Frustrated

[Phoney]

I definitely fell prey to that and I'm hoping that if I end up selling what I have that I won't lose any more than a couple hundred bucks. After all the reviews I read on forums, YouTube videos, product websites I expected to have this profound and incredible audio experience but instead I'm finding everything to be "meh" at best in terms of sound. I'm actually okay with the Sony and it sounds great with the ear pods (although not as immersive as a headphone), it's the Denon's that I've found most disappointing.

Yeah the reviews are mostly not to be trusted in this industry. Especially with amplifiers and such, the reviewers will make you think that an amplifier that they test will magically revolutionize your sound when most of them sound pretty much the same.. They're just meant to provide more power. This goes for headphones too, most review sites will not rank a single headphone lower than 7/10 in a 1-10 system.

Especially for closed back headphones theres only so much you can do in terms of sound quality. In the lower end ones there can be significant differences but after you hit a certain price point it will be hard to find something that makes you feel like it's anywhere near worth the price. Then it's mostly about the headphones personality. If price is not an issue at all however, I can also see why some buy a super expensive one even if they just think it's slightly more enjoyable than the way cheaper ones.

 

[animalwithin]

@animalwithin what audio analyzer?

I think I mistook your audio analyzer link as an app to tweak the headphones with, my mistake.

Yeah the reviews are mostly not to be trusted in this industry. Especially with amplifiers and such, the reviewers will make you think that an amplifier that they test will magically revolutionize your sound when most of them sound pretty much the same.. They're just meant to provide more power. This goes for headphones too, most review sites will not rank a single headphone lower than 7/10 in a 1-10 system.

It's not just the review sites but the individual reviews left by people at all the audio retail sights. Based on many dozens of reviews, these Denon's should be perfect in every way. So far for me, they have fallen far short of any review I've read. I'm trying them out with a set of balanced cables tomorrow. If that doesn't work, I'm pretty sure they'll be up for sale.

 

[ZolaIII]

@animalwithin LOL that's a graph of loudness normalization measurement for those hedaphones that you use to make your own EQ in order to compete for roll offs in lows and highs depending how quietly you listen but I doubt it will be more than -12 to 72 dB which is 60 dB. As I don't know how you listen I linked the wiki for loudness hoping reading it will help you put it into dB perspective.
Now I am frustrated.

 

[animalwithin]

@animalwithin LOL that's a graph of loudness normalization for measurement those hedaphones that you use to make your own EQ in order to compete for roll offs in lows and highs depending how quietly you listen but I doubt it will be more than -12 to 72 dB which is 60 dB. As I don't know how you listen I linked the wiki for loudness hoping reading it will help you put it into dB perspective.
Now I am frustrated.

Haha this was supposed to be an enjoyable experience but it's turned out to be anything but that. I'm actually okay with the Sony since it has satisfied all my other DAP criteria but if the balanced cable does nothing for me and more tweaks can't get the Denon's sounding right, I'll sell those and just pick up a cheap pair of headphones and be content with that.

 

[ZolaIII]

Haha this was supposed to be an enjoyable experience but it's turned out to be anything but that. I'm actually okay with the Sony since it has satisfied all my other DAP criteria but if the balanced cable does nothing for me and more tweaks can't get the Denon's sounding right, I'll sell those and just pick up a cheap pair of headphones and be content with that.

Buy a Luxury & Precision W2 dongle as it will use both DAC's in unbalanced output (some 7~8 dB SINAD increase at same reference unbalanced output mesured voltage) if you ever want to hear those Denons driven properly and sory that's as much as you will get close to it portable. Balanced doesn't have much sense for hedaphones which aren't; planar, electrostatic (but those come with their own amp anyway) and dynamic over 100 Ohm's impedance. Walkman is bad but then again DAP's are and even HiBy R3Pro won't be good enough (has two same DAC's as W2 but can't use both of them in unbalanced mode as W2 can).
Do how you please keeping/selling what you got but please read and learn at least basics before you buy anything else.