If you’re into audio, then you’d know of the brand Denon as they are rather established in terms of their audio receivers. From making headphones, the brand has now charted into the true wireless earbuds territory with the Denon Perl Pro. The Denon Perl Pro is a flagship level earbuds priced at S$499.
Unboxing
Here’s what you’ll find in the box:
- Denon Perl Pro earbuds
- Charging case
- USB-A to USB-C cable
- Ear tips: XS/S/M/L/Foam
- Ear wings: M/L
- User manual
Build quality and features
On first look the Denon Perl Pro is unlike any true wireless earbuds that I have tested. The Denon Perl Pro has a unique circular shape faceplate that has a shiny metal trim along the housing to give it a premium finish. Some may find the size of the earbuds to be bulky, but the size doesn’t bother me. I do like the matte plastic they used on the touch surface as well. Overall, the earbuds has a elegant design that I appreciate the more I use it.
The case on the other hand, is more regular looking. Nothing too special – matte black plastic with a well-tension hinge that opens clamshell, with the Denon branding located on the top. Build quality of both the case and earbuds is great, and definitely feels like flagship product. My only small complain is that the earbuds can be a little tough to remove from the case as their isn’t much gap for my fingers to dislodge it.
Denon Perl Pro has an IPX4 water-resistance rating so it is weather and sweat resistant just in case you’re planning to use this for your workouts.
Controls
Denon Perl Pro uses touch controls, of which the surface is located in the middle of the faceplate which is good as adjusting the fit won’t accidentally trigger any controls. The touch controls are responsive, each tap offering an soft audio cue. There are also wear sensors on the Denon Perl Pro which enables the auto play/pause feature (which can be turned off if you don’t like it).
If you don’t like the default setting of touch controls, you can customise them rather freely using the Denon app.
Denon App
While you can skip using companion apps on some earbuds, I recommend you not to use the Denon Perl Pro without the Denon app. Main reason is because of the ‘Personalised Sound’ feature using Masimo Adaptive Acoustic Technology to create a unique hearing profile for you.
The setup process for to create your personalised sound profile takes a few minutes and beeping sounds and you will get an output for each ear. There is no fine tuning or adjustments that you can do with the AAT output. You either accept it or re-do the analysis.
If you find the AAT output to still be lacking, Denon has a ProEQ setting where you can adjust the frequency curve in its 5 bars. Alternatively, you can adjust the slider on the Immersion Mode – the higher you go, the deeper your bass resonance.
Sound quality and ‘Spatial Audio’
Funnily enough I found the Default mode to sound too airy, with an over-emphasis on the mids making it sound slightly echoey. But this first impression does say something about its soundstage – it’s big and wide. I used the Adaptive Acoustic Technology to get my very own unique hearing profile, and the result was impressive.
Bass on the Denon Perl Pro was full and well-defined in every hit. Each punch is clean and control is evident here as bass never seems to bleed into the mids. Sub-bass offers depth and ample resonance depending on how far right you want to push the Immersion Mode meter. Midrange is detailed accompanied with slight warmth to add body to the mix. Delivery of vocals and instruments is smooth and well-layered. Treble extension here is slightly tame but there are occasional moments of sparkle that lends a hand to the female vocals.
Even without enabling the “Spatial Audio” feature, the soundstage on the Denon Perl Pro feels wide and open. Spaces between the instruments can be felt. I like how “Spatial Audio” doesn’t significantly alter the audio signature like some other earbuds do when they introduce a 3D sound. Instead “Spatial Audio” kind of lifts the track up giving it more room to expand. The concept feels like Creative’s SXFI but it is more subtle, so you get less of an echoey feel to the feel. The end result is a more spherical feel to the sound that the original linear wideness if you will.
A caveat here is that your experience with the AAT result will likely be different than mine since your ears are different. There is some gamble here of trusting what AAT produces, but what the Denon Perl Pro has is a solid foundation which should be able let you tweak to the sound for an enjoyable audio experience. Besides, soundstage is something that you can’t tweak.
Fit and comfort
Despite the large size of the Denon Perl Pro, they do fit quite well in my ears thanks to the well-designed curves and use of ear wings to secure the fit in my ears. The ear tips are important in ensuring you get a good seal and fit, while the ear wings helped to lock in the hold in the ears. Denon provided four sizes to choose from, as well as a foam option which is appreciated. The ‘M’ size worked the best for me.
The nozzles of the Denon Perl Pro doesn’t go too deep so I found overall fit unobtrusive. The fit does rely on quite heavily on the combination of the ear tips and wings to stay secure in my ears. The fit is generally comfortable, but if you prefer a more “light touch” snug feel then the Denon Perl Pro may not give you that.
ANC performance
Before going into the performance, I found it quite surprisingly that there is no way to turn off the ANC using the earbuds itself. You can only turn it on/off via the app. Having said that I don’t usually turn off the ANC on my earbuds unless I want to be aware of my surroundings. And in this case, Denon wants you to use its “Social” mode which somewhat like a subdued transparency mode that lets in noise and reduces the music volume.
As for the ANC performance, I’d say the effectiveness is good but just below that of the AirPods Pro’s ability to cancel noise. Low frequency noises such as engine rumble on buses are eliminated easily but higher pitched noises such as rail squeals and chatter aren’t removed as well as on the AirPods Pro. The Denon Perl Pro‘s ANC is Adaptive compared to the a regular ANC on its young sibling Perl. I was able experience first-hand the slight increase in intensity as I suddenly blasted loud noise on my speakers in a quiet room, where the Denon Perl Pro compensated for it after 2 seconds. No ability in the app to set a fixed intensity so you’d have to trust Denon on their algorithms.
Microphone quality
Microphone quality of the Denon Perl Pro is above average. Voice reproduction is clear and forward. Clarity is there but it could be better, as it sounds as though there is some sort of filter where my voice has to pass through. The output reminds me of the Technics EAH-AZ80, where it kind of makes my voice sound a little processed. Having said that it’s just because I compared to better microphone performance as such the AirPods or Huawei FreeBuds where voice sounds “cleaner” if you will. Denon Perl Pro is able to combat noise decently well, keeping my voice isolated while noises are kept loitering softly at the back.
Battery life
The Denon Perl Pro is expected to last up to 8 hours on a single charge, which to me is long enough to use in a single sitting. You can get an extra 24 hours with the charging case. You can charge the Denon Perl Pro wired via USB-C or wirelessly with an Qi-wireless charger. There is a quick charge feature which gives you 60 minutes of playtime with just 5 minutes of charging. The case only takes 1 hour to fully juice up which is convenient.
Pairing, connectivity, and latency
Denon Perl Pro uses the latest Bluetooth 5.3 technology and it pairs to my iPhone was very quickly as a single unit. During my time of testing, I did not experience any connection issues. There were also no audio-video sync lag when watching videos from the YouTube app on my iPhone 11. As far as audio codecs go, the Denon Perl Pro supports a whole suite: aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive, aptX Classic, AAC, SBC. aptX Loseless allows you to stream uncompressed audio over Bluetooth, but do note only Android phones support such codecs.
You can use either the left or right earbud if you just want to wear one for usage. As with all flagship true wireless earbuds these days, multipoint pairing has become an expected feature. You can connect the Denon Perl Pro to 2 devices at the same time and the audio output will automatically be switched to device that plays media.
Conclusion
The Denon Perl Pro is for you if you prioritise sound quality in a pair of true wireless earbuds over anything else. The sound quality along with its soundstage sets it apart from other flagships. It is however, more bulky and lacks transparency mode. At S$499, it is a steep price but if sound is your number one priority the Denon Perl Pro is one of the best in the market.