Denon PerL Pro Review (vs Technics, Sony, Jabra, Devialet, B&W) The Real KING?! 👑
Reviewed by Aaron - 09 December 2023
If the Denon Perl Pro looks familiar to you, yes, this is actually the Nuratrue Pro, rebranded because Nura was bought over by Denon. It looks exactly the same to me, same case, that same big round faceplate, silicone fins for stabilization, even has the same features like AAT that tunes the sound to fit the acoustics of your ear canal, aptX adaptive support on devices that are Snapdragon Sound certified, and multipoint pairing. (And to answer one of your questions in the comments, yes if you want to use just one earbud alone, you can, just like the Nuratrue Pro.)
So nothing’s changed. It doesn’t matter, because this review is going to be even more relevant than any reviews you’ve seen about the Nuratrue Pro because it’s been through so many firmware updates, and many new products have been launched in the past year which we are going to compare them to with sound samples and charts. And after that I’m going to talk about what I like about them, and what could be better - because trust me, even after a year of updates, it’s not perfect.
Microphone Comparison
Its mic pickup in the real world is pretty effective at canceling the sound of crowds in a mall. (Listen here) In a controlled environment, compared to other premium buds, they are also very effective at canceling background noise and wind while keeping my voice sounding intelligible. Samples here.
(Tested in both quiet and noisy conditions, using some really loud cafe style background noise and some wind noise from a fan.)
Active Noise Canceling Comparison
In terms of active noise canceling, as in, canceling the noise of human chatter in public and background rumble in the train, it’s pretty effective. I would say almost as effective as rivals from Sony, Jabra, Devialet and Technics. Samples here.
Transparency mode Comparison
Its transparency mode is the least impressive aspect of it. It feels occluded, so much of the passthrough sounds artificial, like you’re hearing through a radio. It is usable in a pinch, and you can have a conversation, but compared to the others this feels the least like you’re not wearing earbuds.
Sound Quality Comparison
One of the major reasons people are looking at the PerL Pro is its sound. They’re saying that this has one of the best sound quality, and in a sense, I do agree.
Out of the box, they don’t sound too impressive. Though it sounded clean and punchy, and bass has impact and texture, but there was an over-emphasis on the mids, so vocals sounded a bit too radio-like. And there was a little less bass than I preferred.
There is a spatial audio mode which does make it sound better because the channel phasing felt wider, but at this point, they sounded good, but not exactly the best I’ve tried. You know me, I prefer my sound to be more v-shaped, darker in the mids, fuller in the bass and lower mids, but it wasn’t really giving me that. And tuning it manually wasn’t really cutting it either because most of the 5 bands in the graphic EQ didn’t really target the frequencies that I wanted to tweak.
But after going through the AAT tuning, this sounded like a whole different product. More to my tastes, and a lot closer to the tuning of my choice for the best sounding earbuds, the B&W Pi7S2. Here’s how they sound compared to other premium earbuds after AAT.
User Experience
If, after AAT, you want to tweak it further with the EQ, you can. And you can even create up to 3 different measurements too, in case you change eartips. You can do all of that in the Denon app.
The app is clean and simple, with a good number of settings to play with. And I like that you can customize each individual touch gesture to your liking.
But, as much as I like the app, it’s not a polished experience. The app takes a loooong time to load. And to use it you have to create a Denon account.
Other things about my experience with this product that could be better also is the absence of any way to tweak the intensity of noise canceling or transparency, or even to turn it off to conserve battery. You can’t customize the long press gesture which would have been better for ANC toggles, instead it’s locked down for pairing mode.
Why buy the Denon PerL Pro? (Or not?)
But even if the experience is less polished, maybe none of them are dealbreakers for you because sound quality is the most important factor. If so, these sound awesome, especially after AAT calibration.
Compared to the B&W Pi7 S2, if I hadn’t tried the Pi7 S2, maybe I would have chosen the Denons as the best sounding earbuds, and furthermore, I do prefer these over the B&W in terms of user experience. At least you can toggle passthrough directly from the earbuds, and you can customize the sound which you cannot do on the Pi7 S2. Maybe that makes it easier to shell out that much money for these instead of the B&Ws.
Compared to many other hi-fi earbuds they are also a bit better for the gym because of the wing tips, which offer a much more stable fit than say, something like the Technics AZ80 which also has buds that I wouldn’t consider petite.
Where the AZ80 is better is in terms of user experience. There are more ways to customize them in the app, and these are hi-res wireless certified, supporting LDAC codec streaming, so you don’t have to worry about whether your device is Snapdragon Sound capable to get higher bitrates. With LDAC you will get higher bitrates on most Android devices anyway.
Overall, the Denon PerL Pros do seem like an awesome alternative to many top-line earbuds. if you’d like to check the latest prices of the earbuds in this review, click on the links to their Amazon pages below.
Check latest prices
Denon Perl Pro - https://amzn.to/3Gyb8ia
B&W Pi7 S2 - https://youtu.be/fB9HswngyWg
Technics AZ80 - https://amzn.to/3ZWv4V5
Sony WF-1000XM5 - https://amzn.to/3qiamkS
Jabra Elite 10 - https://amzn.to/3EHIp9J
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