PerL Pro True Wireless Earbuds - Adaptive Active Headphones Wireless Noise Canceling, Masimo Adaptive Acoustic Technology, Spatial Audio, 32Hr Battery Life, Wirefree Charging, Black

Just after the Sennheiser True Wireless Momentum 4 earbuds dethroned my Bose QC Ultra earbuds, mainly for the wireless charging case and punchy sound, the Denon Perl Pro came on sale. What was I supposed to do than to try this mythical contender that's relatively hard to find in the wild? Anyway, my home entertainment system is completely Denon and it never let me down. What really sparked my interest beyond that, however, is the fantastic smart speaker Home 250 which impresses me with the crystal clear sound, even compared to an Amazon Echo Studio and Bose Portable Smart Speaker in the same household. So, time to try out the Denon Perl Pro, with the 'Pro' being important for lossless codec support and custom sound profiles. The Denon Perl Pro is visually very similar to the standard model. The charging case is smaller than the Bose QC Ultra and the Sennheiser TWM4, but still larger than the Apple AirPods Pro 2. That may matter more to some than others. However, the Bose QC Ultra case being the only one of the mentioned examples that doesn't charge wirelessly despite feeling arguably the largest. Where the Denon case fails, however, is the ergonomics of removing the earbuds from it. It's easily the worst ergonomics of all four examples. Not a deal breaker but feels like an oversight nevertheless. The size and weight of the earbuds are sometimes mentioned as a negative. Neither bother me much, but if those criteria are important to you, it may be the main reason to look elsewhere. Maybe make sure to actually try them as this is a rather subjective thing. The large circular design sure looks different. The fit out of the box suits me just fine, just like the Bose and the Sennheiser. That is something I cannot say about the AirPods which never really fit me well. The touch buttons can be customized, with one odd difference: Tap-and-hold is reserved to reset/restart the earbuds, a unique feature, but also unavailable to the common "Volume Up/Down" function. The Tap-tap-hold is less intuitive and not always easy to execute. The iPhone app is decent, even if a bit temperamental, as the earbuds shut down in the case and become invisible to the app. Reconnecting then takes a few seconds, by far longer than any of the other earbuds I own. Once connected, you get basic settings in the home screen and most options are hidden away in the settings. There is no conversation awareness, a specialty of the AirPods, but spatial audio, environmental awareness (pass thru) are. The latter isn't configurable as to how to mix the environment with the music, but the spatial audio is easily the best I have heard so far. This is mostly since it doesn't try too hard to fake space, but is a subtle impact. That also means that audio quality actually improves, unlike the Bose QC Ultra implementation that's best when turned off. The ANC performance of the Bose QC Ultra (and AirPod Pro 2) are unmatched by the Denon Perl Pro (and the Sennheiser TWM4), but fairly useful in normal use. I don't use earbuds for making calls and cannot comment on the microphones in either of these earbuds. THE stand-out feature of the Denon Perl Pro is the Advanced Acoustic Technology (AAT). What sounds like a marketing term is surprisingly effective. The app plays sounds and measures "how you hear music". That's nothing short of black magic and sure worth a skeptical eye. The already good sounding earbuds really come alive with a customized profile. It was truly jaw-dropping how much more dynamic these sound with the personalized profile activated. Up to three profiles can be defined and stored. Just make sure to follow instructions to get a good seal and be quiet during the measurement. For me, the deciding factor was the deal during Prime Day(s) to give it a try and I do not regret it. It's easily one of my favorite earbuds. At full price it may still be a good choice, but less of a slam dunk.

Aint no joke. I have been an audiophile journalist for over 20 years. I recently retired. I have experienced 90% of the flagship full size models out there from Audeze, to Sennheiser and Abyss, and back again. After I retired, I said I want to go back to the best of the best and keep those, as I had a massive Flagship collection. I ended up keeping the Koss ESP95x electrostatic rig, the Audeze LCD4, and the TH-900MK1 from Fostex that I had modded with a detachable cable. After homing the LCD4 for a few months and being absolutely addicted by it, I wanted a portable LCD4. Everyone said thats not possible. I said give it a year, someone will make something. And lo' and behold, Denon rises. This IEM sounds just like the Audeze LCD4, which is the best non electrostatic Audeze ever made, IMO. Its warm, musical, fun, thick, weighted, and has good imaging sound staging. All of that actually rivals multi thousand dollar custom IEMs that I had and I sold all of them the second I heard this. I currently have no iems anymore, I have one set of regular wired earbuds for working out, and then there is the PerlPro. This headphone is wildly underrated, and punches so far above its weight in price to performance that I am just beyond shocked that Denon has not improved it with a new gen model after this 2nd edition. Yes, its really that good after you setup its custom EQ for your ears in the app. After that, set the EQ with a small bass boost and wow, this is just a portable LCD4 for $180. The bass is insanely responsive, meaning you can EQ it a lot and it actually will add more in, or less, and not degrade the quality of the experience. Its highly responsive in that nature. Treble is certainly the weakness but overall this is one of the best, if not THE best non custom IEM in the world. Bass is unrivaled, IMO. I have not heard another IEM that does bass like this. Well textured, musical, fun, its not a fast snappy bass, its meant to linger and be slow, its not clinical, or analytical. If you want that, this IEM is not for you.

