I finally tested Denon's flagship earbuds and they're the perfect choice for audiophiles on a budget

What do you look for when searching for the best earbuds? I hope sound quality is high up on that list, because if it is, then you’ve come to the right place. The Denon PerL Pro earbuds are 100% earbuds for audiophiles on a budget.

The PerL Pro are, without a doubt, some of the best-sounding earbuds I’ve ever put in my ear holes. The soundscape is wide, but never sparse, and everything from the lowest bass to the highest treble sounded clear and accurate. I never found myself reaching for the EQ customization — everything was already perfect.

Although they’re a few years old now, I think the Denon PerL Pro earbuds are still a force to be reckoned with. I’ll talk about everything in full in this Denon PerL Pro review.

Denon PerL Pro review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A pair of old-but-still-good earbuds from hi-fi legend Denon
• Who is it for? Audiophiles on a budget
• What does it cost? $199 / £249, but often on sale for less
• What do we like? The sound is supreme
• What don’t we like? They are too big for my ears, but larger-eared folk may be fine

Denon PerL Pro review: Specs

Denon PerL Pro review: Price & availability

The Denon PerL Pro are $199 from Amazon U.S. and £249 from Amazon U.K. (but often on sale for about £140-£199). As these buds are a few years old now, the price has dropped from the original MSRP of $349.

$199 is reasonable for a pair of earbuds of this quality; similar-sounding buds are the $249 Apple AirPods Pro 2 (my personal earbuds) and the $349 Final ZE8000 MK2. Even though the PerL Pro are a few years old, they’re not automatically irrelevant. AirPods Max have been out for years and years now and people still go feral for them (so feral, in fact, that Apple is reportedly not interested in releasing an updated model any time soon).

If you want to save $$$ but still desire that Denon sound, then the PerL (non ‘Pro’) model might be more up your street. The PerL earbuds go for $99 on Amazon U.S. and £189 on Amazon U.K. The differences are few and far between, but still present: the PerL has just a 6-hour (buds), 18-hour (case) battery life compared to the Pro’s 8/24 hour battery life, while the PerL lack the hi-res codecs like aptX Lossless.

Denon PerL Pro review: Design & controls

• Why are they so big? Why?
• Responsive touch controls
• Comes with 5 tip sizes

There’s one reason why I unfortunately wouldn’t buy these earbuds for myself, and it’s nothing to do with sound quality. Actually, I wish I could buy these earbuds for myself because of the excellent sound quality.

The buds themselves are far too big for my ears. I understand that high-quality drivers are larger, and there needs to be enough room in the chassis of the earbud itself to fit drivers that replicate sound to this quality. However, they’re just too big for my ears personally. Even with the smallest tips, they were still too big, because the problem isn’t the tips; it’s the nozzle of the buds.

I didn’t realise I had such small conchas until I started testing earbuds for a living. Evidently, though, I do. Other high-quality earbuds I wanted to love so much have the same issue. Namely, the AKG N5 Hybrid and the Skullcandy x Bose Method 360 ANC. I adored these earbuds for the sound quality, but the oversized fit unfortunately meant I couldn’t wear them for long periods.

If you have medium or large ears, then I have no doubts that they would fit you well. I asked my boyfriend to wear them for a bit and he said they were “A bit big but didn’t hurt”. He evidently has normal sized ears, whereas I clearly have tiny little ear holes. Who knew?

So if you know you have small ears, these earbuds will unfortunately be a miss. I would recommend the AirPods Pro 2 as they’re relatively small in the ear and have excellent sound quality too.

Now onto controls. Thankfully, the PerL Pro have responsive and easy touch controls. Each bud has a large touch pad (well, the bud itself is large, so you’d hope so) that responds very quickly to commands. You can configure the touch controls easily in the Denon app, but I found I didn’t need to. I liked the default settings as they were easy to learn.

Denon PerL Pro review: Features & connectivity

• Durability rating could be better
• Multipoint connectivity
• Hi-res Bluetooth codecs

Considering these are high-end flagship buds, I’m pleased with the variety of premium features. The PerL Pro have: spatial audio, hi-res codecs like aptX Lossless, an IPX4 rating, multipoint connectivity, and a pretty nifty personalized sound.

I’ll start with the personalized sound as it’s the one I was most intrigued by. It’s kind of similar to Soundcore’s HearID (Space One Pro) and JBL’s PersoniFi (Tour One M2), but the PerL earbuds do everything for you. On Soundcore and JBL’s versions, you have to choose which option you prefer.

With Denon’s personalized sound, the earbuds do everything for you. In the Denon Headphones app, you can create an automatic ‘Sound profile’. This is powered by ‘Masimo Adaptive Audio Technology’.

I’ll quickly explain how this works. The earbuds send a small tone into your ears and then measure the sound waves in your ear canal to analyze your precise canal shape. Then the earbuds create an EQ that suits your anatomy.

