Had a long a$$ listen to the 109 Pros today at my local(ish) dealer...like...for more than an hour lol.
Easily...EASILY one of the best deals out there for what you're getting.
The tuning is just beautiful...actually it's better than my OG Focal Clear.
Very open sounding headphone with a nice stage. I didn't think it was super wide but was very spacious.
Imaging was splendid and the treble is really damn good. I suspect that this 109 Pro had been run in a little as a tiny few impressions I heard from other peeps suggested that the treble was "a bit hot" or a little "spicy". To me...it was relatively bright, nicely extended and not fatiguing at all. I guess it's a neutral bright presentation without the harshness.
Mids were lovely. Very effortless with background instruments clearly audible and clean but not shoved in your face for the sake of "hey look at how much detail I can provide you!".
The bass was tight and punchy as well as extending pretty low. The only slight nitpick with the bass is it rolls off a bit maybe below 40hz or so but it's still pretty damn great to me. This is open back too and at this price....can hardly complain lol.
Layering and separation of sounds was good. Not mind blowing but very solid.
Dynamics on the other hand were absolutely superb. I believe it could easily give Focal a run for their money.
Compared to an OG Focal Clear Pro: The 109 Pro is a little brighter but I must stress that the treble was not harsh at all and had no dodgy spikes...at least to my ears...and I'm treble sensitive. The Clear is a little more punchy with slightly more dynamics but not by much.
Mid range I'd say is roughly equal but I may give a slight edge to the 109 Pro cause sometimes the Clears can become ever so slighty shouty with little peaks on it's lower treble...especially with not so well recorded music with baked in sibilance in the recording.
Bass maybe extends a little better below 40hz on the 109 Pro but the Clears bass is more visceral and can be felt more.
As mentioned above...I repeat, that I think the 109 Pro has better tonality than the Clear. It's more open and airier with great dynamic range. Zero bass bleed or mid bass bloat...which doesn't suck.
Compared to a Denon D9200: Heh...I've been desperate to demo these cans literally for years lol. Today I finally got to hear them and I was quite shocked by what I heard. Again....I personally think the tonality and balance of the 109 Pros is better. I will say though that the 9200 had quite possibly the best imaging I've possibly ever heard but that doesn't mean too much cause the only other TOTL cans I've heard are a 2020 Focal Utopia and Abyss 1266TC but this was at Canjam London when it was super noisy most of the time so take this with a grain of salt. Also never heard a HD800S btw.
Mid range was lovely and sweet on both cans but will give the edge to the 9200. The separation on the 9200 is super sexy lol. The highs were a little better on the 109 Pro IMO but prolly not by much. The Denon is also a relatively bright neutral headphone but not as bright as I thought.
Bass was definitely better on the 9200 which was considerably more punchy and extended although this could partially be attributed to the closed back nature of the Denon. The 109 Pro was certainly no slouch, might I add. Actually...it's debatable which of the 2 headphones has the tightest bass as well as the actual quality of it. The textures of both were truly beautiful...that's one thing I'm certain of...at least for me.
I just can't believe the price of the 109 Pros. I expect this thing to sell like hot cakes. The comfort is amazing too which is like a huge bonus. If I didn't splash out recently on a new Gustard X18 DAC and U18 DDC....I would have picked up the 109 Pros in a heartbeat but there's a strong chance I'll pick it up later anyway. Wouldn't even be suprised to see a price hike soon lol.
Btw, all my 109 Pro/Denon D9200 impressions were made on an
RME ADI-2 FS DAC/AMP with zero EQ via Roon.
The comparison of the 109 Pro to my OG Focal Clear Pro is not completely fair though cause I run the Clears on a X18/U18/H16 Gustard stack which I think would sound much better than the RME ADI-2 on it's own. Despite all this...the 109 Pro do some things better than my Clear such as better tonality and better staging. That is quite substantial when I think about it dammit lol