They have a very good sound, even without an equalizer. These are the first headphones of this type in which I use an equalizer to a minimum extent. The ear tips are made of a material that causes severe discomfort in my ears. Despite the good seal, after an hour of use I start to feel significant discomfort. After another hour, I stop listening because of the intense burning sensation. I don't have this problem with MTW3/MTW4. Additionally, wings adapters are more of a hindrance than they are helpful in my case. After removing the wings adapters and replacing the ear tips with spinfit ones, I can use them all day without any problems. The batteries work great, 9.5 hours at 50% volume in normal settings, not in the eco version. Taking them out of the charging case and putting them in your ears is not pleasant. Because they have slippery and round edges. You can't turn off the sound signals completely, and you can't deactivate ANC without transparency mode. These two functions work together, I hate ANC so I don't have transparency mode either. The rest of the touch functions can be set, but according to Denon rules, not like in MTW3/MTW4. They have a very good Bluetooth range, better than MTW3/MTW4.The application also works very well, although it loads very slowly. Which one would I choose between MTW3/ MTW4? A difficult decision when it comes to practicality in use without modifications and the price, certainly MTW3, not MTW4, in which senncheiser has worsened the sound quality in new models. Why did this happen? I'm not sure, maybe it was to reduce white noise in transparency mode? For me, better sound is more important than light white noise. It can be compared to Dolby B in old tape recorders. I have never used this function except to test how it works. Because it worsened the sound quality and reduced the noise in return. Everyone must decide personally what is more important to them. The first pair of DENON headphones came defective, one of the headphones had humming and noise when the ANC function was turned on. I probably wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for the fact that this function activates itself during the sound profile settings. The next couple doesn't have this problem. Additionally, when using ANC, the bass is clearly boosted, but ANC does not activate itself the next time you turn on these headphones. This was the case with the Sony WF-1000XM3 and this function could only be turned off from the application. That's why, among other things, I also said goodbye to Sony forever, because I believe that using a product should be a pleasure and not a fight against the manufacturers' ideas. Update: Unfortunately, after all the tests, the result dropped to one star. Because all seven sets of these headphones that I tested had faulty microphones or electronics on one side. Why didn't I write about this earlier? Because I very rarely use the phone call function through headphones. I discovered this only when the phone rang while I was listening to music. The person on the other end couldn't understand what I was saying so I thought there might be a problem with pairing. I restarted the headphones but it didn't help, so I restarted the phone but it didn't help either. I did everything I could to rule out faulty headphones but nothing helped. So I tested both headphones on the dictaphone in the phone and it turned out that one side was faulty. When I use the good headphones, phone calls and recordings on the dictaphone sound very good. When I use the faulty one, the sound is very muffled. After connecting the faulty headphone and the good one, the faulty one interferes with the work of the good one and the sound is muffled again despite the fact that the good headphone is also working at the same time. On top of all this, you can't use the application without connecting to the Denon server. I thought it was just a trick but no, it really happens. The ear canal test is complete nonsense. I swapped the headphones in my ears from the left to the right side and the graph was the same despite changing ears in all seven sets I tested. Denon as you probably guessed this is my last attempt at these and other models of your company's headphones.

TLDR: These are great earbuds and I don't think anyone will be disappointed with them, but their not perfect SOUND: 8.5/10 - They really do sound awesome, but... You have to go through the personalization, and better try it a few times to get it perfect. I also created profiles while on the bus and a crowded street, and I use them in those situations. So you really kind of get multiple earbuds with these. The sound is rich and full of life, deep base, clarity throughout the spectrum. I really think they bring music to life and provide a fun listening experience. So why 8.5? As amazing as they sound, their processing gives me a feel of too good to be true, so in a sense they lack transparency. I understand why some people would actually find this a good thing and say wow. To me, being used to studio grade equipment, they lack some transparency due to this. ANC: If you're one of these people that ANC gives you a feeling your head is being crushed, these might be for you. It's a relatively mild ANC, so it does not give me that painful feeling and it does a good job filtering out background noise. They're definitely not as strong as Bose/Sony, but for me that's a good thing. FIT: 8/10 - It took some tweaking but I got to a point they're quite comfortable. I don't think I can wear them for more than 2-3h straight though. Do note you need to learn how to put them in. They fell out of my ear till I did. QUALITY: 6/10 - The first time I used them they fell out of my ear and the outer silver ring broke. I had them replaced. The 2nd pair had a charging issue with the left bud, that disappeared before I managed to return them. I might just be unlucky but these two incidents are odd. To sum up, if you like the processes sound, I think they're really great. But I haven't compared them to other headsets.

These headphones are great nine out of 10 quality probably one of the best. I think the looks are different. Not a bad thing. They fit really well and sound. Isolation is really really good. I think the qualities amazing the base is really good, which is hard to find it’s warm the crisp trouble The InBetween is slightly weak, but really, really good. ANC is amazing cause it fits really good. I think the bill qualities is great. I think the small design features such as the lights on the case are really good. The fit is surprisingly good considering it’s looks honestly really really good headphones definitely worth the price. I’d put them up there with the Senn hires in the Sony’s for more than double the price and they blow the Bose out of the water.

