Why You Can Trust CNET Denon AH-D600 review: Denon AH-D600
The Denon AH-D600 headphones are a versatile, good-sounding set of cans that are a solid investment for people who are serious about music.
Denon recently launched 11 new headphones into the Australian market in four "lifestyle categories". The Urban Raver is targeted at a younger audience; the Globe Cruiser range has noise-cancellation and travel features; the Exercise Freaks are wireless and sweat-proof; and the Music Maniac series is designed for a more traditional audiophile. The AH-D600 headphones that we have on test are in the Music Maniacs category — the AH-D600sits in the middle of the range, in terms of pricing and features, between the "ultra-premium" AH-D7100 and the in-ear AH-C400.
Denon AH-D600
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The over-ear design is really quite comfortable, using memory foam with a patented pentagonal shape to the ear-cup design that has it sitting over the whole ear, as opposed to on it. The 50mm drivers pump out solid sound, while the EQ is tuned flat to fit a broader range of music styles.
Bass and treble are emphasised in the D600's, and we found that they sounded particular good with electronica and pop, along with anything requiring a solid bass, including contemporary rock. Other music styles sound fine, but don't get quite the same amount of depth from the cans.
The D600 ships in quite a fancy box with a few additional accessories: a karabiner clip bag, an "on-the-go" cable that features an inline remote and microphone, a 10-foot hi-fi style cable (which is described as "obsessively long") and the all-important audiophile accessory: the gold-plated quarter-inch adapter.
The D600 is "made for iOS", and we found that the remote has pretty limited controls for Android — on the Samsung Galaxy S3 the middle button worked as the play button and to answer calls, with a double click skipping to the next track — neither of the other buttons had any function. It was the same on the HTC One X, although this time, a double-click was for last number redial — something that initially gave us a bit of a surprise when we accidentally dialled someone while testing.
Some might find the size of these headphones a bit large for just walking around in — although, comfort wise, there's definitely no issue; and at just 365g, they certainly won't weigh you down. We thought these also worked very well as a home audio accessory — the 10 foot cord, in particular, will be much appreciated.
At AU$599, they are on the upper end of what people might be prepared to pay. But we think the versatility of use for both mobile and home audio, as well as the high level of comfort and solid and broad sound range, they're capable of make it a worthwhile investment for people serious about their audio.