Just Bought Denon AH-D2000

[morphsci]

Meh, for the cable price difference, you can probably pick up a D5000, maybe even a used D7000. Those already have wood cups, too.

Except that the D5000 to me sounds worse than a recabled D2000 unless of course you prefer listening to your music in a boomy echo chamber. Never heard a D7000, and given its price and the competition, I probably never will. YMMV

[atothex]

Yeah, I don't know what a D7000 sounds like, either. I was just noting that it's somewhat affordable. I've seen new ones for $550, which isn't that different from like a $200 D2000 and $260 APS V3 10' cable.

[Takashi]

Hmmm Thanks for all the great advice headphone addict and other. I do believe i will recable with the apsv3 sometime down the road, but not anytime soon. What I want to do first is lathe some wooden caps for the d2000's. Any suggestion on the wood I should use and/or a description of the sound?

[Takashi]

Oh and I've never seen that Takashi before, My name refers to asian horror film director Takashi Miike.

[HeadphoneAddict]

My wood cups are mahogany with a disc of dynamat on the inside.

[Takashi]

Denons will be here in just a few hours, i'm so excited!!

[Takashi]

And they are here, just as they come I was so excited and spilled water all over the place.. Had to clean it up before listening, will listen and burn these in then give my review.

[Dusty Chalk]

[morphsci]

And they are here, just as they come I was so excited and spilled water all over the place.. Had to clean it up before listening, will listen and burn these in then give my review.

I somehow find this refreshing. Enjoy.

[Takashi]

Out of the Box Denon AH-D2000 Review:

Please keep in mind I am driving these out of my macbook pro with no amp or DAC and no burn in.

Hmmm Since i'm rather enthralled (in a good way) with these headphones I think i'm going to instead of giving a review like, these headphones are amazing, or these headphones suck. I'm going to describe the sound in each genre of music I listen to as i listen. (I do very much love the sound so far but that's as far as i'm going to go with personal opinion)

Genre:

Alternative - Inside a Boy - My Brightest Diamond (Album: A Thousand Shark's Teeth)

Starting with the acoustic guitar I immediately start hearing incredible detail with just 1 instrument, I hear the musicians fingers on the strings. The drums start out and then comes the female voice singing. As instrument upon instrument is added I feel like none are being overshadowed by the other. Very clear distinction between all the instruments. The bass comes and even though I have my EQ bass boosted I feel just the right amount of pure bass produced . The electric guitar sounds great as well. I don't know what else to say.

High points of this song - Female Voice, Violin, Bass

Nexttttt

Rap Slacker - Tech N9ne (Absolute Power)

Let me start by saying that reading many other reviews of these cans, people have said that the bass is clumsy. I'd have to disagree with these statement and now I feel like I won't Markl mod these cans. The bass is true and pure, boomy, but not sloppy, just how i like it . I feel that just the burn in will be enough to mellow and tighten up the bass just perfectly . I feel completely badass listening to this, which is exactly how it should be I think if anything could be improved with the way these cans perform on this long is mabye a bit more clear male voices ( will review more male voices in later songs )

Trance Lots Of Trance Songs

Well these cans definitely shine with all the synthetic sounds and voices of trance. WOW WOWOWOWOW WOWOWOWOWOW when listening to trance I can't stop smiling, these sounds dam good. For Example Tiesto's in search of sunrise 6 and 7 sound spectacular. Such defined detail and perfection, mixed in with the fun of the bass on these headphones. All i can say is WOW. Ridiculous Resonance around my ears ahhhhhh. (Sorry if that was biased, but Wow.. )

Ray Charles

Yes that's right Ray gets own section and you know why? His voice seems to sound better then any other male voice i've heard so far. In terms of being so clear and defined. Cry - Ray Charles, was spectacular, Ray was up on the stage in front of my computer desk, and singing to me. Drilling a hole in my head with his mouth (ew?)