These sound great, and if you get them at a discount and are just looking for great sound you won't be disappointed. However, if you at all expect quite frankly the bare minimum in general lifestyle usage these are some of the worst offerings on the market. Let me explain. First key issue is transparency mode, basically unusable and one of the worst implementations I've ever experienced in a modern set of wireless earbuds. Basically the world's most aggressive and slowest form of automatic compensation to reduce loud sounds have been introduced, the issue is it's triggering on things that don't warrant it with an all or nothing approach. Essentially if you're listening to something while in a car, every single little bump you hit from cracks in the road will shut off the pass through for a moment and slowly bring it back up. Close a door and suddenly it kicks in, someone coughs in the room it kicks in, set something down a little too hard and you guessed it, it kicks in. I scratch my ear and I'm without transparency on that ear until it decides I've earned it again. I cannot walk down a set of friggin stairs without the pass through compensation kicking in. There is ZERO way to adjust this, and as someone that makes such high use of pass through modes I simply cannot daily drive these and that alone knocks off 2 stars. It's losing another star in just pure lack of features and or oddities. The ear measurement is cool but sitting in the exact same quiet environment taking tests back to back gave me differing results, additionally you cannot customize or fine tune your actual measurement which is annoying when one side is audibly balanced different. Issues with audio latency on videos is unacceptable despite using AptX, a pathetic 5 band EQ (basically mid range customization) that only allows bass adjustments through a heavy handed algorithm. I've had enough with the damn algorithm sliders on modern earbuds just add more bands to customize. If a startup like Nothing Tech can figure out how to do it right I'd expect a company like Masimo to as well, there's simply no excuse. Lastly, the connection range on these is exceptionally poor, one room over at best but stray any further and the connection is gone. Any flagship offering I've used can nearly stay connected at any point in my house regardless of distance from the source, for a product that launched as high as or equal in price to the Sony and Bose flagships on offer around the same time. The price at the end of the day is irrelevant, when they are so lacking in features they could sell for double digit prices and I'd still rate them the same. From a listening to music at a standstill in a quiet environment with proper measurements standpoint they're phenomenal, but as a full package these are some of the worst I've ever used period, these shortcomings have no excuse leaving you as a consumer with a less than half baked product. Denon needs to hit the lab, and I mean really hit it and develop the actual full package instead of saying they have it. There are $50 earbuds offerings that while in music listening can't match up, but obliterate the Perl Pro's in every other category.

nabbed them for open box price around $100. Absolute steal. Not totally convinced by the custom sound profile, which could be tricking the user with an intentionally terrible frequency response, which makes the custom profile seem technology seem more legitimate than it is. I'm basing this off the fact that they it sounded much better just paired up to Bluetooth without the app. So whatever my custom profile was using for comparison was something other than a stock setup; in my opinion it was intentionally compromised as a means to highlight the relative improvement from terrible to fairly decent. However, at the end of the day if they sound awesome in the end, then the end justifies the means, and after applying eq ontop of the custom profile, these sound amazing. As detailed as I've ever heard and i run LCD-3's, PRAT is through the roof, they attack fast with clean impactful bass. Note on the bass, it's easily adjusted from neutral response all the way to brain scrambling weaponry. Even with the bass it manages to preserve a sense of air with decent soundstage. It's all of the energy with non of the sibilance. Metal lovers dream. I was coming from Airpods Pro 2nd Gen and could not find an upgrade to the sound quality that justified retiring what are still very good earbuds. These are in a different league. I can't speak for call quality and i don't really care. ANC isn't great and I don't care. Transparency appears quite finicky using the touch function (works fine in app) and I don't really care. battery life is an improvement on the airpods without question. The sound is so good that everything else that isn't perfect is quickly forgiven, at least for me. at $300 or less, it's very good value. For $100, I definitely stole them. Responding to other reviews: these are not heavy in the slightest - that's 100% false. The fit can be iffy but they offer enough ways to make that a non-issue but you'll have to find what works and take the time. They look huge in the pics but when you're wearing them they are actually one of the better looking buds out there.

Sound quality is good. The fit is fine and this comes with multiple different sized ear bud squishy thingy's. Pairing was easy enough though because I didn't know how to pair them i followed the instructions to download the app. The app is alright though it's kind of annoying as it requires you to create an account. God knows why they need all my info in order for me to adjust the settings. Something that I absolutely hate about these is the voice prompts: "Welcome Back" when you put them in. "Bluetooth Connected" yada yada. You can't turn these voice prompts off, you can just change the volume of them from "Louder than necessary", to "why are you yelling at me" and then "miss, this is a library will you please keep your voice down?". The final thing that is awful to me about these is that the plastic housing seems hollow enough that when you use the tap feature to play/pause ect, the earbuds act like a percussion instrument directly on your ear drums. Very loud and obnoxious.