After that, the earbuds measure your ear’s responses to these tones to create an EQ that not only suits your anatomy, but also suits how you personally can understand sound. So if your ears struggle with the highest frequencies but are really good at tolerating bass, the earbuds will create an EQ that works with your perception of sound.

Now, I’m not an audiologist, audio engineer, or someone who has a PhD in sound waves, but I think this is pretty neat. I switched between personalized sound on and off during my testing, and it really did sound better with the personalized sound. It could be a placebo effect, but either way, I think this feature is super neat.

I asked my colleague Nikita to give it a try (you can make up to 3 sound profiles on each pair of buds) and her personalized profile was so different to mine. I’ll share the screenshots in the ‘App’ section.

I found using the PerL Pro multipoint connection very straightforward. All I had to do was connect to my phone first, then long-press both buds, and connect on my laptop. From then on, the earbuds remembered both my phone and laptop and switching between devices was painless.

The PerL Pro use Bluetooth 5.3, which I found stayed connected to my phone when I went out of my apartment and onto the street outside. Although in 2025 Bluetooth 5.3 is par for the course, I was impressed by this from an older set of buds.

Spatial audio I’ll discuss comprehensively in the ‘Audio quality’ section just below, but as a little taster, it was really impressive. These earbuds blew me away for movies.

While I’m impressed with most of these features, the IP rating could be better. EarFun’s budget earbuds have an IPX7 rating, which feels much safer than an IPX4. IPX4 protects against splashes, but IPX7 protects against temporary submersion. If I had IPX7 earbuds, I wouldn’t need to stress about being caught in a rainstorm.

Denon PerL Pro review: Audio quality

• Incomprehensibly wide soundstage
• Fantastic bass
• Clear and balanced treble

To test the Denon PerL Pro, I listened to a range of genres on Qobuz, our best streaming service for audiophiles. I also watched Dolby Atmos movies on Apple TV and listened to podcasts on Spotify.

Music

I listened to a range of genres — all hi-res 24-bit 192kHz streaming quality — on Qobuz. I’ll just discuss standouts and genre-specific tracks here (otherwise we’ll be here all day).

Firstly, electronic music. I played ‘Confidence’ by Rudimental, which starts with an atmospheric, all-consuming ambient electronic section. When the beat dropped, the frenetic squelchy bass pounded through the earbuds with monumental power. Surprisingly, it didn’t lose any nuance in the treble, and the vocal performance was still loud over the bass.

Next, I played ‘Sound and Light’ by Alison Goldfrapp, which has the same synth structure as the Rudimental track but in a completely different direction. Goldfrapp’s atmospheric voice was pitched perfectly, with no distortion even at the top of the treble. The wobbly synth notes around the soundscape were perfectly tuned.

Afterwards, I switched up the genre to folk. I played ‘But Not Kiss’ by Faye Webster, which is a much quieter track than the previous two. I found I didn’t need to adjust volume, making my listening experience smoother. Webster’s voice was clear and clean, although I thought the rhythm guitar section was a little soft around the edges. However, I found a lot of Webster’s discography (including the kick drum in ‘Pigeon’ and the bass in ‘Cheers’) was fuzzy at the edges, so it’s likely a genre thing. This did not detract from the listening experience.

‘Leaning Against the Wall’ by Wolf Alice — a pop/rock/’70s/psych/country fusion track — starts with an atmospheric ambient section featuring indistinct chatter. This section was immediately immersive, and I noted how much better it sounded on the Denon PerL Pro in comparison to my AirPods Pro 2. In the gentle, acoustic bridge, Ellie Rowsell’s vocals were soft and close, and felt as if she was singing directly into my ear.

Lastly, I switched to heavier rock to test the bass/mids balance. I played ‘Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)’ by Deftones, and I was really impressed by the sound. As this is an older album (but remastered in 2016 and hi-res streaming on Qobuz), I wasn’t expecting as much clarity. Every cymbal clash is prevalent, and the messy, heady, almost cloying guitars were individually clear without being disconcerting.

Overall, the PerL Pro are definitely some of the best pure audio earbuds I’ve ever tested. If you’ve got medium-or large-sized ears and you want excellent sound quality (and you don’t particularly care that the earbuds are a few years old), then there’s no question about it: the PerL Pro will treat you well.

Movies and podcasts

I also watched ‘Twilight’ on Apple TV. It’s one of the only Dolby Atmos movies I have instant access to, and it’s actually a great movie regardless of what the zeitgeist claims — hey, why am I defending myself here?

The OST sounded awesome. The bass was deep, booming, yet clear. The guitar-heavy soundtrack screeched and raised the tension effectively, but it didn’t pinch or hurt my ears in the slightest.

On top of that, dialogue was clear and audible even without Apple TV’s ‘dialogue enhance’ feature. I could hear everything uttered in the scene, despite the booming soundtrack and diegetic action sounds.

Then I played a bit of the ‘Ologies with Alie Ward’ podcast on Spotify. It was a little strange; the speech sounded a touch… underwater? Don’t get me wrong, it didn’t sound bad by any means. I also listened to Louis Theroux’s podcast, and Theroux’s voice had a similar issue. As these earbuds are tuned for music, of course podcasts aren’t going to sound as perfect as they would through voice-first earbuds like the Final Z8500 ASMR, but I still enjoyed listening.