Piano Music/Jazz En la Orilla del Mundo - Charlie Haden and other piano solo's by Philip Glass

I'm trying so hard to find something I don't like about these cans.. but piano music certainly isn't one of them. Just as a typed that sentence a violin chimed in and now i have to say that violins sound so well too.

Apologies if I was repetitive, didn't use audiophile lingo, or anything else that I suck at

Overall impression: With no burn in no amp and no dac, I am extremely impressed with these cans. I find these cans to shine most in Jazz/Classical/Trance/ and female singing alternative rock (haven't tried any hard rock yet) I also believe that the opinion on this forum that the bass is "flabby" is over-exaggerated. The bass seems very defined the word i would use is clear and thumpy.

Well i think i'll end this praise here. I will continue to find something I don't like about these headphones and am looking forward to burning these in and eventually getting a DAC + amp for them

[norfolk]

Drilling a hole in my head with his mouth

I don't have a joke..I just wanted to repeat it.

[morphsci]

I don't have a joke brain ..I just wanted to repeat it be a dipshit.

FTFY

[norfolk]

Just being a smartass, wrong thread methinks.

[Pars]

Just being a smartass, wrong thread board methinks.

FTFY. Might re-read the welcome pm while you're at it...

[norfolk]

While I'm at what..?

I read the welcome PM..I've read the forums regularly for a couple years before registering also. I understand what the board is all about. I'd much rather be a member of this site..than the other one. People say what they want here..without some hidden agenda of trying to sell something. Not exactly sure how I'm supposed to nestle my way in..so, I made a joke. Sorry Takashi. Sorry morphsci. Sorry Pars.

[HeadphoneAddict]

Yeah, I don't know what a D7000 sounds like, either. I was just noting that it's somewhat affordable. I've seen new ones for $550, which isn't that different from like a $200 D2000 and $260 APS V3 10' cable.

The stock D7000 sounded very similar to a D2000 with APS V2 cable and no other mods. We compared the two at the 11/08 Colorado meet and I think everyone was in agreement that they sounded similar and that both have somewhat recessed mids, but with better bass control than a stock D5000/D2000. We also felt the APS V2 D2000 had a little more treble extension than the D7000.

So the re-cabled D2000 are not such a bad deal, but they still have the recessed mids and lower treble, and they can sound dark after listening to an HD600 or Stax and then switching over to the Denon. Both headphones improve noticeably in the mids with the addition of wood cups and stuffed ear pads. At that point my D2000 sounded good enough that I could sell my APS V3 Edition 9 to help pay for my EC ZDT amp, and still have a decent closed can for night time listening.

Of course now I am selling the D2000 to help fund my new LA7000...

[Bolder]

The impedance of the Denon phones are rather low at 24 ohms. To get the most out of them, a solid state amp with a big, stable power supply or a tube amp with an output transformer with be the best match.

I heard these at the recent Colorado Can Jam. The amps I like the best with the Denons were an M3 and the ZDT. YMMV.

[K3cT]

Just a heads-up. It seems that based on some threads in HF, the D2000 has undergone a revision as now it comes with a cable that looks like a stock D5000's one. No idea about whether there is any internal revision or whatsoever. I'm honestly interested to see how these 'new' AH-D2000 sound in stock form.

[K3cT]

And I guess to contribute more to this thread I shall add in my impressions as well. I used to own the D2000 and recabled it with some Kimber 4TC (never again, eventhough there is an improvement but the cable is too stiff for HP use) and performed a variant of the markl mod.

I especially liked the bass response, versatility and comfort. However, the mids were a little bit too recessed for my liking and no matter what I did, I could never truly get rid of the annoying sibilance issue that seemed to occur around the 10kHz spectrum. In the end I sold it to fund for the HF2 which I hope will be worth it.

[Cankin]

I just received one few days ago, and I don't like its sound signature at all. It's going back tomorrow.

[Fungi]

In the end I sold it to fund for the HF2 which I hope will be worth it.

Oh it's worth it.