Denon AH-D5000 Reference Headphones (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

These headphones are somethng really special. i have had these headphones now for the last one month and have been burning them in extensively and there are noticeable differences as these headphones burn in.let me start off in an organised fashion in my reviewaesthetics- very pleasing and the wooden mahogany alone is worth the upgrade from the denon ah2000. the beautiful mahogany is soul pleasing and i love it.it gives it a very aesthetically pleasing look which is quite a head turner for others and for me blares QUALITY!very high end metal band with aluminium if im not mistaken and leather clothing of the band. the mahogany is serious high quality.performance- very nice sound, deep bass, controlled, tight and high class.the bass is getting better as the burn in progresses. it has the function of a good woofer as well as an accompanying subwoofer effect. so this really fills all frequencies of the lower variety. i like the 200hz and way lower effect that its able to create, i feel to about 50hz. and the woofer beat at 200hz packs a wallop. satisfying.now the mids and the highs are special, with intense clarity and matching the bass in the high end sound variety. they run circles around my other headphones including some audio technica moniotor and dj headphones..really i cant stress how they are able to bring the mids and highs to life, creating a soundstage which is really scintillating and your audio neurons are richly rewarded with some high end and clean electrical energy. your ears simply dont fatigue and the neurons keep firing electrically without tire.a very rich experience indeed for me.also an important observation i have made is that these phones with their mini jack function sonically with no difference from an high end amplified sound. i have seen no difference between wave and an adequately sourced mp3. anything recorded properly with 128 bit and above encoding can sound quite good. you do not need external amping with this headphone and my iPod, computer asus realtek hd soundcard, denon stereo 85wX2 pma700ae, blackberry curve all sound pretty good.BLU-RAY movies are exceptional with HDMI OUT. so don't worry about the source music too much. sounds good with all varieties of music including techno, trance, hip hop, jazz and anything you can throw at it.comfort- exceedingly comfortable leather and these are my first high end headphones and i dont have too much experience with high end headphones and i consider myself a beginner and am highly indebted to all the reviewers on amazon. the leather as mentioned by most reviewers is very soft and there is no ear pain after long term wear.drawback - the only reason that i didn't give it 5 stars even though i wanted to, was because of the very delicate nature of the very much appreciated extra long music cord. it started to fray from the first day on. you have to be very careful with this "mile" long cord.what can i say the prices and delivery from amazon are the best and i recommend these headphones to anyone interested in a reasonably priced high end experience, and im sure to reproduce this sonic experience with external audio equipment might lead to thousands of dollars of audio equipment.Dec, 2011update---well i have to say that i have matured in my musical tastes and their power requirements...Previously i had said that amps and no amps sound the same...these headphones are powerful and even with my Denon Home amp they sound awesome. now i have ordered a DAC,,Asus essence One DAC with a headphone amp, and its supposed to take sound to the next level for both of my systems... Cant wait to get it and i will keep all of you informed. People ans sound change over time but these Denons are still the best out there so far...Amps are the way to go with DACS and then youre all set..the bass from these power hungry babies is enough to bathe me in soft reverberating smooth bass back into my mother's womb...Ah the enclosure is perfect i have to say....Sept 2012Update ---have been listening to them for almost 2 years and they have only gotten better with time. With the ASus headphone amp that I'm using, the sound is unbelievable....please people get a headphone amp and flac files...wave and HD sound is even better...a great experience every time..

It is difficult to add any new aspects to the long list of reviews already posted, but I'll try. Let it be stated beforehand that I only listen to classical music, mostly orchestral and choral, and that my aging ears still are able to receive a lot of the higher frequencies. I have the Sennheiser 595 and the AKG K 701, but find the former somewhat muddy, the latter analytical to the point of being cold and sterile. My favorite `phones for all genres are the Beyer DT 880. When I ordered the Denon AH-D5000, I had done some research and hoped for a noticeable improvement in definition and transients, where I find the Beyers lacking on occasion. The Denons came in their flimsy packaging, I was also not impressed by the cord that reminds me of olden-days appliance cords. Out of the box, they sounded fairly decent, but I did the usual breaking-in (connected them to a Sony CD player's headphones outlet and ran them for about 120 hours). When I gave them their first serious listen with some favorite Dvorak, Beethoven and Mahler, I was more than pleasantly impressed: the soundstage is deep, realistic, instrumental timbres are natural, dynamics and transients excellent. As opposed to some of my fellow reviewers, I did not find the bass overly pronounced: it is tight (listen to timpani and the double bass section when it comes to the fore), well defined and crisp, but not overwhelming. All in all, I consider the balance of the full orchestral spectrum near ideal. There are some minor quibbles with vocals, particularly the soprano register sounds a bit brittle and glassy, but I hope that after a more lengthy breaking in these will even out. Yes, the `phones are unforgiving as they pick up every edit in the recording, every stomping on the podium and assorted noises in the orchestra and audience. Yet they let you hear all this (it is in the recording, after all!) without unpleasantly spotlighting anything as the AKGs do in their quasi-microscopic acoustic ambience. These are headphones to behold, well worth their price.

This is the first pair of high end audiophile grade headphones I've purchased. I was deciding between these and the sennheiser HD650s, and I do not regret my decision one bit in getting these. Their prices seem to go up and down all the time, I got them in at about 450.Pros:If you want an attractive looking, closed can design these are great! They are honestly the most comfortable pair I have ever had one. The pressure is just perfect and I can wear them for hours and not feel any fatigue with them. While these may not have the sterile flat response of other headphones, they are extremely enjoyable to listen to. I listen to a wide variety of classical, rock, and sometimes electronic and it excels at each. With the closed cans you can at least listen to music in a public location without disturbing others.Cons:The packaging they come with is rather cheap for an expensive set of cans. I wish it came with a nice soft pouch to store them in for transporting around.Notes:Since their impedance is only 25 ohms you don't need an amp if you want to drive them from a headphone jack from a laptop or phone. Which is great if I can't lug my heavy headphone amp around sometimes. However, I have built my own DAC and headphone amp, and WOW it sounds great coming out of the pair! For anyone interested it is the y2 DAC and the CKKIII amplifier from amb.org that I built.

I cannot emphasize enough just how important it is to let these 5000 unit headphones "burn-in," as the pro's say. A lot of rubbish and nonsense is spoken by techno-geeks but it really is true. They change alot after a few hundred hours of listening, and much to the better. But these. They are great but use you intelligence guys, they're not gonna be much better from an ipod on 128 KPS are they? Give them what they deserve and put some signal through them and you will know that it is money well-spent.