fear. The D9200 is an incredible headphone. My favorite closed-back under $2k by a longshot.
 
Jun 15, 2022 at 9:59 PM Post #3,232 of 4,360
I am still testing D9200 along side my D5200 so far I have come to the conclusion that the D5200 is an amazing head phone. I am not ready to comment on the D9200 I think it deserves more play time before I offer my view.
 
Jun 15, 2022 at 10:28 PM Post #3,233 of 4,360
The 9200 has a much better driver and is much faster. Try listening to the clarity of overlapping rhythms that can take advantage of the driver speed. If you don't need the speed, or the clarity, or bass texture, then the 5200 should be just fine for you. Denon makes great headphones, but everyone has a different preference. The better drivers and better earcups cost more.
 
Jun 16, 2022 at 12:14 AM Post #3,234 of 4,360
The 9200 has a much better driver and is much faster. Try listening to the clarity of overlapping rhythms that can take advantage of the driver speed. If you don't need the speed, or the clarity, or bass texture, then the 5200 should be just fine for you. Denon makes great headphones, but everyone has a different preference. The better drivers and better earcups cost more.
The D9200 is pure heaven I am playing everything that can be played, my other post just showed some love for the D5200.

I will give a comparison on the bass, the D5200 is a thug and the D9200 is just more refined thug, but its not less then the D5200 just different and I would say better, the D5200 bass seems to be early like always there, but the D9200 likes a bit of power to bring out that bass, which I feel is more correct.
 
Jun 16, 2022 at 12:22 AM Post #3,235 of 4,360
Another thing I noticed about the bass, the D5200 is like all around the pad, the D9200 seems to sit more centered which I find amazing really cleaver tuning went on with that for sure.
 
Jun 16, 2022 at 9:59 PM Post #3,236 of 4,360
I did some testing today, I made EQ bass so over powering and then listened on both headphones same setting, the D5200 the vocals could not get pass the distorted bass, the D9200 managed the distortion better and through it came the vocal lol. I know I maybe am bit odd in the way I am going about my testing, but this to me is showing how well the D9200 shines through over one of its family.

This weekend I am going to play all that audiophile (crap) to test another side of the headphones.

BTW the D5200 has its own sound and very good it is, if anyone was looking for a cheaper headphone don't be put off.
 
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Jun 18, 2022 at 4:56 PM Post #3,237 of 4,360
I have a bunch of measurements and subjective notes on pads with the D7200 and D9200.
As mentioned before, the stock pads measure very well and sound good.
The modded D7200 pads are the same, just about 30% less foam inside, taken from the inner circumference and back side height, some from front side height. Measures pretty much the same, but sounds less damped, i.e. more direct, bigger stage, better everything, like a veil lifted off.

I am listening to the D9200 with my older pair of modded Stax 009 pads (which sound the best on the D9200) and using the modified D7200 pads on my D7200 (which sound the best with those pads).
The modded-pad D7200 measures better than the stock or modded-pad D9200, but more often than not I slightly prefer the sound of the modded D9200.
The modded-pad D7200 sounds definitely better than the stock D9200 IMHO, but that changes with the modded Stax pads on the D9200. From there the difference is slight and preferential.

I have a lot of other pads, TH900 replacement pads, Chinese from ebay, Dekoni full, hybrid, Lawton pads, Voce, a couple of custom made leather pads, modded and stock TH900 pads, etc.
I have not tried Vesper audio pads.

In general, the D9200 sounds better with other pads than the D7200 which didn't tolerate well other pads. So there is more room for fitting various preferences and less risk to fall on face with pads.

I had good luck with the modded Stax 009 pads. They are expensive, but outlast the egg-protein pads multiple times, so at the moment are the cheapest good pads that I can recommend (other than the stock, or modded stock pads).
It's that simple.

Of course, I am not holding back anyone from trying other pads. My best advice is to use perforated leather or full leather pads with not too much foam inside them. The range on density/sound effect is so big that the optimum needs to be found case by case.
Also, pads that are closest to the Stax 009 pads geometry will likely sound the best: about 50x70 mm oval inner opening, 16-22 mm high in the back (I like it around 16-18), 8-16 mm in the front (I like it around 10 mm), filled with light and fine structured foam. I have not found better sounding foam than what Stax uses. Denon's memory foam comes close though when trimmed from mass/volume, and that's about the only memory foam that sounds good IMHO with the D7200/D9200 (other headphones have an optimum with different foams). Happy padding :).
I envy your D9200 knowledge. Thank you for sharing this.

I've had my D9200 for about a month. I love the sound, but find they get a bit hot with the leather. The pads are uncomfortable for long sessions.

I'm looking for something that might have velour against the skin but with a leather type inner and outer covering. Something that doesn't get sticky or sweaty. Did you ever run into anything like that? Also curious if you found any that are just plain more comfortable than stock with small changes in sound that could be overcome with EQ. Thanks much!
 
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Jun 18, 2022 at 7:16 PM Post #3,238 of 4,360
I envy your D9200 knowledge. Thank you for sharing this.

I've had my D9200 for about a month. I love the sound, but find they get a bit hot with the leather. The pads are uncomfortable for long sessions.

I'm looking for something that might have velour against the skin but with a leather type inner and outer covering. Something that doesn't get sticky or sweaty. Did you ever run into anything like that? Also curious if you found any that are just plain more comfortable than stock with small changes in sound that could be overcome with EQ. Thanks much!
did you try tilting the headband forward 15-30 degrees and rotating the earbuds accordingly? a lot of people find that to increase comfort dramatically.

or maybe you would like some moleskin padding stuck to the part of the pads touching your head something like

https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Scholls-M...5594077&sprefix=moleskin+,aps,122&sr=8-8&th=1
 
Jun 19, 2022 at 4:57 PM Post #3,239 of 4,360
No problems at all!

The TH909 are open backs (though they're technically Semi open backs), so if you're looking for isolation the D9200 will be a better fit for that role.

As you mentioned, the D9200 are better all-rounders than the 909s and worked fine with all of my amps and DAPs, however, the TH909 is so picky due to its very low impedance, you might have a hard time finding an excellent amp that it won't sound shrill and sibilant with. In my case, the TH909 sounded good through the PS5 controller headphone jack (strange, I know :)), iFi Micro BL, Chord Stack and the Shanling M30. All my other gear didn't pair well with the Fostex especially the iBasso DX300 DAP which otherwise sounded fantastic paired with the D9200.

So if you have a budget for only one headphone, grab the D9200 and enjoy. The TH909 are a fun listen but extremely picky about the amps that you're going to use. :)
Which one do you think has the best mid range Fostex 909 or Denon 9200? Thank you!
 

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