Firstly, let me put this review in context: I wanted a set of Bluetooth AND active noise cancelling headphones for “general” use with my iPhone, eg when working at home, walking into town and back, when shopping at the supermarket etc, and for the occasional long bus/train journey or flight (maybe a few times a year). The noise cancelling was more for the latter, but I didn’t want to shell out on 2 separate sets and preferred the convenience of one “do it all”, accepting there’d be some compromise. They typically get used a couple of times a week on average. I do not use them for commuting daily, or for sport, and I’m not interested in the phone call functionality (it’s a useful feature, but the quality wasn’t important to me). I do appreciate a good quality sound; I am a musician but am no audiophile, and I must confess the mp3s I usually listen to (mostly of the rock/blues/pop variety) are only 128kbps. These were my first headphones of this type, and were to replace my Bose in-ear phones that are about 8 years old now. I should also say I’m a glasses wearer – of the Oakley design where the arms curve outwards from the head - which has seriously affected the fit/comfort of some headsets (particularly aviation headsets) in the past.
I “narrowed” it down to about 6 different sets, including Beats Studio Wiresless, Parrot Zik (2.0), Plantronics Backbeat Pro, Sony MDR-ZX770BN, Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 2, and these. Bose were discounted as they don’t have a set that’s both wireless and NC. Without the chance to try any of them out properly (I did try on but not hear the Sonys, and did listed to the Beats wired, and also tried the Bose QC25s for comparison) I was relying on online reviews before selecting the AH-GC20s; I struggled to find decent reviews of the Denon until I found this forum, so having bought them I thought I’d join and write my own comprehensive review to help others out. I’ve also posted it on Amazon, where I bought them for £199.
This review has been written after about 3 months of ownership with use as described above, including one return bus & short-haul plane journey.
OVERALL DESIGN
They are a little bulky, but not overly so. The cups fold inwards and rotate flat – they need to be folded flat to fit into the hard case. The case does have a moulded interior to ensure they go in correctly, with space for the small pouch of accessories (cable, jack adaptor etc) to fit. They only fold flat in one direction – cups upwards – which is the wrong way around if you want to put them flat around your neck.
When worn they do protrude a little from the side of the head – more so than say the Beats or Ziks – due to the way in which the arms connect to the cans, but not excessively. The bright metal components do make the conspicuous, as does the large Denon logo on the side. Controls are easily accessible on the side of the cans, though the ANC switch is a bit fiddly on the front and the “on” light faces forwards, so everyone can see it.
BUILD QUALITY
Out of the box these feel like a premium product, with plush ear pads/headband and “soft touch” finish to the cans. The metal (I assume aluminium) sections are nicely – but not perfectly – finished. There were a couple of minor blemishes on mine, but not worth the hassle of returning them and I’ll probably pick up worse in-use. By comparison the switches/buttons on the side feel a little plastic-y, but don’t feel like they’re about to fall off.
COMFORT
I find them to be incredibly comfy. They fit over my ears nicely, and even with glasses on I’ve been able to wear them for several hours at a time. They fit firmly without ever being painful. Of course, this will depend on the shape of your head…!
OPERATION/EASE OF USE
The buttons and switches are intuitive to use and easy to get to, once you’ve got the “muscle memory” of where to find them with our thumb. There are 2 separate switches to turn them on and off – one for Bluetooth and one for ANC – which is a bit of a pain and you have to remember to turn both off again when finished, but I guess that’s the price for having the ability to control them independently. I think I’d have preferred a single switch and an automatic mechanism to detect Bluetooth vs wired, especially given the sound quality with ANC off means I can’t see why you would choose to listen in that mode unless the battery was dead anyway (more on that later).
These headphones don’t have the “auto-pause” feature of some (that pauses the music when you remove them), but if you get your grip right them you can tap the pause/play button with your thumb easily as you remove them.
Switching off the Bluetooth can be a little fiddly, by holding the play/pause button in for a few seconds, and the shutdown tone is a little quiet. I’m being very picky here, but a straight on/off switch would be easier, and there’s plenty of room to put one on the left ear cup without over-cluttering the phones.
Note the play/pause/skip/volume controls only work over Bluetooth – they do not function with a wired connection.
SOUND QUALITY
I’d say the sound quality of these headphones (through Bluetooth with ANC on) is excellent, but not amazing or outstanding. I wasn’t blown away by them at the first listen, considering they’re almost 4 times the cost of the Bose in-ears I had before. Of course, the 128kbps quality of my mp3s might have something to do with it (and I no longer have any CDs in the house to do a direct comparison!). I do find them a little bass-heavy. I do like a strong bass and usually listen to music with a ‘Rock’ EQ setting (boosted bass & treble), however, these were a little too strong for me in some cases. Turning off the EQ altogether on my phone worked a treat though, and just let the natural bass response of the headphones give that bass boost. However, they are not muddy; the bass does not distort and the trebles/highs are still clear. In summary, I guess they do have a premium sound to them, but you may need a bit of EQ tweaking to get it to your liking (apologies, I’m not totally familiar with the correct lingo to describe this in terms of “sound stage” etc etc!)
