Review: Denon AH-D600 Music Maniac

Earlier this year, Denon announced it was in the process of completely revamping its headphone line-up. The Japanese manufacturer – which has been in the audio equipment business since 1910 – has since emerged from its cocoon with an entirely new collection of headphones designed for at-home and mobile listening.

One of the fruits of this brand revitalization is the AH-D600 headphone, which falls under the company's "Music Maniac" banner – headphones for audiophiles who do most of their listening in controlled environments. They're too bulky to qualify as commute-worthy travel headphones, but they are an excellent choice for working at your desk, relaxing on the couch, or – using Denon's companion apps for Android and iOS – spending quality time with your tablet.

They score low points for visual flair and thrift, but they make up for it where it counts: the sound, which is excellent, and the comfort, which is phenomenal.Let's set expectations: They ain't pretty and they ain't cheap. The closed, over-the-ear design is bulbous, and the styling is gaudy, with lots of plastic. And they will set you back between $400 and $500, which isn't that expensive for audiophile-grade headphones, but still too expensive for the masses.

They score low points for visual flair and thrift, but they make up for it where it counts: the sound, which is excellent, and the comfort, which is phenomenal.

The AH-D600 are relatively flat and uncolored overall. The middle frequencies are dialed in just about perfectly. The bass isn't over-represented, which surprised me, given the 50-millimeter drivers and the abundant cavity space in the earcups.

If there's one place where some coloring is evident, it's in the highs, which aren't super-detailed. This also goes against expectations – headphones branded as "audiophile," as these are, usually have crystal-clear highs. But too much high end can cause ear fatigue, making the headphone a chore to listen to for long periods of time. So, I actually found myself preferring the mellower high frequencies these Denons offer. There's still plenty of shimmer, but they're rolled off pretty hard in the upper-upper regions. I especially noticed this when listening to 320k MP3 rips, since those faint whiffs of lossy compression in the high end that would drive me nuts in a more clinical reference headphone are reduced or eliminated here.

I don't think it's Denon's intention to sell you a headphone that's been dumbed-down, just one that's been slightly tuned to be more accessible. I see this as a good thing.

Another big win for accessibility: the fit. They may not look it, but the D600s are ridiculously cushy. The leather-covered, memory-foam earpads are pentagon-shaped, which lets them fully envelop your ears without putting pressure on your jaw. They feel heavy and bulky if you're moving around, but if you're sitting still, they feel splendid. The leather-covered headband doesn't have a lot of clamping force, and again, that's something you only notice if you're walking around a lot. When testing them at my desk, I wore them for hours and hours at a time, sometimes all day. They never made me tired, and my ears never got swampy. Walking around the neighborhood, I was making tiny adjustments every few minutes.

They're made for the home, so of course they sounded best plugged into an amp (I used an Apex Butte, my new favorite compact headphone amp). But they also excelled on mobile devices. These are fully modern headphones – they're not super thirsty (25 ohms), so they work just fine plugged directly into a phone; they have a mic/remote assembly on the cord for taking calls, though I could only get the remote to work on my iPhone, not on a Galaxy Nexus. There's also a companion Denon Audio app, which acts as an alternative to the built-in music players in iOS and Android. It plays all the tracks stored on your mobile, and it supports TuneIn, so it doubles as an internet radio tuner.

The coolest bit, though, is the real-time spectrum analyzer. You can apply a variety of EQ settings, then adjust the curves visually by dragging the points around on top of the animated graph. You can save your favorite preset curves, and even share them, provided you have friends who get excited about EQ curves. (Nnerrds!) The app is free, and you don't need to own Denon's headphones to use it – though it will periodically show a pop-up ad reminding you that Denon does in fact sell headphones. Annoying.

While the AH-D600s may not be the best headphones you can buy for $500 (I'd give that honor to the Sennheiser HD 650s or Senny's new Momentum, which are around $100 less) they do have enough going for them that I can recommend them. They're very comfortable, the closed-back design makes them perfect for the office or some other environment where open-air headphones aren't practical, and they sound great plugged right into your phone.

WIRED Great sound from the 50-millimeter nanofiber driver. Oversized, fully articulated earcups with pentagonal, stitched-leather pads offer supreme comfort and noise isolation. Cables detach, and you get two in the box: one 3-footer with the 3-button mic, one 10-footer without.

TIRED They aren't as bright as other audiophile headphones, which makes them seem less lively. Not enough clamping force to walking around – these 'phones are for a-sittin'. You have to flip a lot of burgers to save up $500. Only a one-year warranty.