Earlier this summer, Denon launched some of its very first earbuds with the new PerL series. Pathing a way for itself in an already-crowded market, I’ve been using the new Denon PerL Pro for the past month and can certainly say that there’s enough here to stand out from the pack. The only problem is, all of the personalized listening and ANC tech will cost you a pretty penny at $349.
Hands-on with the new Denon PerL Pro earbuds
Denon first showed off its new Denon PerL Pro earbuds back in June, looking to make a bold re-entry into the space with a long list of flagship features, not to mention a $349 price tag. From the moment I laid eyes on the spec sheet, I was really looking forward to getting a first-hand experience on just how they sound, and over the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to do just that.
But right out of the box, things weren’t looking all too good; at least not in the sound department. I fired up the earbuds and paired them to my iPhone, before throwing on some tunes. Expect, these did not sound like a pair of $349 earbuds – let alone a pair that costs half of that. The default mixing has solid bass, but the mid and high elements of songs were completely overwhelmed and muffled at best. Not a great start.
But then I opened up the companion app and went through the personalization process. I mean, that is one of the whole selling points of the Denon PerL Pro, after all. So back to square one. And the branding really isn’t joking around when it emphasizes the personalized sound, because the difference between what you get right out of the packaging and after a few minutes of tuning is night and day. The Masimo Adaptive Acoustic Technology is the star of the show, and it completely changes how the earbuds sound. Throughout the process, the earbuds blast with different pitches of audio in order to help measure your earbuds for what you can actually hear. It’s a quick process, but oh boy does it pay off.
Enabling the mode completely opened up the soundstage in a way that I really can’t put into words. It’s like how when you use ANC, the world around you fades away – but now the opposite. It completely changes how music sounds, blending the bass far better into the higher melodies to create distinct, and booming audio. That’s made even better with the Spatial Audio support, that makes these some of the most immersive earbuds I have ever listened to.
All that does bring me to a bit of an unfortunate final thought for the sound quality. As technically impressive as the Denon PerL Pro and its sound profile is, I just didn’t find myself in love EQ settings – even with the adaptive tuning enabled. I’ve been playing around with the manual equalizer myself, and have gotten these to sound a bit more to my liking. These are a very bass heavy pair of earbuds, and as well as Denon pulls off that feat, I find myself gravitating more towards the warmer playback of other earbuds I have used lately.
If you like bass-heavy tracks and really want to hear them in higher fidelity, then the PerL Pro are easily going to have the sound profile you’re looking for. Not beating the Bushwick, Brooklyn resident allegations of being a lover of techno tunes, I have to say that these buds absolutely rock for that. But if you’re more of an acoustic enjoyer, the finer subtleties of guitar riffs might be as clean as you’re looking for from the price point.
Great ANC, and even better fit
The Denon PerL Pro are more than just a one trick pony, and also match the Masimo personalization tech with some of the best active noise cancellation I’ve heard. It’s honestly straight up insane compared to even some of the best options I’ve used as of late. Dethroning Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 is a very hard feat to pull off, but I have been so surprised by just how good the PerL Pro perform. But giving the credit to the ANC alone wouldn’t be entirely fair, as the design of the earbuds themselves plays a very big role here.
In order to ensure that these earbuds are as perfectly sealed in your ears as possible, Denon has delivered one of the more unique builds I’ve seen for a pair of buds. The disk form-factor is hardly something you’ll find elsewhere on the market, and the company didn’t just pick it to stand out. Having a larger footprint means that Denon has had more room to work with for delivering the eight outs of battery life it does, and some of the other tech onboard. But it also means that the earbuds can comfortably wedge themselves into your ear.
The PerL Pro have a small rubber pad on the opposite side of the in-ear section that rests against the antihelix of your ear. It took me a little to get acquainted with this style of earbud, but after the past few weeks of daily listening, I see exactly why Denon arrived at the conclusion that it needed to shake things up with a new form-factor. On top of just keeping the buds comfortable for longer listening sessions, having the extra support means that they stay firmly in my ears.
Even without ANC enabled, these buds block out a decent amount of noise, and then flipping on the sound blocking tech only makes it that much better. So while Apple may still be delivering better technology, Denon has found a way to surpass that of the gold standard AirPods 2.
The transparency mode is also very good, but it’s hardly up there with the best of the best. It certainly compensates for how good for a seal the earbuds have on their own without any software at play, but very much still sounds like you’re relying on the built-in microphones. Even with the eight built-in mics, these earbuds are just a few steps away from sounding completely nature.
9to5Toys’ Take
Calling the Denon PerL Pro a mixed bag doesn’t feel quite right, but they certainly aren’t the flawless earbuds you’d expect from a pair that costs $349. These fit somewhere between the new Sony XM5 and the Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 in terms of price, but absolutely blow both out of the water.
There are so many things that the PerL Pro do right, and that Denon deserves a lot of love for. The design is something I expect to start seeing pop up from other brands here, and the mix of ANC with that great fit is going to be a new experience I look to future releases to beat. And even though the mixing might not be exactly for me, I can’t argue with just how good these sound once you actually go through the Masimo AAT personalization process.
Not everyone is going to find the $349 price tag to be worth getting all of that, and even I am still on the fence about it. If you’ve been around the block like I have with earbuds and find yourself wanting something that’s entirely out of the realm of pretty much any other pair of true wireless buds, then I can’t recommend the Denon PerL Pro enough. But if you just want a great pair of earbuds that sound great out of the box, I would definitely recommend reading some of the other earbud reviews I’ve put together lately.
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