I’m not made out of money. Neither am I poor. I work assiduously for my five, count ’em, five employers—one of which graces me with a full-time salary and excellent benefits in return for the lion’s share of my professional energy. Given that my employers are all first-class outfits—a major conservatory, a top-tier orchestra, a world-class period-instrument orchestra, a renowned university, and an utterly peerless continuing-education institution—I would have to be a hopeless sap not to be making a solidly comfortable income.
I’m doing just fine and dandy, thank you very much. Nevertheless mine is a middle-class income, I suppose softly upper-middle given my single status and lack of dependants. But I can’t just throw money around like a maharajah or Donald Trump or the latest homicidal sports hero. I can buy myself what I want, as long as my wants remain within bounds. I am not partial to pricey designer drugs (or any drugs for that matter), cars are a means of transportation for me and little else, clothes bore me silly, jewelry brings not the slightest frisson of interest. I’m a cheap date, all things considered.
Where music is concerned, however, I morph from five-dollar floozy into pricey courtesan. I don’t muck around with low-class audio equipment. Fortunately I don’t suffer from the dreaded disease audiophilia nervosa, a tragic state of affairs in which a middle-aged man sinks into an abyss of continuing despair, ever convinced that he could squeeze out just a bit of an improvement via some insanely expensive piece of kit that, in all likelihood, makes no discernible difference whatsoever save a blast crater where his bank account used to be.
But spiffy headphones don’t require mortgage-like expenditures. They’re small and light. They impose no setup or room-acoustic hassles. You can have more than one really good set, swapping according to your mood or the music of the moment.
Now, that isn’t to say that headphones are disease-free acquisitions. High-end audio inevitably induces upward spirals in one’s expectations. Once you have become accustomed to posh cans there’s no going back to white earbuds or cheap-jack over-ear cans that belong on some kid’s crystal radio set. Headphone audiophilia suffers from greener-grass syndrome, too. But at least the grass can be sought at reasonable financial risk. $3K spent on a fine headphone/amplifier combo can render sonic splendor on the level of a $30K speaker-based outfit.
All of this serves as warmup to the announcement that I have acquired yet another set of high-class headphones. All in all my addiction is but a trifling thing, at least compared to some of the really dedicated can-jammers out there. Nor have I been a hoarder about it all; last year I sold off a pair of nearly-new Grado RS1s, knowing full well that I wouldn’t be using them any more. I just don’t like Grados. But I have held on to other sets, such as my Sennheiser HD 600s, because I enjoy giving them a go from time to time, perhaps just to remember how many untold hours of listening pleasure they gave me in years past. In short, I have a fine albeit limited collection of classy cans.
Several years ago I treated myself to a pair of Sennheiser HD 800s, the top of the line from one of the finest of headphone marques, and I have been thrilled with them, especially after adding a pure-copper Cardas cable that ironed out a few trifling wrinkles. Senn800s are masterpieces of the headphone-maker’s art. Their sound signature is impeccable: clear at an almost superhuman level, evenly balanced from lowest to highest frequencies, the soundstage wide and well-defined. Some users criticize them as being a bit cold, a bit overly clinical, and recommend that they be paired with a rich-bodied headphone amplifier such as the pricey Luxman P-1u. Personally I have never found my Senn800s the slightest bit cold as driven by my clear and precise Benchmark DAC1, but at the same time I recognize that Senn800s aren’t necessarily the ideal choice if one’s mood runs more towards the rowdy.
So I decided to balance those Senn800s with another high-end pair featuring a markedly different sonic signature. That’s the Denon AH-D7000, the flagship headphone from this highly-regarded Japanese maker. Buying Japanese audio represents a major leap of faith for me, by the way. On the whole I’m an English/German/East Coast kind of guy.
Denon7000s are closed-back design, meaning the sound doesn’t mix at all with the outside world. (The open-back design of the Senn800s accounts in part for their gigantic soundstage.) Most closed-back cans sound muffled or constricted, but not these. They’re just as clear as they can be, maybe not as transparent as the Senn800s, but with a wonderful high end nonetheless and plenty of air around the instruments. They’re devastatingly attractive, their deep polished mahogany complemented by elegant metal trimmings. They’re light and comfortable.
It’s in the bass register where the Denon7000s really kick some major butt. The Denon engineers managed to create a solid, speaker-like bass without boominess or muddiness, a problem typical of cans designed to juice up the bass. One doesn’t get the sense that the bass is artificially enhanced, but there’s plenty of it, way down to those very low registers that can shiver right through the room. Given that a lack of naturally deep bass is the most common drawback to headphone audio, the bass alone makes these headphones truly remarkable.
The difference in the Senn800 and Denon7000 models lies in an overall aesthetic. If headphones were pianos, Sennheiser HD 800s would be Hamburg Steinways—balanced, powerful, with a smooth tonal signature from lowest to highest notes and a high, penetrating treble. The Denon AH-D7000s are American Steinways—also powerful and rich, with a much more pronounced bass register and a less penetrating treble. The analogy works at an even broader level, given that Hamburg Steinways, like Senn800s, aren’t ideal for pop music or jazz, whereas an American Steinway can do the power stuff easily, just like the Denon7000s.
So a can for every mood. Well, maybe I don’t have a can should my desires turn towards sleazy audio, unlikely though that might be. Or maybe those ghastly Dr. Dre Beats still lurk around here somewhere, in which case I’m set should trailer-trash mode arise.
Denon AH-D7000s: more hot cans chez Foglesong