The Denon D7200 is perhaps the least divisive closed-back headphone in the HiFi community, and the first impression explains why: the Denon D7200 simply sounds good.
I’ve spent many hours listening to it with a variety of tracks, searching for flaws, as it’s always fun to uncover them. However, I had to give up because it does everything it needs to for its category, and it does it well. In fact, considering its price of around 600 euros, it probably outperforms the category just above it. It doesn’t excel in any particular aspect, but it does everything exceptionally well. The bass is rich and adequately controlled, aided by the closed-back design. My initial impression hinted otherwise, but when I played my bass reference tracks, I had to rethink. The soundstage is decently present; the sound remains within the circumference of your head but not inside it, allowing for a stage that’s not huge but sufficient to separate and place the instruments correctly.
In direct comparison with some higher-tier headphones, it tries to leverage its strengths and loses with much dignity. The tone is what you’d expect from the name: warm but not excessively so, clear but not overly, detailed but not excessively. These characteristics give it an overall pleasantness and smoothness that lets you wear them and listen to music for hours on end, literally endlessly without getting tired.
I call them My-Fi because the signature is evident, and to make them so enjoyable and pleasing to listen to, it was necessary to soften something, sacrificing a bit of detail, but never did I feel anything was missing.
Things change if you raise the bar. I wouldn’t consider them “audiophile” headphones, but it’s almost too obvious to call them headphones that you can always use with the certainty that they won’t disappoint you. They can handle demanding and difficult tracks; when put to the test, they can stand their ground unless you have higher-tier headphones already in your ears, you won’t notice their limits much.
In reference binaural recordings, their true My-Fi nature shines through. Where they should trick the brain and provide unsettling realism, they instead deliver their pleasantly sounding audio. The percussion brushes sound beautiful but not realistic. The percussion and vocals are the same, which is why I definitively classify them as well-sounding My-Fi headphones, with all the dignity that Denon’s choice deserves. Although they couldn’t fool the brain with binaural recordings, they at least managed to make the listening experience gratifying without any shortcomings.
In conclusion, these headphones are recommendable to anyone who wants to be sure not to make a fool of themselves and they’ll sound frighteningly good for the novice, and at least entertaining for the audiophile who can recognize their limitations in absolute terms but will still say “it’s alright.”
They’ve made it to my recommended purchase list.