It’s 100% worth noting that when I turned off the personalized ‘Sound profile’ in the Denon Headphones app, podcasts sounded much clearer. Still, podcasts can’t really sound bad, can they?

Spatial audio

Now, spatial audio is a bit of a weird one. Normally, I loathe spatial audio in music. It just feels weird that moving my head makes the sound change. When I used Apple Music, I immediately turned off the spatial audio feature.

But I shucked off my prejudice and activated spatial audio, you know, for science. While Qobuz doesn’t support Dolby Audio, it does have a proprietary selection of ‘THX Spatial Audio’ tracks. I played ‘Calling Vic Juris’ by Anat Cohen and ‘Whenever You’re Ready’ by Dinosaur Jr. While neither of these tracks were as in-your-face 360° audio as Apple Music’s spatial audio feature, both tracks were immersive.

I think part of the reason why I didn’t immediately switch off the spatial audio feature is because it’s a lot more subtle than Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 spatial audio.

Denon PerL Pro review: ANC

• Decent ANC
• Not mind-blowing ANC
• Transparency, noise cancellation, and off modes

Very few audio brands achieve ANC perfection like Bose. My AirPods have awesome ANC, but it’s still not QuietComfort Ultra earbuds quality. Again, the Skullcandy x Bose Method 360 ANC have great ANC, but it’s still not Bose level.

That’s true of the Denon PerL Pro earbuds too. The ANC is good. I couldn’t hear traffic noise outside my apartment, but I could still hear myself typing. I am happy with the level of ANC, but I don’t think these are the best ANC earbuds at all.

For everyday, normal use, the ANC is fine. Do you live in an apartment marred by constant jackhammers, sirens, and screaming newborns? Then perhaps you might want some Bose earbuds instead.

Denon PerL Pro review: App

• Easy to use app
• Awesome personalized sound profile
• Loads of customization options

Like the PerL earbuds, the PerL Pro use the Denon Headphones app. This app is easy to use and straightforward, and I have no UI-related issues. It is frustrating that you have to be connected to the earbuds to adjust settings, but that’s par for the course with Bluetooth earbuds really.

As you can see, the app has a clean UI. You can adjust ‘immersion’, which basically narrows and widens the soundscape. I kept mine at the max setting because it blew me away with the expansive sound.

Here are the differences between personalized sound profiles. The left screenshot is mine, and the right screenshot is my colleague Nikita's. She said her sound profile was very bassy, which is her preferences. Mine was more detailed.

You can also adjust touch controls and customize wear detection. Oftentimes, I don’t think earbud apps are worth the download, but the Denon Headphones app definitely is. I really have no clue why it’s got such a low user rating on the App Store. It worked perfectly for me.

Denon PerL Pro review: Call quality

• aptX Voice for 32kHz calls
• 8 microphones, 4 in each bud
• Excellent call quality

To test call quality, I called my boyfriend. I’ve called him on pretty much every pair of earbuds I’ve reviewed thus far, so he’s basically a control test at this point.

He reported that my voice sounded perfectly clear. There were no instances of hissing or metallic-sounding noises. He said the Denon PerL Pro were better than my AirPods Pro 2 and probably the best-sounding earbuds I’ve used so far.

This is likely thanks to the eight mics in the earbuds. If your cellphone has aptX compatibility, you’ll also benefit from the aptX Voice codec, which can transmit calls up to 32kHz.

Denon PerL Pro review: Battery

• 8 hours in the buds
• 24 hours in the case
• Rechargeable via USB-C

The PerL Pro battery life is very par for the course. It’s nothing impressive, but these earbuds are a few years old now. As the buds last for 8 hours, that’s 2 hours more than the AirPods Pro 2, but the 24 hours in the charging case is the same.

The AKG N5 Hybrid earbuds have a massive 40 hours in the charging case, so I’d recommend checking out those buds if you want something with a truly impressive battery life. The Final ZE800 MK2 earbuds I mentioned earlier have similar hi-res-feeling sound and just 15 hours in the case, so at least the Denons are winning somewhere.

It took around 8 hours of listening to run the PerL Pro down to 0% with a mix of movies, podcasts, and music, so the battery life rating is accurate.

Denon PerL Pro review: Verdict

If you prioritize sound quality over anything else and you have access to hi-res streaming, then the Denon PerL Pro earbuds are for you. Yes, they’re a few years old by now, but I don’t think that makes them ‘old’.

The features are still industry-leading: personalized audio, wear detection, aptX Voice and Lossless. While the battery life is fine rather than fantastic and the fit unfortunately wasn’t for me, I would definitely recommend these earbuds to audiophiles on a budget.

If the earbuds themselves were a touch smaller and the battery life was a touch longer, they would be enviable. Even with these relatively small disappointments, though, the Denon PerL Pro are near-perfect earbuds.