With ANC off the sound quality drops significantly. The bass and mids just seem to disappear and the whole experience is very hollow, to the point that it’s probably worse than my £10 JVC sports earphones. On that basis, I would not be choosing to listen to them with ANC off unless the battery was dead (see more below on ANC performance). Doing a direct comparison of Bluetooth vs wired was a bit trickier, partly due to the fact that the music has to be stopped for a few seconds during the switch. However, I can’t say I notice any real difference between the two, which is good J
BLUETOOTH CONNECTIVITY
Once connected (and initial pairing is easy), the connection seems completely reliable with normal use. I’ve got up to about 10m – in the house with a couple of brick walls in between – before it starts to break up a little, which I guess is about the standard range for Bluetooth.
I do have a couple of niggles though. The first – a very, very minor one - when I first got them, when first hitting play there’s a very slight skip/hiccup at the start of the music (no more than about a half-second) – though it doesn’t seem to be happening any more, so either it’s settled down, there’s been a software update in my phone or I’ve just stopped noticing it!
I connected them to my desktop Mac just to try them out. Worked fine, as you’d expect, however, whenever I turned on the phones in the house thereafter they’d automatically connect to the Mac upstairs, rather than the iPhone sat right next to them. I just de-paired them from the Mac, which isn’t a problem from me, but could be annoying to anyone using them with more than one source on a regular basis.
The third quibble is about the sequence of connecting with my iPhone (6S). If I turn the Bluetooth on my phone first, then switch on the headphones and connect them, the controls seem to connect but not the sound – so pressing play will start the music, and the volume control works, but it plays through the phone speaker rather than the headphones! Switching on the headphones first and then the phone Bluetooth seems to work OK, but would be a pain if you usually keep your phone Bluetooth on. HOWEVER…having just tried it again now, it’s worked fine either way!! I’ve just updated to iOS 9.3 in the past couple of days, so it may have been a phone software issue which has now been fixed, rather than a problem with the Denons (as per the little skip when first hitting play).
ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLING
Let’s be clear: Bose QC25s these are not. That said, the ANC is very good. Around the house, on the bus and on the plane it kills all of the low-mid frequencies nicely. Not quite so good on the higher frequencies. I was sat working in a server room (don’t ask…) and the mid-high frequencies of the cooling fans still same through, as did the higher frequencies of the air con on the aircraft. Overall though it does make a big difference and certainly makes those longer journeys less fatiguing. The advantage of being able to switch the ANC independently of the Bluetooth I guess is you can just use them as a pair of active ear-muffs if you wanted, eg for sleeping.
Bear in my that these will not eliminate more “agile” sounds – eg you can still hear people talking through them, the TV in the background, the tapping of the keys on this keyboard… - all of these sounds are muffled, but not completely silenced. This is no different to the class-leading Bose that I tried, but it’s the constant drones that get cancelled out by the ANC.
With ANC off, the cans seem to amplify every little sound (eg when moving your head about), so combined with the poorer sound quality described earlier, I would only really choose to wear these phones with ANC on.
SOUND LEAKAGE
This was a concern for me (especially given my questionable music tastes) as a few reviewers had quoted that they leak like a sieve. Unfortunately, they do leak quite a bit, though I can’t be sure how this compares to other phones. At mid-volumes in a “normal” environment with a bit of background noise (ie around the house, on the street, around the shops) then I guess they’re absolutely fine and you shouldn’t get too many funny looks from passers-by. However, you won’t want to be sat in a library with these on, as the people next to you will likely start complaining.
BLUETOOTH CALL QUALITY
This isn’t an issue for me as this wasn’t why I bought them, but I did try it out briefly and can confirm that the quality is not great! Good enough for taking the odd call while you’ve got them on, but that’s about it.
BATTERY LIFE
Excellent! I’ve had these since January; it’s now almost April and I’ve only topped them up once (from 70%, just before my long journey) since the original charge, and its still showing 70% now. The battery level is displayed in the notifications area of the phone, but does only seem to deplete in 10% increments. Can’t give an accurate number of hours use per charge, as I haven’t got there yet and have lost count…
DENON iPHONE APP
I downloaded (and paid for) the app to go with them, on the reviews that the EQ system was very good. It is, but I don’t find the app the easiest to use: I can’t find the shuffle function (even though the FAQ section says it’s there!), and it doesn’t play music purchased from iTunes (apparently the latter is an Apple limitation). So I’ve gone back to using the iPhone native music player.
WOULD I BUY AGAIN???
Hmmm….the million dollar question! Overall, if these were the only wireless ANC headphones available in this price bracket would I still shell out £199 to buy them – yes, absolutely. I haven’t summarised the Denons in terms of “pros & cons” as some of the characteristics will be a pro to one and a con to another, depending on how you want to use them, but they do what I need them to do and the quality is very good, with only a couple of very minor niggles that I can live with.
The difficulty here is not having tried all of others, so I have to consider the reasons why I rejected those others from my shortlist in the first place, and how the Denons perform against these traits. With that in mind, if I had my time again, I think I’d give the Beats Studio Wireless a bit more serious consideration. I originally discounted them due to the bass-heavy response and the battery-dependency (ie can’t listen after battery dies) – as it turns out, the Denon are also quite bass-heavy and you wouldn’t really want to listen to them without ANC anyway! 20hrs wired should be ample for even most long-haul flights, with a bit of battery management. Although they may have a more plastic-y look, I almost think this would be more practical for day-to-day use than the soft-touch Denon’s which I’m afraid of damaging (along with the smaller folding size). However, not sure I’d pay £300+ RRP for the Beats – I only considered them as they were on offer at £199 at the time – so on value for money against the RRP price then the Denons probably still have the edge.
